Sopapilla Cheesecake

Nope. No joke here. This is one of my favorite desserts, and so easy to make. Our friends The Jordans invited us over for lunch one day and shared this wondrous piece of sugar decadence. We've loved it since.

Sopapilla Cheesecake

Ingredients:
2 (8 oz) packages sour cream
1 cup white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 (8oz) cans of refrigerated crescent rolls
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup honey

Preheat oven to 350.
Prepare a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray

Beat the cream cheese with the 1 cup sugar and vanilla until smooth

Unroll the crescent rolls and use a rolling pin to shape it into a 9x13 rectangle (sometimes I just my fingers to flatten it and move it around).
Press one piece into the bottom of the pan.
Evenly spread the sugar and cream cheese mixture over that.
Cover it with the second piece of crescent dough.
Mix together your 3/4 c sugar, cinnamon, and butter (for those who don't know, if you cut the butter into small pieces, it mixes easier).
Drop the new mixture by dotted spoonful onto the top layer of crescent rolls. (It really smoozes all over the place by itself).

Bake in the over until the dough has puffed and turned golden brown, about 30 minutes.
Take it out of the over and drizzle it with your honey. Let it cool completely, otherwise it smoozes all over the place. I confess, though. Ours never "cool completely" because it is SO GOOD when it is warm, but I do let it cool so it is solid and stable.

The recipe says you can cut it into 12 inch squares. Do what works for you, but know, this is serious sugar, so you might to start small and work yourself into a sugar sickness. Just a thought.

Hope you enjoy!

Dancing The Rumb-Ball

Okay, so the pun is bad, but the rum balls are good.

Rum Ball
2 pounds of powdered sugar
1 stick of butter
8 T rum (or to taste)
Nuts (optional)
chocolate chips or chocolate squares

Put everything into a bowl and mix it up.
When you finger test the mix and it is as rummy as you like, put it in the fridge to let it chill.
Once it is chilled, make it into 1 inch balls. (chill them again because the butter gets them soft again)
While they are chilling the second time, melt chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave.
Put wax paper down on a cookie sheet or on the counter. I tend to put them on a cookie sheet so I can put them back in the fridge and cool them faster.
Once the chocolate is melted, quickly dip the balls into the chocolate, take them out, and sit them on the wax paper where they cool.
Like I said, I pop mine back in the fridge for a bit because the butter can go soft at room temp, especially with the warmth from the chocolate. Once it is cooled, they stabilize well.

Hope you enjoy!

Having a Sausage Ball!

I love  the holidays for the simple reason I love to bake and cook certain foods. Today I am doing a bit of cooking for our volunteer fire department. Nothing fancy, but I thought I'd share some recipes in case anyone wants some ideas.

Sausage Balls
 5 lbs sausage
3 c Bisquick
4 c Cheddar cheese
pepper

Preheat oven to 325.

Use parchment paper to cover baking sheets.
Dump everything into a bowl and squish it with your hands until it is all a squishing mush.
Make 1-1 1/2 in balls and place them 2 or so inches apart on the prepared sheet.
Bake 18 minutes.

Mine come out with a crunchy outside. If you want a softer outside, dropped the temp a bit and cook a bit longer.

Makes about 5 dozen, depending on the size of the ball.

Enjoy!

Feasting on His Goodness--Part 2, Recipe for Celebration

Yesterday I told you we made pumpkin bread and pumpkin creame cheese to begin our feast. I want to share these recipes with you. The pumpkin bread recipe came from Allrecipes.com, and I am unsure about the origin of the other recipe. I hope you enjoy.

Blessings and celebration for you and your family!

Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread
Submitted by: Laurie Bennett
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 50 Minutes
Yields: 24 Servings

Ingredients:
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups white sugar
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground clobes
¼ teaspoon ground ginger

Directions:
1. Preheat over to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water, and sugar until well-blended.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.
4. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended.
5. Pour into the prepared pans.
6. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick insterted in center comes out clean.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese

Ingredients:
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spce
1 teaspoon vanilla
Freshly grated nutmeg (optional)

Directions:
1. In a large mixing bowl beat cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar, pumpkin pie spiece, and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth. Transfer to a bowl. Store tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
2. If desired, sprinkle with a little freshly grated nutmeg before giving as a gift. Makes about 3 cups spread.

Souper Stuff

When the weather starts getting cooler (in the 70s here in Texas), my mind turns to colder days to come, sniffly noses (ours and others'), and warm foods. It is during this time of anticipation that my thoughts turn to soup.

For several years now it has been my habit to take a day and make multiple kinds of soups, pour them into bowls, label them nicely, and tuck them into our freezer. Today is that day.


The soups I make aren't fancy or hard. If they were hard, I wouldn't waste my time. Instead, I stick with a two or three favorite recipes. Today's soups are Tomato Basil Soup (I still speak blessings over my friend Christine Petri for sharing this recipe with me) and My Mom's Vegetable Soup.

I love these soups for several reasons.

• They are easy on a sore throat.
• They freeze well and defrost easily, too.
• Left-overs are better than the first bowl.
• It's easy to double or triple them.
• They are inexpensive.
• They are easy to stick in a bowl and take to others who need some body and/or soul food.
• Did I mention they are incredibly easy?
  

How easy? Let me tell you.

My Mom's Vegetable Soup

Underneath all that delicious broth are simple ingredients.

Burger meat of whatever quality

Onion (I usually white or yellow)

Water

Corn

Diced Tomato

(General Ratio: 1 pound burger, 1 can corn, 1 can diced tomato, 1/4 onion)

1. Break up the burger meat and put it in a large soup bowl. I try to start with the meat in balls. It is a mental thing for me, but usually it cooks apart.

2. Cut the onion into half rings and drop them in. If you liked them chopped, do that. You really can't get this wrong.

3. Add enough water to cover the beef and onions with a cup or so extra.

4. Salt and pepper to taste.

5. Boil the meat and onion until the meat is cooked.

6. Drain the tomatoes and corn and add them.

7. Cover it up and let all the flavors get to know each other awhile.

I make a huge batch of this, but we also have freezer space for it. If you don't, no problem. Cut the ratio back to what fits in your pan and your fridge. Just use the ratio above. If you want something heartier, add what you like. Green beans, carrots, and celery make for great additions, too.

Tomato Basil Soup

4 cups (8 to 10) tomatoes, peeled, cored and chopped or 4 cups canned whole tomatoes crushed

4 cups tomato juice or part tomato joice and part vegetable or chicken broth

12 to 14 washed fresh basil leaves

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 sweet unsalted butter

salt to taste

1/4 t cracked black pepper

Combine tomatoes, juice, and/or stock in a saucepan (pot). Simmer 30 minutes, puree along with basil leaves in small batches in blender or food processor. Return to saucepan and add cream and butter while stirring over low heat. Garnish with basil leaves and serve with your favorite bread.

Personal notes:

I use a big can of tomato juice and a two big cans of crushed tomatoes because it is convenient. Then I double the amount of basil, cream, and butter.

I also puree the juice and tomatoes first BEFORE they get really hot. Once I wasn't careful and added to much hot mix to the blender, and the top blew off. It might have been funny if it hadn't been blistering hot. Now, I just puree it right up front. I would think you could add pureed tomatoes and skip that extra step all together, but I can't promise.

When I serve this, we always add cheese and chunks of bread. If you have bread that is a bit old (but not fuzzy yet), cube it and toss it in. We also make grilled cheese sandwiches to eat with it. I cut mine into squares and lay the squares on top of the soup, and then I dip the others and let them soak up the soup. YUM!

Our freezer stocked and ready for the cooler temperatures.

Hope you have a souper day, too!!!