Deconstructing Jen

cupcakes up to my eyeballs

Whew. That was a crazy busy weekend. This was bridal shower weekend extravaganza. My sister-in-law, Jen, and I were threw a bridal shower for our new sister-in-law to be Jenny. Yes, that's right, all of the females of my generation in my husbands immediate family are named Jen. Apparently all the other names were taken from 1974 to 1977. Well to hear our parents tell it, they thought they were picking the most original name in the world and there weren't things like the Social Security website to convince them otherwise. So I digress as I am apt to do...back to the shower.

Saturday was full of pre-shower prep activities. We made cupcakes. Loads and loads of cupcakes. We cut fruit, we cut veggies, we prepped the punch. We also managed to check out the most awesome burger place, EVER. Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Apparently we weren't the only ones who thought it was awesome because it was packed! They have a very small menu, they pretty much serve - you guessed it, burgers and fries but they do those extremely well. If you have one near you and haven't been I highly recommend it.

It turned out to be a lovely shower though there were some definite moments where it felt like there was no way we were going to get things finished up. We made numerous references to the last few harrowing minutes of a Trading Spaces episode where the furniture isn't even in the room yet and they have 2 minutes until the reveal. Thankfully we managed to pull it all together right as the first guests arrived. We served 3 kinds of tea sandwiches, hot crab dip with crackers, a fruit and veggie tray, an awesome punch (non-alcoholic), and super yummy white chocolate raspberry cupcakes. (Recipes to follow soonish in another post). Jen made up wedding Pictionary and a how well do you know the bride game - both were wonderful and non-embarrassing. We all wrote advise for various life subjects for Jon and Jenny on cards that Jenny and Jon opened later that day at home (I think).

It was a great day. And after we cleaned up I went home and passed out on the couch for a few minutes then tackled laundry mountain that some how never seems to go away.

Delicious Baked Potato Soup

So I've been entering the weekly contest on LiveJournal in the HPCreate community - each week they post a writing prompt on Friday and on Monday they pick a winner, they've had some great prizes, this week is a $200 gift certificate to Crate and Barrell - oh how I would love that. This week the assignment was to post a family recipe so I choose my baked potato soup.You can head over to LJ and post your own here - you'll have to make a LJ account though - if you do comment here and I'll add you to my friends list over there.

So if you don't fee like heading over to LJ here's my entry. :D Now don't be surprised if on Monday you see me begging for votes. :D

Christmas Eve night is a huge tradition in my husband's family. Since he was very small his mother's entire family would gather at his grandmother's house for a celebration that rivals most Christmas morning traditions. As the family has grown, Christmas Eve has grown with it. All 35 of us (ranging in age from 83 to 12 months) still gather together at Grandma's house but now instead of Grandma making a big spread of food for us we provide the food for her. About 6 years ago we decided that Christmas Eve would be a good time to have a homemade soup and salad buffet and it's been tradition ever since. Aunt Tricia brings chicken tortilla soup, Great Aunt Donna, who travels all the way down from St. Paul, makes wild rice and mushroom soup, my mother-in-law makes chili and I make baked potato soup. Every year all of the soups are a hit and about 7 p.m. you can hear Uncle Bob, who could easily pass for Santa given the proper costume, holler from the kitchen "Jen, when's your birthday again? I'm going to get you a bigger crock pot. We ran out of potato soup before I could have seconds." It's been 6 years now and I've never seen that bigger crock pot. Maybe this year I'll surprise him and make a double batch.

So here it is Grandma Kari's Baked Potato Soup. (Kari's not really my grandma but she is a dear friend who gave me this recipe that will forever be a part of our Christmas Eve traditions - well at least as long as Uncle Bob is around to set the menu.)

6-8 medium to large russet potatoes, scrubbed, baked and cooled completely (this is a good step to do the night before you make the soup)
1 package of bacon, chopped small, cooked until crisp and drained
1 stick butter (margarine can be substituted but butter really is better)
1/2 cup flour
2 cups whole milk (again you can use low fat milk but whole makes it creamier)
4 cups chicken stock
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
4 cups grated cheddar cheese
4 green onions, chopped
sour cream for garnish

Melt butter over medium high heat in a large heavy bottomed stock pot. Add flour and cook 2-3 minutes or until flour just starts to lightly brown. Gradually add milk and chicken stock, whisking constantly. Add salt and pepper. Heat to milk mixture until it boils, stirring frequently. While the milk mixture is heating, peel 1/2 the potatoes and cut into 1/2" cubes, leave the other 1/2 of the potatoes unpeeled and cut into 1/2" cubes. Once the milk mixture boils reduce the heat to low and add the potatoes. Gradually stir in 2 cups of cheese and 1/2 the bacon until the cheese is melted. Serve immediately or transfer to crock pot (do not let this boil after the cheese has been added). Serve hot. Garnish with remaining cheese, sour cream, bacon and onions.

The Yummy Cheesecake Recipe

So here is the yummy pumpkin cheesecake recipe from my previous post. I can't take all the credit though, I started with Paula Dean's recipe and made a few tweaks here and there as my first attempt didn't turn out quite the way I wanted. *wink*

Crust:

1 3/4 cups vanilla wafers (ground)
1/4 cup ground pecans (optional)
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 stick melted salted butter

Filling:

3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For crust:
In medium bowl, combine crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter. Press down flat into a 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.

For filling:
Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add pumpkin puree, eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, sugar, salt and the spices. Add flour and vanilla. Beat together until well combined.

Pour into crust. Spread out evenly and place oven for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours.

To make individual sized cheesecakes in a muffin pan:
Make 1.5 the amount of crust. Line 3 muffin pans with paper or aluminum liners. Put 1 tablespoon unpacked crust mix in each liner. Measure out 1/4 cup of filling for each. Bake for 15 minutes until just set and center doesn't giggle. Cool 15 minutes then remove from pan. Refrigerate 4 hours.

Late Night Cheesecake Disaster

Leave it to me to make a relatively simple cooking task take 3 times as long as it should.

Last night I set out to bake snacks for todays after school meeting. My dear colleague, Todd, and I chose December because we like to go overboard with snacks. We had set on a menu of mini pumpkin cheesecakes, cranberry orange bread, poppy seed cake, a selection of cheese and a few veggies and dip. Okay, so that's really more a buffet of snacks than a few snacks, but like I said we like to overdo it.

After a busy night of hunting down Webkinz for the 7 and under crowd on our shopping list, grocery shopping and hitting the toy isle at Target to see if they FINALLY had the Little People Racing Ramps Garage for Chris, I mean Ben, for Christmas and cooking pot roast (what was I thinking) I settled in to start baking the mini cheesecakes and cranberry bread. All was going well, the cheesecake batter looked and smelled great, the crust measured out perfectly into 24 muffin cups and I even jazzed up the box cranberry bread. Then it all went down hill. I was 'fiddling' with the cheesecake recipe - I didn't actually have a mini cheesecake recipe, I just figured I'd use muffin cups and reduce the time. 20 minutes sounds about right for baking. WRONG. The timer goes off and instead of cheesecake I have something akin to the Arizona dessert. Oh, well, I think, maybe after they cool and chill they'll be salvageable with a little whipped cream. 30 minutes later the fissures have shrunk down to mere wrinkles and they are looking pretty good. On a whim I decide to 'test' one to make sure it's okay. As I unwrap it I'm pleased that the wrapper isn't sticking and the crust looks good. I open my mouth to take a big bite, inhaling as I do, enjoying the pleasant pumpkin pie smell. Once the bite is in my mouth I realize quickly that something is wrong. My cheesecake tastes something along the line of pumpkin quiche instead of cheesecake. And then it hits me - the sugar. I forgot the sugar. &@$%! It's 10:15 pm. I'm heading to the grocery store at 10:15 pm to get more pumpkin, crust ingredients, etc. Batch number 2 - this time I make certain I've added the sugar. 11:50 pm. This time they come out perfect. I reduced the baking time, remembered the sugar and even added ground pecans to the crust. 12:25 am. They're cool, in the fridge, the kitchens clean and I'm in bed. 4:45 am my alarm goes off and I wonder why the heck I have to be such a perfectionist and show off for a 1 hour after school meeting.