Mme Diat: The Super, Superbowl Cheesecake

You've got a cold beer, some chili next to some antacids and you hear the familiar NFL kick-off music. It must be time for the Superbowl. For those of you who still think the Superbowl's about football, I am here with a public service announcement...it's not. It's about watching the commercials so you have something to talk about at work the next day and eating enough calorie packed food to put you into a food coma until next year's Superbowl.

While I am normally all for participating in the annual chili cook-off, this year I decided to make something a little sweeter. My brother, the not-so-petite-anymore-Diat, turned the big 21 earlier this month and I wanted to do a test-round for his dessert at the Superbowl party. Since I've made a habit of baking something for everyone's birthday, I promised the petite Diat a delectable chocolate layer cake with chocolate covered strawberries. I had the recipe planned out and everything about ready to go when I got a hushed phone call from my mother essentially telling me that she bogarted my cake and she hoped that I didn't mind. I looked towards the cake flour that I had been dying to crack into and just hung my head.

After some sulking and serious lamenting about having to wait on using the new cake flour [it was a new brand I was dying to try] I decided on cheesecake. I have, in my humble opinion, one of the best cheesecake recipes that I've ever tasted. Since I don't really like messing with success, I thought I would use my plain cheesecake recipe as a base for chocolate chip cheesecake. And because the only addition to the cheesecake were mini chocolate chips, it was great.

My only struggle, and to be fair this was a moment of idiocy on my part, was with the springform pan. Here was my dilemma: I lined the bottom of the springform pan with parchment paper for easier removal. After letting the cake cool for about an hour and a half, I took the springform pan out of the water-filled, deep dish pizza sheet that it was sitting in. As I lifted the cake out of the pan, I saw that the water had seeped into the cake pan. To put it mildly, I panicked. I took off the sides of the pan to let the water out. However, as I did that a small tear that quickly turned into a larger one, broke into the top of my cake. By this point, I was having a minor meltdown. A pro at navigating my meltdowns and my kitchen, my brother grabbed some Saran, wrapped the cheesecake up and put it into the fridge. I felt like I was getting a pep talk before a game, "It will be fine, you can cut along the tear before you put it on the table. It will be fine, you are bringing the cake to the party! Stop worrying, oh my gosh, I put the Saran around it, it will be fine..."

All in all, he was right and no one was the wiser. I let my perfectionism get the better of me, but the petite Diat kept his cool. The cheesecake was a huge hit, in fact, almost all of it was gone by the end of the night. Now I'm ready for what's next this weekend: tiramisu [hopefully] for a friend's birthday and my brother's double chocolate, chocolate chip cheesecake.

If you want any of my cheesecake recipes or tips on how to cook one, just send a comment!

Mme Pépin: A short story on pancakes

One of the many perks to the life I enjoyed back when I lived with my parents, and still do enjoy when I visit with them on a weekend, is my younger brother's breakfasts. Petit Pepin enjoys making full breakfasts on Saturday mornings consisting of pancakes, eggs and bacon. He has become very good at these breakfast staples, especially since he has stopped (for the most part) putting food coloring into the pancakes (mmm green pancakes).

Last weekend I was gifted with a lazy Sunday. While assessing my breakfast options I noted that there was just enough milk in my fridge to make pancakes from a mix (and by just enough I mean just not enough, but I "adjusted" the other measurements accordingly-ish).

The mixing went well, the questionable measurements didn't seem too troublesome, what made this process go from "hey this is cute I'm making pancakes for breakfast" to "hmmm maybe green pancakes wouldn't be so bad right now" was the combination of the mix and the pan. Needless to say, my pancakes weren't dainty little circles, they more resembled what I'd expect early cellular life forms to look like. I attempted to flip them with ease, but every time a corner didn't quite manage to flip. They were browning fast, too thick, and the shapes were getting weirder still as the corners that didn't flip got stuck.

I ended up with four "pancakes". One light one, two very dark ones, and one that was still quite mushy inside, rendering it not fit for consumption.

Mme Pépin: Texas Beef Bake

While sifting through the 'Beef' section of my Healthy Cooking for under $7 cookbook I came across a 'Texas Beef Bake'. It sounded interesting and filling, perfect for a meal in with Mike since he eats like a horse.

The ingredients were simple enough: ground beef, mashed potatoes (from baking potatoes), frozen broccoli, parm cheese, an onion, beef broth, and some seasonings.

For meals involving more than just throwing pasta into boiling water while heating up some sauce, Mike and I like to work together. While he got to work chopping the onion, I skinned the potatoes and waited for the water to boil so I could get them ready for mashing. While we continued to wait for that water to boil, Mike sauteed the onions and I got the rest of the ingredients ready to be added to his pan as needed. Note on the water: just now boiling, potatoes added. Whole. The recommended 15 minutes had passed and the potatoes were in theory supposed to be ready to mash. Mike was running out of things to add to the pan.

The mashing was not a success, the potatoes were still too hard (note that I'd already drained the water). So, Mike lowered the heat on the contents in the pan, as I got the water boiling. Again. The potatoes sat in the boiling water for another 15 minutes. Still too hard to mash as Mike tested their firmness every few minutes with a mashing utensil. We even debated if the utensil I gave him was appropriate for mashing. Finally Mike said, perhaps we should have cut them up before boiling them. Lightbulb. I looked in the cookbook, and noted that the ingredients called for the potatoes to be cut, not the directions (where I'd been looking this whole time). Oops. Needless to say that made a world of difference and we were back in action.

After everything had been sauteed (the pan turned into a large metal bowl as we ran out of space), we transfered the contents to a pyrex baking pan, sprinkled on the cheese (note next time I will not get grated parm, I'll get shredded), and popped it into the oven. The bake time took longer than expected, Mike attributed that to the cheese being grated.

When all was said and done, Mike did most of this meal, as I threw complications his way left and right (unintentional of course). Despite some of the set backs, the meal tasted excellent. It was incredibly filling, leaving plenty of leftovers (score for me, I got to bring it to work for lunch!).

I will say, don't make this as a company dish since it's quite the opposite of appetizing looking. But it does taste great, is under 400 calories, and is simple to make: if your baking partner isn't me.