Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake

For my birthday this year, we made something extra special - chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake!  It was so good.  The recipe is from Taste of Home.  I just love that magazine!  We used my new Farberware springform pan that I ordered from CSN Stores.  Have you read my CSN Stores review?  The pan worked beautifully!

This recipe is straight from the Taste of Home website, but we made a couple adjustments...

Ingredients

CRUST:

1-3/4 cups crushed chocolate chips cookies or chocolate wafer crumbs

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

COOKIE DOUGH:

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1-1/2 cups miniature semisweet chocolate chips, divided

FILLING:

3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

In a small bowl, combine cookie crumbs and sugar; stir in butter.  Press onto the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of a greased 9-inch pan.  Set aside.

In another bowl, cream butter and sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Add water and vanilla. Gradually add flour.  Stir in 1 cup chocolate chips.

 

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth.  Add eggs; beat on low just until combined.  Add sour cream and vanilla; beat just until blended.  Pour 1/2 of filling over crust.

Now add the cookie dough.

Then pour the rest of the filling over the cookie dough center.

Here's where we switched things up a little bit.  We used a water bath for our cheesecake.  We wrapped that springform pan with foil to keep it water-tight.  Then we set the cheesecake in a roasting pan and added a cup of water (in the roasting pan, not to the cheesecake!).

 

 

 

Bake at 350° for 45-55 minutes or until center is almost set. 

We did something a little different here, too. Mom has a friend who owns a cheesecake company.  She says the secret to a crack-free cheesecake is to bake it longer at a lower temperature.  So we baked ours at 325° for 70-90 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer.  Refrigerate overnight.

Remove sides of pan. Sprinkle with remaining chips.  Yield: 12-14 servings. Refrigerate leftovers. 

This cheesecake is really rich and so yummy! Enjoy!!

Happy Hour #16 Women and Wine in Florida

Welcome to Happy Hour at Henrietta's House!!

Women and Wine parties consist of inviting all of your girlfriends over for some wine, food and fun!  Everyone brings their own bottle of wine and a glass and the hostess provides some food.

This weekend we had another fun Women and Wine party - this time in the Sunshine State!!

Mom outdid herself again and made some wonderful dips - avocado dip, shrimp dip and more.

She made her famous raspberry cheesecake tartlets and some Hershey's kiss with almond cookies.

Check out these endive stalks with dip!! Yum!

One of the ladies brought escargot in these beautiful shells.  I wasn't brave enough to try them but my sister was.  She said they were wonderful.  They tasted like mushrooms with garlic!  Maybe I'll get brave some day!

Check out our first Women and Wine party!

Cheers!

Chicken Farfalle with Creamy Pesto Sauce

With all the cold weather we've been having I thought a nice winter dinner would warm us up.  A pasta dish does the trick.  It's warm and filling, and boiling those noodles puts some warm, moist air in the house to combat the dryness of winter.

So I made some farfalle pasta with chicken breast and a delicious creamy pesto sauce with cherry tomatoes.  I love pesto so much I put it on my pizza!  I can't wait until I can plant more basil.  Last year my basil went crazy.  I plan to make LOTS of home made pesto sauce.  Mom made some with pistachios.  YUM!

I just threw this recipe together.  Here's what you need: 

• Two chicken breasts
• One small container of pesto (7 oz or so)
• One small container of reduced-fat sour cream (same size as pesto container)
• Three servings of farfalle pasta
• One small package of cherry tomatoes
• Some grated Parmesan cheese

Cook your chicken breasts in the oven at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes.

Boil your pasta.

While your pasta is boiling, put your pesto in a sauce pan on medium heat, slowing stir in the sour cream until you get a creamy consistency.

Drain your pasta and add into the sauce pan.  Add cut up chicken breast.  Add the tomatoes.  The tomatoes are important.  They add acidity that the dish needs.  Otherwise it is very bland.

Add some grated Parmesan cheese on top.  This is an easy yet elegant dinner.  And best of all it has pesto in it!!

 

End of Christmas Break Treats

Since we're heading back to work and school tomorrow, we cooked today.  And it was fun.  We made homemade pizza and some kind of pretzel concoction.  I'm not sure what they're named.  A coworker told me how to make them.  And they are dangerous, especially to my eat healthier resolution!!  But they were so fun and easy!

First - homemade pizza (store-bought crust!).  Mom's homemade basil pesto, chicken I baked earlier, Roma tomatoes and some mozzarella are the ingredients of my favorite pizza.  Mmmmm!  Why haven't pizza chains caught on to this??  Mom also made some pistachio pesto I can't wait to try in a farfalle with chicken dish that is my favorite!  More on that later this week.

My daughter even abandoned her cheese pizza in favor of the pesto pizza.  I was shocked that she likes pesto, but so happy!!  She has always tried new foods, ever since she was a baby.

Now on to the treats!!  These tasty little things consist of butter snap pretzels, rolos and pecan halves.

While I put the pretzels and rolos together, I toasted the pecan halves at 250 degrees F for about 10 minutes. 

After the pecans were done, I put the rolo/pretzel tray in for 4 minutes.  When they came out I pressed a pecan half on each one.
 

Then I took them off the cookie sheet and popped them in the fridge for a few minutes to set the chocolate.  Done!!  And yummy!

My 100th Post and Happy Hour #11

How fitting that my 100th post is a Happy Hour post for New Year's Eve??  I have enjoyed this past year so much!  I joined the blogging world this past June and have had such a great time trying new recipes, sharing my ideas on crafting, decorating and gardening, and especially meeting new people through the many blogs I visit and those who visit mine, and hearing from friends and family.  I look forward to 2011 and many more posts!

So to end this year with a bang, we're going to celebrate with some champagne and baked pears with creamy raspberry sauce for our New Year's Eve Happy Hour at Henrietta's House!

I love champagne and I also love Moscato D'Asti, which is a wine with a little bubbly behind it.  So pick your poison and let's celebrate!  Only crystal champagne flutes will do for New Year's Eve. 

(Yes, that's me reflected in the vase!!)

Now for something else that's sweet.  I like fruit but it's even better with some sugar, spices and cream.  This recipe comes straight from Martha Stewart.

Baked Pears with Raspberry Sauce
Prep: 20 minutes, Total: 55 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
4 firm, ripe Bartlett pears, peeled, halved, and cored (stems left intact)
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 cup frozen raspberries, thawed and drained

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In an ovenproof skillet, combine butter, sugar, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.  Add pears, cut side down; cover with foil. Bake, turning pears over halfway through, until tender when pierced with the tip of a paring knife, about 25 minutes. (I left mine in for 10 minutes longer. It took awhile for my pears to become soft.)

Lift pear halves with a slotted spoon, allowing any juices to drip back into skillet, and divide among four serving plates.  Bring liquid in skillet to a boil over medium heat.  Add cream; cook until slightly thickened, one minute.  Stir in raspberries.  Spoon sauce over pears; serve.

Yum!!  This recipe is easy and elegant.  Perfect for ringing in the new year.

Happy new year to everyone!!

Add your Happy Hour link below.

How About Some Pizza - In Soup Form!

I love Taste of Home magazine!  Mom got me a subscription a couple years ago to help out my lackluster cooking skills.  And it has helped tremendously!  One of my favorite recipes is pizza soup.  And it's a nice way to get the kids involved in cooking.  They can help cut up pepperoni, add the cheese and spices, and anything else they like on their pizza!


This soup is so easy to make and tastes just like pizza - without the crust!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon canola oil
2 cups water
1 can (15 oz.) pizza sauce
1 cup chopped pepperoni
1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
1/2 cup cooked Italian sausage
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Directions:

In a large saucepan, saute mushrooms and onion in oil for 2-3 minutes or until tender.  Add the water, pizza sauce, pepperoni, tomatoes, sausage and Italian seasoning.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Before serving, stir in Parmesan cheese.  Garnish with mozzarella cheese.  Yield: 4 servings.

I varied this recipe slightly.  No mushrooms for this girl!  But I do love green olives on my pizza.  Be sure to add them after your soup is done cooking.  Cooking the olives makes the soup really salty.  I had to learn that the hard way so now I'm trying to keep the next person from suffering the same fate!!

Remember our butternut squash soup?  That was a Gallo wine ad, but we found in it the Taste of Home magazine!  Check out the recipe here.

Butternut Squash Soup Recipe

I've had a request to post the butternut squash soup recipe from mom's Women and Wine party.  The soup was amazing and the perfect Fall dish for an evening get-together!

The recipe comes from a Gallo wine ad in my Taste of Home magazine for this month.  Perfect timing for the party we had!

Here is the recipe, as requested.  Enjoy!!


Butternut Squash Soup with Amoretti and Soft Cream


Ingredients:

• 1 medium butternut squash
• 2 yellow onions
• 4 Tbs olive oil
• 1 cup Gallo white wine
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 2 Tbs butter
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 Tbs whipping cream
• 2 amoretti cookies

Directions:

Peel, seed and dice the squash into one-inch cubes.  Toss the squash with 2 Tbs of the olive oil and place on a roasting pan and roast in a 400-degree F oven for about 20 minutes or until tender; carefully add the Gallo white wine to the roasting pan and let cool.  Slice  the onions and saute with the remaining olive oil in a pot large enough to hold all of the ingredients.  Add the squash and wine mixture along with the chicken stock to the sauteed onions and bring to a boil.  Remove from the heat, and puree in a food processor in batches with the butter; season with salt and pepper to taste.  When ready to serve, reheat the soup, then half-whip the cream in a small bowl and drizzle over the soup.  Crumble the amoretti cookie, sprinkle over the top of the soup and serve immediately.

Yield: 4-6 servings

Enjoy!

At your next party, set up a soup station!  We used the wood insert of an antique copper bin for a trivet.  Ask your favorite restaurant if you can borrow their soup bowls and spoons.  Rarely does anyone have enough service for a large group.  This way they all match!  Keep them in a large basket - easy to transport to the soup station, and it looks great, too!

Nuts for Hazelnuts

I LOVE hazelnuts!  And I'm not alone.  There is a blog called 365 Days with Nutella.

Nutella is a hazelnut spread, the same consistency of peanut butter.  And it is so elegant and smooth I can eat it right out of the jar!

So I checked out the blog and there are lots of interesting ways to use Nutella.  I decided to try the puppy chow recipe.  And it turned out amazing!  Warning: it is really rich.

Sorry, this puppy chow is not for you, Daisy!!