Monday Recap

We had a wonderful weekend in Cle Elum and Leavenworth. We went to see The Sound of Music up in the hills at an open air theater. Hearing The Hills are Alive With the Sound of Music with the mountains in the background was a wonderful experience.

The scenery was breathtaking and Leavenworth was so cute and quaint. If you're ever in Washington, you should try to visit the little city.

Earth Friendly Friday

So do you have any old clothes sitting around the house? Any pants you've outgrown, shirts that have shrunk?

Well, here's an idea. An idea to put those unusable pieces of fabric to good use. Why not make a scrap quilt?

These blankets are beautiful.

Just take a look at this one.

Pinspiration

I love this skirt and when I saw it I thought, I could do that. . . now I just have to come up with the right shape skirt and a bunch of ribbon, lace, and do-dads to make my pinspiration come true.

How 'bout you...are you working on any projects that came about from a pinspiration?

Word for Wednesday

Word: Parsimonious

Do you know what it means???


Take a guess then Scroll down for the answer


Further



Further




It means frugal or stingy :D isn't that nice?

Temptation Tuesday

Chocolate Ganache Recipe

I love chocolate ganache because it is super simple to make and looks sooooo fancy.

Here's how I do it:

I take:

 one bag of chocolate chips (12 oz.)
1 cup of sour cream
and add one shot glass of grand marnier

Put the chocolate in the microwave and heat until melted, then add the sour cream, blend until smooth and add in the grand marnier.

Let it cool a bit to thicken and then simply pour over your cake. Wah-lah fancy-pants pretty cake.

Mouthwatering Monday

Chocolate Grand Marnier Cheesecake

Creamy Baked Cheesecake

1 1/4 c crushed Oreo cookies

1/4 c sugar

1/3 c butter melted

2 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese softened

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

3 eggs

1/4 c lemon juice

1 (8 oz) sour cream

Preheat oven to 300 egrees. Combine Oreo cookie crumbs, sugar and butter and press into bottom of springform pan

In mixer combine cheese and beat until fluffy. Add in sweetened condensed milk, eggs and lemon juice. Pour into pan and bake for 55 minutes or until set. Cool and chill before pouring ganache over the top then decorate with raspberries and left over cookies :D

I wanted to make a chocolate cheesecake and didn't want the crust to distract from the look so I used Oreo cookies for the crust. I wrapped the pan in foil so I could bake it in a water bath. The foil was to keep the water from seeping into the pan. And the water bath was to help the cheesecake release easily from the spring form pan.  It worked too. The cake popped out perfectly.

It all started Friday when I was talking with a gfriend about cheesecake. She used to bake for Moonstruck Chocolates and came up with a few winning recipes on her own. So that got us talking about recipes and what we like in cakes and cookies.

I thought "everything's better with chocolate" so . . . that got me thinking about chocolate ganache and I added a little Grand Marnier to the frosting. To top it off, I added a few red raspberries.

But then I got carried away and added more raspberries and a few cookies. I thought I might as well make it more fun with a smiley face using the cookies for hair :D My husband said next time I should use a little Rum...hum...that sounds good too.

The Chocolate Grand Marnier Cheesecake was super yummy but super rich too. So, now I'd better go for a run :D

Artichokes

Artichokes have great nutritional value. They aid in digestion, strengthening of the liver function and gall bladder function, and raise HDL/LDL ratio. They also reduce cholesterol levels, which diminishes the risk for arteriosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Artichoke leaves have also been shown to reduce cholesterol, lower blood cholesterol and more. But besides being good for you they are also beautiful. If you let them flower they are striking - just look at them.