Turtle Cheesecake Bars

Not long ago we celebrated our 17th anniversary. 

I wanted to celebrate with a special dessert.

The one dessert we both love?

Turtle Cheesecake.

I remembered a recipe I had found on Pinterest for turtle cheesecake bars.

Perfect.

It was a little work. You have to plan ahead because the bars have to chill for a while.  And just looking at the ingredients can give me a headache; I like simple.

But there was no doubt that it was worth the effort.

Yum.

We will be having this again, though not too often.  If we did, I would weigh a TON!

Cheesecake crust:
3 cups finely chopped pecans
1 stick unsalted butter melted
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Cheesecake filling:
24 oz cream cheese, softened (yes, that is THREE boxes!)
1/4 cup full fat Greek yogurt OR sour cream (I used sour cream, full fat)
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla
3 large eggs
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Toppings:
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
1 11 oz bag caramel candy, unwrapped (I actually used a caramel sauce...it worked fine)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 Tbsp milk, divided (unless you use the caramel sauce, then you only need 2)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Line a 13 x 9 inch pan with parchment paper, overlapping on the ends.

Use a fork to mix together the crust ingredients.  Press into the bottom of the 13 x 9 pan.

Bake for 20 minutes.

While the crust bakes, prepare the filling.

Cream together the cream cheese, yogurt/sour cream, sugar, and vanilla with a mixer.

Beat in eggs, one at a time.

After the crust finishes, sprinkle 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips over the crust.

Pour the filling over the crust and return to the oven.  Bake for 50 minutes.

Allow the cheesecake to cool off for an hour, then put it in the refrigerator overnight.

When ready to serve, remove the cheesecake from the refrigerator.  Lift the parchment paper off/out and place the cheesecake on a serving dish.

Toast pecans at 350 for 10 minutes.

If using unwrapped caramels, microwave the caramels and 4 Tbsp of milk at 30 minute intervals.  Stir until sauce is smooth.

Pour over the top of the cheesecake.

Microwave chocolate chips with 2 Tbsp milk.  Cook for 30 seconds, stirring in between.

Drizzle the chocolate over the top of the cheesecake bars.

Allow the chocolate to harden before serving.

Enjoy!

And don't think about the calories!

French Bread

The other night we needed a break from turkey and dressing and mashed potatoes. I had actually planned on making gravy to eat with the leftovers and serving that over biscuits. But we had some company, time got away from me, and before long it was 5:30.  And I was out of mashed potatoes. 

I needed a change of plans.

So I decided that Korean beef sounded really good.

It always sounds good to me.

That is because there are NEVER leftovers.  NEVER.  So the night I make it is my one shot to eat it.  And with a growing teenager in my house, I truly do only get one shot.  I blink, and it is gone.  Literally.

Once I had that settled, I started thinking about bread.  I really wanted a good bread to eat with it. But we were almost out of our Thanksgiving (Rhodes) rolls. And I didn't have much in the freezer that was quick.  Even more, with one of our kids on a limited diet, I was even more limited in my choices.  So I did what any cook in that situation would do.  Started surfing Pinterest.

My "Rolling in Dough...Bread Dough That Is" board.

I quickly perused several recipes. Some I didn't have ingredients for. Others I didn't have time for.  I was getting a little panicked.

On a whim, though, I visited the site for this Easy Homemade French Bread.  Easy is a favorite word of mine in cooking.  And I LOVE French bread. It was the homemade part that scared me a little. I haven't done much baking and am still learning.  However, desperate times call for desperate measures.

I went to work.

I threw my ingredients together.  Kneaded it.  Gave it a little time to rise (not really the right amount of time but it worked :).  And then shaped it and baked it.

I think I broke several of the recommendations on the recipe, mainly due to lack of time.

But guess what?

It worked.

The bread was delicious.

I kept sitting there, truly basking in each and every bite, saying, "Did I really make this???"

The bad thing is that I don't think any of my children truly appreciate what a feat that was...I threw dinner AND some French bread together in an hour and a half.

They just think it is normal.

Ha!

Anyway, here is the recipe with some of my own notes.  I will be making this again. I actually have one of the loaves-since it made two- in the freezer, ready to warm up one day. It is taking all I have to NOT warm it up right now and eat each and every bite.  Myself.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups warm water (not too cold, not too hot...just right :)

2 Tbsp yeast (The original poster used instant. I only had rapid rise.  It worked.)

3 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp white vinegar

1 Tbsp salt

1/3 cup oil (vegetable)

6-7 cups flour (I was running low on my regular flour so I used my King Arthur's unbleached all purpose)

Directions: 

Add the warm water, the yeast, the sugar, and the white vinegar together and let it sit for 3-5 minutes (until bubbly).

Add in the salt, oil, and flour.  Add the flour a cup at a time.  Knead together.  The dough should be soft but still easy to mold/shape.  I added 6 cups easily but then added just a bit more. The dough was sticky but it was fairly easy to shape.

Place the dough and a pot of boiling water in the oven.  Let the dough rise.  Punch down if/when the dough reaches the top of the bowl. 

The oven is supposed to be off (per the original recipe).  However, I knew my time was limited. I turned my oven just above warm (around 175 degrees) and put the water (which keeps the dough moist) and the dough in the oven.  I only had time to punch it down once.  It worked for me.

Remove the dough from the oven once it has risen and been punched down a few times.  Or one time if you are like me. :)

Spray the bottom of a large cookie sheet. Sprinkle with cornmeal.

Divide the dough into 2 or 3 portions.  Shape into loaves.  I made 2 large loaves, mainly because my family is full of bread eaters.

"Slash" (cut diagonally) the tops of the loaves 3 or 4 times.

"Whitewash" with a beaten egg.

You can then let the loaves sit on the counter for about 30 minutes to rise or if you are in a rush (like me), you can put it back in the oven at 175 degrees with a pot of boiling water.  Don't put the water in or ON the loaves.  Just in the same oven. :)  Let it rise until it is the size you would like.

Then take the pot of water out of the oven and turn the oven up to 375 degrees. 

Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and enjoy.

Putting butter on a warm piece...Oh yum. My mouth is watering!

Though it wasn't fast fast, it was still about 90 minutes (of my time) total.  (If I ever had more time though I would let it rise a little more)

90 minutes for the pleasure of eating warm homemade bread...totally worth it.

Reba

Garlic Parmesan Crusty Bread

I have been trying my hand at baking bread lately. I really want to bake bread.  I mean, I love eating it. I might as well learn how to make it.

But thus far, my attempts have been ho hum.

Tastes pretty good but not "I want to eat the whole loaf" good.

Until I tried this recipe.

One day this week we were going to eat baked potato soup. I love having a crusty bread to go with it. (I usually dip it in olive oil...yum).  But with some diet restrictions, I couldn't just go buy what I normally buy. So I decided to give the recipe above a try.

This recipe does require planning ahead. That is because the dough sits and rises for about 18 hours.  (12-18)

The night before the baked potato soup meal, I mixed the ingredients, covered the bowl, and left it until the next afternoon.

I will admit, the dough looks funny. It is kind of dry and "bumpy".  And it does rise but not like a Rhodes roll will.  When I put it in my pan to bake, I did NOT have high hopes.  It just looked like a glob of dough.

And then partway through the baking, I started to smell it. And it smelled kind of good.  Actually really good.

When time was "up", I removed it from the oven and held my breath.

It actually looked like bread.  And kind of pretty for bread.

And the taste...well, it tastes like (better than actually) anything I have bought at the store.

I really did have to contain myself to not eat the whole loaf.

It is dense but crusty on the outside.  Yet not so dense that you have to really work to eat it.

And the possibilities for what you can add to the bread are endless.

I ended up throwing in some minced garlic and shredded Parmesan when I mixed it together.

Yum.

I will be making this again.  I may just try the plain version or we may try something else. I don't know yet.

In a way, I wish I had never tried this recipe...it is going to be SOOO hard to not make it all of the time!

Ingredients:
3 cups of all purpose UNBLEACHED flour (I honestly had never noticed unbleached flour at the store but sure enough, there is was. I ended up going with King Arthur)

1 3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp yeast (the original recipe called for instant.  I only had a rapid rise and used it just fine)

1 1/2 cups water (I used warm since I was using rapid rise yeast)

Directions:
Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add in the water.  Mix (but don't overmix).  At this point I added in the garlic and Parmesan.  If I were adding cheddar cheese (and I plan to sometime) I probably wouldn't add it in until later since it sits out so long.  That is just me though. :)  Know that this is a fairly dry mixture. I really thought I had done something wrong but it does get more moist as it sits.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap then leave it alone.

After 12-18 hours, place your empty baking dish in an oven set at 450 degrees.  The baking dish was my biggest challenge. It has to be 3+ quarts AND have a lid of some sorts. AND it has to be able to go into an oven at 450 degrees which eliminates a lot of pans I have.  The original poster used a cast iron pot with a lid.  I want one...saw one in a Thanksgiving ad just today. But they are also pricey for just one dish.  I ended up using the mixing bowl from my mixer and covered it with aluminum foil. It was the best I could do. And it worked. :)

Meanwhile pour the dough out onto a floured surface and shape into a ball of sorts.  I used parchment paper...totally forgot to flour. And it was kind of sticky. I will do better next time.  This dough does NOT need a lot of kneading. I did little beyond shaping it. Then I covered it with plastic wrap and let it sit a bit longer. 

After about 30 minutes, take the hot pan out of the oven (carefully) and place the dough inside.  I just kind of dumped it from the parchment paper.  Cover and return to the oven.  Bake for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes, remove the cover and bake for an additional 15 minutes.  Remove bread and let it cool.

Then enjoy!

I really am amazed that something so simple produced such tastiness. 

Happy cooking!  (and Happy Thanksgiving!)

Reba


  

Cheesy Garlic Breadsticks

I know, I know, I have been MIA.

It was a long (and exhausting) week. Not a bad one, just a long one. I did cook though.

 And I even have a recipe or two to share.

 Soon.

 Not today but soon.

 But just so I don't leave you hanging, here is one recipe from the week.

 Cheesy Garlic Breadsticks.

Yum.

My mouth waters just thinking about them.

I have been craving some sort of garlic bread.  And since we were having mostaccioli one night not long ago, I wanted some even more.  However, due to the diet of one of our kids, I had to make some adjustments. The normal frozen garlic bread I buy in the stores would not do. I needed to do something different.

I have taken regular French bread and made it into garlic bread.

Toasted regular bread and sprinkled garlic or spread garlic butter.

Etc.

Etch.

I wasn't sure what to do, so I pulled some Rhodes dinner rolls out of the freezer to thaw and rise.

As I did, my eye happened to catch the back of the Rhodes dinner roll bag.

Hmmmm...

garlic/cheese breadsticks.

Well, that sounded yummy.

And it was.

Ingredients:
Rhodes White Dinner Roll dough, thawed

garlic salt to taste

melted butter (amount depends on how much dough you are using)

Parmesan cheese, finely grated

Directions:
Open the bag of dinner rolls and take out however many you need.

Let them sit out on a cookie sheet or plate to thaw.  I usually spray some plastic wrap with cooking/baking spray to keep the dough from sticking.

When they are thawed but still cold, take them out and shape them into 6 inch breadsticks. Okay, mine looked more like a little bun. I think I waited too long and let them rise a little.  They were resistant to shaping more into a stick than a log.

Oh well.

After they are shaped, let them rise.

The back of the package actually has you roll them in butter at this point and sprinkle with cheese, but I waited until they had risen.  It worked.  So it is your choice

After they were doubled in size, I then melted some butter and brushed the dough with it.  Then I sprinkled garlic salt on top and topped with shredded Parmesan ("fresh" of course...I love that stuff).

After that, I baked them in the oven for about 15-20 minutes at 350.

And then we devoured them.

Yum.  Yum.  Yum.

Reba

PS I am getting no favors or coupons or free products from Rhodes. I just happen to like their products a lot.  And even better, they are "clean" products...made out of good and natural ingredients.

Grill(less) Chicken Tenderloins

I needed a good chicken recipe for tonight.  I have several I thought about making but I was in the mood to try something new.  So I decided to give this recipe a try.

I mean, it basically has four ingredients.

Four.

How can you go wrong with four ingredients?

I made this up this morning, threw it all in a ziplock bag and let it marinate until this evening.

It took about 40 minutes to cook but didn't require a lot of attention so it gave me a chance to make my mashed potatoes and heat up some rolls. I think this would be really good with rice too.

You will notice mine is "saucier" than the original recipe (site above).

I used more chicken so I double the marinade recipe which was probably too much. However, I really liked the sauce even though I didn't get the "grilled" look that the original chef did.  I poured some over my mashed potatoes.  So I am not sure I would do it much differently.

I will definitely be throwing this into our recipe rotation.  I think when school is in session, this will be a good one to make up in the morning, refrigerate to marinate, then cook when I get home.  It was easy and tasty.

Ingredients:
Boneless, skinless chicken tenderloins (I used about 12 tenderloins) or chicken breasts cut into strips...I just think tenderloins are easier to use

1 bottle of Zesty Italian dressing (the recipe calls for 1 cup which is about half the bottle...I doubled it)

2 tsp (or double if you are me :) lemon or lime juice (I used lemon because that is what I had on hand)

3 tsp honey (or double if you are me :)

Directions:
Combine all of the ingredients in a gallon ziplock bag.

Refrigerate for at least an hour.

When you are ready to cook, pour the entire contents into a large skillet.

Cook over medium heat. 

I flipped the chicken occasionally and stirred around the juices.

At first it seems really watery.

But it does thicken as it heats.

Toward the end, I kicked the temperature up a bit to a medium high since I had so much sauce.

After about 40 minutes, it should be really thick.  Really push the chicken into that thickened sauce.

It almost has a sweet barbecue taste.

Yum.

Enjoy!

Reba

Rosemary Rolls

Not long ago I was browsing on Pinterest (surprise, surprise...not really) and stumbled upon a recipe for Buttered Rosemary Rolls on the Pioneer Woman's blog.

I thought, "I need to try those."

Well today I starting thinking about what kind of bread to have at dinner. I was making Lasagna Rolls (recipe soon) which just screams "garlic bread" to me. Unfortunately, I had no garlic bread waiting for me in the freezer.

But I did have some frozen Rhodes roll dough (white dinner rolls).

So when I was at home for lunch, I pulled about 7 out and placed them on a dish (actually a skillet) sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

By the time we got home, the rolls had thawed and risen. They looked beautiful.

Except at that point I realized that I wasn't sure the skillet (I don't have an iron skilled) could go into the oven. I do have some that will but wasn't so sure on this one.

So I ended up transferring them to a round pie dish. In the process, they lost some of their "fluff". :(

Live and learn.

Anyway, I used Pioneer Woman's recipe as a guideline but I was determined to have a little taste of garlic...

Ingredients:
Rhodes White Dinner Rolls (thawed and "risen")...I used 7.

4 tbsp melted butter (I used Blue Bonnet Light Margarine due to calories sake)

Garlic powder or salt

Sea Salt

Rosemary (fresh, chopped)

Directions:
Brush the rolls with melted butter.

Sprinkle liberally with garlic powder/salt and rosemary.

Brush one more time with butter.

Sprinkle with sea salt.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes (or at least that works for the Rhodes rolls).

Enjoy.

I really wasn't sure what Rosemary tasted like but now I know.

And I have to say, I LIKE it!

Reba

Pork Chops Ole

This recipe showed up in our family cookbook a few years ago courtesy of my little sister. I will admit, I didn't really notice it for a while. But then one day I decided to try it. Oh, yum. Loved it. So now it is in our rotation. I love the combination of pork and Mexican flavor!

Pork Chops Ole
Ingredients:
6 loin pork chops (I use boneless)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
seasoned salt and pepper
3/4 cup long grain rice
1 1/2 cups water
8 oz tomato sauce
1/2 envelope taco seasoning (about 2 tbsp)
chopped bell pepper
1 bag cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.

In a skillet, heat the oil (I don't really measure it). Brown pork sprinkled with seasoned salt and pepper. I am fairly liberal with it.

Meanwhile, in a greased baking dish (I use 13x9), stir together water, tomato sauce, rice, and taco seasoning.

Place browned pork chops on top.

Top with bell pepper. Do you remember me saying that we are not big veggie eaters? I think this one would be at the bottom of our list. It is one taste I have yet to acquire. So I don't use one. :)

Cover tightly with foil.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours.

At the end of the cooking time, take out and sprinkle with cheese. I usually use cheddar OR the Mexican blend (both low fat). Return to oven until cheese is melted.

This is a dish my whole family will eat. Even my "non Mexican" food eaters will eat it.

It is a good recipe, though you have to plan ahead due to cooking time.

Here are a couple of pictures...have I mentioned I am not a good food photo taker? :)


Here is a not pretty pic of my plate. I wasn't in a plating mood. I was in a hungry mood. The left is the pork chop, the right is the rice. The rice is by far my kids' favorite...

Happy cooking!
Reba