Cheesecake Cups

We made these at school a few weeks ago and they were SO good, especially after cooling for a day or two.

You can garnish with chocolate chips (or sauce) or fresh strawberries, or a strawberry glaze, or cherry pie filling, or caramel, or anything you want. Or you can go au natural and enjoy them pure and simple. So good and worth the multiple steps involved. You can also use this recipe to make a single cake using a spring-form pan- and I am sure the cooking time will have to be adjusted. The cupcakes make an excellent presentation- we served company with them and then had little single serving sizes for the next couple of days. Of course, we had more than one at each sitting- but in theory, we COULD have stopped at one. :-)

Cheesecake Cups

Topping
¾ cups sour cream
1 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla

Mix together and refrigerate until cheesecake is cooked.

Crust
1 ½ cups graham crackers, finely crushed (about 20 squares)
1/3 stick margarine or butter, melted
3 tablespoons sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Get out muffin tin and put papers in each. Mix crumbs, margarine and sugar. Press mixture firmly against bottom of muffin tin. Bake 6 minutes or until light brown, cool.

Filling
2 Eggs
1½ c. Sour cream
½ c. Sugar
2 8oz pkgs. of Softened cream cheese (cut into cubes)
2 tsp. Vanilla
2 tbs. Melted butter

Blend eggs, sugar, vanilla and sour cream for 15 seconds until liquefied. With motor on, remove cover and gradually add cut up cream cheese and melted butter. Pour mixture on crust in each muffin tin. Bake 325º for 16 min. Take out topping and spoon on top of cake. Bake again 3-4 min. Refrigerate over night. Place strawberries on cake just before serving.

Strawberry Sauce
1 ½ cups frozen strawberries, thawed and drained
Sugar to taste
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Place strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in food processor. Blend until pureed and sugar is dissolved. Pour over dessert just before serving.

Tilapia

These are the ways that I know to cook tilapia. I buy the bag of frozen tilapia loins from Costco and thaw for a few hours (or overnight) and then get to work.

Spicy Lime TilapiaBrush filet with olive oil, after patting dry.
Sprinkle on some lime juice.
Rub with cajun seasoning.
Can garnish with fruity (mango?) salsa if you have it.

or

Breaded Lemon Pepper TilapiaBrush filet with olive oil, after patting dry.
Rub with lemon pepper seasoning.
Rub on some bread crumbs.
Spray with olive oil spray.
Sprinkle with lime juice after cooking.

I have not had the chance to get this fancy yet, but I read that you can slice lemon or lime and put the slices over the fish while it is cooking. I bet that is really good.

Bake either of these at 400 for about 30 minutes. I am sure you could broil quicker but this was easy to do yesterday and gives your other food a chance to cook as well.

Update:
I just dicsovered that you can make tilapia in your crockpot in foil packets!  Here are two recipes I know:

Mix up some mayo (Miracle Whip in my case), minced garlic, shredded (or grated) parmesean cheese, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Coat both sides of filet and then wrap up in the foil packet.

Drizzle balsamic vinegar and honey over filet, in additon to salt and pepper.  If you have fresh sliced oranges or lemon, add that too- or you can use mandarin oranges.  Close up foil packet.

Cook in slow cooker on high for 2 hours, or in oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  Easy and NO clean up!

Pumpkin Bread

OK, this bread was amazing. It is fairly involved, I had to get out the food processor and had three bowls going at the same time. I spilled about a tablespoon of cinnamon all over both me and Christopher- but we had a lot of fun. My only advice or change is to only fill the bread pans about 1/3 of the way full at the beginning before adding your frosting layer. I overfilled on accident and my frosting layer soaked through to the top, and while it still tasted amazing, I wasn't able to get the pretty white ribbon through the middle of the bread. Yummo. Oh, it also freezes well, so you can eat one loaf in the 24 hours after you make it, and save the other one for another day, or another person.

Pumpkin Bread

Cream Cheese Filling:
8 ounce package cream cheese, room temperature or cold if you have a food processor
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour

Pumpkin Bread:
1 cup pecans or walnuts (I used pecans)
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 large eggs
2 cups granulated white sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 - 15 ounce can pure pumpkin
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Pumpkin Bread:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in the center of the oven. Butter and lightly flour two - 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pans. Set aside.

To toast nuts: Place the nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 - 10 minutes or until brown and fragrant. Cool completely and then chop coarsely. Set aside.

Cream Cheese Filling: In your food processor, process the cream cheese just until smooth. Add the sugar and process just until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, processing just until incorporated. Do not over process. Stir in the flour. Set aside.

Pumpkin Bread: In a large bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk the eggs until lightly beaten. Add the sugar and melted butter and whisk until blended. Whisk or stir in the pumpkin, water, vanilla extract, and nuts.

Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and stir just until the ingredients are combined. (A few streaks of flour is fine.) Do not over mix as it will make the bread tough.

Divide the batter in half. Take one half and divide it evenly between the two prepared pans. (Only put in about a third of your batter, not half!) Divide the cream cheese filling in half and place each half of filling on top the two pans of batter, smoothing the tops. Top with the remaining half of batter.

Bake the breads for about 55 - 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Place pans on a wire rack and let cool for about 10 minutes before removing breads from pans.

Can serve warm, cold, or at room temperature. Store leftovers in the refrigerator or else freeze for later use.

Makes 2 loaves.