Green & Gold Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Tomato Soup

Tomorrow is game day! And, it’s against one of the Green Bay Packers’ biggest rivals – the Vikings!

Here in Green Bay, we finally got our first real snow fall of the season this past weekend! It wasn't much snow, but it was enough to cover the ground and stick for more than 30 seconds. Truthfully, I’m more excited about the snow than the football game… Funny enough, you’d think living in Green Bay would make me a die-hard Packers fan, but that’s not the case. In fact, I’m a Bears fan! (Shhhh! Don’t tell these crazy people!!  ;-)) Although, when my friends ask me to go to a game with them, I try to be a good sport and show some team spirit…

Or, I just like to have any excuse to wear a tutu!!  :-D

I was recently contacted by a man named Brian from the Campbell’s Soup Company, asking if I would be interested in tasting and reviewing one of their newer soups, the Sun-Ripened Yellow Tomato Soup.

While doing this project, I even learned a few things about Campbell’s and the history of condensed soups!

When Brian and I initially talked about this project, he thought it would be kind of fun if I did a play on the classic Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup combination, but make it Packers-themed. I thought it was definitely a cute idea, and immediately called Ledgeview Gardens and asked if they had any of their yellow tomatoes available. Confirming that they did indeed have some, I headed over there immediately and picked up my tomatoes and some fresh basil.

After going to Ledgeview Gardens, I ran to the grocery store to get the rest of my ingredients, namely the cheese. Living in Wisconsin, we’re pretty lucky because we have probably more cheeses than most people even know about, and they’re readily available at most supermarkets in the larger cities. One of the Wisconsin-local grocery stores, Woodman’s, has probably the most diverse of collection of cheeses of all the stores I've been to, and they carry a lot of Wisconsin-made cheeses. I’m particularly fond of the Belgioioso brand of cheeses, as they consistently produce a great-quality cheese and they’re reasonable priced. For this particular project, I decided to use a Burrata cheese, which usually comes packed in water and is like regular mozzarella on the outside and then has shreds of mozzarella combined with cream on the inside. It’s super soft, but really delicious! I cut the Burrata in half and then scooped out the mozzarella and cream interior to spread on my sandwich, but you can easily substitute regular fresh mozzarella cheese sliced thinly.

Because yellow tomatoes are very mild and much less acidic than their red counterparts, I didn't want to use a cheese that would be too strong and that would overshadow the tomato’s flavor. And since their flavor isn't entirely strong, I also roasted some of them for my sandwiches, to help pronounce their flavor a little more. If you’d like even more flavor, you can always add some dried basil with the salt and pepper, just before roasting the tomatoes, but I really wanted the tomato to shine this time.

As for the soup… It really did have a nice flavor, but I must admit that I actually like the acidity and extra flavor of the red tomatoes. I’m one of those weird people who can (and does) eat tomatoes like an apple, with just a little bit of salt on them! So, for me, I really liked the added flavor dimension that the freshly chopped basil and the basil oil added to the soup. But, if you’re one of those people who can’t eat tomato products because of the high acidity, I would definitely recommend trying this out!

Printable Recipe

2 large, ripe, yellow beefsteak tomatoes

Salt and pepper

Canola or olive oil

1 (10.75 oz.) can Campbell’s Sun-Ripened Yellow Tomato Soup

Basil-infused butter

6 slices potato bread

8 oz. ball fresh mozzarella, sliced thin

Fresh basil leaves, optional

Basil oil, optional

Preheat the oven to 350°. Prepare the tomatoes by chopping one of them into small dices, slicing the other one to approximately a ¼-inch thickness; set aside the diced tomatoes. Place the tomato slices in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and pepper, drizzle with a little bit of canola oil, and place in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, until the tomatoes have softened and started to brown slightly around the edges. Remove the tomatoes from the oven and set aside to cool slightly.

Add the contents of the canned soup to a medium saucepan, fill the empty can ¾-full of water, and empty that into the saucepan; stir with a whisk to combine everything thoroughly. Heat the soup over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the soup is heated through. When the soup is hot, add the diced yellow tomatoes, stirring to combine, and remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, preheat a panini press (or George Foreman grill) and assemble the sandwiches; using the basil butter on the outsides of the bread, layer the sliced mozzarella cheese with the roasted tomatoes. Place the sandwiches on the panini press, buttered sides out, and grill until the bread is toasted and golden brown. Remove the sandwiches from the press and allow the cheese to cool slightly before cutting them; cut the sandwiches into small pieces if you’d like, or however you prefer.

Spoon the soup into 3 bowls, garnishing with a chiffonade of fresh basil leaves and/or the basil oil drizzled on top. Serve the soup with the sandwiches or place the “croutons” on top.

Herb-Infused Butter and Oil

Wow!! It sure has been a long time since my last blog post! I would like to sincerely apologize to all of my readers for my absence. For quite a while after I started my new job, I was working 60 hours a week, it went back to normal for a couple of weeks, and then I was right back to working 60 hours again. Not only did my blogging suffer, I no longer had the time or energy to go to the gym and I gained back 20 of the pounds that I had worked so hard to lose.  :-(  But, I left that job, as a result of several issues I had with the level of cleanliness in the kitchen (or lack thereof) and the way the owner and management treated the other employees, so am taking some time to recoup from the long work weeks and get back into doing everything I was doing before!

Funny enough, I actually had this blog post typed up and ready to go last week, was just waiting until I took some more pictures, but Microsoft Word crashed and lost the entire document. Strangely, the two documents I typed up AFTER that were saved just fine, but I didn't have a single word of what I had typed up for this. I looked in all of my temporary files and Recovery files, to no avail. Since then, I've been kind of busy, so it took me a little bit to remember everything I had said so that I could type it up again. Stinkin’ technology, it always fails when you need it most!

This blog post is really special to me. Not because of the recipe included, but because it’s the first one I've done in a long time and I've learned a lot about one of the local businesses in the Green Bay area, and I am excited to share it with all of you!

Ledgeview Gardens has been around for several years, and they have some of the best, freshest produce I've eaten. In the summer months, they have plenty of garden space outside and grow a plethora of fruits, vegetables, and herbs in addition to the farm fresh eggs and free-range chicken they sell. I can even buy my squash blossoms from them, instead of scouring the entire market only to come up empty-handed! But, the very best part about Ledgeview Gardens (for me anyways) is that they also have a fair amount of fresh produce even in the wintertime!! After the regular growing season, until around Christmas, you can buy red and yellow beefsteak tomatoes, red and yellow cherry tomatoes, pole beans, a couple varieties of lettuce, garlic, basil, parsley, English cucumbers, winter squash, three different kinds of sweet potatoes, the farm-fresh eggs, and the free-range chicken. After Christmas, they close down to clean out the greenhouse and getting everything ready for the next growing season, and then you’re able to start buying fresh produce again in the middle of May. I don’t know about anyone else, but I am always thoroughly disgusted with the “fake tomatoes” they sell in the supermarkets, so this place is a godsend for me!

As if it wasn't enough that they have this stuff available, their customer service is stellar! The first day I actually drove out to their farm, Darren was kind enough to show me around their facility and explain to me how everything works. Then, I brought my neighbors later that day, and he also gave them a tour and talked to them about everything he had talked to me about earlier. This was especially great, because my neighbors and I had just been talking about cleaning out my spare bedroom and making it into a greenhouse, so that we could have all kinds of fresh vegetables all year long. We had thought we were going to go with a soil method, but after talking to Darren and his dad, Joe, we’re looking at alternative methods – hydroponics and aquaponics. They use the hydroponic method in their greenhouse for the off-season months, and so they were extremely knowledgeable about what we could do in our homes in, but they also know about aquaponics and have been very helpful in helping us to understand what we need to do to get ready for all of it. I have since been there a few times, and they are always happy to answer any new questions I have about setting up a system in my own home and pointing me in the right direction to go about finding the supplies I’ll need.

If you are in the Green Bay area, I definitely recommend looking up Ledgeview Gardens! However, in the summer months, they are much more easily accessible, as they also sell their produce at a couple of the farmer’s markets. But, they are also happy to have you come out to their farm. The only thing I can think of that would make them better… If they started making and/or selling real bacon!  ;-)

What better way to showcase the fresh basil I bought at Ledgeview Gardens than to infuse it in some butter and oil to use later?! I love infusing herbs into oil, because they last a little bit longer and you can drizzle them on top of many kinds of dishes to complement their flavors. This would be great for another recipe I was going to be making...

¼ lb. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

½ c. olive or canola oil

Fresh basil, cilantro, parsley, etc.

For the butter: Place the softened butter in a small bowl. If using basil, stack all of the leaves together, roll them up, and cut them into a chiffonade; for other herbs, roughly chop them. Add the herb/herbs to the butter and mix to thoroughly combine; add more herbs, to taste, if you would like more of the flavor. The butter can be used right away or stored in the refrigerator to maintain freshness.

For the oil: Place the leaves of whichever herb/herbs you’re using in the jar of a blender, pour the oil over the leaves, and pulse the mixture until the leaves are chopped into small pieces. If you want more herb flavor, add more leaves to achieve the desired flavor.

Pistachio, White Chocolate, and Raspberry Trifle

The idea for this trifle came about because yesterday was my brother-in-law Pat’s birthday, and so my nephew Leo (who I teach cooking classes to) and I wanted to make him a special birthday dessert. Pat LOVES pistachios, so I definitely wanted to incorporated them into his dessert somehow, and he’s also rather fond of raspberries. We could have done a pistachio cake with raspberry frosting, but that didn’t seem quite what we wanted. Plus, Leo sometimes has a hard time with focusing - we're working on that in class - so maybe the cake making/cooling part wasn’t such a good idea with him…
I eventually decided on this yummy trifle, after seeing a recipe somewhere for a biscotti with the same flavors. It sounded delicious to me! As it turns out, Chrissy and Pat were planning to take the boys to see a St. Patrick’s Day parade, so cooking class was limited to only 1 hour this time. Because of the time restraint, I made the cakes and pudding ahead of time and then Leo helped me assemble the masterpiece. (Of course, I always let Chef Leo take all of the credit, though!)
The recipe for the cake came from a blog post that sounded wonderful to me. The recipe was passed down through a couple of generations, so I figured it had to be good! I always love recipes that have stories… I had seen a few other recipes for pistachio cake, but some of the ingredients sounded a little strange or they didn’t get good reviews. I was also opposed to adding any more artificial coloring than necessary, so the two packages of pudding mix would definitely help alleviate that particular problem. This cake turned out so wonderfully moist and delicious, I couldn’t help eating the outside edges while I was cutting it into cubes for the trifle! I followed the instructions in the recipe, for the most part, when it came to the ingredients, but I wanted a thinner cake in the end so that I wouldn’t have to worry about cutting it in half and then into bite-size pieces. So, I made the recipe, adding some pistachio extract that I just happen to have, and separated the batter between two 9x13-inch cakes pans. Because I was baking such small cakes, I didn’t want them to brown too fast and adjusted the oven temperature accordingly.

The great thing about making trifles for special occasions is that they look like you put a lot of time and effort into making them. And, if you so desired, you really could do just that! However, they can also be made with help from prepackaged mixes, which works well if you’re short on time and/or if you have children helping you. Focusing on the task at hand can be a little difficult for young minds, when there are 500 other things going on in their brains… (During cooking class, I hear at least 10 different thoughts that are going through Leo’s mind during that time! Angry Birds was a common subject, as I’m the only one in the family with an iPhone which means I “need” to hear all of the relevant news, so I eventually had to ban that topic from cooking class time… Did you know that Angry Birds Space is coming out in the App Store on March 22nd?! No? I’ve been hearing about it for probably a month now!)

In the end, Chef Leo’s masterpiece turned out beautifully, tasted divine, and he received lots of praise and gratitude! He’s such a good little chef!! ;-)

Printable Recipe

Pistachio Cake:
1 box white cake mix
2 (3.4 oz.) pkg. pistachio instant pudding
5 large eggs
½ c. milk
½ c. water
½ c. oil
2 tsp. pistachio extract

3 (3.3 oz.) pkg. white chocolate instant pudding
6 c. milk
2 (6 oz.) pkg. fresh raspberries
½ c. shelled pistachios, gently rubbed to remove skins

For the cake: Preheat your oven to 300° and prepare two 9x13-inch cake pans with cooking spray on the bottoms and sides. In a large mixing bowl, combine the white cake mix and pistachio pudding mixes and stir with a spoon or fork until combined. Make a well in the dry mix and add all of the wet ingredients. With an electric mixer, combine all of the ingredients on low speed for 1 minute; increase the speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes. Divide the cake batter evenly between the two prepared pans, smoothing the batter until even, and place both pans in the preheated oven. Cook the cakes for approximately 35-40 minutes, or until the middle springs back when you touch it lightly, being sure to rotate the pans halfway through to ensure even baking. Allow the cakes to cool completely, and then cut them into 1-inch cubes.
While the cake is cooling, prepare the white chocolate pudding according to the package directions. Place in the refrigerator and allow it to sit while the cake finishes cooling.
To arrange the trifle, place a generous layer of the pistachio cake in the bottom of a trifle bowl, using as much or as little cake as you like. Follow the cake layer with a white chocolate pudding layer, then a generous layer of raspberries (be sure to save some to garnish the top of the trifle), and then a final layer of each of the cake and the pudding. Garnish the trifle with the reserved raspberries and shelled pistachios.

S'mores Cheesecake

It’s a cheesecake challenge… Bring it on!!

Last night, I had a girls’ night with some of the girls I bowl with on Monday nights, and I was challenged to a cheesecake competition. This has been a standing challenge, as the girl who brought it on has been saying for months that we need to do this so that we can decide, once and for all, who the master of all cheesecake awesomeness is! In all honesty, Nikki had offended me the very first time I ever made cheesecake for them, for the bowling Christmas party, by saying that it tasted like store-bought. I was highly offended, and so when she first mentioned a cheesecake challenge, I knew I was going to have to bring my A-game! Store-bought?! Cheesecake?! When I can make a perfectly delicious one all by myself?! Yeah, this was WAR!!
I’ve gotten to know Nikki much better since then, and she is becoming a very dear friend to me, so there are no hard feelings between us anymore. But, we do taunt each other about our cheesecake-making skills on a regular basis!
When we decided to do a girls’ night, right away Nikki was excited – we could finally have our cheesecake challenge! So, for a couple of weeks now, I’ve been thinking really hard about which cheesecake I would be doing. Since this was all about cheesecake awesomeness, it had to be something good! I still didn’t know what I was going to make until the week of the girls’ night, but had been thinking about a white chocolate raspberry one (one of my personal favorites). I was actually at the grocery store to pick up all of my ingredients when I happened upon the baking isle – Go figure! – and passed an entire section of marshmallows. That’s when the idea came to me… How about a S’mores Cheesecake?! I sent a text message to a couple of my friends, asking them which one they would rather have, and both of them said “S’mores!” Good!! Because that’s what I really wanted anyways, now that I had gotten the idea in my head! This was gonna GOOOOOOOD…
I’ve made my fair share of cheesecakes, since that was our primary dessert at Fetaz, but we didn’t usually do a lot of chocolate ones. We swirled a lot of fruit purees into them, made toppings for them, but we didn’t do chocolate very often. I did make a Black Forest Cheesecake for my birthday last year, but I had thought it was too dense and rich for what I wanted now so decided to melt the chocolate with heavy cream, as you would for ganache, and add that to the batter. But, I was a little worried that doing this would dilute the chocolate flavor too much, so I searched the internet for chocolate cheesecakes and saw that a lot of people also added cocoa powder to their chocolate cheesecake recipes when doing this. Following my basic cheesecake recipe, I added the chocolate mix-ins and continued with the recipe like normal. (Fair warning: This is still a very rich, and VERY chocolatey, cheesecake! If you want less chocolate flavor, simply reduce or take out the cocoa powder.) While checking out what other people had to say about the chocolate cheesecakes, I came across something interesting, though, that I thought I should pass on to you, my readers… I’ve never had a problem with this happening, but if you mix the batter too much after adding the eggs, it can incorporate too much air into the batter and you could have problems with air bubbles. So, it’s best to add the eggs at the very end and only stir until they are just mixed in. Too much air in the batter can also create a soufflé effect with your cheesecake, causing it to rise and then fall, leaving behind cracks in the top of your beautiful cheesecake. So, I did alter my original recipe to reflect this bit of information…
When it came to the crust, of course, I would be doing the traditional graham cracker crust. Since it was to be resembling the campfire treat, though, I wanted it to be a little more substantial, so I actually did measure out the ingredients for it this time. I also wanted it to be a little bit crunchy, so blind-baked it for just a little bit before adding the batter. If your springform pan leaks, as a lot of them do, I read a really great tip for keeping your crust dry that actually does work! Instead of wrapping layers of foil around your cheesecake pan, which doesn’t always work, use the plastic liners they make for Crock Pots around the outside of your pan. Simply open up the bake and fold down the sides, put the pan of cheesecake into the bag, and fold down the sides some more until the bag is flush with the side of the pan as much as possible. That’s definitely so much easier, and much less messy!
Now, when it came to the topping, I needed something marshmallowy… I tend to think that cheesecakes are rather classy, so I didn’t want to just throw a bunch of marshmallows on top of the thing and call it good. Besides, this was a challenge, so I had to do better than blah pre-made marshmallows! Then I remembered the S’mores Cupcakes I make, and thought how perfectly that marshmallow topping would work on my cheesecake. And, besides, it gave me another reason to use my Crème Brûlée torch! For the garnish, I couldn’t find the little dipping style graham crackers that I’ve purchased in the past, but I did find some other ones that sufficed, in the form of Spongebob Snacking Grahams… So I turned the Spongebob sides of the grahams to the inside and made miniature s’mores to garnish my cheesecake slices! Who can resist tiny-sized s’mores?! Ummm… Nobody!!

The girls’ night was great fun, and, in the end, it really didn’t matter who the real winner of the competition was (ME!!) because there was more than plenty of great food to be eaten and much fun to be had!

Printable Recipe

Chocolate Cheesecake:
2 oz. semi-sweet baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
¼ c. heavy whipping cream
3 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, at room temperature
1 c. white sugar
⅓ c. unsweetened cocoa powder
⅛ c. homemade vanilla extract, or 2 tsp. store-bought vanilla extract
4 eggs, at room temperature

Crust:
2 c. graham cracker crumbs
6 Tbsp. butter, melted

Marshmallow Topping:
8 large egg whites
2 c. white sugar
½ tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract, optional

Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars, broken into individual pieces, for garnish (optional)
Bite-size graham cracker pieces, for garnish (optional)
Additional graham cracker crumbs, for garnish (optional)

For the cheesecake batter: In a small saucepan, combine the baking chocolate and the heavy cream and heat over low heat, stirring constantly, until the chocolate is melted and smooth; remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.
In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine and cream cheese, sugar, and cocoa powder and mix on medium-low/medium speed until thoroughly combined and no lumps remain. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, then add the vanilla extract and the chocolate mixture and beat on low/medium-low until well blended and no streaks remain. Finally, add the eggs, one at a time, and beat on low speed until just blended, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl if needed. Cover the bowl and allow the batter to sit in the refrigerator overnight.
To make the cheesecake: Preheat oven to 350°. In a medium bowl, mix together the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter until thoroughly combined. Lightly press the mixture onto the bottom and partway up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes, then allow the crust to cool; Reduce the oven temperature to 325°.
Pour the cheesecake batter over the crust and place the filled springform pan into a large cake pan or roasting pan, filling the outside pan halfway with water. Place the pan into the preheated oven and bake until the cheesecake is almost set, approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and let it continue to sit in the water bath for about a half hour; remove the springform pan from the water bath and place it in the refrigerator to finish cooling.
For the marshmallow topping: When the cheesecake is completely cooled, place the egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar in the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer. Set over a saucepan with simmering water and whisk constantly until the sugar is dissolved and the whites are warm to the touch, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer the bowl to the electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and beat, starting on low speed, gradually increasing to high, until stiff, glossy peaks form, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the vanilla, and mix until combined. Transfer the frosting to a large pastry bag fitted with a large plain round or French tip (I like the Wilton large star tip - #2110). Pipe the frosting in a spiral motion onto the top of the cheesecake, reserving a little extra to pipe around the outside edges and make miniature s’mores, if you’re doing that. Using a kitchen torch, lightly brown the marshmallow topping all around the cheesecake. Pipe some of the remaining topping around the outsides of the cheesecake and sprinkle with extra graham cracker crumbs.
Slice the cheesecake into the desired number of pieces (I think 12 is a nice number) and serve each piece garnished with a piece of Hershey’s candy and bite-size graham cracker pieces. Store any leftover cheesecake, covered well, in the refrigerator.

Crock Pot White Chicken Chili

For the first time ever on my blog, I’m posting a recipe for the Crock Pot! It’s kind of surprising, really, because I love all of my slow cookers (Yes, there’s more than one… There are four, to be exact!) and use them fairly regularly. I really used them a lot when I was working full-time and also going to school full-time, because I just never had any time to cook a real meal otherwise and didn’t want to live off of drive-thru food. I would do things like adding frozen chicken breasts and then covering them with chicken broth/stock and cream of chicken soup. Then, I would make some egg noodles or the microwavable rice to go along with it and steam some vegetables really quick. This is how I got by (and retained some semblance of my sanity) for months at a time…
I still use my slow cookers on a regular basis, but not nearly as much as I did at that time. My favorite of all of them is the Crock Pot Smart Pot that I got around Christmastime one year, for only $15! It’s the one I use for soups and stews because it’s so big and can hold pretty much whatever I put in it. (This exact recipe fit in it perfectly, with room to spare even…) And the best thing about slow cookers is that you can put everything for your meal in them, turn them on and leave them on, and don’t have to worry about your house burning down while you’re gone! You can even prepare all of the stuff for your meal the night before, put it in the crock part of the device and stick it in the refrigerator, then put the filled crock right into the heating base the next morning before running out the door. How great is that?!
I came across this recipe for Southwest White Chili a long time ago, via the little recipe cards you find in grocery stores. This particular one was from the McCormick brand, and the picture looked good, so figured it was worth a shot! In all fairness, I did start out following the recipe, kinda, but then realized it needed a little bit of extra work. I tasted the chili after it had been cooking for a few hours and found it to be bland, even though I had added an entire extra can of the green chilies they called for in their recipe. As if that alone wasn’t enough to deter me from ever spending the obscene amount of money on the tiny little can of “chilies” again in the future, the fact that there were unidentifiable objects in my soup as a result of using them sealed the deal. Little orange pieces, which I can only logically identify as carrots? Why are those in my chilies?! And woody pieces of …something that I’m hoping were stems? And big leafy pieces of …something else? What the heck is that from?! From now on, I’ll be substituting a Poblano pepper for every can of diced green chilies a recipe calls for, because then I’ll know what’s in my food! Nobody should ever have to guess what weird things might be in their food when the label doesn’t state anything about carrots and leafy greens… ;-)
Back to the bland, though!
It may be because I rinse and drain all of my beans before adding them (rinsing and draining canned beans reduces the sodium content by approximately 40%), since I’m trying to eat healthier and am ultra aware of sodium contents which can be detrimental to dieting, but I would really prefer to have flavor from other sources than a bunch of added salt. Yes, I could just buy the dry beans and soak them and all of that stuff, but I don’t always think that far ahead - a lot of times, I don’t know what I’m going to make for dinner until that morning or even early afternoon! Needless to say, canned beans are quite convenient. Sadly, not all of the canned beans come in a reduced sodium or no salt added version, though, so the rinsing and draining is as close as I’m going to get without actually soaking my own beans.
The original recipe for this was really more like a soup than a chili, in my opinion… Of course, kidney beans don’t really break down a whole lot, so it’s not like the breaking down of the beans could help thicken the soup. And there wasn’t really much of anything else in there to make it thicker, unless I made a flour thickener and added that, which I didn’t want to do because I’m trying to keep my carb intake within a certain range. So, back to the store I went! While there, I picked up some navy beans, which are smaller, softer, and break down more easily, and some Poblano peppers to help spice things up a bit. At home, I quickly diced up the peppers and added them to the Crock Pot, along with the navy beans, and let it simmer for a little while again. After a couple hours, the beans were starting to break down and thicken my chili, but now it was a little too thick! So, a little more stock went in and the Poblanos definitely added just the right amount of kick. After some slight modifications, I finally have a delicious chicken chili recipe! Perfect for the snowy days we had been having here in northern Wisconsin, where we’ve otherwise been having a very mild winter this year…

Printable Recipe

1 Tbsp. olive oil
½ c. chopped onion
3 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into small cubes
4 c. unsalted chicken stock
1-2 Poblano peppers, diced
2 (15.5 oz.) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 (16 oz.) can navy beans, rinsed and drained
2 tsp. garlic powder
3 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried oregano leaves, crushed
1 tsp. dried cilantro leaves, crushed
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
Fresh cilantro, for garnish
Shredded Pepperjack cheese, for garnish

Heat the oil in a large stockpot over medium heat; add the onion and cook 2 minutes. Add the chicken to the stockpot and cook, stirring often, until the chicken is mostly cooked through. Transfer the onions and chicken to a 5-quart Crock Pot; stir in the diced peppers, all of the beans, and the spices. Cover and let cook in the Crock Pot 4-6 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low. To serve, garnish with fresh cilantro leaves and shredded Pepperjack cheese, if desired.

Meyer Lemon Cheesecake

Hello, to all of my faithful readers! Thank you for sticking around while I've been gone. I would like to apologize for taking so much time away from blogging... Things have been quite hectic around here, and I just couldn't seem to get time to cook and then blog about anything. And I've been trying to eat healthier, which seems to consist of a lot of the same things (or at least very similar things)... The good news is, I've lost 40 pounds in the past few months! I go to the gym 6 days a week every week - I have a workout plan that one of my personal trainer friends is helping me with, which I do every Monday, Wednesday, and Fridy, in addition to 45 minutes of cardio training on those days and then I do an hour of cardio training every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. It's definitely a lot of hard work. It sure didn't take this much work to put the weight on! I think if it took the same amount of effort to gain weight as it does to lose weight, there would be a lot more skinny people... ;-)

Anyways! On to my new recipe!!

Last week, I was at the grocery store and just happened to come across some beautiful little Meyer lemons. Living in northern Wisconsin, I've never seen or had them before, since I don't know anyone who lives in an area where they are grown and who would be willing to send me some. As you might imagine, I had never worked with them before. Needless to say, I was delighted to have come across them and scooped up two bags of the little beauties! Although, now I had to figure out what the heck to do with them, and it had to be something special...
It just so happened that I was talking to one of my good friends (Whom I also happen to think is quite handsome! :-)), and he recommended that I do a cheesecake - he's got quite a sweet tooth and loves desserts. I concurred that it was definitely a good idea, as I love cheesecake too, but I didn't want it to be just a normal cheesecake with merely some zest in there. He also recommended the candied lemon slices on top, which I thought were a great idea! I had never candied an entire lemon slice before, though, so I had to look into how it was done and came across a recipe from Martha Stewart that sounded easy enough. The only thing I did differently was to sprinkle a little bit of extra sugar on top of the lemon slices after they came out of the simple syrup bath.

Now, I just needed to make the cheesecake extra special...

Then, I remembered a project I had worked on last year, for Key Lime Pie Ravioli (which turned out rather spectacularly), and decided to make a Meyer lemon curd. I could swirl some of the curd into the cheesecake and then add a little more on top, after the cheesecake baked and cooled, to help hold the candied lemon slices in place. There are several different recipes floating around the internet for how to best make curd, and I don't remember where I found this one but I've been using it for a while now and have always had good luck with it. Except when I first tried to make orange curd using the same recipe, which requires a little extra acid...

The final product turned out to be quite delicious!

Printable Recipe

Meyer Lemon Curd:
1 c. Meyer lemon juice
4 tsp. Meyer lemon zest
¾ c. sugar
6 large eggs plus 2 egg yolk, room temperature
1½ sticks butter, cut into ½″ chunks

Cheesecake:
3 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, room temperature
1 c. sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
¼ c. brandy vanilla extract, or 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Candied Meyer Lemon Slices:
2 Meyer lemons, sliced thinly
1 c. sugar
1 c. water

For the Meyer lemon curd: Whisk together the juice, zest, and sugar in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Whisk the eggs and yolks in another bowl. Once the juice mixture is heated and the sugar is completely dissolved, take approximately 1 cup of the hot liquid and slowly whisk it into the eggs, whisking constantly. Pour the egg mixture slowly into the saucepan, whisking constantly. Add in the butter chunks a half at a time and whisk constantly. Continue whisking, after butter is incorporated, until very thick, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat and pour through a fine mesh strainer into another bowl or other container. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming and allow to cool 30-40 minutes, then chill for at least an hour or until cold.
For the cheesecake batter: Cream the sugar and cream cheese together in a large bowl until well-blended and the cream cheese has no more lumps. Beat in the eggs and the vanilla, just until smooth and creamy. Cover the bowl and allow the batter to sit overnight.
For the candied lemons: Bring sugar and water to a rolling boil in a medium-size, heavy skillet, stirring to dissolve the sugar. When the liquid is clear and bubbly, reduce heat to medium-low and add the lemon slices in a single layer; simmer until the rinds are translucent. Transfer the lemon slices to baking sheets lined with parchment paper and let cool completely.
To make the cheesecake: Preheat the oven to 325°. Prepare a graham cracker crust and gently press it into the bottom of an assembled 9-inch springform pan; pour the cheesecake batter over the crust. Transfer some of the Meyer lemon curd to a pastry bag fitted with a Bismarck tip (or just use a Ziploc bag with a small hole cut out of one corner) and pipe the curd into the cheesecake batter, making several circles around the pan until you reach the middle. With a toothpick, push the curd down into the cheesecake batter a little more and then cut through the curd and cheesecake to make a pretty pattern, going from the outside of the pan to the middle.
Place the cheesecake into a large cake pan or roasting pan and fill the outside pan halfway with water. Place the pan into the preheated oven and bake until the cheesecake is almost set, approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and let it continue to sit in the water bath for about a half hour; remove the springform pan from the water bath and place in the refrigerator to finish cooling. When the cheesecake is completely cooled, slice it into the desired number of pieces and serve garnished with a little bit of the Meyer lemon curd and some candied Meyer lemon slices.