Goat Cheese with Spicy Stewed Berries

 

 The holiday season is in full swing.

In my world, that means party time.

And party time means cooking up things to take to other people’s houses.

Usually, appetizers.

So I came up with something that I could make fast, (I still have to hit all the parties, do all my Christmas/Chanukah shopping and sleep), could be easy to transport and was absolutely delicious.

A friend from work would always bring a log of goat cheese to a party and top it with some delicious chutney.

With that idea in mind, I threw some stuff in a small saucepan, cooked it for a bit, drizzled it over some tasty herbed goat cheese and called it a tasty, tasty day.

You will need…

1 cup raspberries

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon sage, finely chopped

1 small log of herbed goat cheese

Start by combining all of the ingredients except the cheese in a small sauce pan.

Over medium heat, cook the ingredients down for twenty minutes. Just until the raspberries have stopped being raspberries and are in a semi liquid form.

Remove from the heat and allow the sauce to cool.

When the sauce is cool but not cold.

Pour the sauce over the goat cheese.

Garnish with raspberries and serve with your favorite crackers.

Love and Beer Floats

Angela 

Goat Cheese with Spicy Stewed Berries 

1 cup raspberries

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon sage, finely chopped

1 small log of herbed goat cheese

Start by combining all of the ingredients except the cheese in a small sauce pan.

Over medium heat, cook the ingredients down for twenty minutes. Just until the raspberries have stopped being raspberries and are in a semi liquid form.

Remove from the heat and allow the sauce to cool.

When the sauce is cool but not cold.

Pour the sauce over the goat cheese.

Garnish with raspberries and serve with your favorite crackers.

Berry Scones

Well, I somehow managed to survive my first attempt at a three-tiered wedding cake.

Practice wedding cake of course.

Surviving in this case means that all three layers existed, all layers had frosting and at one short time all three layers were stacked.

The fact that the dowels poked through the top of the cake, the sides of the icing were completely messed up and then I could barely get the cake apart are just minor wrinkles that need to be ironed out.

I’m really happy I did a practice run. Not because it made me feel better, but it made me realize I really need to get my butt in gear and do many more practice runs.

And while I do not consider my cake attempt a great success, I do consider these scones a huge win.

You will need…

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar, plus more for sprinkling on the top of scones

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ stick cold butter, cubed

1 ½ cup mixed berries (I prefer blackberries and raspberries)

¾ cup buttermilk, plus a little extra to brush the scones with (you can either use this

 recipe, or you can add 1 tablespoon honey and 1 teaspoon orange zest to store bought buttermilk)

 1 teaspoon salt

Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees F.

In the bowl of a food processor or stand mixer, combine the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Add in the cold butter and pulse until the butter is combined.

If you are in a food processor, move your dough to a stand mixer or large bowl.

Add in the ¾ cup buttermilk and stir to combine.

Then, add in the berries and blend just till the berries are in small pieces.

Drop large spoonfuls of dough on a parchment lined paper.

With a pastry brush, lightly brush the tops of the dough with the remaining buttermilk and sprinkle it with sugar.

Bake until golden brown. About 17-20 minutes.

Serve warm with  orange honey butter

Love and Beer Floats

Angela

Berry Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar, plus more for sprinkling on the top of scones

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ stick cold butter, cubed

1 ½ cup mixed berries (I prefer blackberries and raspberries)

¾ cup buttermilk, plus a little extra to brush the scones with (you can either use this

 recipe, or you can add 1 tablespoon honey and 1 teaspoon orange zest to store bought buttermilk)

 1 teaspoon salt

Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees F.

In the bowl of a food processor or stand mixer, combine the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Add in the cold butter and pulse until the butter is combined.

If you are in a food processor, move your dough to a stand mixer or large bowl.

Add in the ¾ cup buttermilk and stir to combine.

Then, add in the berries and blend just till the berries are in small pieces.

Drop large spoonfuls of dough on a parchment lined paper.

With a pastry brush, lightly brush the tops of the dough with the remaining buttermilk and sprinkle it with sugar.

Bake until golden brown. About 17-20 minutes.

Serve warm with  orange honey butter

Cheesecake with a Berry Reduction Sauce

On the Tenth Day of Treats, Eric’s Mother Sheri Gave to Me...

10 Pieces of Cheesecake

9 Magic Cookie Bars

8 Loafs of Banana Bread

7 Pieces of Shortbread

6 Apple Pies

5 Lemon Bars

4 Squares of Fudge

3 Butter Cookies

2 Pumpkin Pielets

And a recipe for Jewy Chewy Treats.

When I was little and my family would go out for a nice dinner, I would ALWAYS order the same thing. Cesar salad, a diet coke and cheesecake for dessert. It didn’t matter where I was, I could always seem to find my staples. Sometimes I would have to settle for diet pepsi, but I would survive.

So when Eric was telling me that his mom Sheri makes an amazing cheesecake, I decided I HAD to have that recipe! Lucky for me, she wasn’t stingy with it.

I decided my family’s holiday party was the perfect opportunity to try it out. My only mistake was not making two.

For the crust, you will need:
1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs (smashing them is a great stress release)
¼ cup sugar
5 tablespoons butter, melted

For the filling you will need:
2 blocks of cream cheese
2 eggs
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon lemon zest

For the topping you will need:
1 cup sour cream
¼ sugar

For the berry reduction to finish it off:
1 pack of raspberries
1 pack of blackberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup brandy

I suggest making the cheesecake the day before and the reduction about 2 hours before you are going to serve the cheesecake.

Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Then, mix the crust ingredients together and press them into a 9 inch pie plate. Bake for 6-7 minutes.


While the crust is baking, mix together the filling ingredients. Make sure your cream cheese is soft enough or you will have issues mixing. I am a dummy and I used a whisk, but I advise using a hand blender. If you don’t have one, get ready for sore arms.


When it is mixed, cover the crust and bake the filling or 20-25 minutes.


After it has finished baking, let it cool for 10 minutes. I failed at this because I don’t read directions. Read the directions!


While it is cooling, mix the sour cream and sugar for the topping. I know sour cream in a baked dish sounds weird, but it was delicious. Ask the 30 people that had to fight over crumbs of it.


When the cake has cooled, pour the topping over the cake and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
Finally, let it cool until the dish it is in is no longer warm and then place it in the fridge until it is ready to serve.


Two hours before you plan on serving the cheesecake, throw all the ingredients for the berry sauce in a saucepan and cook it on medium/low for 2 hours. All you have to do is stir every so often. Like, every 20 minutes or so. That’s it. Crazy right?




Crazy good!


Love and Beer Floats
Angela

Rivalry

I enjoy sports. However, unless it's a Ducks hockey game or one of my brother's water polo games, I wouldn't necessarily say I care too much about the outcome of any given sporting event. Now if it is a Ducks game or one of my brothers are playing I suggest you sit very far away from me, hope I haven't had a single sip of alcohol and under no circumstances say anything that could even be slightly construed as a negative comment about one of my brothers. If you abide by all those suggestions, I'm super pleasant.

Basketball is fun to watch, but I am far from enthusiastic about it. If you twist my arm I would have to say the Lakers are my team, but only because they would my "home" team. Not the case with Lish and Eric who were both around for new food last night. The menu consisted of...

steamed artichoke with dip

fettucini with peas and prosciutto in a cream sauce

tomatoes provencal

cesar salad

and...

a hearty helping of a suns fan/lakers fan rivalry.

Both were dying... DYING... to get home to watch the game. And even though they were very helpful in the kitchen during commercials, it was painfully obvious that all they wanted to do was sit in their respective bean bag chairs upstairs and root on their team.

The best part of watching Lish and Eric root for different teams is that they are both painfully kind and polite. As Lish's team pulled ahead she was very restrained and kept repeating "the Lakers are dangerous, they could come back," as if to encourage Eric. And even though Eric wanted to scream about "horrible calls" and other more obscene man type sports comments, he sat mumbling quietly to himself.

If you aren't paying attention to the score... the Suns won, but I think they were both winning fans. Especially because we got to eat Lish's first ever contribution to new food tuesday... dessert. She made berries with angel food cake and ice cream. And this totally counts as a legit contribution because she cooked the berries on the stove with sugar and brandy. Lish delish. (that is totally the first time she has ever heard this reference)

You won't believe how good it is. You should try it yourself...

Lish's Berries

3 pints mixed berries (we used raspberries and blackberries but strawberries and blueberries would be great too)

1 cup sugar (you could add another half cup if you like it really sweet)

2 tablespoons fruit favored brandy (we used apricot... because we had it... don't ask me why we had it)

angel food cake

1 pint good vanilla ice cream

Put the berries and sugar in a pot over medium heat. Heat till sauce like. Add the brandy and cook for at least a minute to burn off the alcohol. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Place the berries over a slice of the cake and add a scoop of ice cream. Enjoy!

Love and Beer Floats

Angela

P.S. Check out a couple more beautiful pictures Eric caught.

Go Ducks!