Apple Cheesecake Burritos

I know what you're thinking: cheesecake burritos? Gross/weird/why/etc. I thought the same thing when Tim proudly announced that this was the dessert that he wanted for his birthday this year. He had never tried them, but after reading through the ingredients, thought they sounded tasty, and oh boy was he right. It is well documented that Tim's all-time favorite dessert is Apple Pie. He does, however have an adventurous spirit, and loves to experiment with things, so he tends to enjoy several variations on the standard, all-American version. He is not loyal to apple pie in it's original form, only to the apples, butter, sugar, and cinnamon. There are so many places you can go with this, and that is why every year for his birthday, and on a lot of other occasions, he gets a dessert of his choice, and he always picks some form of apple pie. I do not remember him ever requesting a standard apple pie; always something a little quirky, and a little surprising. A pie just like him. This recipe, like several others on this blog, comes from Apple Pie Perfect, and it is in the Pie On The Fringes Category.

Here is what you will need for this culinary adventure:

3 Oz Cold Cream Cheese
1 Tblsp Granulated Sugar
1 tsp Lemon Juice
2 Whole Graham Crackers
2 Tblsp Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
1/4 tsp Cinnamon (omit if using cinnamon grahams)
1 Tblsp Unsalted Butter
1 Golden Delicious or Other Firm Baking Apple, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
Two 8- or 9-inch flour tortillas

Glaze:
1 Tblsp Unsalted Butter, Softened
Granulated Sugar

Put the cream cheese on a small plate and mash with a fork. Add the granulated sugar and lemon juice and mix well. Refrigerate.

Break up the graham crackers into crumbs. You can use a rolling pin or a food processor. I just used my hands and it worked just fine. I like to have some texture in my food.

Put the crumbs in a medium bowl and add brown sugar and cinnamon. mix well and set aside.

Melt butter in a medium sized skillet. Add the apples and cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until heated through and crunchy (not smooshy). This should take about two minutes.























Add the apples, getting all of the butter from the pan, into the bowl with the graham cracker crumbs. Mix well and set aside.




















Preheat the broiler.

Warm one of the tortillas in the skillet for a couple of minutes. Just until it is flexible. Remove the tortilla from the pan and lay it flat. Spread half of the cream cheese mixture in the center, leaving room around the edges so that it does not ooze out when you roll it up. Spoon half of the apple mixture on top of the cream cheese.




































Roll it up like a burrito and repeat with the second tortilla and the remaining fillings.





















Place the burritos in a shallow, buttered baking dish with the seam side down. Smear softened butter and sugar on the top. I actually omitted the granulated sugar topping and used some extras from the graham cracker/cinnamon/brown sugar mixture as the topping. This was really good.




















I love brown sugar.

Broil burritos (about 2-inches from broiler) for 2 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Watch them to make sure that they don't burn.

Cut in half diagonally before serving.



























You may notice that there is a high tortilla-to-filling ratio. I was nervous about this when I first cut them open. I ended up being grateful for the extra tortilla though, because without it these may have entered into the "too sweet" category. Extra tortilla made it perfect.


The book did not specify whether to eat them warm or cold. We ate them cold, thinking that since it was cheesecake-like it may be gross warm. I think we made the right choice.

This makes 2-4 servings depending on whether you want to eat a whole burrito or half of a burrito. We split each burrito in half, and that ended up being good because they are very sweet, and half was just the right amount. It also made them last a whole extra day! I won't judge you if you eat a whole one though. Promise.

Greek Tomato Salad

This salad was so refreshing after a week long vacation. In the past week I feel like I have eaten mass amounts of grease at every meal, and my diet was lacking good fresh food. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed every bit of grease that I consumed, but after a while I start to crave something healthy. While making this salad I was reminded of my Grandma. She was an amazing cook, who even wrote two cookbooks, but she used to make a great salad that was a staple at every meal that she hosted. The ingredients were different from this, but it was simple and versatile just like this one. This salad could accompany any number of entrees because of it's simplicity. It's bright colors also add a beautiful element to any meal! You know I am a sucker for pretty food :-) I upped the amount of garlic from one clove to three. I thought it was perfect, but this would definitely be too much for someone who does not LOVE garlic. I did not use the green pepper, only because our market did not have any good ones this week. It was good without it, but in the future, when possible, I will add it to have some extra crunch in there. I also only peeled half of the tomatoes because frankly, peeling tomatoes is slimy, messy, and just not very fun. I had a band-aid on my finger after the first tomato. It didn't seem to make a difference one way or the other, so I think in the future I will leave the skin on. It has a lot of the nutrients in it after all!

*Recipe from Simply In Season

Combine in a large bowl:
8 medium Tomatoes (peeled and sliced)
1 medium Onion (thinly sliced)
1 Green Pepper (chopped; optional)
1 Cucumber (chopped; optional)




















Mix in a small bow:
2 Tbsp fresh Basil, Mint, or Parsley (chopped)
1 Tblsp Olive Oil
1 Tblsp Wine Vinegar or Balsamic Vinegar
1 Clove Garlic (minced, optional) In my opinion this should definitely not be optional...just my opinion...






















Pour over the vegetables and toss lightly. Salt and Pepper to taste. Garnish with fresh cheese such as: shredded mozzarella or crumbled feta.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

Okay, okay, I know I have now posted multiple PBJ flavored desserts on here, but they really never get old. As I have said before, I LOVE peanut butter. It is probably my favorite food. I eat it at least once a day. This is just one more form in which for me to get my daily serving :-) These cupcakes got rave reviews from everyone who tried them, and they were easy to make, so next time you need a creative dessert that will really impress, I suggest you go with this one. It is different, and people are usually surprised (pleasantly) when you tell them what the flavor is.

Recipe Originally from Martha Stewart Cupcakes

Peanut Butter Cupcakes:

1 3/4 C All Purpose Flour
3/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1.5 Sticks Unsalted Butter, softened
1 1/3 C Sugar
2/3 C Creamy Peanut Butter (can use natural if desired)
3 Lrg Eggs at room temp.
1/2 C Sour Cream
1/2 tsp Vanilla


Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees and line muffin tin with paper liners.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Reduce mixer speed to low and add peanut butter. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture.
Mix in sour cream.

Pour batter into lined baking tins and bake about 22 minutes, until clean knife, or other testing device, comes out clean.

Peanut Butter Frosting
(Don't be scared to make your own frosting. It is quick and easy, and way better than the stuff you buy at the store that has a shelf life of 55 years)

6 Oz Cream Cheese, at room temp.
1/3 C Confectioner's Sugar
1/2 t Salt
1 C Creamy Peanut Butter (do NOT use natural peanut butter for the frosting, it will not taste the same, and the consistency will be all wrong)
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 C Heavy Cream
1/2 C Jam or Jelly

Beat cream cheese and confectioner's sugar on medium speed until fluffy. Add salt and peanut butter, and combine. Beat in vanilla.

In a clean, and seperate bowl, whip heavy cream, using wire whisk attatchment, until medium-stiff peaks form. Fold into peanut butter mixure.

Spread frosting on cooled cupcakes, and top with a teaspoon-full of Jelly. I used Strawberry, you can use wantever flavor you like best.

Leek Quiche with Potato Crust

I had never tried leeks before tonight. I have seen them in a lot of recipes lately, and heard rumors that they taste like a mild version of a green onion. I love onions, so I figured they couldn't be too bad. They are delicious. I plan to use them a lot more often now. They are mild, so they will be a great compliment to salads, and all sorts of things! I actually threw together a batch of potato salad tonight as well, and added some of the chopped leek to that. It was a great addition!

Okay, back to this quiche. It is really quite different from a lot of other quiches that I have tried. This is a good thing. I normally think of quiche as a very heavy, cheesy dish that leaves you feeling greasy and weighed down. This one was very light (with only 1 cup of cheese!) and had a great, mild flavor that leaves you feeling satisfied, but not over-stuffed. I love the potato crust, and will be trying it with other quiche varieties in the future. I used a rotary grater (Thanks Mom Mertens) that made grating the potatoes very painless. I suggest you find one of these, and never let it go! The only thing that I will change in the future when I make this quiche is that I will use two different types of cheese together. I will mix a mild cheese with a bit of a sharp cheese just to add a bit of punch to it. Other than that, it was perfect!

For the Crust:

3 C uncooked potatoes, coarsely grated
3 T Oil

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.
Mix the potatoes and oil together and press into the bottom and sides of a 9 inch pie pan. Bake until just starting to brown, 15 minutes. Set aside.

For the Filling:

1. C Ramps or Leeks, chopped
1 C Cheese, shredded.
3 Eggs
1 C Evaporated Milk
1/4 t Salt
1/4 t Pepper

Chop up your leeks, and shred your cheese(if you buy it in brick form)



















Layer the leeks, then the cheese inside your baked Crust.


































Beat together the eggs, evaporated milk, salt, and pepper. Pour this mixture over the cheese and leeks.


















Bake this at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 25-30 minutes, until it is good and brown on top.

















Now, this may look a bit burnt to you, but it is not. Believe me. The crunchy potatoes along the edge taste like hash browns. I guess they basically are. This was a huge hit with the man of the house. He loves hash browns.

Let the quiche cool for about 15 minutes before slicing and serving. Then, dig in!

















Serves 4-6 people. Eat with fresh fruit, and a cold glass of iced tea. Perfection. Enjoy!

Homemade Granola Bars

Do you love granola bars, but hate that most of the store-bought varieties have high-fructose corn syrup in them? And, the ones that don't, well those usually cost an arm, a leg, and your first born child? Well my friend, fret no more. I have a solution for you. These granola bars require less effort, and less hands-on time than it takes to run to the store and buy a box of the pre-made ones. And, they are healthy, and dare I say, tastier than the boxed ones we all know and love. I found this recipe here: Granola Bars
The original recipe is well-written and easy to follow. I did not change a thing, so I will allow you to follow her recipe, and I will simply taunt you with pictures :-)

Eat your heart out:

Spring!

I am a sucker for beautiful produce.

































yum!

Roasted Potatoes

I threw some roasted potatoes together to go with our dinner of turkey burgers last night. Tim loves red potatoes, and so I bought a bag, and this is what I decided to do with them:

3lbs of red potatoes
Kosher Salt
Pepper
Fresh Chives
Dried Parsley
1/4 C Basil Olive Oil
Fresh Minced Garlic

You will notice in the above list of ingredients that only two things have an exact amount. Those are the important ratios, just do everything else to taste. I definitely made this up as I went along, so I would encourage you to use whatever flavors you like, omit anything you don't like or don't have on hand.


Pre heat your oven to 400 degrees


Scrub and halve your potatoes. Some red potatoes can be pretty big, so quarter those. Your main objective here is to get them all to be about the same size so that they cook evenly. They should also be somewhere close to bite size.




















Put the cut potatoes into a large bowl and pour in the 1/4 C Olive Oil. Our olive oil has basil in it, and it is really really good, but you can use regular olive oil as well, it won't make a huge difference.

Now you are going to add in all of your seasonings, and toss the potatoes until they are evenly coated.




































I am not sure what you call the garlic tool pictured above; it was a very early birthday present from my mom and my sister, and I have used it almost every day since i got it about 2 weeks ago! You get a lot more usable garlic-per-clove and it has a much better flavor than normal minced garlic.
Do you see those beautiful chives in there? I chopped those off of a chive plant that is sitting in my kitchen window, courtesy of my mother-in-law.
I have a great family that encourages my love for feeding people :-)
















































After you toss everything together and it all looks like it is mixed evenly, spread the potatoes on a cookie sheet, the kind with raised edges, so that the oil does not spill off, and toss 'em in the oven for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, take the potatoes out and mix them around, put them back in for another 10 minutes. Now take them out, and check if they are done. How will you know they are done? They will be brown and crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside. If you cannot easily stick a fork through them, they are not done. If needed, stick them in the oven for one more 10 minute round, they should be done after that. If you are waiting for the rest of the meal to be prepared, turn the oven off and leave the potatoes in the oven with door closed until you are ready to eat. This will keep them warm.

Here is what our dinner looked like, on a beautiful spring evening:

















Here we are, well minus me, eating our dinner outside. Yay!

















From Left: Anna, Brian, Tim, and Joka in the background
Brian and Anna are recently engaged. Be excited for them!

And then the guys cleaned up while I leisurely stood by taking pictures. This never happens. It was really nice



















I wish every night could be like last night. The end.