Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Hi! I hope you all are having a good week. I spent a long weekend in Michigan, visiting my boyfriend and my other friends I met when I was studying abroad in Japan. It was great catching up with people, and I had a blast! I didn't do a whole lot of cooking while I was there, but we did make some brownies for a 42 (a domino game) marathon a few days ago. Not just any brownies, though! They're red velvet cheesecake brownies. :) I'm a huge red velvet fan, so I had to try these! With the cheesecakey layer marbled on top, they look like they take tons of time and effort to make, right?

Not so! These are really very straightforward, and delicious! It's one of my new favorite dessert recipes. So, let's get to that recipe!

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Source:Sweet Pea's Kitchen

Makes 16-24 bars, depending on how you cut them.

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. (one stick) butter
• 2 oz baking chocolate (I used semi-sweet, but dark works too!)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 1.5 t. red food coloring
• 2/3 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/4 t. salt
• 8-oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 t. vanilla extract

Before you start:Coarsely chop the chocolate, and preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and grease a 9x9' baking pan with cooking spray or butter.

Recipe

For the brownies: Put the chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds on high, then stir. Repeat until butter and chocolate are completely melted. Stir together and let it cool for a few minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar (1 cup), 2 eggs, 1 t. vanilla, and red food coloring until combined. Add the chocolate mixture and stir well. Add the flour and salt and stir just until blended.

Pour it into your pan and spread it out evenly.

For the cheesecake: Beat the cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla in a medium-sized bowl until smooth. A hand-mixer is your friend here! If you want to avoid any risk of getting it all over your kitchen, it helps to combine it all with a fork first to break up the cream cheese, then use a hand-mixer to get out all the lumps and make it nice and smooth.

Using a spoon, dollop the cheesecake mixture on top of the brownie mixture.

Now, the fun part! To marble the cheesecake mixture into the brownie mixture, take a butter knife and swirl it around in the mixture to incorporate the two. Try to make sure the cheesecake is spread out more or less evenly over the pan. Don't overdo it or you'll end up with a light pink layer rather than a marbled one.

Bake for 35-40 minutes. The center should be firm, the top will be lightly browned in places and a knife inserted into the center should come out clean.

Tada! Let it cool a bit and then you're ready to serve. I love how the bottom is a little crisp but the brownie is still nice and moist. And that cream cheese layer? Heaven.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Blueberry-Glazed Lamb Kebabs with Crispy Potatoes

Hello! I love this do-nothing time of year when I have time to use lots of recipes. :) I made dinner last night using a recipe I've loved! I found it on Food Network, my go-to channel. A show I really enjoyed watching last summer was The Next Food Network Star, and my favorite from the beginning was Aarti, the eventual winner! This recipe is based on one of her creations for a competition. She made lamb kebabs, and they sounded so amazing I had to try them! Her recipe calls for pomegranate molasses in the sauce, which is hard to find. I tried to make it but it resulted in a sticky, tarry mess, not at all what I wanted! So, I made a completely different sauce concoction, and it totally works! Another change from her recipe is I use my oven's broiler instead of a grill because I don't have one with me at school. As long as you don't have a finicky smoke alarm, you can use your oven, too. 

 

Blueberry-Glazed Lamb Kebabs

Source:Aarti Sequeira

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 cup picked parsley leaves
• 4 sprigs fresh mint
• 1 shallot
• 1 lemon
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 lb. ground lamb
• 1 t. baking soda
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil
• 1/4 c. blueberry juice
• 3 T. honey
• 1 T. stone-ground mustard
• skewers (I used 4)

Before you start:Pick off all the leaves from the mint, zest and juice the lemon (you'll need both!), roughly chop the garlic and shallots, and soak your skewers in water.

Recipe

Combine the parsley, mint, shallot, lemon zest, and garlic. Pulse until finely minced.

Add the mixture to a larger bowl with the ground lamb, baking soda, and lots of salt and pepper. Knead it until everything is well-incorporated. The mixture will be sticky and hold its shape.


Take a ball of the meat and shape it into a cylinder. Thread a skewer through the cylinder and make sure that the shape is even all the way down so it will cook evenly. Repeat with the other skewers. I only used four because I made thick kebabs, but if you want them to be thinner just use smaller balls of meat! They'll cook faster that way.

To make the glaze, combine the honey, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and blueberry juice. Mix with a fork or whisk to break up the honey. Taste it before you add the mustard! If it's too tart, add some more honey. If it's too sweet, add some more lemon juice. It's not an exact science. :) Then, add the ground mustard and stir it so it all combines. 

There are two ways to cook these: the original recipe called for grilling but I used the oven. I'll include both here.


To grill, cook the kebabs over medium-high heat. To cook in an oven, arrange on a foil-lined cookie sheet that's been oiled and broil it on low, on the highest rack in your oven. In either case, drizzle some extra oil over the kebabs so they don't stick and turn them every 2-3 minutes, brushing the kebabs generously with the glaze. I gave a quarter turn with each flip of mine, and it took about 3 minutes per side, so about 12 minutes. The grill will take much less time. Cook until browned!


Tip: If you're baking them in the oven, I'm afraid they will smoke. You may want to not use skewers at all because they tend to char, and the glaze that drips onto the pan will blacken and smoke. However, the kebabs will still turn out fine!

 To serve, spoon some of the remaining glaze over the kebabs.

I figured the perfect compliment to these kebabs would be some crispy potatoes! They were indeed delicious, and really easy to make. :)

Crispy Potatoes

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 5 small potatoes, cut into wedges
• Water
• 2 t. Salt
• 1/4 c. canola oil
• Garlic salt and pepper, to taste

Recipe
Bring the water to a boil. Add salt and potatoes, and cook them for 10 minutes. They should be pretty soft. Drain the water out and allow them to dry on paper towels.

Heat up the canola oil in a large skillet to medium - make sure there is about a quarter inch of oil in the pan. Once the oil is shimmering, add the potatoes and as much garlic salt and pepper as you want.

Stir the potatoes around to incorporate the spices, then leave the potatoes alone to cook for 10 minutes. They should be nicely browned on one side. You can flip them if you want to cook them for a little longer, or they're fine on one side, as I left them. Then, serve.

A delicious meal! The lamb takes a little while to prepare because of all the herbs you have and the skewer arrangements, but it's worth it!

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Crispy Cracker Chicken

I know, it's been an incredibly long time since I last posted! But I intend to keep up with this little site now, so expect many recipes to come. :)

My friend Rachael is an excellent cook - I love going over to her house to eat or cook with her. And she shared one of her secrets with me! It's a little book called The Healthy College Cookbook. All of the recipes inside are designed for busy people (like stressed-out college students). A good deal of the recipes are pretty low-maintenance and don't require a pantry of ingredients. You just mix some things together, pop it into the oven, and you're ready to eat in less than half an hour. Plus, they're simultaneously delicious and fairly healthy. I can see this cookbook doing me a lot of good during the semester when I'm swamped and don't have time to sit at the stove!

In the 4 days I've had this recipe book, I've tried 2 of the recipes and both have been easy and really delicious. So, I figured it would be a great time to share one of them with you.

Crispy Cracker Chicken

Source: The Healthy College Cookbook

Serves 2

Ingredients

• Two chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup crushed crackers (any will do - I used Wheatables)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Butter (optional)

Before you start: Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Recipe

Separate the egg white from the yolk (discard the yolk) and beat it really well (until lots of bubbles form). Pour into a dish.

Mix the cheese, crackers, and salt and pepper to taste until blended, then pour onto another dish. Now you have your breading stations! The mess-free way to do this is put your pan you're going to cook your chicken in right next to the cracker mix so you can transfer it straight into the pan.

Dip one chicken breast in the egg whites, making sure to coat the breast fully. Then, transfer it to the plate of breadcrumbs and coat the entire breast in the cracker mixture. Put the breast in a greased pan (I used a cake pan because the breast fit nicely). If you want, add a little bit of butter on top of the cracker coating. It will make it brown beautifully!

Put the chicken in the oven and bake for 35 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the cracker breading is crispy.

Delicious! Serve with salad or vegetables or whatever you want. If you're just cooking for yourself, simply halve the crackers and cheese and spices - it works just as well for one person.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking! I'll have more recipes on the way soon!