I've had the most aggravating last couple of weeks. All I want to do is get home early enough to pull something together in the kitchen, a pot of chili or a pork tenderloin. But it's always something: delays with the subway, Lamaze class, last-minute projects at work that have to be done RIGHT NOW. Just when I think things are going to calm down, they don't. I guess it's something I should get used to as a woman who's 7 months pregnant. I'll have someone else dictating my entire schedule in a while.

So even though the process of making a cheesecake did not go smoothly for me this weekend, I still thoroughly enjoyed it, and was even glad for the little difficulties. And I am definitely a big cheesecake fan.

This was a pumpkin cheesecake from the new More from Magnolia cookbook. It starts with a gingersnap crust made from a full stick of melted butter combined with 1 1/2 cups gingersnap crumbs and 1/2 cup toasted pecans combined, pressed into a 10-inch springform (I used 9-inch because it's what I have) and baked for 10 minutes in a 325 degree oven.

While that cooled, I beat 12 ounces cream cheese on low until smooth, then added 3/4 cup each granulated and packed brown sugars (my brown sugar ended up being a little lumpy, but I didn't realize it at first). Then I beat in 5 eggs, one at a time, and mixed in 1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree, 3/4 heavy cream and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon.

To strain out the brown sugar lumps I poured the batter through a strainer over the crust. Then I baked the cake for an hour, until the edges were set and the center still shook a bit, then turned off the oven and propped the door open and left the cheesecake in there for another hour. When I came back, huge cracks had formed in the top (probably should have run a knife around the edge before I let the oven cool off). It didn't affect the taste, though. Put it in the fridge for at least 12 hours.

Now how stereotypical is this? Pregnant woman, 4 a.m., cutting herself a slice of cheesecake and pouring a glass of milk. I get hungry early in the morning and, lucky me, that's about when the cheesecake was ready. It had a lighter texture than a pure cheesecake, probably because of the pumpkin. Not too sweet, either.

Posted by Kim at 07:46 PM | Permalink

A couple weeks ago (the last time I did anything in the kitchen; it's a work-related hiatus from having a life) I set out to make the Tiger Cake from the Bittersweet cookbook. It's a marbled bundt cake made with olive oil that has a touch of white pepper, too.

When I got to the step where you mix the cocoa with sugar and water, I realized I had two unmarked containers of cocoa: one was dutched and the other was the regular kind. The recipe called for the regular kind but since I didn't know which was which I figured, what the heck, I'll use half of each. That way I'll at least get some of the right kind of cocoa in there. Then I read the note at the end, which said DO NOT use dutched cocoa because it interacts badly with the olive oil and makes a bitter taste. So no cocoa for the bundt. Thus the albino cake.

It was a good, basic snacking cake, nice and moist and not crumbly so you could eat it out of hand. I felt like the olive oil flavor was really pronounced at first and actually faded as the days went by (would that happen?). I didn't taste the pepper, but the recipe said the pepper just emphasizes the olive oil taste.

I'll have to post the recipe later, since doing it from memory 2 weeks later is probably not the best idea. I remember choosing the recipe because you don't have to do anything fancy to marble it, just layer the two batters and they do it themselves in the baking.

Posted by Kim at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I had a little bit of a blood-glucose scare last week, so when Todd and I were at Whole Foods I picked up chicken breasts, something I'm not really so fond of. These breasts looked different, though; they weren't the big, bloated breasts that usually turn me off at the grocery. And when I opened the packet I found that what I had thought was one breast was actually three thin breasts that had been butterflied and stacked on top of each other.

I adapted a recipe I found in Rachael Ray's cookbook, chicken and leeks, because I had a bunch of big yellow onions. Seasoned the breasts on both sides, then seared them in a hot skillet, about 3 minutes each side. Then I took them out and added a large sliced onion. Cooked that until it was soft and had picked up all the brown bits from cooking the chicken, then added a cup of chicken broth, a splash of vinegar and the chicken breasts. Simmered that until Todd came home, about 15 minutes later.

Onions are actually pretty high on the glycemic index, but paired with a protein it seemed to me like it'd be OK. This dish developed a pretty rich, deep flavor just from the fond and the sauteed onions, and even chicken didn't seem so bad.

Posted by Kim at 11:24 AM | Permalink

it doesn't act like it at all. I wanted to make pizza and thought I would make dough for a crust, but, short on time, I decided to try a polenta "crust" instead. It didn't get crispy, though, so, while it wasn't bad at all, it really wasn't a pizza. It was polenta with tomato sauce, meatballs and cheese, which is also very good.

I used quick-cooking polenta, 1/2 cup to 2 1/4 cups water, bringing the water to a boil then whisking in the polenta and bubbling for about 5 minutes, stirring the whole time. Then I added salt, pepper and oregano and spread it in a 9-inch springform pan and put it in the freezer to cool.

Warmed up and sliced meatballs and shredded cheese while that was cooling, then removed the sides of the springform pan from the polenta and spread tomato sauce over the solidified polenta, arranged sliced meatballs and roasted red pepper and sprinkled with Parmesan, mozzarella and oregano. Baked it in 450 degree oven for about 10 minutes (probably could have used a bit more time, if I had added cheese at the end) on a rack near the bottom, then sliced it like a pizza to eat.

Posted by Kim at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We ventured to Whole Foods in Manhasset on Saturday, so I was able to buy pork tenderloin (we can never find them at our groceries here). I have reason to believe I've been eating too many carbs and sugars lately, so we had a no-starch dinner Sunday night: roasted pork tenderloin with chunky salsa and avocado. And Todd kept raving about it, so he'll be agreeable to a change in our diets (NOT Atkins, but more protein, veggies, etc).

I spread the tenderloins with mustard and sprinkled with salt and pepper, then roasted it in a 425 oven until it reached an internal temp of 160 degrees (baby safety temp, but the pork still came out good and tender - I even think the temp went up to 170 while the pork rested). While that was cooking (about half an hour) I chopped up tomato, cilantro and a scallion, then added the juice of a lime and salt and pepper to the mixture.

Sliced up half an avocado, then served it with the sliced pork and the salsa. Tonight we had the pork in quesadillas with cheese, black beans, roasted red pepper and topped with the salsa, which I mixed with the other half of the avocado, cubed.

Posted by Kim at 06:01 PM | Permalink

We have a car, so now we're free to shop anywhere! I have so many options that I'm kind of at a loss: Whole Foods in Manhasset, Costco, B.J.'s, Trader Joe's. Where do you like to shop? (Especially in the Queens area, but overall, too.)

Posted by Kim at 09:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This was a quickie, convenience-food dinner. I simply heated Fresh Direct meatballs (which are pretty good) in tomato sauce, then hollowed out a baguette that I had halved horizontally and filled it with the meatballs. Topped it with Parmesan and provolone, then put it under the broiler to melt the cheese. The meatballs overwhelmed the bread, though, so next time I think I'd halve the meatballs before assembling the sandwich.

Posted by Kim at 11:07 AM | Permalink