Zesty Cook » cream cheese

Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Dates

zesty — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:00:05 +0000

Happy Friday! It is hard to believe it is the middle of July already. The weather here to say the least has been subpar. We have had one nice week so far and today we are slated for 16 degrees Celsius or 61 degrees Fahrenheit. Needless to say that makes me cranky. So to balance the cranky, we need to find something that makes us happy. Bacon makes zesty happy. Whether it is for breakfast, on a sandwich for lunch or wrapped around something for dinner you can pretty much count on me loving bacon.

A while back I made cinnamon and cream cheese stuffed dates for a family gathering and I really liked them. The texture of the date is something you either love or learn to love. For me I love the texture despite the fact they kind of look like over-sized beetles. Let’s not go there…

So on to this version of stuff dates. I took the same cream cheese and cinnamon mixture, added a little diced apple and then wrapped them with some bacon. I served them over some spinach with a light drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Holy Yum.

Ingredients

12 Pitted dates
1/2 Cup cream cheese
1/4 Cup diced apple ( peeled)
1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon
4 -5 slices of bacon ( cooked)
2 Cups spinach
1 Tbsp. Balsamic vinegar

Method

Prepare the dates. Mix the cream cheese, apple and cinnamon together and set aside.
Slice the down the center to create a pocket to stuff the cream cheese mixture inside.
Gently wrap the bacon around the dates and set aside on a plate.
Prepare a bed of spinach with a drizzle of balsamic.
Set the dates on top of the spinach
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Because the dates are serve chilled, you have to cook the bacon entirely. I like to have the bacon crunchy so you have to be careful wrapping the bacon around the date as it may break. If it breaks, it is still OK. Don’t sweat it.

We pack up and leave for camping tomorrow afternoon. We are looking forward to a week in the camper. I will keep you posted from the camper and I have a few new recipes up my sleeve for next week. If you are in the area and want to try some new dishes – drop over and say Hi. Have a super weekend and I will talk to you on Monday from the camper.

Take care

zesty

Smoked Maple Salmon App

zesty — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:00:03 +0000

Happy Monday from the camp ground! The weekend has been a lot of fun minus the damp weather and the lack of propane in both the bbq and oven. I tried not to let it dampen my spirits and forged ahead. Needless to say there was no cooking on the first night but the forecast is looking up and I cannot wait.

Despite the weather – I do have a fun little appetizer to share with you and try out next time you need a snack. This is great for a gathering, nice with some wine before your meal or even great to bring to a potluck if you are in a rush. This is drop dead simple and requires three ingredients.

Ingredients

Maple Smoked salmon
Cream cheese
Cracker/ Crostini

Method

Slice smoked salmon to desired size
Get crackers, spread a little cream cheese and top with smoked salmon
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: For me I love to serve this chilled as the cream cheese and salmon firm up and make a great combination.

OK, so there you have it guys, a quick simple appetizer that will make you a lot of friends and usually disappear like hot cakes. I am on my way back to the trailer and looking forward to a fun day! I will touch base with you on Wednesday and by all means let me know if you thought of anything else to put on the menu.

Take care

zesty

They're Back….Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes

zesty — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:00:37 +0000

Guess what’s back!! You guessed it. Another round of chocolate cream cheese cupcakes. You cannot go too many months without baking these again if you can even survive that long. It is a sun-filled day today so I thought I would share with you a baking recap from a few nights ago. I made these last year at the zesty in laws in the summer and they are always a huge hit.

Can you really beat chocolate, cream cheese and to top it all off in bite size cupcake form?

So before we begin with the amazing recipe and picture overload

Ingredients

Cream Cheese Topping

8 Oz. Cream Cheese
1 Egg
1/3 Cup Sugar
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1 Cup Chocolate Chips

Dry Batter

1 1/2 Cup Flour
1 Cup White Sugar
1/4 Cup Cocoa
1 Tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp. Salt

Liquid Items

1 Cup Water
1/3 Cup Canola Oil
1 Tsp. White Vinegar
1 Tsp. Vanilla

Method

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees and spray muffin tins with cooking spray.
Stir the cream cheese to a creamy, smooth consistency. Add egg, sugar and salt and stir (blend) (cream) to uniform smooth consistency.

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl, form a “well ” and set aside.

Combine liquid ingredients in another bowl.

Stir liquid ingredients into dry ingredients. Be sure not to over mix.

Spoon chocolate mixture into muffin tins until about 2/3 full.

Top each muffin with a tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture (Do note the spoon technique).

Bake small muffin tins for 9 -11 minutes and regular muffin tins for 20-25 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool.

ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: If you need to take these special treats with you to a party, you can make 1.5 times the batter portion. You will have lots of cream cheese topping. Also note that these cupcakes freeze well and are good warm or cold.

So now after all this, I have to hear what you think about these cupcakes. When you pop one in your mouth you automatically step away from reality and fall in love with the texture and flavor. Lately I have been hooked on home juice with chocolate treats. I know it sounds crazy – but I have been trying out different juicer recipes for the last couple of weeks and I think I am addicted. Usually I am a milk and chocolate guy all the way.

Have a great Friday and be on the lookout for another great treat from our baking excursion the other night.

Take care

zesty

Oh Yummy Cream Cheese Gumdrop Cake!

zesty — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:00:56 +0000

Good morning, good evening or goodnight…. depending of course on when you are reading this delicious post. We had a very productive weekend – lots of things are happening. We completed the back splash in the kitchen, and the painter put the final two coats of verathane on the stairs (they look amazing). We then emptied half of the storage trailer into the basement/garage and we even did some Christmas shopping.

I am not going to show you any more pictures until the final reveal next week. We are so close to being complete I can hardly stand it. We have professional cleaners coming in on Wednesday to do a thorough cleaning from top to bottom. Once everything is complete I will do a whole post dedicated to the house so stay tuned.

On to the Food

I am pretty sure you are going to like today’s post. It resembles some more Christmas baking like the fudge but this cake can be made year around for your enjoyment. I can pretty much eat this cake in large chunks throughout the day but I have issues.

As you will see in the recipe below – I think the key ingredient is the cream cheese. It keeps it moist and the texture soft. It is quite simple to make and you do not necessarily need to use a bundt pan if you do not have one. You can just use a large loaf pan.

Ingredients

1 Cup Butter
1 1/2 Cups White Sugar
4 Oz. Cream cheese, softened
4 Eggs
1/2 Cup Milk
3 Cups White All Purpose Flour
2 Tsp. Baking Powder
1 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Vanilla, almond and lemon flavoring
1 lb. Gum Drops ( the baking ones)
1 Cup Flavored Cherries ( optional )

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cream together butter, sugar and cream cheese and then beat in eggs one at a time.
Add flavoring; sift in dry ingredients, saving 1/2 cup of flour for gum drops and cherries.
Add dry ingredients and milk into previously creamed mixture; stir in gum drops and cherries
Transfer to bundt or loaf pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/4 Hours.

ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: By adding the half cup of flour to the gum drops and cherries it will prevent them from sticking together and staying in clumps throughout the cake.

Well – I only have a partial week at the office this week as I am taking off Friday and the following Monday for moving and getting settled in to the new pad. I hope you have a great start to your week and I will talk to you tomorrow.

Take care

zesty

Butternut Squash Orange Spice Cake

zesty — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:00:59 +0000

Hi! I’m Amy Green, author of Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free, a blog dedicated to great food made simple and a little healthier. All of my recipes are made without refined sugars or gluten – and the best part is that you wouldn’t know it if I didn’t tell you.

I am so excited to share a dish with Zesty’s readers, and wanted to do something extra special that said fall. Desserts are one of my favorites to create, especially when I can get something that’s good for you in them. So, I made a gluten-free, sugar-free, moist, tender Butternut Squash Orange Spice Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting that can be dressed up or served simply.

To dress your cake up, level and torte the cake. Frost the top of the bottom layer. Then, add a layer of toasted walnuts that have been smashed in your food processor. Top those with a thin layer of frosting, add your next layer of cake, and finish by frosting the rest of your dessert. To get a rim of toasted walnuts around the edge of your cake, sprinkle smashed walnuts around the base of the cake. Use an offset spatula to gently push the walnuts up the side of the cake and into the frosting.

Or, my favorite – serve your cake simply. Level the cake and generously frost only the top. Garnish with a little orange zest and you’re done.

A few tips before you get started:

When making a cake, it’s important to have your butter and eggs at room temperature because they cream better, which adds lightness to your final product. A few hours will be enough but I like to set mine out the night before I bake. Don’t worry – your eggs won’t go bad.
Don’t skip the sifting step. This is especially important when baking gluten-free.
Make sure to preheat your oven before you start mixing up the cake. This will give your oven enough time to heat up and ensure that the temperature is perfect for your cake.
I used my KitchenAid but you can make this cake with traditional electric mixers.
Adding the lemon juice at the end activates the baking soda and baking powders which will help your gluten-free cake rise much like a cake baked with regular flour. Once the lemon juice is mixed in, get that cake into the oven quickly!

Butternut Squash Orange Spice Cake

serves 8 – 10

Cake Ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup agave nectar
3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons orange zest
2 cups gluten-free flour blend (see below for the mix used here)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon allspice
1 1/3 cups grated butternut squash (use the large holes on a box grater)
¾ cup golden raisins
1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed orange juice
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line a 8 inch spring form pan.
Cream butter on medium high for about 2 minutes. Add agave and continue mixing on medium high for another 2 – 3 minutes, until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time while mixing on medium low until eggs are completely incorporated. Mix in orange zest.
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and all spice. Add sifted flour mix to butter mix on low speed until smooth. Stir in butternut squash and raisins.
Add orange juice and lemon juice and stir until smooth. Turn into prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula.
Bake for 35 – 40 minutes, until the top is a deep golden brown and a cake tester tests clean.
Let cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then slide a thin spatula between the cake and the edge of the pan.
Release the springform side and let cake cool for another 20 minutes before removing the bottom of the pan.

Frosting Ingredients

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting *This will frost a 2 layer cake. If you want to only frost the top, cut the recipe in half.

16 ounces light cream cheese, at room temperature
¼ cup agave nectar
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 cup heavy cream

Method

Place cream cheese in a medium mixing bowl and mix on medium high until light and fluffy. Add agave and orange zest. Continue mixing until thoroughly incorporated.
In a separate bowl, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form.
Stir ¼ of the whipped cream completely into the cream cheese mixture. Gently place remaining whipped cream on top of cream cheese mixture and fold until thoroughly incorporated.
Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Gluten-Free Flour Blend (makes 3 cups)

1 cup sweet rice flour
1 cup sorghum flour
2/3 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup tapioca flour

Thanks so much Amy (Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free) for such a great post. I hope you all have a great day today and I will fill you in on U2 when I get back.

Take care

zesty

Cool Chicken Sandwich w/ Red Pepper Jelly

zesty — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:00:24 +0000

Happy Monday to you! Lets just say that this weekend was adventurous. I feel like I have a million things on the go in addition to prepping for the big trip to BOSTON. I am getting the Honda CR-V cleaned inside and out this morning in addition to getting some car organizers installed to help keep us on track during the big trip.

As for the eats, I thought I would share with you a great sandwich for a summer treat, potluck item, shower or party. They are super simple to make yet packed with flavor and are nice for a change of pace.

Ingredients

2 Cans of cooked chicken
2 Tbsp. red pepper jelly
1/4 Cup cream cheese (softened)
1 Tbsp. Mayonnaise
Cracked black pepper
Hint of curry powder
Finger Rolls

Method

Open can(s) of chicken and drain off liquid
Place in a large bowl and add mayonnaise, curry powder; mix thoroughly
Add soft cream cheese and mix with a fork
Fold in pepper jelly
Add pepper and test for flavor
Slice rolls open on top; fill with mixture
ENJOY!!

Zesty Tip: To add more dimension to this sandwich I like to add nuts, apple chunks or even celery. The crunch is nice!

Zesty Birthday Gift

So as you know I travel a fair bit for work and I usually rent cars when I arrive to my destination. I am not great with maps so I always borrow my friends GPS (thanks Chris). Having said that, look what arrived for my birthday!!

I love it!! Thanks J.

It will roll into action tomorrow night as we are off to Boston. Talk to you tomorrow. Have a great start to the week.

Take care

zesty

Creamy Feta Cheese Dill Dip

zesty — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:00:06 +0000

Happy Wednesday to you! It feels like I am going full throttle all the time with the house, work and zesty and sometimes feeling like I do not have the proper time to create great meals. I’ve been craving cream cheese as of late and I had just picked up a fresh bunch of dill from the farmers market so I thought I would make a fresh dip. This dip recipe is great with some kashi crackers or some fresh bread.

The recipe is very simple but again refreshing with the dill. It doesn’t get much easier than this – see below for the scoop on how to make this delicious dip for your next party.

Ingredients

1 (8 ounce) Package cream cheese, at room temperature
1 Cup sour cream
1 Cup Crumbled Feta Cheese
1/2 Tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh dill weed
1/2 Tsp. minced garlic (optional)

Method

In a medium bowl, blend cream cheese, feta cheese and sour cream with an electric mixer until smooth.

Mix in salt, dill and garlic.
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to blend flavors.
Enjoy!!

Zesty Tip: When working with cream cheese, it is best to let out to become to room temperature as it will mix much easier and create that great consistency. By choosing the cream cheese light version you will not see a degradation in flavor.

I hope you have a great hump day! If you have any recipe ideas to feature here, I am open for suggestions. Drop me a comment and tell me what you would love to see zesty make.

Take care

zesty

To Die for Toblerone Cheesecake Recipe!

zesty — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:10:09 +0000

Well Well Well…. Have I got a treat for you today – A Toblerone Cheesecake Recipe! We were heading to a family function last week which we do every year for Christmas and we were on tap for a dessert. Well actually I didn’t know we were on for a dessert until the day before when we realized a lot of other people were bringing appetizers and hot dishes. So we just opted for a dessert!

That was the easy part… now we had to come up with something to bring! We tossed around a few ideas and then I remember hearing about this little gem – Toblerone Cheesecake. I mean what could go wrong… I love toblerone bars and I love cheesecake. What the heck, lets give this a try.

Now, before we get to the recipe… I have a confession to make. I could not take the final picture of a slice on a plate at home because we had to take the whole cheesecake to the party. And to make matters worse, we forgot the camera to take a picture of the first slice. So all you get to see is the finished product in the spring-form pan.

Ingredients

1 1/4 Cups Oreo cookie crumbs
1/4 Cup butter, melted
2 (250 g) packages cream cheese, softened
1 Cup smooth peanut butter
1 Cup sugar
2 (100 g) Toblerone chocolate bars, divided
1 1/2 Cups thawed Cool Whip, divided (or other whipped topping)

Method

Mix crumbs and butter; press firmly onto bottom of 9-inch spring-form pan. Refrigerate 10 minutes.

Beat cream cheese, peanut butter and sugar on medium speed until well blended.

Chop 1 chocolate bar and stir into cream cheese mixture. Gently stir in 1 cup of the whipped topping.

Spoon over crust, and refrigerate 3 hours.
Microwave remaining 1/2 cup whipped topping and chocolate bar on high for 1 minute. Stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is well blended; cool slightly. ( We were so nervous that this mixture was not creamy enough to pour over – we forgot to take a picture. It actually worked out but was not pourable – we needed to spread it like butter)
Pour glaze over cake and refrigerate until ready to serve.

ENJOY!

To finish it off, I just sliced up some left over toblerone bar to give it a nice addition on top. I think one key to making this dessert even better is making it the day/night before and giving the mixture a chance to really firm up. You could even throw it in the ice box for a little while.

Overall the dessert was very good. I found it somewhat rich… but what can you expect with that much chocolate, peanut butter and sugar in one pan. Let me know if you had this cheesecake before or if you are willing to try it.

Take care

zesty