Brownie Cheesecake

I found this recipe in the new issue of " Taste of Home" magazine. It didn't turn out exactly as in the magazine (yet), but I'll make it again and again until it turns out right.It is very tasty though. The "bad" part is that this thing is so rich, that you can only eat a small slice at a time. I "might"post the step-by-step recipe with pictures and everything...but I won't do it now...

this is the original recipe in the "Taste of Home" magazine...as you see, my cheesecake didn't turn out exactly like that one :(

Porthos and me

My dogue de bordeaux puppy is growing very fast. He is exactly 12 weeks old today and 30 lbs! The color of his eyes is changing, the color of his coat is changing...wellll...he's become a big boy :)

Apple "Pizza"

Why do I called this pizza? Because it looks like a pizza, you built it like a pizza...and also I cut it with a pizza cutter :D . It is very easy to make and sooo delicious!

We need pie dough (preferably homemade!), some 3-4 tart apples (like granny smith), sugar,(dark)brown sugar, cinnamon (I use "regular" cinnamon and saigon cinnamon which looks a little different and has a more powerfull flavor), unsalted butter, and and oven of course. We also need some 2 tablespoons of appricot preserves for a glossy finishing.

First we make the pie dough. It is easy to make and well worth it. I "might" post the recipe for the dough some time soon, but it is so easy to find a recipe online. Just google it :)

  Then, we roll it (well, it should be like a 14x10 regtangular, and 1/4 inch thickness, but I just didn't have the heart to cut the dough so I left in in that "oval" shape). We put the dough in a cookie pan. I also use perchament paper for easy clean-up.

   
    Then we prepare the apples.

    We put the apples on the dough in a diagonal (or whatever way you want)

  

Then we add a little less than 1/2 sugar (and by all means, if you have a sweet tooth add more..whereas people who don't like their stuff really sweet should add less sugar).

   Then some brown sugar. I use dark brown sugar for that molasses taste, but I don't put much.

   Then the cinnamom. We can't make this without the cinnamon.

    And finaly, we add some butter on top...around 1/4 cup. If you use store bought pie dough, I wouldn't put much if any butter as the store bought dough has already a ton of fat in it and the pizza would come out too greasy.

     Then we put it in the preheated oven at 350 F for about an hour. I get mine out the oven after 50 minutes.

     And it looks something like this when it comes out the oven

     We mix the appricot preserves with a tablespoon of water,put in the microwave for like 20 seconds then brush the mixture on top the pizza. And we can cut it up and eeeeeat it!

Deviled eggs

Ohhh...everybody loves these deviled eggs! And they are so easy to make!
We need boiled eggs,bacon, mayonnaise (homemade preferably!), mustard, cream cheese,white wine vinegar, salt, and some smoked spanish paprika (optional).
First of all we boil the eggs. This seems an easy process...or not lol. It sounds easy and everybody should know how to boil eggs, right? Wellllll...if you want "perfectly" boiled eggs, then you should do some reading. In my mind, a perfectly boiled egg peels fairly easy, and the yolk doesn't have any greenish color.
So, we boil our eggs, we peel them slice them in half, put the whites on a plate and put the yolks in the bowl we are going to make the filling.

We fry the bacon and let it cool.

Then we make the mayonnaise. I do NOT do store bought mayonnaise...actually, I don't do store bought anything. Mayonnaise is so easy to make  and much better tasting than the store bought crap (btw..when making mayonnaise, everything needs to be room temperature: egg yolks, oil, mustard, lemon juice)

Now, we mash the boiled egg yolks with a fork really well, then we add the mayonnaise to the mashed yolks (this recipe is for 6 whole eggs, so for 6 yolks I put around 1/2 cup of mayonnaise..but it all depends...sometimes I put even more :) ). Then we add the mustard (I use Dijon mustard..around 1 tablespoon), 1 or 2 teaspoons of vinegar,1 teaspoon of kosher salt (if tablesalt is used, then add less). I also add like 2 or 3 tablespoons of room temperature cream cheese...this is optional...I add it for richness. Mix everything  and taste. You are more than welcome to adjust the vinegar, salt, mustard,mayonnaise, and cream cheese to your taste! You might like more or less vinegar, salt etc. Don't forget that we are going to add bacon too and that is packed with salt!

We fill the egg whites with the mayonnaise mixture. If you can make it look pretty good for you...I can't.

 Then we add the bacon..yummm

Then I sprinkle the eggs with some smoked spanish paprika. I like the smoky flavor that it adds to the eggs..and the color too.

Depending on the company I have, I may move the eggs to another plate (regular plate or special plate for deviled eggs), but most of the time it is family and friends so they don't care about that paprika mess between the eggs on the plate...soooo less dishes to do sounds good to me :D

I make these eggs like 1-2 hours before we eat them so they can rest in the fridge, the flavors blend together, and they get nice and chilled.

Well...bon appetit!