Category: Holiday

A Basic With a Twist

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What’s better than a fudgy brownie at the end of a long day? A fudgy cream cheese brownie!  So easy and so delicious!

I’ve had cheesecake on my mind because my mom and I had a conversation a couple weeks ago.  My mom made a comment that she went to a big chain restaurant out on Long Island, where apparently you have to display calorie counts on the menu.  She noticed that the cheesecake on the dessert menu was fewer calories than the other cake options.  This surprised me because I’ve always considered cheesecake to be an extra indulgent treat. But hey, I’ll take it!

Rather than making a full blown cheesecake, I had a meeting for school earlier this week, so I decided to make cream cheese brownies.  And since we’re so close to Valentine’s Day, why not make them pink!  (or at least pink, plus a little golden brown tint from the oven)

One of my friends made cream cheese brownie cupcakes for a team meeting a couple months ago, so I took that inspiration along with a recipe from the old reliable Smitten Kitchen.  At the end of the day, all you need for great cream cheese brownies is a box brownie mix (I don’t make brownies from scratch), cream cheese, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.  So worth it!

Cream Cheese Brownies

Yields 16 2 inch squares, Adapted from recipe on Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

  • Your favorite brownie mix (plus all of the ingredients needed for that)
  • 8 oz cream cheese (room temp)
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 egg yolk
  • dash salt
  • 1/2 -1 cup mini chocolate chips
  • red food coloring gel (optional)

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350, and prep an 8×8 pan with spray and/or parchment.
  2. Prepare the brownie batter according to the directions on the box. I usually make the “cakey” version rather than the “fudgy” version, which typically just takes an extra egg.winning combination
  3. In a separate bowl use an electric mixer to combine the cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk, vanilla, and salt until well combined. Add the food coloring if you want it to be pink.  Fold in the mini chocolate chips.blobs of goodness
  4. Pour the brownie batter into the pan. Put the cream cheese mixture on top of the brownie batter in blobs.  You can swirl it a little to even out the top.looking good
  5. Bake for 25-50 minutes until just lightly golden brown.  Allow to cool and enjoy!cute little hearts

Goals for 2013

Sadie4 Comments

Happy New Year!  So I know it’s completely cliche to do the whole New Year’s resolution thing, but who cares, I’m going to anyway!  I realize that it’s hard to stick to resolutions, but I do think it’s important to take a few minutes every now and then to define your personal goals.  I find defining goals makes it easier for me to focus and make tangible progress.

2013 is a little scary for me because I’m poised to graduate business school with my MBA in May (fingers crossed, because it’s not over yet!).  So I’m not sure where I will end up after graduation(this is my theme song and favorite song right now).  It makes it hard to make specific goals because I actually don’t know where I will be living or what I will be doing after I graduate.  That being said, here are some of my goals for this year:

Personal Goals

  • Graduate with my MBA
  • Find a great full-time job
  • Make at least one international trip
  • Read more books (like maybe 10 for the year)

Fitness Goals

  • Run another half marathon
  • Push myself to run faster
  • Lead a successful Yorktown Victory Run (I’m the race director)
  • Learn the Pilates Reformer (I already love Mat Pilates so I want to take the next step)
  • Add more variety to my fitness routine (try CrossFit? Yoga?)
  • Continue to make weight loss progress, and continue to stabalize my nutrional routine

Cooking Goals

  • Make a successful challah bread
  • Broaden my savory dish repitoire
  • Try at least 3 new techniques like making marshmallows or risotto, or cooking with a new ingredient like tofu
  • Cook more dinners at home rather than using places like Panera as my dinner option too often

Carrie and I are both Virgos, so I thought I would include part of our 2013 horoscope outlook, courtesy of Yahoo Horoscopes.  I have always been amazed by how accurate my horoscope is, and I hope this year is no different:

2013 brings you sweeping change and intensity, Virgo. The biggest transformation takes place in the realm of the mind. Communication, correspondence and courses of new study carry great importance. Saturn, the cosmic taskmaster, is spending a good chunk of time in the sector of your chart ruling the mental realms and communication. If you’re not already a powerful public speaker, teacher or writer, get ready to discover your latent potential to sway the masses with your power of speech! You’re also hungry for knowledge in 2013, and will want to strengthen your skill set and beef up your resume with even more knowledge than you possess naturally.

What are your goals for 2013?  Anything else you think I should add?

A Tradition

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When I’m at home visiting my parent’s house, my mom and I like to try out new recipes and play around with menu ideas for dinner.  Even though we love to try new ideas, there are a few meals every year where the menu remains the same.  One of them is Christmas dinner.my flower arrangement

For Christmas dinner we do what we call “The Italian Feast.”  When my brothers and I were younger and still all living at home, it was a meal that would be made every couple  months or so for a nice family dinner.  The past few years, Christmas is the only time this menu roles around.  The menu includes: Chicken Parmesan, Garlic and Oil Pasta, Steamed Broccoli, Caesar Salad, and Garlic Bread.  The “piece de resistance” (read that with a french accent), however, is the special Christmas day Chocolate Soufflé.  That’s how we roll in our house hold.  It gets pretty fancy smancy around here on December 25th.dinner table

Nothing says Christmas like a perfectly timed delicacy served piping hot with a dab of cold ice cream or whipped cream.  You should give it a try.Dessert!

Chocolate Soufflé

An old recipe taken from the New York Times article about Cleo’s La Cuisine Catering, Published February 11, 1981

Ingredients

  • 2 cups milk
  • 6 eggs, separated, plus 2 eggs whites
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate bits (my mom uses standard chocolate chips)

Method

  1. Scald milk in double boiler.
  2. Use an electric mixer to beat the six egg yolks with the sugar for about 4 minutes, until it forms a “ribbon.”  Add the flour gradually and continue to beat until smooth.
  3. Transfer the egg mixture to a double boiler and gradually add in the scalded milk.  Beat vigorously making sure to temper the eggs and not let them get cooked.  Beat for about five minutes.
  4. Add chocolate to the mixture and stir until melted.  Remove from the heat and let it cool.
  5. Beat all eight egg whites wand a pinch of salt until stiff but not dry.
  6. Fold the egg whites into cooled chocolate mixture.
  7. Preheat the oven to 350.
  8. Butter a two quart soulfe dish and sprinkle with a little sugar.  Fill the soufle dish with the batter and bake 80-90 minutes until there is about a two inch cap above the rim of the dish.right out of the oven!
  9. Enjoy it right out of the oven with colder accompaniment, but wait a sec so you don’t burn your mouth!ready to serveplating it up!