Cheesecake Deco!!

If, like me, you have 0% art in you (because God decided it was better to throw all those good genes to your sister), and you want to decorate a cheesecake, FOLLOW ME!!

If you CAN make BEAUTIFUL creations with your food, just ignore the rest of the post, move on and lets pretend that this never happened!

So for the follower :) I did some cheesecakes two days ago and decided I'd try making it "pretty", I just used my always to go to cheesecake recipe, and did two normal size ones.

To make sure you can take your cake out of the pan without loosing its shape, just line the inside of your pie pan with some aluminium foil and it wont get stuck, it works great. For the first one I jut put some Cherry pie filling on top.

For the second one I went out of my comfort zone and decided to make the toping (jam), I bought some beautiful fresh strawberries :)

The recipe is really simple:

2 pounds fresh strawberries
4 cups white sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

Crush strawberries until you have 4 cups of mashed berry. Mix together the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, and bring the mixture to a full boil. Boil, stirring often, until the mixture reaches a jam consistency.

I saved the top part (with the leaves), to use as deco, I also sliced a couple of them to use as deco too :)

This is how it turned out:Bayo though it was cute, not like he has a choice, lol, but some other people said the same, you can have a way better looking result than this one, so again, this is for the non artsy ones :)
You can also do the same for the Mini Cheesecakes, in my opinion they look even better!!

I {HEART} Baking

Why is it that everytime I bake something I have to do 2 at the same time, I am not happy just baking one thing :p

Today I made Peach Cobbler and it was the most good gooey thing ever, it tasted like pie, yummy!!!

Here is what to do it and have your house smelling like cinnamon heaven :)

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup AP flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp grounded cinnamon

1/2 tsp grounded nutmeg
1 cup milk
1 (29 ounce) can peaches

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Cream together sugar and butter, add vanilla. Mix in flour, salt, baking powder and milk until smooth. Pour peaches and their juice (add cinnamon and nutmeg to the juice) over the top.
Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, until golden brown.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream :)

I also made chocolate cookies, and this recipe is my forever keeper for chocolate cookies, they are so far the best ones and EVERYONE loved them, they were gone FAST!!!

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
confectioners sugar

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Roll into balls. Place 2 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets. Flatten with your hand a little. Bake at 350 degrees F for 6 minutes. Dust warm cookies with confectioners sugar.

ENJOY!!!!

FFF- Run!!

Back to the oldies again, because I couldnt find a new running picture for this week's FFF.

This was my 5th birthday and I was running with some goodies on my hand from the piñata, you can actually see some people in the back bending to take some, and the big smile is because that pink purse is FULL of candies ;)

You have to love the old ones, they bring back soooo many good memories :)

DONE!!!

We took our test today and we can finally say is OVER!!!

Even if we dont know our grades (we will in 6 weeks) I am happy to move on, and this REALLY marks some important things in our life/future, more on that when the time comes for them and we finally discussed everything!!!

And of course I just cant let go of FFF, even if I am extremely late :p

Here is my ME, picture :) (this week's theme), it is a really old one (I am in PR with no batteries for my camera now and a dead battery charger :/), so I had to work with what I had in my computer, this was taken when I was 17 years old O.o OMG NOW I FEEL OLD!!

I feel old...

Bayo and I went out last night to this place we've been hearing for sometimes, they play really good old music (90's and 80's), the music was great and the place, but it was full of really young people and we really looked old in there, I was like what are they doing here, they probably dont even know those songs LOL!
The funnier thing was that they kept looking at us probably thinking what are those oldies doing in here :p

FFF- Wet!

I am making an habit out of being late for FFF, but is only one week before my test :/

This week's theme is Wet!

This photos are from a trip to Palmar de Ocoa (here in DR), and the place was oh so beautiful, specially in the early morning :) The beach was not so great, but that is because we have better ones here so I get picky :p

And YES!! that is a real Star of the Sea!

I {HEART} Cooking- Habichuelas con Dulce

Did you though I forgot my promise for the Dominican Easter Dessert? I was just waiting for Easter to be over, because we had some visit over for Easter and the house was crowded and lots of things to do :)
This recipe is called Habichuelas con Dulce (Sweet Beans), a lot of people have a first reaction when they hear this: yuck! Beans that are sweet!, but trust me on this one, because this taste nothing like beans, so if you are feeling adventurous and want to try something new and 100% Dominican/Caribbean this is for you!
You have to start the night before you want to do it...
Get one pound of red beans and one cinnamon stick in a large bowl. Remember that you have to rinse those beans first to make sure they are clean.
Cover them in hot water, like 2 inch above the beans.

I told you it was hot, see that smoke coming out :) Cover them and go to sleep!

Next morning they will look like this...
Add some more hot water and boil them in a large saucepan for 1 hour (check the water level and add more if you need).

While you are boiling those beans, get 1 pound of sweet potatoes; peel, cube and boil them in salty water.

Turn them off and set aside once they are soft. See you later sweet potatoes!

Blend the beans in the water that you cooked them.

Pass the blended beans thru' a colander. You probably wont be able to blend them all together, so you will have to divided them.

When you are putting it thru' the colander, help yourself with a spoon, because it will be thick, but you want to make sure you got all the liquid out. It should look like this in the end, and that is what you will discard.

It's normal for the liquid to have white foam (bubbles) so dont freak out!

My saucepan is a caldero is made here in DR, but you can use any saucepan or pot.

Add 2 cans (2 2/3 cups) evaporated milk and 1 can of coconut milk.

Taking pictures while pouring liquids is hard!!!

Turn the heat on and ignore the fact that my oven looks old and dirty (bean water spilled on it before :P).

Add 1 cup of sugar.

1 can (1 1/2 cups) of sweetened condensed milk.

And spices: 1/2 tsp. nutmeg powder, 8 cloves and 2 cinnamon sticks.

Cook on medium heat for 15 minutes and stir every once in a while ;)

This should give you time to rinse the salty water out of your sweet potatoes!
Here in DR sweet potatoes are white, but I am sure you can use anyones you find.

Add the sweet potatoes.

1/2 cup of rainsins

1 tsp. salt

2 tsps. butter

and 1 tsp. vanilla essence

dont worry those butter stains will dissapear :)

Stir...

Cook on low heat for 15 minutes more and dont forget to stir every now and then :p
This is my family's personal touch, some people here in DR do it, some people dont (so it is really optional) add a pinch of ground ginger...

After the 15 minutes it should have a the right consistency.
You can serve them hot or cold (I like mine warm, but Bayo loves his cold!)

To serve them add some milk cookies; people here eat them with this cookies or cassava bread.

The cookies have a milk-y flavor, try to find something similar and crunchy!
This cookies are sooooo famous for this easter dessert and practically is the only brand people buy for them, that they even come with a little cross!

Cute, ha!!!
So have a bowl...

or two...

or 3 like Bayo did!!!

Enjoy!!

I want to dedicate this post to my sweet sister, who LOVES beans but DOES NOT miss DR and her family... or is it the other way around??

I wont be back until I take my test, after the 25th; please pray for me that day :)