Was that long enough?!

Ummmmm wow!

Sorry I didn't realize almost 2 years had gone by since I did a blog post!  Did you miss me??  Well I miss you guys!

So today's post will be a mash up of sorts...

I've done some really neat things from redecorating my apartment, to learning the addicting art of making cheesecake, to finding easy ways to "fast soften" dry beans for soups and chilis!

Which one would you like to hear first?? Cheesecake?? Yea, I thought that one too... =)

Here are some of my most recent cheesecakes...

Raspberry Dark Chocolate

Wildberry

Inside of the Wildberry

I kind of went on a cheesecake making frenzy...and then I went on a fast. Talk about ROUGH! So before my fast, I had to go out with a BANG!!

PRESENTING...THE TURTLE CHEESECAKE

Turtle Cheesecake

This cheesecake is layers of chocolate graham, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, pecans, cheesecake batter, more chocolate, more caramel, and nut topping drizzled with caramel and chocolate!

Watch the video below...

How YUMMY does this look?!  My mouth is watering RIGHT NOW! I want another piece sooooooooooooo bad!!

I'm terrible at writing recipes but you need to know this one! *recipe below*

9 in spring form pan
2 1/2 cups crushed graham cracker or graham cracker crumbs
5 tbsp butter
4 oz Ghiradelli chocolate squares
3 8oz block of cream cheese (I like Philadelphia)
1 cup of sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp lemon juice
Hot Fudge Sundae topping
Caramel Sundae topping
2 small bags of pecan pieces
1 small bag of nut topping

To make:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
2. Pour your graham cracker crumbs into a mixing bowl
3. In a measuring cups, melt butter and chocolate squares together in the microwave
4. Stir until you have a liquid chocolate
5. Add the chocolate/butter mixture to the graham cracker crumbs until all of the graham cracker is completely saturated. If you need to add more butter, do so here
6. Press the graham cracker crust into your springform pan, going up the sides (here you may want to line to bottom of your spring form with a piece of parchment paper. Just put the sheet of parchment paper on the bottom of the pan alone. Then add the sides of the spring form, pressing tightly against the parchment paper for a tight fit...or you can just suffer with a messy pan!)
7. Next, pour in enough hot fudge sundae topping...DO NOT HEAT IT UP! This is very important... It will get warm in the oven, so you don't want it any warmer, or it will be runny
8. Then add caramel sundae topping. Same thing, don't heat it up.
9. Sprinkle your pecan pieces on top of the caramel.  Depending how much you like pecan, you can sprinkle 1 bag or both
10. In your mixer, add all of your cream cheese and the sugar
11. Beat with your flat beater on low until it is a creamy consistency
12. Next, add your eggs, one at a time, completely incorporating one egg before adding the other.
13. Then add your lemon juice
14. Add the vanilla
15. Beat on low until all ingredients are completely incorportated... DO NOT OVER BEAT. Your cheesecake batter will be really runny and you will have to start over.
16. Pour the cheesecake batter over the hot fudge/caramel/nut layer. Make sure it is completely smooth on top
17. Take your hot fudge topping and dollop a few spoonfuls onto the top of the cheesecake, using the spoon to guide some of the chocolate down into the batter
18. Do the same with the caramel
19. Take a knife and swirl the hot fudge and the caramel into a pattern of your choosing
20. Sprinkle nut topping around the edge of the cheesecake
21. Bake for 35 minutes. Check the cheesecake at the end of bake time. If it jiggles in the center but has a firm skin on top, it is done. DO NOT OVER BAKE
22. Take the cheesecake from the oven a place on a wire rack and let it cool for 10 minutes
23. After 10 minutes, run a knife around the edge of the pan to release the sides. Allow the cheesecake to cool on the wire rack for another hour. After that, wrap in plastic wrap (still not removing it from the pan) and allow to cool for 12-15 hours before serving.

To serve:

1. Release the sides of the springform pan
2. If you decided to line your pan with parchment paper, slowly lift the cheesecake and place it on your presentation dish.  Use a sharp point knife to cut the excess paper away. If you didn't cover your pan bottom, just serve straight from the bottom. Do not try to lift.
3. Warm up your hot fudge and caramel and drizzle over the top.
4. Use a smooth knife to cut and serve

I hope you enjoy this yummy cheesecake.  Leave comments below and let me know how it was!

Making my husband happy...

Making my husband happy is so easy...

exhibit A:

Devil's food cake with homemade chocolate buttercream icing...or as he likes to call it, "Cream!" lol

So he totally knew about the cake, but I waited until he fell asleep to decorate it!

Did I mention that I absolutely LOVE to bake?! :-)

Jack Skellington...

Of course everyone knows who Jack Skellington is, right?  Oh, you don't?  Let me give you a refresher course...

Tall, slinky, skeletal man.
Charming and charismatic.
Dead.

Oh, just forget it! You'll know him if you see him.  But you don't really want to see him...not in real life anyway.

Well what better way to celebrate Halloween with one of the scariest looking faces in TV?!  Jack Skellington is probably one of the easiest and most fun designs to make on a cupcake!  It's a no brainer! =)

I found cute ones on Pintrest and I just had to click through to see where I could find a recipe.

This recipe is BORING! (no offense to the persons that made this cupcake recipe) But I mean, seriously?  Who wants same old, boring old, chocolate cupcakes with white buttercream?!  I know it's an oldie but goodie but let's be serious here...This is Halloween!  We need to spice it up a little!  I was thinking a dark chocolate or devil's food cupcake with a white chocolate frosting.

What are your favorite black/white cupcake combos?

Halloween Cupcakes

So I have been on a quest all week (okay, the last two days) to make a super awesome cupcake(s) to top my Halloween cupcakes from last year.  Last year, I made Pumpkin Spice cupcakes (which also made a reappearance at Thanksgiving) with canned pumpkin, and Monster cupcakes with molten chocolate middles.

This year, I have been on Pintrest quite a bit and have found a new challenge: Zombie Cupcakes.  These cupcakes were inspired by a t-shirt called "The Last Cupcake Standing."

They are super cute and look like so much fun to make! I have hit a few bumps in the road though.  I can't figure out what I want to do for the outsides so that I can make the cupcakes look like zombies.  I went to Bake it Pretty and found these super cute treat tubs, but they don't hold up very well in the oven and are a bigger than the standard size cupcakes.

I have two other alternatives. One, would be to bake the cupcakes in the portion cups offered by BIP, but, they only come in polka dots or stripes. The other alternative would be to bake the cupcakes in standard white or lime green baking cups, but I still think they would be too small for the treat tubs so I would still need to figure out how to wrap them so that they are still following the zombie theme.

Any ideas?