Recipe Testing, Zucchini Noodles, and Thoughts OH MY!

Hey guys,

If you were wondering if there would be a big emotional rambling at the end of this post…well, my friend, you have guessed correctly! Hooray! Ok, maybe not that big.

But before I get into all of that, let’s talk about all the food I made in the past few days. All of it. Because I made a lot. Ooof…side bar, I think I’m getting the flu. Arms hurt. So sleepy. Can’t…oh never mind.

FIRST. Let’s talk about the delightful little cheesecake bites I made in prep for Saturday’s wedding. Yep, more recipe testing. I modified this recipe, and made it more of a regular vanilla cheesecake (ok, ok…and lemon and ginger) instead of the pumpkin bacon cheesecake Giada would have me make. Of course, once the wedding is over, I will, in fact, be making them with pumpkin and bacon because I mean…COME ON! You just try to tell me they won’t be delicious.

Alrighty.  Here goes:

First, make a cocktail out of apple cider, whiskey, bitters, and ice cubes.

Consume!

Make your graham cracker crust, and put about a teaspoon full into each mini-muffin liner. Press to flatten.

Fill each mini-cup with cake batter: 1 8 oz package cream cheese, 1/4 cup milk, 1/4 cup maple syrup, 1 egg, vanilla, cinnamon, and lemon zest. Oh and a little ginger for a kick.

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, let cool for 20, chill for 1 hr, and serve!

How did they turn out? Well, I’m pretty confident that had I not overcooked them by 10 minutes (D’OH!) they would have been perfection! The cake itself tasted pretty good, it just could have been a bit creamier. Actually, the biggest disappointment (and still, it’s a small disappointment with a super easy solution) was the crust. It was too chewy! Way too chewy! I think this was because a) the crust doesn’t bake before the cake batter goes in and b) not enough BUTTER! So when I make these little nom noms again (on THURSDAY) I’ll be sure to add more butter and just bake the crust for about 8 minutes or something. But this is what they look like all done:

So…a little bumpy and overcooked…but overall, pretty good.

For dinner that night, we had a super veggie-licious feast.

We shredded three zucchini’s into noodle shapes and we did the same with some onions.

We sauteed them with a sage butter!

We served them with roasted cauliflower and a salad, of course! Veggielicious!

And for dinner last night, I made my standby Beef and Butternut Squash Stew. Hoboy! This was super rich and super yummy! Hmmm….I thought I had already posted about that, but I guess not. Ugh. Too tired. It’s yummy: beef, onions, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, butternut squash, rosemary, sage, red wine, and chicken stock. And I threw in what was left of the cauliflower.

Yeah, that’s a piece of bread I rubbed with garlic and sprinkled with cheese! NOMNOMNOM

Aaaand that concludes the food portion of that post…and honestly, now that I’ve finished the food portion…I’m a little tired to go on. Obviously the solution is to use song lyrics:

“So if by the time the bar closes and you…” oh who cares. Someone bring me ginger ale. My stomach has been acting up all week. Welps.