National Whipped Cream Day

January 5 is not only my oldest son's birthday but it's also National Whipped Cream Day. So in honor of both Tyler and National Whipped Cream Day I made Luscious Lime Cheesecake. This cheesecake was amazing (if you like your desserts a little sour, which my son does)!

So here is the recipe and a picture...

Luscious Lime Cheesecake by Paula Deen

(Sorry about this picture. I will try and get a better one today)

1 (18 1/4-ounce) package yellow cake mix
4 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons grated lime zest
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups heavy cream, whipped with 1/2 cup sugar (I used powdered sugar) until stiff. (IT HELPS IF YOU HAVE CHILLED YOUR BOWL AND BEATERS IN THE REFRIGERATOR . I usually chill mine for at least an hour)
Lime slices, for garnish (I forgot those)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Reserve 1/2 cup dry cake mix. In large bowl, combine remaining cake mix, 1 egg, and oil. Mix well (mixture will be crumbly). Press evenly in bottom and 1 1/2 inches up sides of greased 13 x 9-inch pan. In same bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in condensed milk until smooth. Add remaining eggs and reserved cake mix and beat 1 minute at medium speed. Stir in lime zest, lime juice, vanilla. Pour into prepared crust. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until center is firm (mine took 50 minutes). Cool to room temperature. Chill thoroughly. Spread whipped cream over top. Cut into squares to serve. Garnish with lime slices. (I didn't spread the whipped cream over the entire cake because I was not sure it would hold up. I am going to spread it over today and see how it does.)

The crust on this cheesecake was amazing! And the fact that you do not have to use a Springform pan appealed to me too. This is a very easy recipe and you can substitute cool-whip for the whipped cream if you want to make it even easier.

This is the birthday boy licking the beater (after I made the homemade whipped topping). He loved his birthday meals and dessert!
One of our family traditions is that on your birthday you get to pick everything we eat that day. So for his 15th birthday Tyler picked Eggs for breakfast, fish sticks for lunch, and orange chicken with homemade egg rolls for dinner. He didn't get to pick dessert because I wanted to try this new recipe out (and I knew that he would love it). YES, the recipes for orange chicken and egg rolls are coming!

I had a lot of lime zest left over so I did a goggle search to find out what to do with it and this is what I found out.
Zest lime peels and allow the zest to dry at room temperature for several days. Place the dried lime zest in a small glass jar and keep it at room temperature in a cupboard. (Found this information on ehow.com).
I have the lime zest sitting out right now and I will let you know how it goes.

National Cream Puff Day

Well, today January 2nd is National Cream Puff Day.

I have never made cream puffs before and was a little nervous about giving them a try. But I accepted the challenge and was quite surprised, they really are not that difficult to make. I used a recipe I found in my Taste of Home cookbook and they were not only very tasty but looked perfect too.
My huband and my boys enjoyed them very much. My daughter (Delaney) is not feeling well, so I saved her one to try tomorrow. I thought they were pretty good, but seemed to be missing something. So I will be making this recipe again and I will be trying to figure out that missing ingredient. My best friend (Tammy) maybe on to something when she asked if I was going to drizzle them with chocolate.
So here is the recipe and some pictures too...

State Fair Cream Puffs by Ruth Jungbluth (The Taste of Home Cookbook)


1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs
2 tablespoons milk (I only use whole milk when baking)
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten (I just whisk with a fork)
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Additional powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large saucepan, bring water, butter and salt to a boil over medium heat. Add flour all at once and stir until a smooth ball forms. (You need to stir it quickly until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball).
Remove from the heat; let stand for 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until mixture is smooth and shiny.
Drop by 1/4 cupfuls (I used a large cookie scoop) 3 inches apart onto a greased baking sheet (I used my Pampered Chef stone so I did not have to grease the baking sheet). Combine milk and egg yolk; brush over puffs. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown (mine took the entire 35 minutes). Immediately remove to wire racks. Immediately cut a slit in each for the steam to escape; cool.
In a chilled large mixing bowl (I chilled my bowl and beater for 1 hour), beat cream until it begins to thicken. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until almost stiff (I beat mine until it was stiff as I wanted my cream to stand up more).
Split cream puffs; discard soft dough from inside (I did not do this. I just left them the way they were). Fill the cream puffs just before serving. Dust with powdered sugar. Refrigerate leftovers.

This is a picture of my cream puffs waiting to be filled.
So stay tuned for me to try these again with some chocolate next time!
And if you give these a try let me know how you liked them!

Did You Know....

Did you know that just about everyday has some kind of food celebration to go with it? It's quite amazing really and a little funny too. So I though one of the things that I would like to do this year is celebrate the food holidays (the ones that I can). And share them with you along with the recipes that I'm using.
So today January 1st is Apple Gifting Day.
Now, I am not going to gift a bag of apples to anyone (that would be kinda strange) so I decided to make something with apples and gift that.
So I made Caramel Apple Cake with Caramel Topping from The Lady & Sons cookbook. Let me tell you this cake is amazing. It is very RICH! So if you do decide to make it (and I would highly recommend that you do) cut the pieces small!
What I'm going to do is give you the recipe just as it's printed in the book and then I'm going to tell you what I will do different next time (and OH YES there will be a next time). Then once I have made it again with my new changes I will post again and let you know how the changes worked out.
OK so here is the recipe and the pictures...



Caramel Apple Cake with Caramel Topping By Paula Deen

2 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts (next time I will double the walnuts and leave them in bigger pieces)
2 1/2 cups diced apples, canned or fresh (I used fresh apples sliced pretty thin)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together sugar, eggs, and oil. Add flour; mix together until well blended. Blend in vanilla. Stir in nuts and diced apples. Spread into a lightly greased and floured 13 x 9-inch baking dish; bake for 45 to 60 minutes (mine took almost the entire 60 minutes). Cake is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. When cake is done, punch holes in it with a knife and pour topping over. (When I took the cake out of the oven the toothpick was clean but the cake did not look done, so I was a little nervous. But the cake was done and tasted amazing)

Caramel Topping
3/4 pound (3 sticks) butter (this is a Paula Deen recipe after all)
2 cups brown sugar (Packed)
1/4 cup milk (I only use whole milk when I bake)

Heat all ingredients together over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Let boil for about 2 minutes. Pour over warm cake. (I stared making the topping about 15 minutes before the cake was done, next time I'll probably start about 20 minutes. I let this set awhile before cutting it as I think it would have made a huge mess if I had cut it right away. I gave the caramel a chance to soak down into the cake. So I would recommend making this in the early afternoon if you were going to serve it in the evening)


Now the gifting part... I'm going to be taking about half the cake to church with me tomorrow and "gifting" it to my best friend and her family. I hope they enjoy it as much as we did!

As a side note my oldest son, Tyler, suggested that this be served with vanilla ice cream.
HHHMMM I'm thinking he may be on to something there.

I made a few other very yummy things today... homemade chicken noodle soup and homemade french bread. So stay tuned for those recipes and pictures coming soon!