You Say Goodbye, and I Say Hello

Goodbye 2010... the year I really discovered how much I like experimenting in my Blue Kitchen. The year I decided to make more of my own food and buy less pre-made food. The year I discovered the joy of baking and eating home-made bread. The year I realized how much I love a clean kitchen floor. The year I made jam for the first time. The year I quit composting and then started again. The year I welcomed one more person to feed into my family!

Hello 2011... the year I will hopefully get all of you to try a few new recipes with me through my 12 month cooking challenge. The year I hope to become more of a Locavore. The year I plan to succeed at making hamburger buns. The year we are going to try growing some of our own food!

I ended this year with a very successful new bread recipe. I made caramelized onion bread! It made a huge loaf (much bigger than I was expecting), and the whole entire thing got eaten for lunch. I served it with homemade soup made with homemade turkey stock. I wish I had taken a picture for you before it all got eaten, because it was beautiful.

I still have a lot of goodies in my house left-over from Christmas, so I am putting a moratorium  on baking for awhile. I ate WAY too much over the last couple of weeks. But it was all delicious. Though as I write this, I realize that I made a cheesecake today. I meant to weeks and weeks ago so I had bought all the ingredients for it. The cream cheese sitting in the fridge has been taunting me, and the raspberries were just begging to be used up. The huge bag of unopened graham crumbs was wanting to be turned into Reese's Pieces, and I have eaten a lot of chocolate lately. So here's the recipe:

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mOm's No-Bake Cheesecake

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Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups graham crumbs

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup icing sugar

1 pkg cream cheese, softened

1 pkg whipped topping, plus milk and vanilla according to package directions

Directions:

Mix first three ingredients in bowl and spread evenly in large baking dish.

Make whipped topping.

Mix remaining ingredients with whipped topping until smooth. 

Pour on top of crust.

Top with any fruit you like.

Notes:

I like a little cinnamon in the crust. 

Mom would sometimes use oreo cookie crumbs instead of graham crumbs and chocolate milk instead of white for a tasty chocolate cheesecake.

I mix everything in the blender because it takes forever to get it smooth with a spoon. 

I sometimes throw the fruit in the blender too, for a fruity cheesecake.

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AND... January's recipe should be up shortly! It won't be anything too complicated or fancy this month, so I hope you try it out.