Open Source Cook

This is actually a really simple recipe and easy to make if you have everything on hand. Even if you don’t have the meat, you probably have the rest of it, so it’s a little on the cheap side as well.

The recipe originally called for cream instead of the milk, but I didn’t have the cream and used the milk instead and it still thicken up pretty well while it was on the heat.  Personally, so far, I see no reason to use the cream and make this dish any more fatty than it needs to be.

Overall, the dish was really good, but I did make a few adjustments.  The recipe called for a cup of breadcrumbs for the topping and that was just too much.  The breadcrumbs didn’t really….do anything.  In some areas, it worked, but in others, it was like I had just put them on.  So there were too many.  Plus, Jesse thought it was a little runny since I used milk instead of cream, so I’m adjusting that by adding a little more flour.  The milk thicken up nicely over the heat, after mixing it with the flour, butter, and onions; so I figured if I add a little more flour, it should work out perfectly.

This is one I will definitely be making again since it’s a nice change from hamburgers and chicken.

Ingredients:
2 cups 1/2% milk
4 cups cubed deli turkey
3 cups cubed deli ham
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup chopped onions (or to taste)
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp dill weed
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
2 tbsp butter or margarine
1/4 tsp dill weed
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, combine turkey, ham and cheese; set aside.
3. In a saucepan, sauté onion in butter until tender. Add flour, stir to form a paste. Gradually add cream, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil, boil 1 minute or until thick. Add dill, mustard and nutmeg; mix well.
4. Remove from heat and pour over meat mixture. Spoon into a greased 13×9x2 inch baking dish. Toss breadcrumbs, butter and dill; stir in cheese and walnuts. Sprinkle over casserole.
5. Bake, uncovered for 30 minutes or until heated through.

Makes 8 to 10 servings

So what do you make when you want to bake something that isn’t chocolate?  Well, cheesecake is an obvious answer, but why do plan cheesecake, why not have some fun with it?  That was my thought process for this recipe.  For our Housewarming Party, I wanted to have a chocolate dessert and something non-chocolate.  I also wanted to try making two cheesecakes with my one pan, so this gave me the perfect opportunity.  However, I wasn’t crazy with just doing a plain old cheesecake and I wanted to experiment a little.  So my Peanut Butter Cheesecake was born.  Now, this is the first attempt with this recipe, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up changing the recipe completely and trying it again (oh no, Jesse will have to take another cheesecake to work), but that is the fun of baking, right.

Graham Cracker Pie Crust:
For the graham cracker crust, we’re using the recipe from Terri’s cheesecake, however, we will not be adding the cocoa.

Ingredients:
8 tbsp butter
1-1/2 cups crumbs (about 21 squares)
4-1/2 tbsp sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Mix all ingredients together and pour into spring form pan. Bake at 375 F for 8 minutes.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake:
So, just to warn everyone, I basically converted my Chocolate Cheesecake recipe into this Peanut Butter one and this is the first attempt.  So I’m going to assume there will be some kinks, but we’ll see how it goes.

Oh yeah, there is definitely some kinks.  Be prepared to see a “take 2″ of this recipe in the near future.  The first kink we found was sugar.  I forgot that chocolate has a lot of its own sugar already in it, so it wasn’t in the original recipe.  We think we found the right amount of sugar, but we’ll have to wait until it’s done to be sure.  However, the biggest problem I came across was the amount of peanut butter needed.  Four cups of peanut butter makes for a lot of cheesecake and the amounts just have to get changed.  This thing is huge.  I mean seriously massive.  I already adjusted the cooking time to 65 minutes just due to the size.  I’ll know for sure once I get it out.

Ingredients:
2 cups peanut butter
3 - 8oz pkgs cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/3 cup milk
4 eggs
1 egg yolk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Microwave the peanut butter and butter together for 1 minute.  Stir.
3. Beat melted peanut butter, cream cheese, butter or margarine, and milk in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until combined. Add whole eggs and egg yolk all at once. Beat on low speed just until combined.
4. Pour filling into the springform pan. Place the pan in a shallow baking pan on the oven rack. Bake in a 350 degree F oven about 65 minutes or until 1 to 2 inches of outside edge appear set when shaken gently.
5. Remove springform pan from baking pan. Cool cheesecake in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Use a small metal spatula to loosen cheesecake from sides of pan. Cool 30 minutes more. Remove sides of pan. Cool 1 hour; cover and chill at least 4 hours.

I wanted to try something a little different this time around and make something that wasn’t focused on chocolate. Originally I was thinking of making a basic white cake with lemon mousse filling, but then I made the mousse.  The mousse was good, but after tasting it, I thought the cake would be a little on the plain side, so I changed the cake.  I’m hoping this works.

Now, there is one major difference between this cake and my other ones…I’m not using the normal rectangle size pan, but instead a 9″ round pan.  Hence the reason why I’m only using one cake mix instead of two.

Lemon Mousse
I have a friend who loves lemon flavor anything and when I was thinking of what kind of filling to use on a white cake, lemon instantly came to mind.

When I first made this, I was a little concerned that the flavoring wouldn’t be there, but after it sat in the refrigerator for a few hours, the flavor came out.  It’s not overpowering, but you can definitely tell it’s lemon.  The only complaint I have with this is it didn’t firm up all that much.  Don’t get me wrong, it did, but once I started putting it inbetween the cake layers, it started the oozing process and it seemed to be more of a problem than normal.  Usually, when I use instant pudding as a mousse base, I use cool whip instead of whipping the cream by hand.  That may have been the issue.  I think next time, I’ll try using cool whip.  If anyone wants to try way instead of what I have below, the recipe is: 2 pkg instant pudding, 1-1/2 cup milk, and 1 cup cool whip.  Combine cold milk and pudding mix and whisk for 2 minutes or until well blended.  Stir in 1 cup thawed cool whip until blended.  Refrigerate.

Ingredients:
2 packages lemon instant pudding
Milk
2 cups heavy cream, whipped
2 rounded tablespoons sugar

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, stir pudding and milk and set aside.
2. Beat whipping cream and sugar until peaks form. Add about 1/4 of the whipped cream to the pudding and gently fold it in to lighten it. Fold the remaining whipped cream into pudding.

French Vanilla Cake
This is my standard cake recipe using package cake mixes. However, this time around, I made this one to be a round cake instead of the large rectangle. So there’s a couple of little changes.

Ingredients:
1 packages of French Vanilla cake mix
1 (16.2oz) package of whipped white frosting

Directions:

1. Prepare cake according to package directions, using the round 9″ pan size setting. You need to make two round cakes. Cool completely.
2. After the cakes have cooled completely, layer the german chocolate mousse lavishly onto the top of one cake. Once completed, gently add the second cake on top of the mousse.
3. Frost all sides of the cake.

This is a new twist on the German Chocolate cake. Instead of just having the German cake with the coconut pecan frosting, this also includes a German chocolate mouse which I’ve based off the frosting. I’m really hoping this is going to work. I’ve had to completely make the mousse from scratch.

Now, there is one major difference between this cake and my other ones…I’m not using the normal rectangle size pan, but instead a 9″ round pan. Hence the reason why I’m only using one cake mix instead of two.

German Chocolate Mousse
When it comes to this recipe, I’ll be honest, I did some mixing. Basically, I took a chocolate mousse recipe and added what I needed for the “German chocolate” flair and prayed it would come out. Normally, when I do anything with chocolate mousse, I go the easy route and get the chocolate pudding and mix some whip cream into it. But this time, since I was trying something new, I wanted the chocolate to work well and I wasn’t sure how the chocolate pudding would hold up.

Thankfully, the mousse can be chilled up to a day, so it worked for making it ahead of time and adding it to the cake. Also, when I was looking up various chocolate mousse and German chocolate frosting recipes, I noticed a lot of them added about 2 tsps of instant-espresso powder or some other form of coffee. I’m not sure how it would taste with the German chocolate, but if you’re a coffee lover and want to experiment a little, you could try it. Some other variations I’ve seen are: 3 tablespoons Grand Marnier or 2 tablespoons Cognac (either one whisked into strained custard).

The mousse came out really well.  Kind of.  Once the nuts and coconut was added, it really didn’t resemble a mousse anymore, however, it made it super easy to use as a filling.  For once, I didn’t have mousse oozing out between the two layers as I was frosting the cake.  So all of the mousse has stayed inside.

If you’re looking to keep this resembling a mousse and not just another filling, then something needs to be done with the liquid.  The coconuts soak up all the available liquid and I think that’s why it came out more clunky than smooth.  For this reason, I’m cutting the coconut and pecans in half.

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup flaked coconut
2 cups chilled heavy cream
4 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar
7 oz fine-quality german chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped

Directions:

1. Heat 3/4 cup cream in a 1-quart heavy saucepan until hot. Whisk together yolks, sugar, and a pinch of salt in a metal bowl until combined well, then add hot cream in a slow stream, whisking until combined. Transfer mixture to saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until it registers 160°F on thermometer. Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and stir in vanilla.
2. Melt chocolate in a double boiler or a metal bowl set over a pan of simmering water (or in a glass bowl in a microwave at 50 percent power 3 to 5 minutes), stirring frequently. Whisk custard into chocolate until smooth, then cool.  Mix in pecans and coconut.
3. Beat remaining 1 1/4 cups cream in a bowl with an electric mixer until it just holds stiff peaks. Whisk one fourth of cream into chocolate custard to lighten, then fold in remaining cream gently but thoroughly.

German Chocolate Cake
This is my standard cake recipe using package cake mixes. However, this time around, I made this one to be a round cake instead of the large rectangle. So there’s a couple of little changes.

Ingredients:
1 package of German chocolate cake mix
1 (16oz) package of whipped chocolate frosting

Directions:

1. Prepare cake according to package directions, using the round 9″ pan size setting. You need to make two round cakes. Cool completely.
2. After the cakes have cooled completely, layer the german chocolate mousse lavishly onto the top of one cake. Once completed, gently add the second cake on top of the mousse.
3. Frost all sides of the cake.

Here’s the chocolate cheesecake recipe I created awhile ago minus the raspberry and strawberry additions.

Chocolate Graham Cracker Pie Crust:
This time, for the graham cracker crust, we’re using the recipe from Terri’s cheesecake.

Ingredients:
8 tbsp butter
1-1/2 cups crumbs (about 21 squares)
4-1/2 tbsp sugar
2-1/4 tsp heaping cocoa

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Mix all ingredients together and pour into spring form pan. Bake at 375 F for 8 minutes.

Chocolate Cheesecake:
The first time around, the raspberry extract was barely there. So this time, I doubled the amount. Also, the two previous cheesecakes I tried used different kinds of chocolate and some people did prefer one over the other. With that thought in mind, we’re mixing the chocolate. The first attempt used baking chocolate bars and the second used semi-sweet chocolate chips. This time around, I’m using half the chocolate bars and half of the chips, so we’ll still end up with the same amount of chocolate.

I don’t know how much 8oz of chocolate chip actually is, but I used about 2 cups and that seemed to make the cheesecake a little too brittle.  So it’s definitely 2 cups.  If anyone finds out, let me know.

We still haven’t figured out how to stop the top from cracking while it’s cooling down.  If there’s a way to prevent this, we would like to know so please drop us an email.

Ingredients:
8oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
8oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 - 8oz pkgs cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/3 cup milk
4 eggs
1 egg yolk
Sifted powdered sugar (optional)
Sifted unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)
Fresh berries (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Melt 1 pound chocolate in a heavy saucepan over very low heat, stirring constantly; cool. For tips on melting chocolate, I would check out Hershey’s guide, it’s the one I use.
3. Beat melted chocolate, cream cheese, the 1/2 cup butter or margarine, and 1/3 cup milk in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until combined. Add whole eggs and egg yolk all at once. Beat on low speed just until combined.
4. Pour filling into the springform pan. Place the pan in a shallow baking pan on the oven rack. Bake in a 350 degree F oven about 55 minutes or until 1 to 2 inches of outside edge appear set when shaken gently.
5. Remove springform pan from baking pan. Cool cheesecake in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Use a small metal spatula to loosen cheesecake from sides of pan. Cool 30 minutes more. Remove sides of pan. Cool 1 hour; cover and chill at least 4 hours.

When Jesse and a bunch of his colleagues had to work the late shift for the yearly turnover, Chicken and Dumplings were requested and I took them in for the guys that night.  After making the dumplings in the slow-cooker, I felt like there wasn’t a lot of dumplings and everyone loves dumplings.  So I made these biscuits as a backup and they seemed to go over really well.  I didn’t make them the traditional size, but instead I used the smallest cookie cutter I had so they were more munchable.  I wanted it to be easy for someone to pop them into their mouth or add it to the stew without having to cut them up.  They turned out really well and Jesse said they were like crack for everyone at work.  Even those who had gone out to eat had kept coming back to grab one or two more.

The recipe is really easy for anyone who knows how to make biscuits using Bisquick.  It’s basically the Bisquick recipe with a few spices added in.

Ingredients:
2-1/4 cups Bisquick
1/4 tsp dried basil leaves
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
1/8 tsp dried tarragon
2/3 cup milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 F degrees.
2. Combine Bisquick mix and herbs in small bowl. Stir in milk to form soft dough.
3. Place on surface generously sprinkled with bisquick mix and knead until desired consistency (honestly, I knead it until it stops sticking to me).
4. Roll out dough and cut out circular shapes (using a cookie cutter) and place cutouts on ungreased baking sheet.
5. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Variations:
For drop biscuits, do not knead dough.  Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Cheese-Garlic Biscuits: Make drop biscuits, except decrease bisquick mix to 2 cups and add 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese.  Mix 2 tbsp butter or margarine, melted, and 1/8 tsp garlic powder; brush over warm biscuits.