Pumpkin Cheesecake Bundt Cake

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bundt Cake

Sometimes you can cake, sometimes you want cheesecake. Sometimes you want both. This cake is similar to the Pumpkin Spiced Cheesecake muffins we love. Layers of pumpkin cake, a layer of cheesecake filling, topped off with a cinnamon streusal or a pumpkin spice glaze. Despite all the layers it's very easy to put together and bake up. This is the perfect coffee cake, Afternoon tea cake, or after meal dessert.

Instant Pot Cheesecake

 Topped with Lemon Curd, this Cheesecake is AMAZING.

Cheesecake? In a pressure cooker? No way! I thought the same thing, but it really does make sense. Wet environment so it doesn't crack or get dried out. I recently joined the Instant Pot Community page on Facebook, it's the official Instant Pot page. There are some amazingly talented and helpful people on there. All the pictures of food are very inspiring. However, like I said, I wasn't sure about cheesecake. I like mine dense. With a little browned/dry heat crust on the top. I still wanted to try this method though. For one it takes about 40 minutes to cook instead of an hour+ in the oven. So I gave it a go. If you have ever made a cheesecake off of this blog before, you'll recognize this recipe. With a few changes, but go with what you know right? The biggest change is of course the cooking method. Also how cute a little 7 inch cheesecake looks. I mean really. It's just cute. 

You need to do some planning ahead to make this cheesecake. It doesn't take long to put it together or cook it, but the cooling time is essential to help it set and for the flavors to develop. I won't judge you if you decide to just scoop it out with a spoon but it may be jiggly and runny. But it's cheesecake, all cheesecakes need to cool completely. 

Blind bake for a nice crust that isn't soggy.

Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes

Give Peas A Chance Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes

MMMMM cheeeeessssyyyyyyyy. I only recently started liking potatoes in my adulthood. I'm not sure if that's because all the butter and cheese I put on them, or if I really actually like potatoes. Whatever the case, these Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes are so dreamy. This recipes is a MILLION times better than this sad recipe here. Thin tender slices of potatoes, creamy roux with melty cheese/s. Whats not to love? 

Summer Squash Casserole

This dish is a wonderful way to have summer squash. Usually we stir fry it, steam it, or boil it. Everyone here loved this and we're not big fans of casseroles. Summer Squash Casserole is so easy to make, my 10 year old prepared this one. Your kids can help crush crackers, cut veggies, and mix the topping for this. If you're kids are working on counting, let them count out the crackers. It's a very forgiving recipe. I like to add little more squash because I usually have extra on hand.

Green Chili Pepper Jack Enchiladas

I love GREEN CHILI, Hatch Green Chili... It's just not readily available around here. The good thing about these enchiladas is that you have options, you can use a canned sauce try to find Hatch Green Chili Enchilada sauce if you are going that route.  You can also roast your own chili. This recipe makes enough for our family of five with leftovers for another meal. You can make two smaller pans and freeze one also. I've only ever frozen enchiladas with corn tortillas though.

The Pepper jack gives this a little bit of a kick, but my five year old eats it with no complaint that it's too spicy. Our most favorite Pepper jack is from Rumiano Cheese Company. No contest. Such a yummy cheese and fantastic company.

You can also use this Green Chile sauce to cook your chicken or pork in, then sub this sauce for the chopped Green Chiles also.

Peppermint Cheesecake Cake

As I FINALLY sit down to write this post I'm thinking, I should make another cake. I really like this cake. It's really good. But I shouldn't, because then I'd eat it. I mean I would share with the people around here but still. I'd be eating this goodness. It's so good. There are two tender vanilla cake layers, a layer of  peppermint cheesecake studded with Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses in this cake, then it's covered with Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting. Oh my.

Hello, Sweetie.

I think this may be the cake we make for Christmas this year. Maybe New Year when Sherlock is on. Anyone else watch Sherlock BBC?

Give Peas A Chance Peppermint Cheesecake Cake

2 layers of vanilla cake links to recipes below
1 layer of Peppermint Candycane  Cheesecake- recipe below
Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting
Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses for decoration

Peppermint Candy Cane Cheesecake

3 packages of cream cheese- 8 ounces each, softened
4 eggs
1/4 - 1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup sour cream, or plain thick Greek Yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
2/3- 1 cup chopped Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses
1 tablespoon flour

Bake your favorite vanilla cake, add 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract to the recipe. Bake two cake layers and let them cool. Wrap well and place in the freezer while you bake the cheesecake. It's best to line the bottoms of the pans with parchment, this is the easiest way to cut parchment to fit HERE.

For the cheesecake-
Prepare the same pan you used to bake the cakes by lining it with foil or parchment. Spray with cooking spray.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Whip/beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy in a mixer. Beat in the eggs until incorporated. Add the sugar, butter, sour cream, and extracts to the cream cheese mixture. Beat well.
Toss the candies in the flour and fold them into the cream cheese mixture.
Pour batter into the prepared cake pan.
Bake the cheesecake for 20-25 minutes- depending on the size of your pan. An 8 inch pan will take longer to cook. It will wiggle in the middle, that's okay, it will set up once cooled.
Let the cheesecake cool completely.

To assemble the cake-
Once cooled loosen the foil around the cheesecake, especially the sides carefully.
Place the cheesecake layer in between the two cake layers. 

At this point you can wrap the cake well and place in the freezer until you are ready to frost the cake.
Add a thin layer of frosting to the cake, it doesn't have to be pretty. It just prepares the surface of the cake and holds in the crumbs. Place this in the freezer for about 20 minutes.
Frost the cake with the remaining icing.
Decorate the cake with chopped Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses.

* I use Philadelphia cream cheese, full fat for the cheesecake.
* I use less sugar for the cheesecake, but I don't like things too sweet.

*Use your favorite vanilla cake, make sure it has butter, lots of butter if possible :) Or in a pinch use the Doctored Box method below.

Doctored Box Cake

1 box of cake mix
Add one extra egg
Substitute milk for the water
Substitute butter for the oil, an 1 and 1/2 the amount
Mix and bake as directed.

Cucumber Tomato Feta Salad

I love this salad, it's so simple and easy. There are no real measurements I just taste as I go when making it. Or I have my children cut everything up and I season and taste as *they* go. I love having children who are doing more in the kitchen ;)

I know this is more of a summer salad since tomatoes are in season and best then, but I'm quite backlogged on posts. I find I can still get cucumber and tomatoes if I really want them in the fall. I hope you'll try this salad, it's so good. 

Pumpkin Cheesecake Snickerdoodles

I took these pictures with my phone, sigh. Oh well, the cookies though? The cookies are AMAZING. DH's favorite cookie I think is the Snickerdoodle. I'm a pumpkin fanatic so you know how that goes. Give a little, take a little, then add cheesecake. Why not? Match made in heaven. Tender cookie, smooth cheesecake filling...

Go, make these now. Bookmark and/or pin them for all those cookie exchanges coming up this season.
More PUMPKIN recipes can be found HERE.

Green Goddess Goodness

One of my favorite things at the Melting Pot is their Green Goddess Dressing. It's so good. I love stuffing the mushrooms with it, dipping the veggies in it, eating it off of a spoon. It's embarrassing, but not enough to hide it from you all. The thing about making it at home is that I can do all of that stuff and no one sees me.
This goodness is great stuffed into mushrooms, celery, used as a dip for vegetables. It's also very easy to make. So enjoy!

Give Peas A Chance Green Goddess Dressing/Dip/Goodness

8 ounces cream cheese
1/4-1/2 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons chopped or minced  parsley
2 tablespoons minced chives
1 tablespoon minced onion
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
Milk for thinning
Kosher salt
Pepper

Mix it together. Season with salt and a little pepper to taste. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for a good 4 hours or more.
*I use less fresh onion usually because I just don't like raw onions much.
*dried chives are fine, just use less
*sometimes I add Summer Savory too

GPAC Best Caprese Salad

I LOVE Caprese salads. SO for this "Manic Monday" post, I'm re sharing this salad. And the whole post really.
I can't wait for summer and beautiful, juicy, summer tomatoes. Do you like Caprese salads?

Find more "ManIc MoNdaY" posts here.

Manic Monday- Chicken Madaline

I'm sad to say that I don't make this often. I really like it, it's simple but good food. The girls will eat it but it's not one of those dishes they ask me to make.

 I've posted this before HERE.
You don't have to use Velveeta cheese, or canned cream soups. Sub shredded cheddar cheese for the Velveeta, and make this healthy substitute HERE for the canned soups.

Do you have any dishes you enjoy but your family is like "eh" over? 

Find more "ManIc MoNdaY" posts here.

Chicken Madaline

GPAC Best Caprese Salad

I LOVE caprese salads. LOVE. This is how I love them best. Actually my whole family loves this salad, and who doesn't love buttery avocado? NOM NOM. I can not wait until summer for gorgeous tomatoes. I can't seem to grow anything though! How about you? Do you have a garden in the summer?

GPAC No Hassle(back) Potatoes

I've posted potatoes like these before, Herb or Herbed? Potatoes. These potatoes are so easy, you can assemble the night before and bake them up the next day.  I don't make a lot of baked potatoes because they take forever to cook sometimes. That, and we don't really eat a lot of potatoes. I didn't grow up eating them so I never think to get them. 

To make things easier and faster I precook my potatoes. You can do that in the crock pot- like this, in the oven, or in the microwave. I didn't cook them until mushy, just tender. Once the potatoes are cooked you're more than half way done.
I used regular baking potatoes but I prefer Yukon golds, they are so creamy. Or  Red potatoes. For the bacon, I like it crisp. So cooking it first makes sure of that. Also sliced cheese will make your life so much easier than the shredded.
These can be made ahead and frozen, or kept in the fridge to bake before serving.
*Someone mentioned doing this with sweet potatoes, it could work depending on how thick the skins on your sweet potatoes are. You could also peel the skin off of the top half of the sweet potatoes. Stuff with brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, pecans, and marshmallows. Then slide into a sugar coma.

Broccoli Cheese Casserole

I used several recipes for this dish. I've never made it before. I had it over Thanksgiving this past year. For the first time. It was so good. I've never had it before and it was so good! So I had to make it, I just haven't had a chance.
I think it is supposed to have something creamy like sour cream or mayonnaise? But we liked it this way. How do you make yours? Leave me a comment or blog post link!

Spinach Artichoke Dip

MMMM.... spinach. Artichokes. Cheese.... YUM. This is easy/quick to make and it's serves I'd say 8-9 people as an appetizer. I make it, bake half of it and freeze the other half for another time. Awesome served with a crusty baguette, chips, veggies or crackers.
The girls loved/love it! I'm so glad because sometimes it's hit or miss, they love creamed spinach and spinach soup. But sometimes if things are made different then they decide they don't like it. Diva asked me to make it again soon.
I didn't want to bother with thawing the spinach and squeezing the water out, so I adapted several recipes to adjusted liquid to make my life easier.

Pepperoni Poppers (+3 other poppers)

Nothing new here... except I added pepperoni this time. So good, but really what's not to love? Jalapenos, cheese, pepperoni.

 That's all. Go forth. Make of them. Eat of them.
So now we've got, how many on this blog? 3-4? Can you tell we like them?

Pepperoni Cheese Dip

This isn't a pepperoni pizza dip. It's not fancy. At all. It's good though. This is just, well, an accident. I was making crab dip and had some cream cheese leftover. I thought the crab dip would be too spicy for Pixie so I threw this in the oven for her. It's so good it's silly. Sure you could do all sorts of things, add ingredients and make it awesome. Something fancy or froo froo. But, we both thought it was awesome as is, perfect for a quick snack or lunch. We had it for lunch. With blueberries and some carrot muffins I had in the freezer for fast lunches.
It's like this Pepperoni Pizza Cheese ball, but heated up to a ooey gooey melted goodness.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

It's soup season. That's one of the reasons that lunches aren't posted. Who wants to see a picture of a thermos? But soups are easy, filling and great for leftovers. 

You can use frozen or fresh broccoli in this. I prefer florets. If you have bigger stalks, you can either peel and slice them, or peel them and cook them in the soup in bigger chunks. When you puree the soup put the stalks in the blender, this will add more veggies and thicken the soup.

3-5 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
3 cups water, stock or broth (chicken)
1 1/2 tablespoons Better Than Bouillon- of not using stock or broth
1 cup half and half
8 ounces grated cheddar
1/2 - 3/4 pound broccoli florets (frozen or fresh)
2-3 ounces cream cheese (optional)
salt
pepper
cayenne

 

Heat the butter in a stock pot. Cook the onion, garlic, celery and carrots in the butter until crisp tender. Add the water, stock/broth, bouillon to the pot. If it looks like it needs more or less liquid, adjust it to your needs. Cook the vegetables until tender. Add broccoli, half and half and cheese/s. Cook until broccoli is tender and cheese is melted.

Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

If desired puree half of the soup to thicken.

GPAC Lasagna soup

This is no diet soup. You've been warned. It is however, SO. VERY. GOOD.The soup has a ricotta "filling" and mozzerella topping. It is good with one of these additions, or both. It's even good with no added cheese. The ricotta filling is so ooey, goooey and it just makes the soup more like a lasagna. 

Use any short pasta you like. If you are serving it all at once, cook the pasta in the soup. The broth will seep into the pasta. I like to cook the pasta separate because I don't like mushy pasta. The longer it sits in hot broth the softer it gets.

If you don't have pancetta- use a few pieces of bacon. Or leave it out all together. Same with the pepperoni.

Pasta bake 2 (Creamy)

Pasta bake, a family favorite. I do several versions. It's so easy- I put everything into a baking dish and it's done. 

I use either this Red sauce, or this one. A jar of sauce would work also.

A pizza version- pepperoni, cheese, other pizza toppings.

Veggie- adding summer squash, spinach that's been cooked and liquid squeezed out etc.

Sauce poured over prepared spaghetti squash and baked with cheese on top.

Add vodka and cream to the sauce.

Fresh basil, diced tomatoes and fresh mozzerella.

So many possibilities. This works with whole grain pasta's also.

The key to making this dish quick is keeping sauce on hand. I make HUGE batches of sauce to freeze, I keep a list to see how much I have on hand also. Yes, I am a bit... particular. :O

3 to 3 1/2 cups sauce (red)

16 ounces uncooked short pasta

1 1/4 cups water

3 tablespoons butter

2 cloves minced garlic

3 tablespoons all purpose flour

garlic powder

1/2- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

salt

pepper

2 cups shredded mozzarella, divided (you can use any cheese you like, fresh mozzarella won't melt smooth for this sauce though.)

1 cup milk

3/4 cup cream

(pepperoni, if you want)

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

In a sauce pan, heat the butter until melted and foamy, not browned. Stir in the garlic and flour, cook until the flour is lightly browned. Add remaining spices. Whisk in the cream and milk until smooth. Whisk in cream cheese and 1 cup shredded cheese until creamy and smooth.  Remove from heat.

Pour the red sauce into a 9x13 inch pan. Sprinkle pasta on top, stir to coat. Pour the water on top of the pasta. Pour cheese sauce on top. If you want to use pepperoni, sprinkle some on top of the pasta and sauce.

Cover the pan tightly with foil. Bake for 45 minutes. Check to see if the pasta is tender, stir. Sprinkle cheese on top and put it in the oven for 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Let this set for 10 before serving. Sprinkle with fresh basil and or parsley.