Robindcr8l

This is the easy Cheesecake Pie recipe I use. It tastes remarkably like cheesecake, and pretty much the same consistency, but is ten times easier to make!

Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker or digestive biscuits crumbs
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla,
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
Mix the cracker mixture with the melted butter, sugar and cinnamon.
Press along the bottom of a greased 9 inch pie plate.
Beat softened cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually blend in sugar, lemon juice, half of the vanilla, and salt. Add eggs, one at a time; beating well after each.
Pour into the graham cracker crust.
Bake at 325*F until the center is set, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool.
Combine sour cream, 2 tablespoons sugar, and remaining vanilla.
Spoon onto the cooled pie.
Chill at least 2 hours.

sheftali52

And Baldur's friend's recipe as well:
Basic Cheesecake

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.

combine :
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons melted butter
place this in the bottom of a 9" or 10" springform pan and press down firmly
(Baldur uses a flat bottomed drinking glass to do this)

In a mixing bowl combine
1 pound cream cheese (at room temperature)
1/3 cup of lemon juice
beat until well combined, add to this
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
beat again until well combined and then add 1 at a time
3 eggs
beat until just incorporated but do not over-stir the batter.
Pour the filling into the crust and bake for 55 minutes.
Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake in there for an additional 15 minutes.
Cool at least 3 hours or overnight.
Just before serving you may spread 1/2 cup of sour cream over the top

Dragon

A conversation on Channel Baldur sparked up about Kitty Litter Cake so I thought I'd post mine here.

I actually have a really good Kitty Litter Cake recipe. It too uses slightly melted and shaped Tootsie Rolls and you put it in a clean litter pan (we use a new, clean litter scoop for the spoon) but this one's made with cake mix crumbled into the litter pan. It's surprisingly good once you get past the fact that it looks an awful lot like kitty litter.
Here's the link
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Kitty-Litter-Cake/Detail.aspx

Robindcr8l

Dragon, now that I read that, it IS the same cake I made. I think I was remembering mine wrong, since I was somehow thinking it had applesauce or something in it. Anyway, Hilarious!

Robindcr8l

From post# 4138 from Baldur:


Baldur's Turkey Dressing sans Turkey

Several days beforehand take a large loaf of firm white bread and cut it into 1" cubes. Spread it out on a large baking sheet and place it into your oven to dry out. Ignore it until needed.

peel and chop several large onions
decapitate, clean and chop an entire bunch of celery
Saute' both together in a bit of olive oil in a large pot
When they are somewhat translucent add about 6 cups of veggie broth (you may substitute chicken or turkey broth) and simmer everything until the veggies are quite tender
Remove the pot from the heat and add 12 ounces of hamburg style veggie crumbles (or you may instead brown 1 pound of ground beef or turkey in a skillet until well cooked, drain off every bit of grease and add that instead).
Now to this you add
1 tablespoon of ground sage
1 teaspoon of crumbled thyme leaves
a good handful of chopped fresh or dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
lots of freshly ground black pepper
Stir well
Now gently fold in the dry bread cubes.
If the mixture is very and sloppy and wet cut up more bread and add it to correct the problem
If the mixture is too dry add a bit of water
Taste it at this point and adjust the seasonings, adding salt if necessary.
Baldur finds the broth rather salty, often that is plenty already.
pile the dressing into a greased baking dish and put it in the oven until brown and crusty on top.
marius had wondered if baldur added fruit to his recipe. Robert does not like fruit in his dressing, but the addition of a cup of raisins and a couple peeled and diced apples added with the bread would work exceedingly well.

Robindcr8l

From post # 4139 from Baldur:

Tonight I am making a beef dish for Robert

Baldur's Braised Beef in Beer

Chop a small onion and saute' it with olive oil in a medium sized soup pot.
When it is quite brown peel and smash a large clove of garlic and add it to the pot, stirring it around briefly
add 1 pound of stew beef cubes and continue stirring until they are browned on each side and have stopped trying to glue themselves to the bottom of the pan
pour enough water over the beef to cover it by 1/2"
pour a bottle of beer over this
add 3 beef bouillon cubes
a small bay leaf
one cleaned and chopped rib of celery
a pinch of ground cloves
ground back pepper
1/2 of a can of tomato paste.

Allow this to come to a slow simmer and cook for at least 2 hours until the beef is quite tender
Add more water as necessary, the level of liquid should never go below the level of beef cubes
You may add a dribble of Gravy Master or other browning liquid to correct the color
When the beef is tender take 2 tablespoons of flour whisked into 1/4 cup of cold water and stir it into the bubbling mixture. Simmer it until the gravy has thickened a bit

Serve with crusty bread.

Baldur often turns this into a full fledged stew by adding sliced carrots and cubed potatoes, often with a small handful of frozen peas added in the last couple minutes of cooking.
But you may also add sliced mushrooms midway through the cooking process

Robindcr8l

Post 4140 from Baldur:

It's time for Baldur's helpful kitchen tip.

Very often Baldur needs less than a full can of tomato paste in a recipe.
The remainder will end up going moldy in the refrigerator.

The solution?
Baldur takes any unused tomato paste and places it in a zipper style plastic sandwich bag. Then it gets flattened into a neat pancake of paste and put in the freezer.
Whenever you need tomato paste you can flex the bag and break off as large a chunk of paste as needed, returning the rest to the freezer.
No more waste!

GOLDIEGIRL8

Easy Strawberry milk- tastes delicious!

1st, get some milk (2% is best)
2nd, take some strawberry syrup (like chocolate, only strawberry) and pour it in the glass w/ the milk
3rd, mix it good

Dragon

Another masterpiece from Baldur

Baldur's Crab Cakes

Take 1 6oz tin of crabmeat and drain off most of the juice.
Give the juice to your cats
Combined the almost dry crabmeat, in a bowl with:
6 saltine crackers (crushed in your fist)
1 tablespoon of chopped chives (dehydrated is fine)
1 heaping teaspoon of Mayonaisse
stir until well combined. put aside
in a shallow bowl or pie tin place:
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
with your hands form the crab mixture into 2 patties, each being approiximately 3" in diameter and 3/4" thick
place each patty into the bowl of crumbs and press down gently
turn each patty over and repeat so that the outside surfaces are breaded
place in the refrigerator until ready to fry them.
Just before serving fry them briefly on each side in a small amount of olive or vegetable oil until golden brown
Serve with tartar sauce or even better salsa as an accompaniment

Dragon

Dragons Any Old Stuff Casserole

½ cup Miracle Whip
¼ cup flour
2 cups milk
2 cups shredded cheese (the kind of your choice)
1 pound meat of your choice, cooked (Ground beef or turkey, diced ham or chicken or meatless if you like)
1 medium sized onion, chopped
Veggies of your choice (carrots and celery, sweet potato and brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower, rutabaga and potatoes)
Ground black pepper and nutmeg to taste (a few dashes)
Grated parmesan
Bread crumbs

Mix Miracle Whip, flour, milk, pepper and nutmeg in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 4 minutes. Stir in shredded cheese until melted. Pour 1/3 sauce in a medium sized greased baking dish. Layer on 1/3 cooked meat, 1/3 veggies, 1/3 onion. Repeat layers. Top with parmesan and bread crumbs. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until veggies are tender.

In my experience if you are using carrots and/or potatoes you need to either cut them quite small or give the whole thing a lot more cooking time. You could boil them for a while too before putting them in.

Robindcr8l

From Baldur, post 4360:

Biscotti di Baldur

preheat oven to 350 degrees
grease a cookie sheet and or use parchment or a nonstick baking sheet

In a large bowl combine
3 cups flour
1+1/2 cup granulated sugar
a dash of salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs
3 Tablespoons soft butter
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 teaspoons flavored extract (orange, lemon, almond etc)
you may also add a couple teaspoons of grated lemon or orange zest

mix everything together by hand until a soft, smooth pliable dough forms.
at this point you can work in:
1 cup chopped walnuts, pecans or almonds if you wish

form into 2 flattened logs approximately 2 inches wide and place them on the baking sheet 2 inches apart (to allow for them to spread)

bake for approximately 20 minutes until just golden brown.
remove from the oven and allow them to cool for a couple moments.
using a wide spatula transfer them to a cutting board (you can cut them into several pieces beforehand if necessary)
with a sharp bread knife slice them into 3/4" wide pieces and return them to the baking sheet.
Bake them for an additional 10-15 minutes until crisp and dry

(for Thanksgiving Baldur used orange extract, grated orange zest and chopped walnuts)

Qsilv

wow.. what a treasure-trove! We need an index. No, I'm not (currently) volunteering.

Here's one of my own from last April, Mugdots IX --

Aebleskiver - Pancake Balls

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=35709

Ok, these are officially Danish, but mostly those are solid. I'm Swedish and we make 'em hollow!

4 eggs (2 at a minimum, but you'll find the batter a little too tender/fragile)
1 C milk (or buttermilk)
1 C flour
1/4 C melted butter (or oil)
1/4 C sugar
1 tsp baking powder
(1 tsp soda if using buttermilk)
1 tsp cardamon (optional vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon)
1/2 tsp salt

Fun to eat, to make, and to watch being made!

Measurements are approximate.
You'll have to experiment to get it right for you,
but the batter should be similar to waffle batter, not quite as thick as a milkshake.

Beginners' Tips--

1. - Separating the eggs and beating the whites til stiff makes a tenderer batter
but just mixing the whole mess together and leaving the flour slightly lumpy works well too.
Beating flour so strongly that the gluten is activated makes it rubbery,
which may help when you're first learning to turn these,
but with practice you'll learn to make them lighter and more tender without the little hoods collapsing.

2. - Heat the pan 'til a sprinkle of water jumps when it hits.

3. - Don't try to cook in the center well 'til you're very practiced.
Keep it full of oil and spoon preheated oil from there to each of the outer wells as needed.
By the time you've turned 6, the 1st one will be ready to turn again.

4. - Fill wells only about 3/4 full or the batter will swell and spill all over.

5. - Use a fine knitting needle or bamboo BBQ skewer to turn the skiver about 1/4 turn each time.
The first turn should pull up a little "hood" like on a baby buggy.
The final turn should be made from the outside, letting the last of the batter drain out, and closing the hole.



I generally make this recipe quadrupled (4 C each of milk and flour, etc)
and it takes me a little over an hour to make up about 60 skiver.

Stack them in a pyramid (if you can stay ahead of grabbing hands)
Tear each one apart with your fingers
Fill with jam, powdered sugar, bits of fruit...
Try them savory instead of sweet -- cheese, bits of leftover meat, veggies, cream sauce...

These freeze well, and you can reheat them for half a minute each in the microwave,
tho they'll never be as tender as when they were fresh from the pan.

The flavor of cardomom is unusual in America, but it's what you taste in plain cake doughnutes.

Good luck! ;>

polenta

qsilv, are you living in Sweden?

Qsilv

Oops... no no, I was born and raised in So Cal, and technically I'm only partly Swedish (smiles) but that was my mom's side so it strongly affects my culinary bias!

polenta

I've heard that said by Americans. They say "I'm Greek" but in fact it's only their grandfather was and they don't know one word of Greek. LOL

Qsilv

It would be more correct to say "My heritage is ___" but hey, in America we're into quick, and more a stew than a meltiing pot! ; >

Happens I did speak Swedish as a kid (best way to learn all the juicy bits of one's family history that the aunts only whisper among themselves in the language they THINK the kids won't understand!) but language is more fugitive than watercolors and waaay easier to lose than calories... lol

polenta

Thanks QSilv.
Does anyone know a recipe of a good stew?
I suppose stews must be the same all over the word.

polenta

all over the world.

Dragon

Actually post #146 of this thread had Baldur's Braised Beef in Beer, I made this as a stew adding carrots, celery and potatoes. I also used a nice Shiraz wine instead of beer. It was wonderful!

polenta

THANKS DRAGON, I'LL TAKE A LOOK AT IT.