Dec 03 2013

Cheesecake with Pretzel Crust

I watch ABC’s The Chew every night while cooking dinner. It’s the one daily show that I DVR. I watch it for the food and recipes and the great combination of different personalities and opinions of the co-hosts and guests. The history behind some of the recipes they share is my favorite thing about the show, especially when the recipes are part of their family traditions.

During The Chew’s “Thanksgiving to go” episode, Chef Michael Symon made a cheesecake inspired by his 96-year-old grandfather Pap’s classic holiday Pretzel Crust Cheesecake recipe, with the assistance of hottie guest chef – Curtis Stone. I loved how Chef Symon stated during the show,  “Chew audience, anytime I start a dish with Pap’s – pay attention, because he’s never made a bad dish.” – the love Michael feels for his grandfather sure comes through to the viewers when he talks so fondly about him and the food memories he has due to his Pap’s special creations. I get the same feeling from Mario Batali when he talks about his family heritage and recipes.

Some of my favorite childhood memories are food related… mostly memories created due to my Mom’s cooking. She could whip up anything and it was always tasty.  I’m pretty sure my grandmother Mimi is the reason I hate roast, ha-ha! – but she did make a great salad and had the best appetizer platters in town. I actually have very fond memories of Christmas dinners at both grandparent’s houses… but I have even more vivid memories of their Christmas decorations and how beautiful I thought they were as a kid. Food and decor… I guess it’s just always been my thing.

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I volunteered to bring a dessert to a day after Thanksgiving get-together with friends, where amazing food, Rock Band and Cards Against Humanity were enjoyed by all. I was also assigned to bring a dessert to my work Christmas party… so I thought I’d try out the cheesecake at the friend get-together and if it was a success and nobody perished, I’d make another one for my Christmas party this month. 🙂

I am happy to report, the recipe was a huge success! The sweet and salty combination is something I enjoy in a dessert. If the combo is missing, I’ve been known to follow something sweet with pretzels or other salty snacks… so this was perfect! Party guests went through a list of other potential toppings, but I really liked it “as is” – I’m sure this recipe will be used by me again and again.

Chef Michael Symon’s Cheesecake with Pretzel Crust

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Ingredients

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For the Crust:

  • 1 1/2 Cup Pretzels (ground)
  • 1/2 Cup Graham Crackers (ground)
  • 1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
  • 8 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter (melted)
  • Pinch Salt

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For the Filling:

  • 24 oz. Cream Cheese (room temperature)
  • 1 Cup Sour Cream
  • 1 Cup Granulated Sugar
  • 5 Large Eggs
  • 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
  • 10 oz. Strawberry Preserves (to serve)

Directions

For the Crust: Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the ground pretzels, graham crumbs, sugar and melted butter. Add a pinch of salt and then press into the bottom of a 13×9 clear (I only have blue) glass baking dish. Set aside while you make your filling.

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For the Filling: In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the softened cream cheese on medium speed, scraping the sides and the beater occasionally. Next, add the sour cream and continue to mix until combined. Next, add the sugar and continue to mix until combined. With the mixer on low, add the eggs one at a time, thoroughly mixing in after each addition. Add the vanilla. Pour the filling over the crust and bake for 1 hour or until the center is no longer jiggly.

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After Baking Instructions: Remove the cheesecake from the oven and let sit for a few minutes while you prepare the preserves. In a small sauce pot. Melt the strawberry preserves over low heat. When the preserves are melted, strain into another bowl if you prefer no seeds. (I skipped that part, the brand I bought worked out great.) Pour the melted jam over the top of the cheesecake and smooth out into an even layer. Let the cheesecake sit out to cool for another 30 minutes to an hour, then slice into 24 squares while still warm. Refrigerate for a few hours to chill completely before serving.

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Chef Symon’s Helpful Tips:

  1. If you don’t have a food processor or blender to crush the pretzel and graham crackers for the crust, put them in a plastic bag and smash them until they’re pulverized.
  2. Not using a cheesecake pan allows the crust to stay thick to play on the salty and sweet flavor.
  3. If taking this cheesecake to go, then the best way to wrap it is to first wrap the baking dish with plastic wrap, then put a piece of cardboard wider than the dish on top, and then wrap in tin foil.

I’m excited for the holiday season and colder weather. My plan is to bake and use my crock-pot more. I’ve already been enjoying the turkey soup I made the day after Thanksgiving. Holiday decorating has also started and I’m excited to get a Christmas tree this weekend. Any favorite family food memories or fun holiday plans this year?

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Nov 19 2013

Giada’s Feel Good Food Book Signing

As most of you know, I’m a huge Food Network junkie. It’s my “go to” channel along with HGTV. When a friend asked if I’d be interested in going to meet Giada De Laurentiis at her Williams-Sonoma book signing in San Francisco, I jumped at the chance. I was particularly interested because her new book focuses on healthy living/recipes. One of the reasons I haven’t been posting much in the area of recipes is because I’ve been on a healthy eating kick for months and making the same dishes over and over and they are rather plain and boring. Think lots of ground turkey, veggies, soup, salads and broiled/pan seared fish. I was super excited to get a new book filled with vegetarian, vegan and gluten/dairy free recipes… so I could switch things up by saying goodbye to my repetitive and boring meals.

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One of the most asked questions Giada gets from her fans is – How can she cook and eat all of that delicious food on television and still look fabulous?

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Giada’s Feel Good Food: My Healthy Recipes and Secrets book showcases a collection of her secrets and recipes for staying fit and healthy. It’s a personal look into how she keeps her body and mind in a happy and healthy balance. She doesn’t believe in diets, feels they are tough to stick to and encourage a sense of deprivation or missing out, resulting in roller coaster weight loss and gain. Hello, I sure have been there and done that over the years.

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Space for the signing event was limited to the first 400 ticketed customers – so as soon as I said, “YES!” – my girlfriend called and reserved our books and signing spots. 

We decided that it would be good to get there early. It’s about a 2 hour (with light traffic) drive to San Francisco from Sacramento, CA. We hoped to be able to park in the underground Union Square garage – but knew that we needed to allow for time to change plans if it was full.

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It was a gorgeous day in the city and we found a spot in the garage rather quickly. It was perfect, right across the street from Williams-Sonoma. There was a small line out front. We divided and conquered. My friend went inside to will call to get our books and I reserved our spot in the overflow line outside. Fans already lined the steps of the 3 story store inside. We arrived a good 2 hours before the signing and ended up in the front of the overflow line outside. The line ended up spanning the entire block and then some. You couldn’t see the end from where we were standing.

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The Williams-Sonoma staff was great. They served water and some of Giada’s book recipes to all of us fans waiting in line. Whole-wheat orzo with artichoke pesto and spiced pumpkin-raisin cookies. Both were delicious!

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We really lucked out in that we were standing right next to the loading zone that Giada’s car service would be pulling into for her arrival. We also happened to really enjoy the company of the people waiting directly behind us in line. Hi Courtney!

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Giada was super sweet in the way she greeted her fans – she walked right into the crowd waving and saying “hi” to everyone. She thanked all of us for coming out and said she was excited about the book tour and looking forward to signing our books and meeting everyone.

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The book signing event guidelines were more strict than any I had seen. Meeting Tyler Florence was super casual… meeting Guy Fieri was very organized, yet felt much more personal. They both encouraged photos – Guy’s people even offered to take photos with fan’s cameras or phones. Not so much here… no posed photos with Giada. It did keep the line moving quickly, but there wasn’t much fan interaction.

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While waiting in line, my girlfriend noticed Russell Jackson, one of the contestants from season 9 of the Food Network Star working the crowd. He decided to surprise Giada and the friend that was with him told us that she was super excited to see him. This all happened on the stairs to the third floor. He shared that a group of girls yelled – Hey look, it’s the guy from Top Chef, LOL… uh, no… it was pretty funny – our group yelled… bourbon and bacon! from our position in line – he loved it! He made his way down to the landing we were standing on and posed for photos with us. Super nice guy, funny picture!

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We continuing weaving through the floors of the store.

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I was kind of obsessed with this pumpkin… there was lots of merchandise and decor to look at as we stood in line. We finally made our way to the third floor and Williams-Sonoma staff made sure we had a post-it with the name we wanted signed in our book and that the books were opened to the right spot.

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It happened so quickly. She signed my book before I even got to the table. Since we weren’t allowed to pose for photos with her, all I had time to say was, “hi” – she thanked me for buying the book and I said something lame, like… I’m a huge fan and that was all the time allowed. My girlfriend did mention to Giada that she saw her recent appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (Playing Catch Phrase) and (Cooking) and that she almost peed her pants from laughing so hard…  that really made Giada laugh, so that was fun!

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Even though it was pretty impersonal… I did get the feeling that Giada was generally excited to see all of her fans. I’m really glad we got to participate in the event.

After the signing, we decided to grab some lunch at Zingari, a nearby restaurant at 501 Post St.  We’d been standing for hours and pretty much just wanted to sit down. We ducked into the first restaurant that looked half-way decent. We didn’t look at Yelp or other reviews, we just wanted to sit down and eat.

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We decided that the salads and bread were a big tease… they were excellent!

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We also decided that they should probably take their pizza off the menu.

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Not sure you can actually make the claim that your pizza is authentic margherita pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil… and not use fresh sauce, fresh mozzarella, and good dough. The dough resembled buttered biscuits and not in a good flaky way. It was rather disappointing – think frozen… but thankfully the bread and salad were very tasty.

After lunch we strolled back in the direction of the parking garage, but not before stopping to look at the Christmas tree and ice skating rink in the heart of Union Square.

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Is it really almost Christmas? How did that happen? I’d like to just put that aside and enjoy one of my most favorite times of year… Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to time off from work, laughing and hanging out with family and friends… and cooking up a storm. I’m bringing veggie dishes this year… already have a few recipes in mind.

I read Giada’s book the minute I got home from the signing and I loved what she said at the end of her intro… “Give your body a bit more attention; plan your meals a little better, and your body will reward you tenfold. You will smile more and you will enjoy life more because you will feel better.”

I find that to be very true for myself. I’m always in a much better space mentally when I treat my body better. The book was a nice reminder of that. I have a lot of things to be grateful for and I plan on celebrating all of them in the upcoming weeks and throughout the new year.

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Oct 21 2013

An evening filled with art and fondue

My Saturday started with house chores and ended up being lots of fun. We met Aaron and Carolyn at their place and headed to J Street in Sacramento to attend an artist signing at Dragatomi.

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Aaron started collecting dunnys years ago. I had no idea what they were and have had many a lesson from Aaron as to how they came about and the artist’s history, etc. I’ve probably asked him a million questions, LOL.

A dunny is a blank canvas (basically a curved bunny with a smooth face) designed to be repainted and reinterpreted by artists from all different backgrounds and produced by Kidrobot. I first stumbled upon a Kidrobot store in Las Vegas. I immediately was drawn to the food creations… completely skipping over the dunny designs. Then Aaron took us to Dragatomi a few Summers ago and I was beyond fascinated. I started up a collection of Pop! Pups which grew to Pop! Unicorns and Pop! Super Shinys. While they aren’t dunnys, they are vinyl balloon animal figures that make me smile every time I look at them.

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Dunny and Pop! Pups/Unicorns 3″ minis are sold as “blind boxes” – the figures are packaged inside a sealed foil wrapper, so the buyer isn’t able to see which mini fig. they are buying. Sealing the figure prevents people from opening and peeking in the boxes and buying only the figures they want. Blind boxes are sold as individual or in cases. Cases normally include anywhere between 18 to 24 boxes and each is approximately $9.99 depending where you get them. Dragatomi lets you switch out with the displayed one – so if you like the display figure better than what you purchased, you can make the switch right then. I’ve done that several times. I’ve also bought them on eBay and Dan got me some at the Kidrobot store on his last Vegas trip. I have yet to visit the Kidrobot store in San Francisco, it’s on my “to do” list.

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I decided it was time to get myself a dunny – especially with two of the Evolved series artists making themselves available for the Dragatomi store signing. The Dunny Evolved Series features five artists total –  Huck Gee, Frank Kozik, Kronk, McBess, and Scott Tolleson. They tackled the theory of dunny evolution. Each artist delivered a series of 3 dunny designs, making 15 newly evolved 3-inch vinyl figures. The official series roll-out was Thursday, October 10.

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Scott Tolleson was the artist behind the dunny I got. It’s beautiful! Thanks to Aaron and Carolyn I also got the first in the series. I now have to get my hands on the vary rare 3rd to complete the series. Carolyn has it and the detail is amazing. 

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 Dan’s dunny was designed by artist Huck Gee.

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Dragatomi had a great turnout, I’m so glad we decided to join Aaron and Carolyn in attending the event. I will always be an artist nerd and the geekery involved in learning about the artists and series suits me perfectly. We left Dragatomi with food on our mind… Aaron suggested a “new to all of us” restaurant and it was awesome.

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The restaurant was Shabu Japanese Fondue at the corner of 16th and R street in Midtown Sacramento. According to the Shabu website They opened at the end of 2009. “The first of its kind in Midtown Sacramento, Shabu provides traditional Japanese-style hot pot, serving only the finest ingredients, quality meat, fresh seafood, and vegetables. Broths and sauces are house-made and made daily.” Not sure why it took us this long to explore this gem. 

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We checked out the menu and got drinks while deciding what to order. The ice was amazing… it came piled 2-3 inches over the glass like shaved ice. I missed the photo opportunity when they were first delivered to the table.

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All photos are courtesy of my iPhone, so quality isn’t awesome, had no idea I’d be blogging about my evening – guess I’m back to blogging about my daily life too.

We started with some edamame and sunomono – my favorite Japanese starter (Cucumber, carrots, and seaweed marinated in Japanese vinegar topped with sesame seeds.) The sunomono was excellent. I pretty much get it at every sushi place I go to and this was some of the best I’ve had. We decided as a group to go with the shabu-shabu portion of the menu by sharing some of the large meat platters. First we had to choose a broth – you have the option of two per pot – so we could have up to four different broths at our table.

  • Shoyu – a soy sauce based broth
  • Miso – soybean paste broth
  • Chicken broth
  • Kombu – salt, water and seaweed broth.

We chose Shoyu and Miso in both pots – I liked them both, but preferred the Shoyu for the tofu and mushrooms.

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Then we chose the meats – beef, chicken and pork. All shabu-shabu entrées come with assorted vegetables (cabbage, carrots & spinach) tofu, enoki and shiitake mushrooms, udon noodles, rice and ice cream for dessert. – The veggies were the perfect amount, I especially loved the Napa cabbage, spinach and enoki mushrooms.

We also received individual dishes of house-made ponzu and goma sauce and garlic, green onion and daikon to add to our sauces as part of our meal.

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The table was filled with quite the beautiful meat and veg display – true artistry on a plate. The slices were shaved very thin and took on average 1-2 minutes in the boiling broth. We had a blast trying different combinations, sauces, cooking times, etc.

It should be noted… I felt WAY LESS pressure than I do at Korean BBQ or regular oil based fondue places. I’m generally not a huge fan of cooking my own meal, but this time around I was NOT worried about under-cooking or making myself sick from “doing it wrong” – Ha-ha! A few swishes in the broth and you were good to go –  it really did take the stress out of the cooking part.

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I finished my meal off with green tea ice cream. We had the choice between that or chocolate chip. Our table was divided… I definitely made the right choice for me. I drink green tea daily (3 to 5 mugs/day) so the flavor is something that appeals to me and in a sweetened form, it didn’t disappoint.

We will definitely put Shabu in our restaurant rotation. Great idea Aaron… keep ’em coming!

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