dessert – Long Island Chick

Wildtree Wednesday: Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake Cups

Kathleen — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 19:53:52 +0000

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups gingersnap cookies

1 1/2 tablespoons Wildtree Natural Grapeseed Oil

8 ounce Neufchatel cream cheese, softened

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons Wildtree Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake Blend

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans, optional

Method of Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F. Crush the gingersnaps to create crumbs. Add the Natural Grapeseed Oil, stir well to combined. Spread on baking sheet. Toast in the oven 3-5 minutes until crumbs start to brown set aside to cool. Using an electric hand mixer blend the cream cheese, pumpkin puree, brown sugar, Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake Blend and vanilla until smooth, about 2 minutes. Spoon half of the gingersnap crumbs into 6 small glasses, layer on a few chopped pecans. Divide half of the cheesecake mixture evenly between the dishes and top with the remaining gingersnap crumbs and then more pecans. Divide the remaining cheesecake mixture between the dishes. Garnish with whipped cream and pecans if desired.

Meal Type:
Sugar & Spice

For recipes and more, please visit my Wildtree Website!

My Favorite Pinterest Pins for the Week of March 10th

Kathleen — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 16:41:12 +0000

I am an admitted Pinterest fanatic and I wanted to share with you my favorite pins from the past week:

Sweet Italian Sausage With Penne Pasta

I do so love pasta and this just looks absolutely delicious! I have found so many wonderful recipes through Pinterest – can’t wait to try them all!

Childhood Memories

I love these posts of things we did that we not might have remembered. The game of not allowing a balloon to reach the floor brings back so much memories. My kids played this too!

DIY Chip Clips

To me, buying chip clips is such a colossal waste of money – the damn things always seem to break or just mysteriously disappear! Now, instead of throwing out those crappy hangers you get from Target, upcycle them!

The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake

Ok, it has a golden crown and is up on a beautiful pedestal – it must be the ultimate vanilla cupcake! This blogger went through a lot of trouble to try different recipes and even involved readers in taste tests. I am definitely going to have to bake this one!

Monsters!

I love the look of these monsters – will have to blow the dust off my sewing machine!!!

So there you have it, a small sample of what I discovered this week on Pinterest – stay tuned for next week’s segment!

Thanksgiving Day Roundup

Kathleen — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 15:21:30 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I thought I’d do a quick share of things to do and things you might need to make your Thanksgiving celebration perfect (or as near perfect as well can make it!):

Bakerella has simply adorable Thanksgiving-themed cake pops over on their site:

This site is all about fun and baking. Go visit and explore the various recipes, desserts and decorating ideas for goodies such as cupcake pops, cakes, pies, cupcakes, cookies, brownies and more.

Turkey 411

Hopefully you already have your turkey and if it was frozen, it is thawed (not on the counter folks!). If you need some assistance in figuring out cooking times check out Butterball’s site which has several calculators to help you figure out cooking times etc. Here is a a tip for you: start your oven at 500 degrees and roast your turkey at that temperature for a half hour to brown it. Then lower the temperature to 325 degrees and make your aluminum tent. This will brown your turkey nicely.

Alton Brown of Food Network is, to me, the king of cooking. He is all about the science and, when you read some of his material, it all makes sense. DO NOT BASTE THAT TURKEY. If you need some liquid in your pan ok, but it won’t do anything for the turkey – its skin is waterproof. Also, the less you open that oven door, the better – it creates temperature fluctuations and lowers the temperature thereby lengthening cooking time. We actually brined our turkey this year and used Alton’s Good Eats Brined Turkey Recipe. I’ll let you know how it turns out – should be delish and everyone raves about the results. Visit Alton Brown’s page to see his Thanksgiving Menu.

One of my favorite sites is Food.com (formerly recipezaar) – great community and recipes. Visit their Thanksgiving Headquarters for ideas for tasty side dishes, drinks and more.

Whats on the Menu?

So the traditional fare – Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes – is what is customarily on the Thanksgiving Day Menu but what else is everyone making? Desserts are all important too. You have your usual delicacies like Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie etc. In addition to making Pumpkin Pie, I made Cooking Light’s Cranberry Swirled Cheesecake. A little complicated but it looks mouth watering (can’t wait to try it!).

Well, I have to get my Sweet Potato Casserole together, remove the turkey from the brine and prepare for roasting. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and remember – while it seems to be much about the food, it isn’t – its about being with the people you love so relax and enjoy!

Oreo Cookie Dream Cupcakes

Kathleen — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 21:34:14 +0000

Oreo Cookie Dream Cupcakes have long been a favorite of my kids and they ask for them every time we have a special occasion in school. This year, I already made them for Ryan’s school birthday party and then for the Fifth Grade Car Wash & Bake Sale this past Saturday. I have been promising to post the recipe so here it goes:

Ingredients:

24 Paper Liners for Cupcake Pans (2 1/2 inch size)

30 Oreo Cookies (not double stuff!)

1 package plain white cake mix

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Buttercream or white frosting

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners. Set the pans aside.

Count out 12 oreos and separate the top and bottom wafers. make sure each side has some icing on it. Place one wafer, icing side up, in the bottom of each cupcake liner. Set them aside. Place the remaining 18 Oreos in a large, closed zip-loc bag and crush by rolling with a rolling pin. Set the crumbs aside.

Place the cake mix, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to emdium and beat 1 1/2 minutes more, scraping down the sides if needed. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of the crushed Oreos and fold into the batter until well incorporated. Set aside the remaining Oreos for garnish. Spoon or scoop 1/3 cup of batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it three quarters of the way full. (You will get between 22 and 24 cupcakes; remove the empty liners, if any). Place pans in the oven.

Bake the cupcakes until they are lightly golden and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Take the cupcakes out of the pans to cool for 15 minutes before frosting.

Tips: go for the 22 cupcakes rather than 24 -better to fill the liners a little more than have a sad little cupcake. Also, watch the cupcakes carefully so they don’t brown too much. Lastly, if you aren’t going to frost them within the hour, put saran wrap over them so the cupcakes do not dry out.
Enjoy!