Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies {Valentine's Day Edition}

I've been saving this recipe since December, because I thought it'd be a perfect Valentine's Day treat. I'm a huge sucker for cheesecake and red velvet, so combining the two just seemed like a match made in foodie heaven.

Well I'm here to tell you that these are just as delicious as I imagined. They're creamy, velvety, and melt in your mouth. It has a perfect amount of sweetness that keep your taste buds begging for "just one more bite," and before you know it, the whole batch is gone.

You can slice and serve them in bars or get a little fancy and break out your cookie cutter for a little fun. If you do use a cookie cutter, just think of all those leftover scraps you'll get to eat! I know this next part will be hard to follow, but these really taste best when they're completely cooled. They're going to smell amazing and you'll want to eat it as soon as the timer "dings," but after you have a nibble, let them cool and try it later. Trust me, these brownies become sinfully delicious when they're completely cooled.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

adapted from Baking Bites
makes around 24

Ingredients:
for brownies
1 cup butter
4-oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 cup sugar
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp red food coloring
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt

for cheesecake

24-oz cream cheese, room temperature

2/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly lightly grease a 9"x13" baking pan.

In a small, heatproof bowl, melt butter and chocolate together. Stir with a fork until very smooth. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and red food coloring. Add in the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Batter should be red. If a brighter red is desired, add an additional 1/2 tsp food coloring. Add flour and salt into the bowl and stir until everything is just combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain.

Pour into prepared pan and spread into an even layer.

Prepare cheesecake mixture. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Drop in dollops onto prepared brownie batter. Gently swirl two batters with a butter knife. (Really get in there and and make the batters mingle!)

Bake for 40-45 minutes, until brownies and cheesecake are set. A knife inserted into the cheesecake mixture should come out clean and the edges will be lightly browned.

Cool in the pan completely before slicing and serving, either at room temperature or chilled.
Brownies can be refrigerated, covered, for several days.

Kale Chips

I first heard about kale chips sometime last year when I was searching for a healthy alternative to potato chips—my weakness. I crave the crunchy, salty, and flavor chips encompass, but hate the excess calories.

I'll admit I was extremely skeptical the first time I tried these. I mean, really? How in the world could a leaf calm my chip craving? So with a cynical mind, I made my kale chips and about ten minutes later I was chowing down on something amazing and surprisingly delicious.

I made them a few times while my husband was out of town, just to make sure I knew what I was doing. Then, when he came home, I asked if he wanted to try them. I was waiting for the typical man response of, "You want me to eat WHAT?" But instead, he willingly tried them and liked them! SUCCESS! Now, we make kale chips several times a month, if not more, and eat them as a snack or have them along with meals. Sure, I still have an occasional weakness for real chips, but believe me when I say these scratch my potato-chip itch!

I suggest playing with the ratio of oil, salt, and pepper until you figure out what you like on the chips. The nice thing with kale is that there's usually so much that you'll have plenty to play around with. I'll be the first to admit that sometimes I still burn my kale chips, but then I just pop another batch in the oven and try it again!

Kale Chips

Ingredients:
1 pound kale, chopped and stems removed
olive oil (drizzle or spray)
salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. In a bowl, drizzle or spray olive oil over kale. You want the kale covered with oil, but not drenched or saturated. Sprinkle and mix with salt and pepper (to taste). Place kale on baking sheets, somewhat spread out, trying not to overlap too many pieces. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until crisp. Keep a close eye on them towards the end and take them out when they start crisping. Enjoy!

Hummus

I can't remember when I first tried hummus, but I remember thinking that it was some sort of exotic, luxury, and expensive treat I could only have a couple times a year. Hummus is essentially a Middle Eastern dip typically made with five ingredients: chickpeas (garbanzo beans), tahini (ground sesame seeds), lemon juice, garlic and salt. Yes, you can make your own hummus with only five ingedients (seven if you include extra-virgin olive oil and paprika for garnishing).

If you're wondering where you get Tahini, I usually find it in the "ethnic" aisle at the grocery store. The price is sometimes a little steep, but one jar will make around three or four batches of hummus, and each batch makes a little more than two cups (and I believe a serving is around two tablespoons). Please don't let buying Tahini defer you from making your own hummus.

I'll admit that the first time I made this I was terrified it wouldn't taste the same as store bought—the directions and ingredients seemd too simple. But once I made it and tasted it, I vowed to never buy the packaged stuff again.

This is an absolutely perfect base recipe for hummus, and from here you can let your imagination run wild with ways to spruce it up (roasted garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, spicy red pepper, etc.). I'm usualy the first one to jazz something up with spice or other flavors, but believe me when I say that this is fantastic as is. The recipe below is only slightly adapted from the original (I added more garlic and a pinch of red pepper flakes—naturally), so definitely taste as you go and create it based on your preference.

  Hummus

slightly adapted from Desert Candy

Ingredients: 
2 (15 oz) cans chickpeas
1/2 tsp salt
3 garlic cloves
1/2 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup water from chickpeas
olive oil, parsley, paprika or cumin for serving

Directions:
1. Rinse chickpeas. Place chickpeas in saucepan with water; cover by one inch. Place saucepan on the stove; bring to a boil and simmer until chickpeas are very soft: test a chickpea by squeezing it between your fingers, it should smush easily, this could take between 5 and 20 minutes. Remove from heat, skim off any chickpea skins that have floated to the surface and discard them.

2. Place garlic and salt in a food processor; pulse to chop. Add tahini and lemon juice; process until mixture is slightly whitened and contracted. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the chickpeas to the processor (don't discard the cooking liquid); process until very smooth. Thin the hummus to desired consistency with reserved cooking liquid (I use about 1/4 cup of reserved liquid). Taste and adjust seasoning with lemon juice and salt. Refrigerate.

3. When ready to serve, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with spices if desired. Serve with pita bread, pita chips, veggies, or eat alone!

Oat Waffles

When my husband was a little boy, his dad would wake up early every Sunday morning to make waffles for the family. My husband loved this tradition, so when he requested we put a waffle maker on our wedding registry, I happily went along with the idea, thinking that we'd maybe eat waffles a couple times a year. Little did I know that when he said he liked waffles he really meant that he wanted to make them almost every Sunday. And even better (for me!) it meant he'd make them while I was still sound asleep. Can anyone see where I'm going with this? Almost every Sunday I get breakfast in bed! Have I mentioned we're still newlyweds?!

Anyway, back to the waffles. He started out making waffles *gasp* from "the box," but once he saw this recipe, "the box" hasn't made it back out of the pantry to see the light of day. He likes making the batter the night before so he can sleep walk to the kitchen Sunday morning and not have to worry about measuring and whipping up the mix. I highly suggest following in his footsteps.

And since we're also all about watching our figures over here, he makes several substitutions to the recipe below. We've had both versions several times, and I can honestly tell you that I can't taste a difference between the real and the better-for-you waffles. His substitutions will be in parenthesis.

If you own a waffle iron, take it out of your cabinet, dust it off, and take a few extra minutes to make these. They taste better than a box or the frozen variety any day! 

Oat Waffles

adapted from Alton Brown

makes about 8

Ingredients

• 5 1/2 ounces old fashioned rolled oats
• 4 ounces all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar (or sugar substitute)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 large eggs, beaten (or 3/4 cup egg substitute)
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled (2 ounces Brummel and Brown)
• 16 ounces buttermilk at room temperature (or powdered buttermilk)

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Spread oats on a baking sheet and bake for about 5 minutes or until toasted and fragrant. Cool oats in pan for 2 to 3 minutes. Grind toasted oats in a food processor until their the consistency of whole-wheat flour, about 3 minutes.

Heat a waffle iron according to manufacturer's directions.

Whisk together the toasted oat flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Whisk eggs, melted butter together, and vanilla in another bowl, then add buttermilk. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients; stir until combined. Rest the batter for 5 minutes (or cover and leave in fridge overnight).

Coat waffle iron with cooking spray before each use. Ladle waffle batter into the hot iron (amount will differ per waffle iron—we use about 1/2 cup). Close the iron top and cook until the waffle is golden on both sides and is easily removed from the iron. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve immediately or keep warm in a preheated 200 degree F oven until ready to serve.

Easy Fried Rice

There's just something about fried rice that I absolutely love. What I don't love is how absolutely horrible it is for you. Sure, there are veggies in there, but sometimes they're so tiny that you can hardly call it a serving of vegetables. Not to mention, it's typically fried in a lot of oil and then saturated with tons of soy sauce. Hello, MSG! But I love fried rice and continue to eat it all the time—in fact, I've had it four times this week!

Since I'm trying extremely hard to be healthy, I took matters into my own hands and tried making my own fried rice. It can't be that hard, right? But after three tries, I gave up. My attempts never tasted like the real deal. I chalked fried rice up as something I'll leave to the pros, and went on my way.

Then I found this recipe on Weight Watchers' website and decided to give it a shot since it had the word "easy" in the title. It turns out that not only was it ridiculously easy (seriously, how was I messing this up before?), but it actually tasted great, and it's only 3 points+ per serving! The trick, I think, is using older rice—if it's too fresh it just makes it mushy, so I made the rice in the morning and used it at night. I plan on bulking it up with even more veggies (bean sprouts, snap peas, more onions, etc.), trying it with brown rice, and adding some protein the next time I make it. In the mean time, this is a perfect, basic recipe for fried rice. Enjoy! 

Easy Fried Rice

adapted from Weight Watchers 

Ingredients:
2 spray(s) cooking spray   
2 large egg(s), lightly beaten (or 1/2 cup egg beaters)   
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup mushrooms, chopped    
1 cup scallions, sliced, divided  
3 cups cooked white rice   
1–2 cups frozen green peas and carrots (or mixed veggies), thawed  
1/4 cup(s) low-sodium soy sauce, or to taste   

Directions: 
Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; warm pan over medium-high heat. Add eggs; tilt pan so that eggs cover bottom. When eggs start to set, break them up into pieces with a heat-proof spatula or wooden spoon. Cook until eggs are cooked through, about 1 minute more; remove eggs from skillet and set aside.

Off heat, recoat same skillet with cooking spray; set over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, garlic, and all but 2 tablespoons scallions; sauté about 2 to 3 minutes.

Stir in cooked rice, veggies, and soy sauce; cook until heated through, stirring once or twice, about 1 minute. Gently stir in cooked egg and remaining scallions; heat through. Yields about 3/4 cups per serving.

A Modern take on a Wedding Cake

It may not seem like it but I do have ALOT of recipes to post. I haven't been avoiding posting on purpose. We're having an internet problem over here and it hasn't been available to me. As soon as it's all fixed I'll be playing catch up. However Jessica's got plenty of great stuff coming out of her kitchen to keep everyone's mouths watering! While I have access I'll post a picture of a wedding cake I did this past weekend. It's a white and chocolate cake covered with white fondant and accented with black and teal designs. I LOVE how this turned out, hope you do too!

Cake made for Kara and Tiago Oliveira

January 28th 2010

Shrimp and Grits

I'll be the first one to admit that the very thought of eating shrimp and grits had me gritting my teeth. Not only does it not sound appetizing (grits reminded me of oatmeal or poridge, and why would I want to eat that as a savory meal?), but it sure doesn't look all that great when it's served to you. School cafeteria mush anyone? I had a teeny taste of grits for the first time at Cracker Barrel and vowed to never try them again. I swear it tasted like cardboard, even with two pads of butter melted in it. Simply put, it was bland, and I don't like bland.

But then I tried cheese grits and everything changed. I discovered there are grits (the kind that tastes like sand and cardboard) and then there are grits (the kind that is so savory and creamy you wish it was never ending). Shrimp and grits, however, is a whole other level of just deliciousness.

This summer, my best friend flew in from New Mexico to hang out in Georgia for a few days, and while she was here we hung out in Savannah. If you're ever in Savannah, there's this nifty kitchen store called Kitchens on the Square, and the best part is that they host cooking classes! We took a class and besides making the following recipe, we also made southern classics like Tomato Sandwiches, Buttermilk Dill Cole Slaw, and Stuffed Banana Cakes. The shrimp and grits were fantastic and I told myself I'd remake them someday for my husband. Well, that day was yesterday.

I served them along with these collard greens, and he loved it so much that he described the meal, through a mouth full of grits, as "so freaking good." Grits don't have to be boring and flavorless. Just make this recipe and see for yourself!

Shrimp and Grits

adapted from Kitchens on the Square

Ingredients:
1/2 cup diced bacon (about 5-7 slices)
2 tablspoons unsalted butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablspoons fresh chives, roughly minced
1 cup quick cooking grits *see notes for using stone-ground (not instant) grits
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup heavy cream (can use whatever type of milk you have on hand)
salt and pepper to taste
shrimp, peeled, and deveined (desired amount)
1 cup goat cheese (or whatever cheese you would like—we had cheddar, so that's what we used)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a medium sauce pot, cook bacon until crisp. Add butter, garlic, and chives; saute another 2-3 minutes. Add grits and stir to coat with bacon fat (should look like bread crumbs). Stir in chicken broth, wine, and cream.

3. **Bring mixture to a simmer, stirring constantly. Continue to stir until grits have thickened, 5-8 minutes.

4.Season with salt and pepper; transfer to baking dish.

5. Scatter shrimp evenly over grits; crumble/sprinkle cheese over shrimp. Bake in oven for about 10 minutes or until shrimp are pink and cheese is melted.

*When using stone-ground grits: increase the following: 2 1/2 cups chicken broth, 3/4 cup white wine, 3/4 cup cream
**When using stone-ground grits: Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to medium, cover and cook for about 20-30 minutes, stirring often. Continue with step 4.