Raspberry Cheesecake w/White Chocolate

     My wife really likes the raspberry swirl cheesecake from Olive Garden. Thus challenging me to create it. I did not quite get the "swirl" part right, but the flavor was there. Or everyone enjoyed this dish. I don't like cheesecake so I had to search for a recipe on the internet. I did however make two sauces from scratch for the dish, Chocolate & Raspberry Syrup. Very simple to make, but does involve a lot of whisking. 

     The cheesecake I did adapt by adding some chunks of white chocolate to the mix. After pouring the cheesecake into the pan I swirled in some of the raspberry syrup. All though in hind sight I believe I should have done this in stages, pour some cheesecake batter then swirl in some syrup and repeat. Only the top layer got the swirl with the way I did it.

     The syrup recipe was actually taken from Alton Brown's "Good Eats" cooking show. He did this for chocolate syrup, but I found out you can substitute anything for the cocoa powder and mix it up. Now there is another small change depending on the fruit you are using. The water amount in the recipe will need to be decreased for some fruits due to their high level of juice. But man is it great. What are some of your cheesecake recipes? Enjoy! 

Oreo Delight!

     To mix things up I decided to do a dessert this time. I've been seeing a lot of banana pudding lately. So I figured why not give it shot, but instead of bananas (which I do not like) why not use something I and pretty much everyone else likes Oreo's. So I decided to do a Oreo Pudding that I am just simply calling Oreo Delight.  

     So after a simple summer dinner of skillet potatoes, corn on the cob & steak,

I made up some whip cream to finish off the dessert and served. Man was this good. The different textures and each flavor just coming at you one at a time. I loved it. I did not do it in one big container but did it in individual cups. It was so rich that most of us couldn't finish it in one sitting.

     Nothing of this one is hard, or very time consuming. My 4 year old helped me with making this dessert the entire time. I think I would like to try this with some chocolate & vanilla pudding next time. What do you think? Enjoy!

Summer Burger Tour: Stowaway's

    Well on the way back to the station I noticed a stowaway, left over sirloin bacon burgers, so I decided to use the extra for breakfast. Thus the breakfast burger is born. I made the patties thinner so as not to overpower everything else. Using cheddar cheese again, & swapped out the buns for toast. No need for a sausage patty or extra bacon (all though the extra bacon would make it that much better). If you have a runny yoke then all the better because you can dip the burger into it, making it that much more enjoyable.
     This is one stow away that ended up paying for the trip.

Summer Burger Tour (stop 3): Sirloin Bacon Burger

     Thanks for taking the Summer Burger Tour with us this year. Our final stop the sirloin bacon burger. Now I am not talking about a sirloin burger topped with bacon, no no. I am talking about a freshly ground sirloin mixed with ground bacon. Topped with some mild cheddar cheese and you have the true all american burger right here!
     One of my brother in-laws was here for it along with some friends of ours. While grinding and mixing up the meat,my brother in-law, Beau walked into the kitchen and smelt the meat and said "I think I will have 2 or 3 of those, that smells good." I replied that he most likely will only eat one because these burgers are not small, plus I do portion these meals so there isn't always seconds. With the amount of people we had over for this one (only 5 more than normal) I way more meat than I should have. Guess how many he ate? It was not 2 or 3, in fact it was so filling he could not even finish the last 2 (small) bites he had left of the first one.
     I also had a compliment of having the "best burger I have ever eaten!" Now that was cool. Not sure if it is the best but I am sure if people try this they will let me know. Once again I used Red Robin seasoning for consistency purposes. Because it is 4th of July weekend I used the traditional sesame seed bun though. For the recipe though I will not be able to post specific amounts due to the fact that the seasoning was to taste. Please make any adjustments & let me know how it turns out if you try this one. Thanks for taking the tour with us this summer. Enjoy!