She: Pumpkin Cheesecake

I actually made two different cheesecakes for thanksgiving, but the pumpkin cheesecake was by far better. Infact, it didn't last for more than an hour. The whoooole thing. I got the recipe from "Joy of Baking." It wasn't the easiest recipe, but it was worth it. I added a few alteration, but they are minor.

First, the crust: I used a food processor and ground up a cup of ginger naps, cup of graham crackers and mixed that with 1 tb of sugar and 4 tbs of melted butter. I smashed all that down into the bottom of a springform pan. I then ground up some walnuts and sprinkled those ontop...that helps the crust from getting soggy later.

The cheesecake: Mix/grind the spices together and set aside (1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1/4 nutmet, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp salt). On low speed, beat 1 lb cream cheese til smooth, then mix in 2/3c brown sugar and spices. Add 3 eggs, then add 1 tsp vanilla and 1 cup pumpkin puree. Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl! Pour ontop the crust, and bake at 350F for 30 minutes, then reduce to 325F and bake for another 10 minutes. If you put a cake pan filled half with water at the bottom of the oven while it cooks, it'll help prevent cracks in the cheesecake.

Topping: Mix 1c sour cream, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1/4c sugar. Spoon the mix ontop of the bakes cheesecake and then return it to the oven for 8 minutes to set it. A nice tip Mark shared: if you need to put this in the fridge, you can spray some pam oil on a plastic sheet before you put it on the cheesecake--it keeps it from clinging to the dessert!

She: Gaaaaah

I am in the midst of making: Lemon-cheese tart, pumkin/vanilla cheesecake, and pumpkin pie. I bit of juuuust as much as I can chew tonight. I'm exhausted just watching the oven. And you KNOW its a long night when it takes 10 minutes to realize I've been listening to the BeeGees...

She: NC and food

We have pics from fabulous restaurants and all, but I thought I'd add a post on WHY we were in NC and the food along with it...we were there for a wedding. Mark was part of the wedding party--his best friend was getting married! Important foodie things: the rehersal dinner had an interesting cake based off the bride and groom hitting it off at a carwash. Then there was the dinner. I laughed at the southerness of it: fried chicken, green beans, hush puppies and bbq.

Now, I MUST protest this, much to Mark's annoyance. My family is from the bbq capital of the world...Kansas City. (thats right, I threw down that glove). This...meat that they call bbq in NC is NOT bar b que! Period! Its shredded meat. There's no rub, not basted with sauce...nothing. They just have some vinegar you can put on the side with some chilli flakes in it. THATS NOT BARBQUE! Okay. I'm stepping off the soap box now.

Last there was the wedding cake. It was a lovely layered cake--each layer was a different flavor. I had the carrot cake. It was moist and yummy. AND pretty without a lot of fake icing. I haaaate that serious buttercreme stuff that tastes like shortening. In between the festivities we went tooling around town to different restaurants. Niiiice stuff. We'll post'em soon.

He: Lilly's Pizza

When I was little there was a couple of meals that just stuck as things that my family always made. The two things that stick out in my head that my excelled at were baked chicken with noodles and steamed broccoli, and spaghetti with either meat sauce or white clam sauce. I can't say that I have fond memories of the chicken, although I probably lived off the noodles...and probably would to this day, if it wasn't for the Atkins diet and all of those years thinking that carbohydrates were bad. Unlike the chicken, I do have very fond memories of the spaghetti and clam sauce (or meat sauce), and today I can make those sauces with no effort at all. If given the chance to relive those memories of the family around the table with spaghetti and sauce, and garlic bread that would make even garlic farmers blush is something that I'd love to be able to do.

Later, once I was living on my own, trying to survive as a post college, semi-lost adult I attempted to develop my palate in Raleigh. I developed a love for a few distinct spots that my college buddies and I seemed to spend way too much time in. One of those classic spots for us was this little eclectic pizza place called Lilly's. The whole place is just a hodgepodge of styles, with old sections of cathedral ceilings just lying on the floor, and a bliniking sign near the bar that just says 'wow'. Even with the hodgepodge they make the best pizza that I think that I've ever eaten. The last time that I was able to enjoy a slice was about 7 years ago.

Thanks to by best friend Steve, and his new bride Mary, Brandy and I got the opportunity to enjoy a slice from this fantastic little place. Here are a few shots of the place, and what doesn't look like an incredible pizza....but the thing that I say when people ask is that the dough they make is soo good that you'd almost like to eat the crust..and then maybe the rest. Trust me this is something that if you ever make it to Raleigh, you have to try at least once.

She: Explaining Delusions

First, Mark's last post was a mea culpa, of sorts. First, since I've been traveling this month I told him that HE needed to be in charge of the blog this month, and do his fair-share of writing for a change...which didn't happen. And, we had our oven break, and in another delusion, he decided to fix it himself, which took 2 weeks to complete (and a repairman did most anyways) so even if I WANTED to bake and post I couldn't. As far as the tomato plants he's referring to? 3. Thats right, three whole tomato plants and he thought he'd have enough to bottle ketchup. He gets these bright, half-baked ideas, and I sit in the back of the room saying, that its all nice and well, but will never be a reality if you don't have a gameplan. Which he usually doesn't. So if I don't decide to take over (like I did with the tomato plants...he just forgot the water them for 2 weeks, snort) then I get a blog without the HE component to counterbalance, an unusable oven, and other mangled ideas. But thats what makes us great--he's got the optimism, and I have the practicality--together we can pull off anything...but only if I'm in town to give'm a nudge.

He: Delusions of Grandeur

Everyone knows the old saying 'don't count your chickens before they hatch'. Well, in my world that should extend a whole lot further. A couple of years ago when Brandy and I were still living in Atlanta we had a garden. The delusion that I had going is that we would have tomatoes coming out of our ears. I was sure that we would have sooo many tomatoes that we would have more than enough to sell some to the restaurant that I was working for at the time. I was sure that we would have soo many tomatoes that after canning, and drying, and the selling them that we would still be eating them until we couldn't stand it. As fate would have it, we ended up having a massive thunderstorm when the plants were loaded down with fruit and we lost a ton of tomatoes. Of course I was distraught...and the wonderful ninja poster just below had a hearty round of 'I told you so'. I'm sure that you will see my delusions of grandeur rear it's ugly head many times in the future.

She: Ninjas + Food...

Okay, check this link out...Adventure Dining. Now, some people like a little...unique spice to their meals. Eating in the dark while blind waiters serve you is trendy now. Could be cool...but I'd be really worried about how clean the place is...I know. I have a suspicious mind. But this article, this boggles the mind. Or atleast, MY mind. Ninjas! "Ninja New York" is a restaurant where "the wait staff at Ninja New York has been rumored to leap out and startle visitors from the shadows, scale walls, mysteriously appear and disappear..." Thats right. The chef and the wait staff are all reported to be Ninjas serving you in ninja style.

I find this absolutely hilarious. BUT, not enough that I wouldn't actually go if it wasn't a bazillion dollars to eat there like I think it probably would. Of course, I do understand that its showy, and doesn't tell us about the food itself at all or if it's worth eating. But, as Mark says, restaurants are part of the hospitality industry, meaning they need to be hospitable and entertaining, since thats partly what you pay for. And I, just once, might like to be served my buffalo wings with stealth, smoke and mirrors.