Pumpkin Walnut Cheesecake

I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin pie, so several years ago I tried this recipe for Pumpkin Walnut Cheesecake and it was a huge hit. Now I have friends who ask for this months in advance of Thanksgiving.

Before moving to Texas in 1982 I got this recipe from my sister, Linda.  It will be a sure-fire hit at your next holiday gathering.  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Walnut Cheesecake

Crust

1 and 1/2 cups crushed vanilla wafers

1/4 cup sugar

6 T melted butter

Combine ingredients and press firmly into the bottom and 1/2 way up the sides of a lightly greased 9 inch springform pan.

Cover the bottom and up the sides (the outside) of the pan with aluminum foil.

Filling

Three 8-oz pkgs Philadelphia cream cheese, room temp

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

5 eggs - room temp

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 pound pumpkin

Cram the cheese, add sugars and beat till light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in cream, spices, and pumpkin.  Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

NOTE:  line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and put on the rack under the cheesecake or you will have a huge mess to clean up.   I always forget to do this and will be smelling burnt cheesecake drippings until I decide to clean up the mess.

Topping:

6 T butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

While cheesecake bakes, throw the butter, walnuts and brown sugar into a food processor. Pulse till it mixes.   After the cheesecake has baked for 1 full hour, carefully remove from oven and put this on top. I usually take handfuls of the mixture and flatten it out in my hand and carefully place it on top of the cheesecake.  Bake for an additional 15 minutes.

Remove from oven, cool completely, refrigerate overnight.

Before serving, prepare fresh whipped cream to serve with the cheesecake.

Cilantro Vinaigrette

The piece of paper says that it serves 75...but I don't think so.  Here's the recipe:

1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup canola oil (or a mixture of canola oil and olive oil)
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 fresh jalapeno - very finely copped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Okay, so a couple of weeks ago, at the last brunch, Chef pulled me by the sleeve of my jacket (my nicely pressed jacked, mind you), and shoved this recipe into my hand. "Here.  You've made salad dressing before, right?"  Oh gosh,...not again....

Yes, along with the omelets giving me nightmares, it's the salad dressing and the taunting that comes with it that keeps me awake the night before an event.

Here's my first tip...even when the recipe calls for Olive Oil, DON'T use it.  Use the canola / olive oil blend, or all you will taste is oil.  Don't try using the olive oil at home. Save yourself some time and heartache...believe me. 

Hold back a little of that lime juice or you'll be jacking around with that concoction till the cows come home. It will only frustrate you.  Put the ingredients into the blender and go to town.  You'll never get the kick the jalapeno provides if you don't pulverize it.  Again....it's that trust thing.

You can always add...much more difficult to remove spices once they are in there.  The cumin....go easy. 

Oh, and another tip.  Toss the salad with the dressing. Everything gets a little dressing on it and a little bit goes a long way.

Enjoy!

Mother Sauces

Horror stories are usually passed down; if something is going to be truly horrible do you think people whould really sign up and pay for it?    As the saying goes, misery loves company and that's probably what keeps the stories alive.  Plus, it's fun to make people squirm in anticipation of what's to come.

Mother Sauces.  Even the name sounds a little intimidating. It's the class we were all told to fear, and for good reason.  But to tell you the truth, the fellow who needed to fear the class more than students was the lone dishwasher who would have to clean up the mess.  We helped a little, but let's face it...the guy in the dish pit had to bear the brunt.

Mother Sauces are so named because, in the French way of cooking, all sauces are derived from one of these 5: Bechamel, Veloute, Espagnole (brown), Tomato and Hollandaise.  Except for hollandaise, leading sauces are rarely served as is; more often they are used to create the many small sauces.  We also made mayonnaise in a bowl, no mixer or Cuisinart allowed. 

When it comes down to it, there are a few simple things that will either make or break you in the sauce department:  1.) the roux  and 2.) the stock.  You better start with good stock. Then, it's a matter of timing and knowing what will happen if you add too much of anything else: heat, fat, roux, stock, or not enough of the final seasonings, like salt.  Salt is a big deal in the kitchen and more often than not, students use too little.  It's amazing what salt can do to food.

For our table I was responsible for the brown roux, espagnole sauce and the mayonnaise, and also lent a hand in seasoning several of the other sauces along with the creation of some of the smaller sauces.  I love working as a team and everyone counting on one another and consulting with one another prior to the presentation of the sauces.What I liked was just grabbing that sauce pan, our table walking over to Chef for evaluation, and not having to worry about plating.

We did well, although in the entire evening not one of the 3 tables was successful with the hollandaise so I'll need practice that at home or with Chef Jackie next week in NYC. I also did not make the tomato sauce and should do that at home as well.

Our table was successful in creating and presenting all 14 sauces for the evening, but I think that was because we had 4 students and the other two tables had only 3 students each. That extra set of hands is a huge help.

And, if you are into horror stories and things that can really gross you out, check out the history of sauces. Let's just say that sauces were created to disguise the taste of the food, not to enhance it.  Refrigeration is still a relatively 'new' thing so let your mind rest on that for a while and be grateful for electricity and the ability to keep your food cold and fresh.  To sauce or not to sauce...that is your decision.

This week in the kitchen

These three beautiful girls reaped the benefits of having a baker nearby and

they help me by moving sweets out of my kitchen.

A extra large cake - 11 in x 2 in for a baby shower.

 4 layers of white cake with raspberry in between each layer and then all covered with buttercream frosting.

 Nearly 3 pounds of buttercream to be exact.

This wedding cake was delivered on Friday to my dear friend, Alicia. She was hosting a wedding reception for a couple who recently were married. It was a small-ish recpetion. The cake was for 25 and she also ordered 2 dozen chocolate cake balls.

White cake, loads of buttercream. And I was so happy it didn't fall over during transport.

All in all a great week!

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

With Fall upon us and a great selection of squash at the supermarket, we've been feasting on Roasted Butternut Squash soup and homemade ravioli stuffed with roasted butternut squash, chipotles and cream  Oh my....Mr. Man has been in Heaven.  So many friends have asked for the soup recipe, so here, compliments  of Williams-Sonoma, it is.  Enjoy!

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Roasting the squash first makes the fall soup smoky and sweet, while the apple adds  touch of tartness.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and pour 1 1/2 cups (12 fl oz/375 ml) water into a baking pan.  Cut a
2 1/2 lb butternut squash in half lengthwise, discard the seeds, and rub the cut sides with 2 teaspoons olive oil. Place the squash, cut side down, in the pan and bake until the tip of a knife pierces the skin easily, 45-50 minutes. When cool enough to handle, scoop out the pulp; you should have about 3 cups ( 1 1/2 lbs).

Next, in a 3 qt saucepan over medium heat, melt 3 tablespoons unsalted butter. Add 1 small chopped yellow onion and  1 peeled, cored, and chopped Granny Smith apple and saute until softened, 10-12 minutes. Add 2 chopped garlic cloves and saute for 1 minute.  Add 2 cups chicken stock, the squash pulp, 1 teaspoon kosher salt,  and 1/4 teaspoon white pepper.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. 

Puree the soup,  then stir in 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander  and 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg.  Adjust the seasonings and serve right away, garnishing each serving with 1 tablespoon sour cream and a sprinkle of ground cinnamon.

Sunday Brunch

Yesterday I had the pleasure of helping with the Sunday Brunch at the Culinary School of Ft. Worth http://www.csftw.com/ and again was not disappointed. After a fitful night's sleep, complete with nightmares about another student not sharing a cutting board with me (?), I woke up at 5:30 AM and left the house by 6:10 AM, armed with my uniforn, name tag and knives.

First mistake of the day...not leaving enough time for a cup of Joe which would really hit me around 1:30 pm.

A few days earlier it dawned on me that one of my 'scheduled' brunch dates was on the same day as the White Rock Half Marathon so would have to 'volunteer' for another date.  At the end of last weeks class Chef had mentioned that showing up to work even if you had not signed up was okay and I knew it would be fun as 6 other classmates were also scheduled to be there.  Not one to pass up an opportunity to bond, I showed up, checked in with Chef and was handed a recipe for Cilantro Lime Viniagrette and told to multiply it by 4.  What a labor of love.  I knew better than to use "olive oil"...I needed the blended oil.  After nearly 90 minutes of finely mincing cilantro, finely chopping 4 jalapenos, juicing a dozen limes and blending the dressing, it was certified as okay by Chef. 

Where does the time go?  Then it was off to making a cilantro pesto and 1/2 way through that a classmate asked if I could provide asssistance - she was in a slight crisis and needed to peel more potatoes for a fried potato garnish. Checked with Chef C. and left him to finish the pesto while I helped Melinda and we got the job done in record time. 

In between I swept floors, emptied trash and cleaned up. These tasks are a holdover from my time as a restaurant manager.  The kitchen needs empty trash cans prior to service and I'm not one to stand around waiting for Chef to tell me what to do.  Just look around..there is always something that needs to be taken care of.

Time for assignments and I was really looking forward to the possibility of waiting tables, running food out, something that would provide another perspective.  Uh....no. Ginger, you are on omelets.  What?  Um, really?  I thought you'd want someone else to have a chance to do that?  The two Chefs looked at one another, conferred for a moment and decided no, they wanted it this way.

Okey dokey.

So...I made omelets and a couple orders of scrambled eggs.  Stood and stood and stood for hours which absolutely kills the legs.  What I would have givent to be walking all around since I wasn't going to get in a work out.

The day did provide several learning opportunities and one was that I am going to be very strategic in my pairing up with others as the classes progress.  There are a few folks who are not assertive, don't really have the stamina or the desire to do whatever it takes to get the job done, without complaining.  It's actually a real study in human nature and what I would give to be able to ask "what in the world are you doing here?" 

On the other hand, there are several individuals who are outstanding and instinctively know what to do and have a real passion. They are the ones I will align myself with because there are so many things to learn and each table must work as a team and the kitchen needs to work as a team.

And I thought there would be no posturing or politics in school. 

Halloween

Some photos of things I've been doing lately

.Sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies.

Cake Pops

 

Sugar cookies using Star Wars cutters

Pumpkins, brooms, bats and cats...

and ghosts

Eggs!

Fact:  6.5 BILLION eggs are produced in the US every single month.  6.5 Billion.  Wow.  Those chickens have got to be tired.

Eggs are one of God's perfect foods and you would be amazed at the numerous ways those babies can be cooked. Tonight we learned  few things that have me thinking about having friends over and trying out some new recipes.

But first....I've kindof been having the pips about school (for those of you who aren't Muellers...the 'pips' is my mom's way of describing what is commonly referred to as the 'blues.'  You know, when you are kindof down in the dumps but just don't know why....the pips).  So, I'd been having the pips about culinary school because I want to be the 'best' and know how to do everything before class, blah, blah, blah, and finally, after having a few talks with myself and some of my girlfriends who really know me and aren't afraid to tell me like it is, I decided to have an attitude adjustment.   You don't go to school to learn something because you already know it...you go to learn because you don't know it.  Duh!

Anyway, armed with my new attitude and a hope that the Rangers would win the game tonight to keep the World Series alive, I headed off to class ready to learn all about eggs.

For the few people who've been reading this blog, you already know that I perfected my omelet making skills during the first Brunch of the semester, so I wasn't worried at all about making another omelet.  After the omelet, which, thank God I nailed, it was off to over-easy and then over medium eggs.  Now, mind you, we get the non-stick pan to work with.  No flipper, no egg turner, no spatula.  Nothing but the pan.  Waffle House, here I come.  I can cook an egg on the stove top because I am a mom. Some things you just don't forget. That, and you have to commit to the 'flip.'   It's really not that tough if you have enough clarified butter in the pan to keep the egg loose.  It's actually pretty cool. 

Our table then moved on to prepare the recipes we recieved at the beginning of class. We gathered all of our ingredients (in the world of French cuisine this is referred to as "mise en place" which simply put, means to have everything in front of you prior to cooking in order to keep the process moving along).  It really is important.  So we "mised" out everything and then strated on our recipes: Grits and Cheddar souffle, Chocolate Souffle, Scotch Eggs (more on this in a moment), Shirred Eggs with Ham.

The Grits and Cheddar souffle rocked...I'm already thinking of when I'm going to make this again knowing that Mr. Man will LOVE it if I add a few peppers or onions or anything else to spice it up. Amazing and so easy it's laughable. The chocolate souffle needed a few more moments in the oven, but again, so easy.

If you know what a 'Scotch Egg' is, you have spent far too much time in  Great Britain.  It is described as: "A Popular snack or picnic food in Great Britain; a hard-cooked egg, wrapped in breakfast sausage (think Jimmy Dean), then dipped in egg and then bread crumbs, deep fried and then cooked.  They make an excellent buffet or brunch item because of their good keeping properties."

Who is kidding who here?  Although it looked intriguing, it was actually quite disgusting. I had to give it up for our table because we had a perfectly cooked hard-boiled egg, a nice, thin layer of sausage wrapped around the egg, and it was cooked perfectly.  However, I really hope it is the only item I have to spit out during my time in school because it was just to horrible to finish.

Sorry.  Truth in blogging here.

All in all...great night.  Too bad about the Texas Rangers loosing it in Game 5.  My hope in myself attending Culinary School is revived, all because of the egg.