No Bake Cheese Cake

Another one from Gordon. I have made it two times now and I really love it! But I dont have the setting tools like Chef Gordon does so I cheat. The first time I scooped the cheese cake into red wine glasses and topped off with the berries and crumbles. The 2nd time I made it I layered a casserole dish: bottom layer berries, 2nd layer cheese cake mix, 3rd layer more berries, and top layer is the crumbles. So really its like an upside down cheese cake.

The recipe states it severed 8 but its so rich it might serve more than 8 people

Serves 8

Ingredients

Topping

• about 10-20 Nilla® Wafers
  
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 cup of butter
  

Berries

• 300g berries
  
• 2 tbsp sugar
• Splash of crème de cassis or water

Vanilla cream cheese

• 400g cream cheese (about 2 pkgs of cream cheese)
  
• 6 tbsp powder sugar
  
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 vanilla pod, split
• 600ml whipping cream
  

To finish

• Powder sugar to dust

Method: How to make no-bake berry cheesecake

1. Make the topping first. Coarsely grind the nella in a food processor. Melt the sugar in a heavy-based non-stick pan until it begins to caramelize, then carefully add the butter, shaking the pan to mix the caramel with the butter as it melts. Add the ground biscuits and toss to coat in the caramel. Tip on to a plate, chill for 5 minutes until firm, then break into pieces. Wipe out the pan with kitchen paper.

2. Tip the blueberries into the pan and sprinkle with the 2 tbsp sugar and a splash of cassis or water. Cook over medium-high heat for a minute until the blueberries are slightly soft. Spread out on a plate and leave to cool.

3. For the vanilla cream cheese, put the cream cheese, powder sugar and lemon juice in a large bowl. Add the seeds from the vanilla pod and beat until smooth. In another bowl, lightly whip the cream to soft peaks, then fold into the cream cheese mixture.

4. Take cheese mixture and layer it into a serving dish. It can be wine glasses or a casserole dish. The layer it with berry mixture. I like to have some berry mixture on the bottom and some on top of the cheese mixture. Chill until ready to serve. I do mine the night before.

5. Sprinkle the crumbly topping on top of the cheesecakes and spoon the blueberries around the plate. Dust with icing sugar and serve immediately.

Jury Duty

I am finally done with my jury duty. I got picked for a 2 day case. It was my first time being summoned and on top of that being picked. Oh lucky me.... but it was kind of interesting the first 6 hours of the trial. After that it got really redundant.

To sum up 2 days worth on the trial:

The suspect walks into home depot with an empty duffle bag

Goes to where the circuit breakers located and stuffs handfuls ($1500 worth) of circuit breakers in the bag. Store manger sees this and approaches the suspect. Suspect runs for the door wearing a white foot ball jersey (omg the lawyers would not shut up about it).

Alarms go off and two home depot employees that were outside chase the suspect across the parking lot.

(this was all on tape. Turns out home depot has colored surveillance cameras. Very cool)

Well a home depot customer in his car saw what was happening and drove to follow the suspect. He saw the suspect takes off the jersey, stuffed it into the bag, run to the middle of a busy street and hopped into a Lincoln town car. So the home depot customer called 911 and gave them the play by play of where the suspect and driver where going. He followed them for about 3-5 miles where the cops finally pulled the Lincoln over.

The state plaintiff had like 6 witnesses, 2 video tapes, 911 call, duffle bag, turned in side out football jersey, mug shots, and a receipt from home depot that the store manger made to show the total amount that was stolen.

Pretty much the defendant had nothing. The were kind of pulling thin strings out of no where in my opinion. The only "witness" they had was a lady in correctional that does the processing of what the suspect had on him before he went to jail. It was a wallet with some cash. Defendant lawyers where saying that the whole of the story is that the suspect didnt have ENOUGH money for the circuit breakers.

When us jury people went in the back to deliberate only 2 out of the 12 had issues with the case. The Suspect was in trial for two offences: Burglary and Grand Larceny (Grand Larceny is stolen goods over $250). The judge hands you a thick packet of papers and reads out loud the charges and which each offence means. One guy was hooked up on the word intent (from the packet) in burglary section and one guy was hooked up in larceny because he believed that you cant prove that the circuit breakers where from home depot. He was saying maybe he got them at Lowes? After about an hour of seeing other points of views and munching on pizza we came to an verdict of guilty on both charges.

I didnt see the sentencing but thats what you get for being caught red handed. If that good samaritan never saw what happened in the parking lot and followed the man with 911 on the other line the suspect would of gotten away with the crime.

Great news that I got paid $40 a day for my service (even on pooling day!). That $120!!! Whoo! Time to get gas for the car and food for a party at a friend's house on Saturday!

Happy 3rd Birthday Belle and Ozzie

It was the puppies 3rd birthday last week. Every year I try to get a photo of them with their birthday hats.

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY

Oh the things I do to embarrass my hubby

Will post more pictures of his cube and birthday related events

Profiteroles with Chantilly cream. Topped off with hot chocolate sauce

Yes another one by Chef Gordon Ramsay. Here is the video to make it

Makes 30 profiteroles

Ingredients

Choux pastry

• 125ml milk
• 200ml water
• 150g plain flour
• 1 tsp golden caster sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 100g unsalted butter
• 4 medium eggs, lightly beaten

Chantilly cream

• 1 ½ a vanilla pod, split (or some vanilla extract)
• 300ml whipping cream
• 1-2 tbsp icing sugar

Chocolate sauce

• 200g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
• 30g unsalted butter
• 3 tbsp clear honey
• 125ml milk

1. Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Place the milk, cold water, salt, sugar into a pan and set over a low heat. Once the sugar and salt has dissolved add the butter. Once the butter has melted, bring to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat then tip in the flour and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon. As soon as the mixture starts to come away from the side of the pan, stop beating and tip onto a plate to cool.

2. Return the mixture to the pan, then gradually beat in the eggs, a little at a time, mixing well between each addition, until you have a smooth paste. (Alternatively, transfer the mix to an electric mixer and gradually add the eggs while the mixer is running on a low setting).

3. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Spoon the choux pastry into a piping bag fitted with a large plain nozzle (about 1.5cm in diameter). Pipe a small blob of the pastry mix under each corner of the greaseproof to keep the paper in place. Now pipe about 20 walnut-sized balls onto the baking sheet, spaced well apart. Level the peaked tops with the tip of a wet finger then bake for 18-20 minutes until well risen and golden brown.

4. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before filling.

5. For the Chantilly cream scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod into a large mixing bowl. Add the cream, and icing sugar then whisk together until the consistency of a soft meringue with floppy peaks. Spoon the cream into a clean piping bag, fitted with a small plain nozzle. Pierce the base of a choux bun with the tip of the nozzle and pipe in the cream. Repeat with the remaining choux buns.

6. For the chocolate sauce, break the chocolate into small pieces in a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and heat. Add the butter and honey stirring from time to time, until the chocolate begins to melt. Gradually whisk in the milk until you have a smooth sauce and warm through. Serve the cream-filled profiteroles with the hot chocolate sauce drizzled over.

Beef Wellington - By Chef Gordon Ramsey

Here is the video to watch it made

Serves about 4. Depends on the size of the beef fillet

Ingredients

• beef tenderloin fillet
• Salt and pepper
• olive oil
• 1 lb portobello mushrooms
• 5 thin slices prosciutto
• 2 Tbsp Coleman's Original English Mustard
• 7 ounces puff pastry (I used pie crust)
• 2 egg yolks, beaten

Method

1 Preheat oven to 400°F.

2 Heat a tablespoon or two of oil in a large pan on high heat. Season the fillet generously with salt and pepper. Sear the fillet in the pan on all sides until well brown. Remove the fillet from the pan and let cool. Once cooled, brush the fillet on all sides with mustard.

3 Chop the mushrooms put them into a food processor and purée. Heat a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Scrape the mushroom purée into the pan and let cook down, allowing the mushrooms to release their moisture. When the moisture released by the mushrooms has boiled away, set aside the mushrooms to cool.

4 Roll out a large piece of plastic wrap. Lay out the slices of prosciutto on the plastic wrap so that they overlap. Spread the mushroom mixture over the ham. Place the beef fillet in the middle, roll the mushroom and prosciutto over the fillet, using the plastic wrap so that you do this tightly. Wrap up the beef fillet into a tight barrel shape, twisting the ends of the plastic wrap to secure. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

5 On a lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry sheet to a size that will wrap around the beef fillet. Unwrap the fillet from the plastic wrap and place in the middle of the pastry dough. Brush the edges of the pastry with the beaten eggs. Fold the pastry around the fillet, cutting off any excess at the ends (pastry that is more than 2 layers thick will not cook all the way, try to limit the overlap). Place on a small plate, seam side down, and brush beaten egg yolks all over the top. Chill for 5-10 minutes.

6 Place the pastry-wrapped fillet on a baking pan. Brush the exposed surface again with beaten eggs. Score the top of the pastry with a sharp knife, not going all the way through the pastry. Sprinkle the top with coarse salt. Bake for 25-35 minutes. The pastry should be nicely golden when done. (To ensure that your roast is medium rare, test with an instant read meat thermometer. Pull out at 125-130°F for medium rare.) Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Slice in 1-inch thick slices.

Thank you http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/beef_wellington/ for typing it up