Fall Foods: Soup and Cheesecake

Today the SITS Girls challenged to share our favorite fall craft or recipe.

I'm really not a very crafty person, but something I love about fall is the return to soup season. Potato soup is one of my favorites, but I'll take just about any kind of warm, liquidy goodness. What I love about making soup is that I don't need a recipe. I just toss about a bunch of stuff in a pot or slow cooker and voila! a wonderful, fill-the-house-with-good-smells soup. Yum!

Since I rarely use a recipe, I'm going to share with you a lovely recipe for squash (pumpkin works, too!) cheesecake that I made last year.

Flying Witch

Yields 2+ cheesecakes

Ingredients:

• 2 ready made graham cracker crust
• 4 8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened
• ¾ c granulated sugar
• ¼ c packed brown sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 small golden nugget squash
• 4 eggs
• ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice (or ¼ tsp cinnamon, ⅛ tsp nutmeg, ½ of ⅛ tsp each of allspice and cardamom)
• 1/2 c semi sweet chocolate chips, melted
• Pictures of a flying witch or a howling wolf or whatever you'd like on the cheesecake

Directions:
1. Pierce squash a few times with a fork. Soften in microwave for 45-60 secs. Cut in half; remove seeds. Place in a microwaveable dish; cover with plastic wrap. Cook for 9 minutes or until fork tender. Scoop squash into a food processor and blend until smooth. This should give you about 1 cup of purée.

2. While squash is cooking, cream the cream cheese and sugars together in a bowl until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla and eggs . Mix until well blended. Reserve 1 cup of batter. Pour remaining evenly between two graham cracker crusts.

3. Add squash purée and pumpkin pie spice to the reserved batter. Mix well. Drop by spoonfuls onto the white batter. Gently swirl with a knife. I swirled in one direction to give the impression of a windy, stormy, scary, Halloween night. I had a LOT of leftover squash batter, so I put it in a small dish to bake a 3rd, smaller, no-crust cheesecake.

4. Bake at 350°F for 40-45 min or until the center is still barely jiggly or right before cracks start to appear. Remove and let cool on cooling rack.

5. While cheesecakes are baking, place pictures under wax paper. Put melted chocolate into a plastic baggie and snip off the corner. Pipe the chocolate over the pictures. I had some extra chocolate, so I hand drew a full moon, a spider web, a spider, and some bats/birds/whatever. Place on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer to harden.

6. Once cheesecakes have cooled, cut the wax paper around the chocolate pictures and place pictures on the cheesecake, wax paper side up. Leave waxed paper on and chill cakes in the fridge for 8+ hours or overnight. Gently pull off waxed paper.

This recipe was originally posted over at my other blog: Tale of Two Sisters and Their Kitchens

What's your favorite fall recipe or craft?
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Recipe: Krusczyki

For Mother's Day, my step-mom put in a special request for an angel food cake. I was happy to oblige. Unfortunately, it left me with a lot of left-over egg yolks.

I scoured the Internet for a delicious way to use up the egg yolks. Most of the recipes I found were for sponge cake or something that would be baked in the same type of pan as the angel food cake. Now, that wouldn't work for me because, well, I had an angel food cake in that pan!

I was delighted for find this recipe for Krusczyki on Allrecipes.com (posted by SHARONA669). I'd never heard of it before, and there was no picture to go along with the recipe, but I thought I'd take a gamble.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
14 egg yolks
1 pint sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
8 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups shortening
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

Directions:

1. In a large bowl mix together all ingredients except shortening and confectioners' sugar. Stir into a ball, then turn dough out onto a floured surface . Knead dough for 1/2 hour. If you have a mixer with a dough hook attachment, mix for about 15 minutes.
2. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.

3. On a floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into strips that are 3 inches long and 1 inch wide. In the center of each strip, cut a 1 inch slit, lengthwise.

   

   Pull one end of the strip through the slit to form a bow.

   

   (This is my interpretation of making a "bow". They kind of look like little bow ties, right?)

4. In a frying pan or an electric skillet, melt shortening and heat to about 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). in a frying pan this would be on medium high heat.

5. Place cookies in hot oil. Cook on both sides until lightly browned then remove to a paper towel.

6. Dust finished cookies with confectioners sugar.

I brought these over for Mother's Day brunch. Everyone loved them!! They are not a real sweet cookie but are more like a little doughnut. I was surprised at how well they were received.

Dinner Last Night: Chicken Enchiladas

I found this recipe for the Easiest Chicken Enchiladas Ever on my friend's blog. It sounded so good!

But... I didn't have any enchilada sauce. :-(

I was going to go online to find my own, but instead found this recipe for Easy Chicken Enchiladas on Allrecipes.com. It sounded really good, too.

I had to make a few modifications:

• I only had about 2-3 oz of cream cheese, so I added1/3 cup of sour cream as well.
• I used a can of chicken instead of the chopped, cooked chicken breast.
• I had some leftover white beans in my fridge, so used those instead of the pinto beans (I used the same amount of beans as chicken, using the empty can as my measurer).

These turned out to be so delicious! I'll definitely make them again. They are not saucy like regular enchiladas, which I actually kind of enjoyed.

Jeff even liked these so...two thumbs up here!!

Oh So Simple Bean Soup

I've had a pound of white beans in my cupboard for more than 2 years, so I thought I should try to put them to good use. I soaked them yesterday, so they would be ready for me today.

I tried looking for a good recipe to use, but nothing was jumping out at me, so I decided to do a little experimenting. This is NOT something I usually do.

Feeling a little daring, I put the beans in some fresh water, put it on to boil, and started grabbing cans from my cupboard.

Here's the end result:

Oh So Simple Bean Soup

1-15.25oz can whole kernel corn, drained
1-10.75oz can cheddar cheese soup + 1 can of water
1-15oz can of crushed tomato + 1 can of water
1-15oz can of tomato sauce + 1 can of water
1-15oz can of chili beans
1-15oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 lb of dried white beans, soaked and cooked
1/4 cup of Wahoo! Chili (Tastefully Simple)
1 1/2 T Garlic Garlic (Tastefully Simple)
1/4 c minced onion
1 T salt
1 tsp basil

Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Simmer for at least 30 minutes until hot and flavorful.

I topped this with Texas Toast(R) Cheese & Garlic croutons. Yummy!

Banana Blueberry Muffins

I made these muffins last night to enjoy for breakfast this morning. I was looking for a healthy banana muffin to use up some frozen bananas that have been in my freezer for quite a long time. I was a little hesitant to make these, as there were quite a few negative reviews. Overall it was still rated with 4 stars, so I decided to give it a try.

They turned out to be delicious and filling! I even brought a couple into a co-worker, and she agreed that they were yummy. This is definitely a recipe I will make again and again.

My frozen bananas were about 2 cups, so I decreased the egg whites to 3 instead of 4, but that was the only change I made to the recipe.

Homemade Cream Filled Individual Sponge Cakes

We had a ward dessert social tonight. It was potluck, so I found this recipe for homemade Twinkies (R). I changed the recipe to make them more like homemade Suzy Q's (R). I was surprised to find only one remaining when the clean-up began!

I was so excited to try out this recipe. Just ask Jeff. He said I was giddy like a school girl! I have to admit I was pretty silly. I thought the procedure of making these would be challenging, but it was surprisingly easy.

Below is the recipe...

Homemade Cream Filled Individual Sponge Cakes
Submitted by: TNthree Rated: 4 out of 5 by 9 members
Prep Time: 45 Minutes Cook Time: 30 Minutes
Ready In: 1 Hour 15 Minutes Yields: 24 servings
"Yellow cake bars are frosted with a shortening and evaporated milk filling in this homage to the famous snack cakes."

INGREDIENTS:
1 (18.25 ounce) package
yellow cake mix
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 (5 ounce) can evaporated
milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:
1. Bake cake according to package directions in a 9x13 inch pan. Cool and cut into bars. Cut each bar in half lengthwise to make two layers.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in shortening, a little at a time, until fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar. Combine evaporated milk and vanilla and beat into filling, scraping the bowl, until fluffy.
3. Sandwich the bars with the fluffy filling.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2005 Allrecipes.com
Printed from Allrecipes.com 9/10/2006

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

I had some bananas in our freezer that I needed to use before our move. Individual snacks move much more quickly in our home, so I found this recipe for banana oatmeal cookies. These turned out wonderfully; although, I did need to decrease the cooking time to around 9-10 min. If you have overripe bananas, this is an excellent recipe!


Banana Oatmeal Cookies III

Submitted by: JoAnn Bork Rated: 4 out of 5 by 12 members
Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 15 Minutes
Ready In: 45 Minutes Yields: 36 servings

"These are delicious moist cookies which freeze very well and a great way to use those overripe bananas."

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup shortening
1 egg, beaten
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1 3/4 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cut in shortening until almost no lumps remain. Stir in the egg and bananas; mix well. Finally, stir in the oats and walnuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are browned. Remove from pans immediately to cool on wire racks.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2005 Allrecipes.com
Printed from Allrecipes.com 7/23/2006

Chocolate cake...Yummy!!

If you know me, you know I love to cook/bake for gatherings. Jeff and I had dinner with some friends the other night, and I offered to make dessert.

I wanted something cool and summery and found this recipe on All Recipes. It turned out delicious.

The recipe is below. It yields a 9x13 cake, but I didn't need one that large. I divided the cake batter into a round cake, and 12 cupcakes. Also, I used strawberry gelatin. I needed to modify the frosting a bit because my grocery store didn't have the whipped topping mix. Instead, I used frozen whipped topping i.e. Cool Whip (R). I mixed it with the chocolate pudding and added some milk to help with the consistency.

Chocolate Cake IV
Submitted by: REB Rated: 4 out of 5 by 2 members
Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 35 Minutes
Ready In: 55 Minutes Yields: 12 servings
"Use any flavor of gelatin to compliment this refreshing chocolate version of the poke cake. Serve it straight from the freezer."
INGREDIENTS:
1 (18.25 ounce) package
chocolate cake mix
1 (3 ounce) package fruit
flavored gelatin mix
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cold water

2 (3.9 ounce) packages instant
chocolate pudding mix
2 (1.3 ounce) envelopes
whipped topping mix
3 cups cold milk
DIRECTIONS:
1.
Prepare and bake cake mix according to package directions for a 9x13 inch pan. Poke holes in cake while still hot with a fork. Make gelatin with 1 cup of boiling water, then stir in cold water. Slowly pour liquid gelatin over hot cake. Cool cake completely in the freezer before frosting.
2.
To make the frosting: Using an electric mixer, beat together the instant pudding, whipped topping and milk until thickened. Pour over completely cooled cake. Keep cake in freezer until ready to serve.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2005 Allrecipes.com
Printed from Allrecipes.com 7/10/2006