Brownies.... YES..... Cheesecake.... YES.... BLISS....NO DOUBT ABOUT IT

This amount of chocolate makes my camera go blurry

Its hard to put into words how much I love this cheesecake / brownie.  If you like Brownies, and Cheesecake doesn't it make sense to put them together in one glorious civil union? Try it before Harper decides to invalided this union!  The path to Nirvana is only a 
spring form pan away, 

excuse me while I go get 

another piece.

Brownie Layer

BUDDA

• 1 Cup of Unsalted Butter
• 1 Cup Cocoa Powder
• 1 3/4 Cup of Sugar
• 4 Large Eggs at room temp.
• 2 Teaspoons of Vanilla
• 1 1/4 Cup of of All Purpose Flour
• 1 Teaspoon Fine Salt
• 1/2 Cup White Chocolate Chips

1. First off, pre heat oven to 350.  Grease and line a spring form pan and set aside.  Melt the butter into a large bowl, then sift the cocoa into the butter, Stir to combine.   
2. Get cracking and add eggs to mixture, blending well after each addition. Stir in vanilla and. 
3. Go on, go get another bowl and , combine flour, baking powder and salt  and sugar(do not sift). Add to cocoa mixture and blend.  
4. Stir in Chocolate chips ( I used white chocolate baking discs).  
5. Bake for 35 mins and let cool completely before add the Cheesecake Layer.

Cheesecake Layer

• 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
• 8 oz pkg of cream cheese, at room temperature.
• 1/2 Cup of sugar
• 1 1/2 Cup of whipping cream
• 2 oz. of White Chocolate chips, melted

1. Melt the semi-sweet chocolate in doubt boiler (or some other manifestation that works for you), when melted, remove the chocolate from heat.
2. In your trusty stand up mixer (on high) beat the cream cheese until very light and fluffy.
3. Slowly add the sugar and vanilla to the cream cheese mix
4. Add the Whipping cream and beat until soft peaks form.
5. Mix the melted chocolate into the cream cheese mixture and pour over your now cooled brownie bottom.
6. Chilli for at least two hours (I did one hour in freeze, one hour in fridge)  

7. Free yourself from the shackles of your new years  resolutions and enjoy this treat!

Limes are not just for garnishing your favorite G&T's

Since it's my last weekend before school starts again for another semester, I thought I defiantly deserved a reward for my assumed hard work.  I was initially thinking chocolate, thick and gewy... but there's something depressing about Chocolate, it always mysteriously disappears (into my stomach in the middle of the night).  Since I'm currently dreading the grind, I thought a nice uplifting sunny dessert will do just fine (holla that rhymes).  Whats more bright and happy than Key Lime Pie.  You can't help but smile when you think of that tangy, sweet treat, and good news, its relatively easy!

For the CRUST:

• 1 1/2 Cups of crushed Graham Crackers
• 1/4 Cup of Sugar ( I used 1/8 cup and it was fine)
• 6 Tablespoons of Melted Butter 

-Combine Graham Crackers, Sugar and Butter in a bowl.  Press combined ingredents into a nine inch baking pan.  Bake for 10 mins. and allow to fully cool.

For the FILLING:

• 6 Extra Large Egg Yolks, at room temperature *
• 1/4 Cup of Sugar
• 1 14 oz. can of Sweetened Condensed Milk (this was pretty sweet, and the pie turned out on the sweet side, so I might use Unsweetened next time.
•  2 Tablespoons of grated Lime Zest
•  3/4 Cup of freshly squeezed Lime Juice

*If your like me and never remebers to take out the eggs before baking, here is a trick, submerge the eggs in warm water for 15 minutes, this will bring your eggs to room temperature (better than waiting 30 mins for eggs to come to room temp straight from the fridge.)

- Beat egg yolks and sugar on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for 5 mins.

- Turn the mixer on to medium and add the remaining ingredients.

- Add filling to the pre baked pie shell.

For the TOPPING:

•  1 Cup of cold Heavy Cream
• 1/4 Cup of Sugar
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Pure Vanilla Extract
• Thin Lime Wedges (for decoration.)

- Place the Heavy Cream in the stand up mixer  with the whisk attachment.  Process on high until soft peaks begin to form.

- Add sugar and Vanilla and power whisk on high until steep peaks form.

enjoy!

Popeye don't preach, I'm in Spinach, DEEP

Hope everyone had a great holiday seasons, and is slowly getting back to normal.  I, like millions around the world have made a resolution to eat healthier,so I thought I should take inspiration from the Mediterranean. Tonight I made Spinach Pie, Humus (Which I'm still eating), and Pitas  (SHHH....that I bought).  Both of these recipes are from one of the Barefoot Contessa's earlier cookbooks, the aptly named,

The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

The Contessa offers some words of wisdom.

The Spinach Pie is a great way of getting a ton of healthy greens into your system, unfortunately the recipe called for frozen spinach. Frozen Spinach requires you to strangle, punish and squeeze the hell out of that poor defencelessness spinach.  If you up for this arm / muscle shaking experience, here is the recipe in all its glory:

Spinach Pie (Barefoot Contessa stylie)

• Three Cups of Chopped Yellow Onion
• Two Tablespoons of good Olive Oil. 
• Two Teaspoons of Kosher Salt
• One and half Teaspoons of freshly ground Black Pepper
• Three (Ten ounce) frozen pkg. of Frozen Spinach, defrosted.
• Two Teaspoons of grated Nutmeg
• One Half Cup of grated Parmesan
• Three Tablespoons of Dry Bread Crumbs
• One Half Pound of Feta Cheese, cut into one half cubes
• One Half Cup of Pine Nuts
• One Quarter of melted Butter
• 6 Sheets of Phyllo Dough, defrosted. 

- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees

- In a medium pan, saute (that means cook, in case your not bilingual), the onions over medium heat until they are clear and starting to brown, allow the onions to cool slightly

blood sweat and tears

Squeezed to death Spinach

- Now comes the fun part, avoid the gym because your muscles will be tested (or maybe I'm just really out of shape) once the spinach is deforested enough to be pliable, squeeze the spinach until there is no excess liquid found in the spinach.

- When that is finally done add all the other ingredient and mix well.

- In a six inch butter pan, lay the first sheet of Phyllo Pastry Dough out, coat with melted butter and repeat until all six layers are used.  The Phyllo Sheets will be larger, which is a good thing, allow the excess to drape over the dish.

- Add the Spinach Filling and then wrap the the excess Phyllo Dough on top of the mixture.

- Brush the top with butter and place in over for an hour, or until the top of the pie is golden brown.

fresh from the oven.

Humos, Homos, Hummus I don't care how you say it, stop talking and make this now!

•  Two cups of Canned Chick Peas (liquid reserved)
• One and half Teaspoons kosher salt
• 4 Garlic Cloves, minced
• One Third cup of Tahini
• Six Tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemons
• Two Tablespoons of water or reserved liquid
• 8 Dashes of Tabasco Sauce

- Couldn't be easier, place all ingredients in the food processor with the fitted steel blade and process until the hummus is at the consistency you'd like.   Be warned, this is very garlicky, but i like that. 

Wishing everyone a great year, and hey, lets hope the Mayans were wrong.