Happy Birthday 'Nese!

The truth is, even if you weren't my Mom I would go out of my way to be friends with you.

Happy Birthday to my Mom and friend :)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

It has been a busy few weeks: graduation, visitors, C's birthday, packing, moving across country.  I'm still in Dallas for the next week but C has officially moved (and taken all my stuff) to Phoenix.  So, although it's been a busy time, I still wanted to make C something special for this birthday so we could celebrate before left.  I think we both agree the best thing is chocolate and peanut butter together, and I think C's favorite dessert is cheesecake. I put them all together for this awesome dessert.  Please forgive my lack of pictures on how I made this, I didn't have my camera with me at the time!  

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Crush oreo's into fine crumbs and add melted butter.  Combine well and press into the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan.  Beat softened cream cheese and sugar until smooth.  add eggs one at a time beating in between each one.  Add remaining ingredients, beating until all is smooth.  Pour into crust and allow to sit at room temperature 30 minutes.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 60 minutes.  Allow to sit in the oven with the door open for another 30 minutes.  Remove from the oven and run a knife around the edge.  Allow to come to room temperature while you make the additional toppings.

To make the peanut butter topping  put whipping cream into a saucepan and heat just until bubbling at the edges.  Turn off the heat and add peanut butter chips, cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes.  To make the chocolate topping put whipping cream into saucepan and heat until bubbling at the edges.  Turn heat off, add the chocolate chips, cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes stir both until smooth.  Pour peanut butter over the top of the cheesecake, smooth to edges.  Refrigerate for 10 minutes.  Pour chocolate over peanut butter and smooth into a center circle.  Decorate as desired.  I topped with extra peanut butter and chocolate chips.

Refrigerate overnight before serving for best consistency.  This was a really hard task, to wait an entire night to try this amazing dessert.  If  you're a peanut butter & chocolate fan this is the dessert for you.  It's very rich, but it's the perfect birthday treat. 

And what a Happy Birthday it was :) 

Have a great weekend everyone! 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Cheesecake:

9 oz oreo's

1/4 cup butter

2 8oz packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 cups dark chocolate chips

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoon butter

3 teaspoons vanilla

Chocolate Topping:

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Peanut Butter Topping:

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  

Crush oreo's into fine crumbs and add melted butter. 

Combine well and press into the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan.  

Beat softened cream cheese and sugar until smooth.  

Add eggs one at a time beating in between each one.  

Add remaining ingredients, beating until all is smooth.  

Pour into crust and allow to sit at room temperature 30 minutes.  

Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 60 minutes.  

Allow to sit in the oven with the door open for another 30 minutes.  

Remove from the oven and run a knife around the edge.  

Allow to come to room temperature while you make the additional toppings.

To make the peanut butter topping  put whipping cream into a saucepan and heat just until bubbling at the edges.  
Turn off the heat and add peanut butter chips, cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes.  
To make the chocolate topping put whipping cream into saucepan and heat until bubbling at the edges.  
Turn heat off, add the chocolate chips, cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes.  
After 5 minutes stir both until smooth.  
Pour peanut butter over the top of the cheesecake, smooth to edges. 
 Refrigerate for 10 minutes.  
Pour chocolate over peanut butter and smooth into a center circle.  
Decorate as desired.
Refrigerate overnight before serving for best consistency. 

Birthday Dinner

Thought I would share some photos of my birthday dinner!  Starting with the cool designs in the butter.

Side of Mac and Cheese?  Sure, why not! 

Dessert -- after we had eaten most of it :)  Everyone deserves a tasty birthday dinner.  Where's your favorite place to celebrate a special occasion?

Happy Monday! 

Birthday & Easter Weekend

This year for the first time that I can remember, my birthday falls on Easter.  I know that older folks, and I say that with love and respect, will think I'm being silly; but for whatever reason turning 27 is hitting me hard.  I realize now why, when I was 16 and wanted to be 21, my parents told me to enjoy it while I can.  They were right..and now that I'm older I can admit that.  Moral of the story, don't grow up.  Also, that you should all fly to Dallas, show up at my door with cupcakes, Reese's peanut butter eggs and scream to the world how young I look.  Much appreciated, and since I'm probably your elder now, you have to listen to me right?!

Happy Easter everyone!

And Happy Birthday to my old ass.

Have a great holiday weekend :)

Ichiban - Sterling Heights, MI

My Mom's birthday is right after Christmas, and the family tries to gather up one more time to celebrate before we all get back to our routines. This year we decided to go to a Japanese hibachi grill called Ichiban in Sterling Heights MI.

My aunt and my Mom looking beautiful :)

Parents, brother and me.

We ordered a couple sushi rolls to start.  They were very tasty, but there was so much food coming we really didn't need it!

Our chef, Ghama, giving us some of their famous "yum,yum sauce."  Tastes just like it sounds, and it was yum yum on everything!

Sit back!

Fried rice, amazing. 

Volcano!

Cooking up the meats and fish.

I ordered the shrimp and steak meal.  The shrimp was served first and tasted great!

The steak was tender and cooked to perfection.  The veggies it came with were perfectly seasoned and great to eat with the steak and shrimp.

The night ended with a dessert including sparkler brought out for my Mom.  She also had to do a little dance, but I was so preoccupied watching her dance in front of the whole restaurant to take pictures.  You're welcome, Mom!

Nothing says Happy Birthday like fried ice cream.

Happy Birthday Mom, so happy we were all able to celebrate one more year with you! 

For more information on Ichiban click here.

My Summer Vacation Part II

Door County pictures continue.  Here is part of the group sitting on the deck before dinner.

The group of us have been friends since I was born.  We all kind of grew up together.  Now the oldest of the kids has kids of her own (yes, if you wanted to know it does make me feel old.)  Here is my brother with Virgina, one of the grand kids.  Since we're hardly all together, we had one big birthday celebration in honor of all the birthdays we missed, and she was pretty excited. 

Cuddling up!

Saying we like to play games is the understatement of the century!

We also had a turkey dinner one night, why not!  So tasty :) 

Have a great weekend everyone, see you back here next week.

Caramel Corn & A Birthday

This caramel corn is a staple in my family's household treats.  My Mom makes huge batches of it, usually around Christmas and throughout the summer, then has to hide it so we don't eat it all in one sitting.  My Dad is known to hunt it out and leave nothing left for when my Mom goes to find it and bring it to a BBQ or whatnot.  It's so good, and so addicting!  I was going to post my tomato sauce that I made with the fresh tomatoes I talked about yesterday, but thought I'd post this caramel corn first in case you needed any extra ideas for a Memorial Day event! 

My Mom uses a popcorn maker, and pops the kernels herself.  I just bought regular bagged popcorn and popped it in the microwave.  I also cut the recipe in half, and ended up using two full bags; approximately 3 1/2 quarts or 14 cups.  If you're making the whole recipe make sure you have around four bags of popcorn.

Begin by boiling 1 cup of butter over medium-low heat on the stove.

Add brown sugar and lite corn syrup to the pot.  Cook for around five minutes, then remove from heat.

Add the salt and the baking soda, and stir well.

Once the salt and baking soda is mixed in well it should appear lighter like above.

Pour the hot-ish mixture over the popcorn and stir well to make sure all kernels are coated.  I sprayed two 9x13 inch pans with non-stick and put the popcorn in that to bake.  Bake at 250 degrees for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes. 

Once out of the oven, let cool for a few minutes.  Then break up the corn into chunks.  I really enjoy this recipe because it's light, the caramel doesn't overpower the popcorn, and it tastes delicious!  This stores really well in plastic baggies, or in a Tupperware container.  If you need a little something extra to bring to a party, this is the perfect addition!

Today is my boyfriend C's 27th birthday - and I would like to wish him a very

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 

Hope you have a great day, and I'm glad I'm here to celebrate with you  :)

Caramel Corn

Adapted from: mi madre, thank you!

7 quarts popped popcorn

1 cup butter

2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup Karo lite corn syrup

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

Pop popcorn and set aside.

Boil 1 cup of butter until melted.

Add brown sugar and corn syrup for around 5 minutes, then remove from heat.

Add salt and baking soda, and stir well.

Pour mixture over popcorn and mix well.

Bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes. 

Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes, then break into chunks.

Enjoy!

*If you'd like to add nuts, add them before the corn cooks for the last 15 minutes.



Seasons 52 and Cake!

My parents and brother came to visit for Easter weekend a few weeks ago, and I felt so lucky to have them around.  Not only for Easter but also to celebrate my birthday.  Although it was a couple weeks late, celebrate is exactly what we did.  I have a ton of pictures from all the places we visited and food we ate, today I'm just going to share the first night's meal at Seasons 52 in Plano.  I started the weekend out right with a strawberry margarita martini, pretty much three things I love mixed into one amazing drink.

Appetizer was smoked salmon flat bread.  So great!  I wouldn't normally order smoked salmon, but it was a weekend filled with things I'd never tried, and I actually liked it a lot.  Seasons 52 prides themselves on fresh ingredients and all of the dishes are under 475 calories.  My brother thought this translated into the dishes would be small and wouldn't fill you up, but I think they proved him wrong!

I ordered the scallops, and loved them.  I'm pretty picky about scallops, I can tell right away if they're gritty and then it's hard for me to eat them.  These were perfect, and the asparagus was fresh and tasted great.

My Mom and brother ordered the shrimp pasta with fresh veggies.  Yum!

Dad got the salmon salad.  I tasted the salmon and it was seasoned perfectly.

Topped it off with a birthday cake for me!  The cake was from Elizabeth's Cakes, my Mom ordered it the restaurant sliced it for us.  Granted the whole "under 450 calories" went right out the door when we dug into this, but it was worth it!  The frosting was the best part, and there was plenty of it.

Tomorrow I'll post pictures from our amazing steak dinner at Nick and Sam's and our brunch and LaDuni. 

See you back here tomorrow everyone :)

Click here for more information on Seasons 52.

Click here if you want to make yourself hungry by checking out Elizabeth's Cakes.