Carrot Cake Cheesecake Decadence

It seems to me that Fall is here in full swing and the crispness of the air is a clear indicator that Winter is soon to follow.  The long Thanksgiving weekend was nice and relaxing here on the home-front.  I wouldn't mind one of these types of breaks every couple of months - it has been perfect. 

I spent some of my weekend reading.  I've been reading Roots for what seems like an eternity now.  There is a part of me that is eager to get to the end and learn what the outcome will be for all of these lives I feel entangled with, but I also hate it when a good book comes to an end. 

This past holiday has been a thoughtful one, between remembering those that I've lost while appreciating how rich I am with people that are in my life. 

I got quite a bit accomplished over the long weekend, although it would have likely been more productive with just a little more sun to dry things out.  I have moss growing on my driveway.  Already. 

I did a variety of chores, like *finally* ordering a garage door opener remote, buying a new couch and loveseat (delivery on Thursday - can't wait!!), washing bed comforters, making a run to the post office for mailing out a few things, getting caught up on emails, and making plans for what types of cookies to make around Christmas time.  I also changed the air filter in the heat pump, worked on fine-tuning my financial budget that I recently put in place, paid bills, took the dog for several walks and watched a few movies.  A bunch of little things, but it made me feel productive. 

I also bought an entire box of the wrong kind of garbage bags.  They fit, but they don't have the ties on the top.  So are they usable?  Yes.  Do I like it?  No.  And of course, I bought a big box. 

Recently, I baked some brownies to take to work.  I used a new recipe that called for Dutched cocoa.  I felt a little silly, but I am certain I could tell a significant difference in how these tasted.  So, what I'm going to do is a taste-test.  You know... like the Pepsi challenge.  I'll have people blind taste and tell me if they can tell a difference and if so, which do they like the best.  So stay tuned for that one! 

Tonight I wanted to try something new, so I made a Carrot Cake Cheesecake.  I wish I knew where the recipe came from originally.  I wrote it down on a piece of paper who-knows-how-long-ago and didn't note where I got it.  I have not cut or tasted it yet, but here is the unfrosted picture.

The recipe uses carrots, pineapple, coconut and nuts.  Mixed with the deliciousness of cheesecakey goodness, how can it go wrong?   It can't. 

This cake is quick to mix up and bake, but if you're needing something you can serve fast, you'll want to wait on this recipe.  It requires a fair amount of cool down and refrigerating time.  I am sure it will be well worth the wait, though!

Here's the frosted product.  I was only supposed to frost the top, but got all carried away and frosted the entire thing.  I need to work on improving my instruction following skills.

Ok, so it's not a very good picture.  It looked better when it was smaller on my phone.  :)   It looks much prettier pre-frosting.

I'll insert a picture at the bottom or this blog entry of a piece once I slice into it tomorrow.  I hope it tastes as good as it looked and smelled!!

Over and out for now!

"With the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible."- Julia Child

 

Ok... so here is the picture I promised once I cut into the cake:

 

 

Blackberry-Peach Coffee Cake and Zombie Apocolypse Prepared Dog

I decided to try a new recipe today.  I had thawed out some of the fabulous blackberries I bought a couple of months ago from the farmers market.  I adjusted a recipe from a new cookbook to accommodate the ingredients I had on hand.  The recipe can be found here, and this is what it looks like:

It involves a nice spice batter with layers of blackberries...

and then a final layer of peaches and blackberries...

before topping with a gooey streusel...

and then sending this delicious coffee cake off to the oven. 

Now, next time I make this cake, the one thing I will change is that I will COVER the top with peach slices and just use the blackberries inside the batter.  Every bite that had a peach in it was so good that it made me want more peach bits!  So next time, it'll have exactly that!! 

On another note, in the last couple of months, my dog, Bender, has developed a new habit.  For those of you that don't already know, he hurt his back several months ago and since then, when we are in the car, he rides in his kennel.  He seems to feel quite comfortable riding like this and most of the time during rides of any length, he lays down and naps.

Now, even though he's confined to his kennel in the car, he still manages to score lots of treats - from the girls at the coffee shop, the ladies at the bank, the guys that pump gas into the car (remember, in Oregon it's illegal to pump your own gas), and from the folks at the pet store.  When these cookies are given to me, without looking, I bend my arm backwards and slide it to Bender through his kennel wires. 

The other day, when I picked him up from school, I noticed that once in the kennel, he went straight to the back corner, and by the time I closed him in and got in my seat, he was crunching happily on a cookie.  I thought that was pretty clever of him to have saved a cookie for a later time, so when I was cleaning out the car the other day, I thought I'd put another cookie in that corner and see if he noticed it. 

Well, imagine my surprise to find this:

He had a full-fledged stash!!!  My dog is a hoarder!  Anyway, after laughing at the mix of treats that are in various degrees of  consumption, I just covered them back up with the blanket.  And what is really funny is now that I'm paying attention, he gets in the car several times a week and I can see him check on his stash by digging up the blanket in that corner and then covering it back up before settling in.  And just this weekend, we went to the bank.  Guess where that cookie ended up?  Yep, you guessed it.

I used to know someone that always said that fate smiles on the prepared person.  I suppose it also smiles on the prepared pup.  Only the nose knows.

"With the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter cookies, treats, and self-discipline, anything is possible."- Julia Child Bender