Paula's Cheescake

If you've read the Culinary Life List, you'll know that Stuart and I are trying to turn over a new leaf by not eating processed foods.  As you may have guessed, that was more my idea than Stuart's.  As you also may have guessed, that is proving to be a pretty challenging task.  I dare you to open up your pantry/fridge right now and see what percentage of the stuff in there is processed.  It's scary!  And what I mean by processed is having stuff on the label that is not recognizable as food.  Example: Tocopherol in my seemingly-healthy Near East boxed whole grain couscous mix.  What the heck is that?  And don't even get me started on Velveeta.  It's not even cheese!

Anyways, we have begun the process of using up/donating the processed items in our pantry and replacing them with only whole-food items.  This will mean a lot more cooking on our parts, but hopefully a lot healthier bodies in return!

And of course there will be bumps in the road.  Our first bump?  Paula Deen's Chocolate Explosion Cheesecake.  

Whoa.

 It all started while Stu and I were watching the Food Network one Saturday.  The whole day was dedicated to recipes with chocolate in them.  On comes Paula Deen, the queen of fattening recipes.  Well her show that day demonstrated making the Chocolate Explosion Cheesecake.  Stuart and I were transfixed to the television.  The cake had 5 layers.  There was cookie dough, caramel, and ganache involved.  


Fast forward to Valentine's Day.  Stuart came home from work one evening with a Publix paper sack which went straight to the fridge.  He said it was my V-day present and I had to wait to see what it was.  I was immediately suspicious.

Large paper sack to the right

On Valentine's Day before our wonderful dinner at the Wash House, which could be a post in and of itself, I opened the bag.  Ta-daaaa!  It was the cheesecake ingredients for us to cook together!

A few days later we began our cheesecake adventure.  We donned our aprons (matching ones, mind you!) and prepared to bake.  We divided up layers.  I worked on the graham cracker crust while Stuart made the first chocolate layer.  Now, I have to give Stuart credit for the culinary progress he has made!  Before we were married he ate tuna helper and peanut butter (not together) on a regular basis.  I also remember the first dinner he ever made me was chicken nuggets and his grandma's frozen mac and cheese.  I loved it just the same!  But now we both like spending time in the kitchen together, and his cooking skills have grown to prove it!

Anyway, I was at one counter pressing down the crust, and Stuart asked me where the flour was.  I keep flour, sugar, and corn meal on the counter in big unlabeled glass canisters.  I use them a lot and theyre just really handy that way!  I told him it was the 1st jar and kept minding my crust.  A few minutes later, over a steaming double boiler, Stuart asked me to come see if the chocolate looked ready.  I glanced in and noticed it was a little, well, grainy.  I then looked to his right and noticed the jar of cornmeal was open.  Uh ohh...He grabbed the first jar at the other end of the row.

We proceeded on despite the mishap.  On to the next layers of caramel sauce, cookie dough (processed, dang it), and chocolate ganache.

Mistake #2: we cut the cookie dough a bit too thick and didn't have enough to cover the entire cheesecake.  Again, we proceeded on.  When the cake was finally assembled it almost overflowed the pan!  Since the cookie dough layer was only on the periphery there was a big dip in the cake, but we figured it would taste good anyway.  Into the oven it went!

Paula said to bake the cake at 300 degress for an hour.  I thought that seemed kind of low but went with it anyway.  After an hour it was still basically liquid, and it wound up cooking for about an hour and a half.  After 8 agonizing hours of it cooling in the fridge, it was time to taste!

Mistake #3: not greasing the pan enough.  That plus all the layers didn't quite 'adhere' together.  Made for a bit of a messy cut

So, as I'm sure you're dying to know, the cheesecake was delish!  You couldnt even notice the secret ingredient: cornmeal.  However, next time we may try sticking with just 1 or 2 layers instead of 5.  And maybe I should label my jars.

NOLA

This weekend we traveled to New Orleans so that Stuart could run in his second marathon.  If you remember from an earlier post, I was supposed to be running the half-marathon.  Alas, a few days prior I had to have some small medical procedures done (I'm ok - no worries!) and the stitches weren't exactly running-friendly.  Regardless, I accompanied Stu to the Crescent City to cheer him on!  And, since the only time I had been to NOLA was for Katrina cleanup, I considered this to be a mini vacation.

So on Saturday around noon we headed out.  When we arrived downtown our hotel room wasn't ready, so we used that opportunity for Stuart to sign in for the race and for us to see the sights!  After signing in, we took a stroll down the Riverwalk.  This is lined with mall-ish restaurants and shops, and on the other side you can see ships chugging down the Mississippi River.  If you're "lucky", like we were, a few rats might even scamper across your path as you pass by.  We finally made it down toward the French Quarter and got in the block-long line for Cafe Du Monde.  If you've never heard of it, the cafe has a pretty simple menu: Cafe au Lait and beignets (French Donuts).  If you've never had one, a beignet is basically a hand-sized funnel cake that is even more delicious.  

Our last half-eaten beignet with it's bath of powdered sugar

The atmosphere there is pretty cool, too.  It's an open air cafe where you seat yourself (if you're lucky enough to find a table).  The tables are tiny and round and so close together that you can literally bump elbows with people at the table next to you.  Conversations are loud but you can still hear the street musicians playing right outside.  Once you sit down a waiter somehow notices and comes to take your order (ours was two cafe au laits and 1 order of beignets).  A few seconds later the food arrives and you pay, cash only, right there on the spot.

Along with the conversations in the air, you also will notice little specks flying around in the sunlight.  I first thought it was dirt or debris from the street, but then after Stuart took his first big bite of French donut, I realized it was powdered sugar floating around!

Stu's first bite.  He had to load up on the carbs for the race, you know!

My first bite!  I didn't race, but loaded up on carbs anyway.

To lick the sugar off the plate or not?

After we ate our fill we headed back towards the hotel.  We didn't make it far before we saw a huge crowd forming around Jackson square.  There were people lined up in the streets and sidewalks watching 4 guys in matching Adidas sweatsuits do some sort of routine.  We stopped to see what all the hullabaloo was about, and wound up getting the show of our lives!

Although I can't confirm this online, apparently these 4 dudes used to live on the streets of New Orleans doing who knows what.  Then they discovered they could dance/do gymnastics and also were hilarious, and decided to do these routines on the sides of the street.  As far as I know, this is their only occupation, and based on the numbers of people that watch and give tips, they probably make more than we do.  I have to admit I was a bit jealous!

We watched for at least half an hour as they jumped and danced and spun around.  Even though that was entertaining enough, the best part was how they would mock people in the audience/bystanders.  For instance, a lone Hispanic man in a cowboy hat and denim got called the Marlboro man and asked where his familia was.  An elderly lady in a wheelchair was told if she took the chair to the ghetto where they lived they could fit it with 24 inch rims!  I think she was confused, but it was hilarious!

Head spins!

 After the show, we grabbed a bite for dinner and then headed back to the hotel for an early bedtime and what we hoped would be a restful night.  We got settled in and were just about to doze off around 9pm, when all of a sudden we heard, "BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!"  At first I thought our neighbors were watching a loud movie, but then we realized it was coming from outside our 2nd floor window.  I walked over to peek out the curtains and what did I see but ...

What did we do to deserve this?!

 A MARCHING BAND!  Just parked outside our window in a random alleyway, banging their drums.  Why?  I have no idea.  There definitely was not any parade nearby.

We finally settled off to sleep amidst the drumline.  However the slumber didn't last long.  As luck would have it, the white building in that picture was actually A BAR.  And not just any bar.  A New Orleans bar.  AKA a place where people drink a lot, stay up til all hours of the morning, and have loud Cajun accents. The event that actually woke us up was a Cajun "gentleman" named Curt who was loudly cursing at someone and dropping the F-bomb at every opportunity.  His girlfriend/wife was trying to get him to stop, but unfortunately for our sleep schedule he didnt.  I never went to the window to peek, but figured things would settle down after I heard the police siren 20 minutes later.

False.  An hour later another similar scuffle broke out.  This one also involved dragging wrought Iron chairs across the cobblestone alley.  Fortunately Stuart is a heavier sleeper than I am.  I slept about 3 hours and he got about 5.

Whether we were rested up or not, the morning of the race came early!  Stuart got up at 5:45 and got ready to run!  I walked him down to the start line to give him a good send off (and to take pictures of course!)

Look at the intensity!  He didn't know I took this  =)

Over 16,000 people ran the marathon and half-marathon

He's up there somewhere running at the start line!

He got off to a great start and I headed back to the hotel to chillax a while before picking him up at the finish line.  When time came I was a bit nervous since I had to find my way around NOLA having never really been there before.  With some driving advice from the valet at the hotel and a newly found NOLA-inspired rap radio station to give me confidence, I found the finish line pretty easy!  A parking spot on the other hand was a bit more of a challenge.  Without divulging too much embarassing information, I wound up parking at the wrong end of the mile-long city park, not finding the finish line until he had been finished about 25 minutes, and then making the marathoner walk 2 extra miles back to the car.  To top it all off, I was going to try and be a good cheerleader and sit at a spot on the course and give Stu some water and good cheer!  I camped out for a while and he never came by.  I was beginning to think he just walked for a while and was being slow until he called me to let me know he was already finished.  Turns out I was on the half-marathon track and not the whole.  Oops!  Anyway, I found him eventually and after he recovered a while we headed back home to Daphne!  An interesting weekend for sure!

A new kind of bucket list

Kacie's Culinary Life List
{Inspired by my favorite food blog, www.biscuitsandsuch.com

Things I want to cook/eat/plant/do before I go ...

~ Create the perfect mac and cheese
~ Grow all our own fresh herbs
~ Have a garden patch with tomatoes, greens, and other delightful things
~ Compost
~ Cook seasonally
~ Learn to properly taste and appreciate wine
~ Learn to pair wine with foods
~ Stop buying pre-packaged foods (aka foods with chemicals and preservatives)
~ Learn what makes a good olive oil a good olive oil
~ Use my crockpot without burning the food (why does this happen, someone please tell me!!)
~ Bake a cake that doesn't crack, and ice it in a beautiful fashion
~ Meet my food role model, Ina Garten
~ Own a Le Creuset dutch oven, know how to use it, and use it regularly
~ Find freedom from recipes
~ Cook through an entire cookbook
~ Learn to love mushrooms
~ Eat French food in France
~ Eat Italian food in Italy
~ Taste every ethnic food available in the USA
~ Eat on 6 of the 7 continents
~ Learn to make healthy desserts
~ Make our own salad dressings
~ Learn why there are so many types of vinegars (balsamic, apple cider, white, etc)
~ Eat at The French Laundry, "the best restaurant in the world"
~ Have such a well stocked pantry that all I need at the store is produce and meat
~ Plant a lemon tree
~ Learn to bake bread, and related to that, overcome my fear of using yeast
~ Cut an onion without crying
~ Start a dinner party club
~ Perfect my knife skills
~ Design my own kitchen in our future house


The things above in red are all things I hope to do this year!