From Our Kitchen: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake

My dear friend, Michelle, asked the other day for me to put up a cheesecake recipe. Now, while my waist line certainly does not want a cheesecake in the house right now, I was happy to oblige in at least sharing a recipe, and am proud to present you with my favorite cheesecake recipe of all time. Yes, you heard me right: of all time. This is a really simple recipe, and can be prepared in either a traditional springform pan, or just in a pie dish. For the sake of simplicity (ahem, Michelle prefers her recipes simple, yes?), I will share the pie dish version, but please let me know if you would like help with the springform version. This is an old recipe from a cheesecake cookbook my grandparents gave me when I was like 10 years old (obviously me and cheesecakes go wayyyy back).

What You'll Need - Graham Cracker Crust

• 12 graham crackers
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 7 tbsp butter, melted

What You'll Do - Graham Cracker Crust

1. Pulse graham crackers in a food processor, until they become a fine dust. Add in sugar and salt and pulse to combine.
2. Add in butter, pulse to combine, scraping down sides as needed, until a fine meal forms.
3. Dump the graham cracker mixture into a 9-inch pie pan sprayed with Pam. I use my fingers to press down, but you use whatever works best for you. Make sure to leave a little edge!
4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes, or until set. Remove from oven, and set aside.

What You'll Need - Cheesecake Filling

• 2 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup prepared cookie dough, divided (I typically use the pre-made stuff here - a roll is more than enough - but feel free to make your own too!)

What You'll Do - Cheesecake Filling

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Mix cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla at medium speed with an electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, and mix until well incorporated. Drop 1/2 cup of cookie dough by level teaspoonfuls into batter and gently fold to incorporate.
3. Pour into your graham cracker crust. Top, by teaspoonfuls, with remaining cookie dough.
4. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes, or until center is almost set (should be a nice golden color)
5. Cool, and then refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
6. Enjoy!

I should also note that you can obviously use a pre-made graham cracker crust here, but I am morally opposed to that, so don't tell me if you do. Obviously, kidding (but not really).

From Our Kitchen: Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies

I thought it was about time I shared a sweet treats recipe with you guys. I learned to bake way before I learned to cook anything. As a child, I would sit in my Nana's kitchen, and "help" her bake cookies, cakes, pies, anything you can think of. Every holiday, starting when I was a pre-teen maybe, I was responsible for all the desserts at our house (my Mom abhors baking - I'm not trying to be pretentious I promise, hate just wasn't a strong enough word. I think she may have an honest to goodness fear of flour or something), so days before Christmas you could find me in the kitchen baking up the likes of chocolate chocolate chip cookies, pecan pies, and more. I have really started to love making things from scratch - when I made Morgan's graduation desserts, everything from the cake mix to the cookie dough to the frosting was from scratch - it was so much fun, and so delicious! However, if you know anything about making it from scratch, it usually takes a good bit more time than a boxed mix to get from "mmm I could really use a cookie" to "wow this cookie is delicious!". This cookie recipe can have you from zero to cookie in no time, plus, it is the perfect base for a variety of mix-ins. Yesterday was the first time I tried chocolate chips and toffee, but we have done butterfinger bits many times, and I would imagine peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, raisins, coconut, whatever your heart's desire would be just as great. These are perfectly chewy, soft and delicious cookies!

What You'll Need:

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 bag chocolate chips + 1/2 bag toffee bits (or substitute your favorite mix-ins)

What You'll Do:

1. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, and set aside.
2. Combine sugar and butter until well mixed. Mix in egg.
3. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture. Mix until well incorporated.
4. Stir in chocolate chips & toffee (or other mix-ins).
5. Drop by slightly rounded tablespoons onto cookie sheet.
6. ***At this point, you can either proceed to the next stop, or (and this is my personal recommendation for the absolute perfect cookie), take your balls of cookie dough, place in a ziplock bag. Place the ziplock bag in the freezer for 1 hour. The cookies bake just fine without this step, but I think they turn out even better if you freeze them first. You can also keep them in the freezer for weeks, so if you just want a cookie or two at a time, this is the perfect solution!***
7. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Yields 2 dozen cookies

A Month of Celebrating

June, man, you have already been a busy (albeit wonderful) month! We started off with Harris' birthday celebrations, last weekend my baby sister graduated from high school, and this coming weekend is my Mom's 50th birthday! I am sure she will be none to happy about me revealing her age on here, but seriously, she looks like this. At fifty. (She will also kill me for putting this picture up, but oh well!).

I hope I am lucky enough to look this good at 50!

I drove down to North Carolina Friday morning, bright and early (well, not so bright at 4am, but definitely early). I got there in plenty of time to help with the last minute preparations and cooking! I had spent most of Thursday working on chocolate chip cookies, Dr. Seuss cookies, Oreo cupcakes, and Reese cupcakes, so all I had to do in the dessert department once I got there was frost those cupcakes (which were pretty amazing, if I do say so myself!). The party was a lot of fun, and it was so great to see the bestie and her hubby who came over for the shindig! It was a bummer that Harris had to work all weekend, but we will get together soon, I am sure.

Friday was really a blur of cooking and then eating, and then Saturday was graduation prep and then the big event. It was a great weekend of celebrating, but it went by so fast! I can't believe my littlest sister is going off to college this fall! Morgan, we are so proud of you and love you so much!

My "Violet, you're turning violet, Violet" hands after making the Dr. Seuss cookies. Should note this was post-handwashing.

Sisters!

Again! I was charged with the very important task of holding the graduation tickets -
I have those babies in a death grip.

This time with Mom :)

My personal favorite. Mom is going a little Willow Smith with that hair whip...

I'll sing the alma mater if you give me the chance.
Truth: I sang it at the graduation party and with the chorus at graduation.

Maybe I was trying to get a picture of Morgan?
No one can really be too sure.

My sad shot of her walking off stage.

Caps! It's official!

Sweet girls! Morgan with besties, Lexi and Lilly!

The proud parentals.

Sisters again. Because, why not?

Morgan and Khyne.

Kayla and Khyne.

The little graduate!

Kitchen Favorites

My BFF just did a blog post yesterday as part of her Forever Favorites series on her favorite kitchen gadgets. She blogs over at The Segura Life, so go check her out!

At any rate, I thought this was a fun topic, and thought I would put together a list of my own favorite kitchen tools and gadgets! We usually cook most days of the week, and I like to make fresh baked goods frequently. Being a newlywed means we have lots of fun new gadgets to play with, and I am enjoying them all greatly, but here are just a few of the "can't live withouts"!

KitchenAid Mixer (in Orange!)

This mixer has been one of the best gifts (thanks Aunt Wanda!). It is such a cinch to use - just pour ingredients in, and watch the magic happen. Also, as Erica also pointed out, it adds such a nice pop of color to our kitchen counters. 

Le Creuset Stoneware (also in Orange!)

This stoneware set has been wonderful! I love how sturdy (and pretty!) each piece is, and, as an added bonus, they have been super easy to clean, thus far. No soaking or scrubbing necessary, which has been nothing short of amazing. Plus, the four little pots are perfect for things that you might usually not have something appropriately-sized - like roasting garlic - and they are even very cute serving dishes.

Chef'n Pinch & Pour Collapsible Measuring Cups & Nesting Spoons

In my humble opinion, these are the best measuring cups - they are fun colors, and collapsible, which means they are easy to store, and you can pop them down and slip them in the silverware holders in the dishwasher, and they don't collect water.Brilliant! I can't tell you how many times a day I use these suckers.

Vegetable Chop & Measure

I am the world's worst vegetable chopper - just ask my husband! I try not to chop around him because I can tell I make him visibly nervous. When we first received this gift, I wasn't sure how handy it would be - especially for the chopping of the onions. Onions and I already have a hate/hate relationship, and this little gadget makes it so that not only do I not have to chop them (usually at least one recipe a week calls for them), I also do not have to cry over them!