Red Velvet Cheesecake cookies with white chocolate drizzle

I want to share a new recipe I tried out this past week for the Real Women Eat's Christmas Tea.  We were doing a gift exchange, but with a twist.  The "gift" had to be a baked item, and it was supposed to be something we have never made before.  So, my collection of recipes just wouldn't do this time. Off to Pinterest I go.  I found Two Peas and Their Pod's site where these beauties were.  She had me at "red velvet" and when I saw these were cookies, all the better!  (I'm such a cookie monster!) These cookies should come with a warning... they are very rich.  LOL.   They're not hard, but they do take a little bit of time investment, but oh, so worth it!   So here goes....

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies

Cookies:

• 1 box red velvet cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cheesecake filling:

• 4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

White chocolate drizzle:

• 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips, melted

Directions:

To make cookies, combine cake mix and flour. Whisk until clumps disappear before placing in mixing bowl. Mix together cake mix, flour, eggs, oil and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap. The dough will be oily.  And I really mean oily!   The recipe said to refrigerate for 2 hours.  I had running around to do, so they stayed in there a lot longer than the two hours (and were fine)

To make the cheesecake filling, combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Using a teaspoon, scoop out cheesecake filling and place on a plate. Continue scooping out cheesecake filling into teaspoon balls until you have 10. Place plate in the freezer and freeze for at least two hours. Again, more than two hours didn't hurt. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper-  or a silicone baking mat if you have one.  I don't. 

To assemble the cookies, take about 1/4 cup of red velvet cookie dough and flatten in your hands.(I used one of those ice-cream-looking scoops that I use for cupcake batter)   Place a teaspoon of cheesecake filling in the center and wrap the cookie dough around the filling. Gently roll into a ball and place on prepared baking sheet. Scoop onto lightly greased or parchment lined baking sheets. Only bake 3 cookies at a time. The cookies are large and will spread.  Trust me, she knows what she's talking about.  So, really, only three at a time.  Ya, hear??

Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the cookies begin to crackle. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Remove from baking sheet to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.

Melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl or over a double-boiler. Drizzle the white chocolate over the cooled cookies. Let the cookies set until the chocolate hardens. 

Note: I bought the white chocolate chips, but ended up using the white candy coating wafers instead thinking it would harden quicker.  I didn't see where I saved any time using the wafers so go ahead and use the white chocolate chips!  

These cookies are really rich and I doubt you'll be finishing them in a day, so store in the frige.  My husband ate one and said he felt like he had eaten half a dozen...THAT rich. 

Source: http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/red-velvet-cheesecake-cookies/

Re-Use that Ketchup Bottle

I love honey.  My sister gave me a gallon of honey recently.  The gallon jug isn't easy to handle, so I wanted to pour it into something more "user friendly".  I tried those cute bear bottles, but those don't hold enough, and I end up collapsing the flimsy plastic bottle after several fill-ups.  What to do...   enter the ketchup bottle!

This is probably not a new idea, but it's new to me, so allow me to live in my fantasy world and think that I, alone, had this wonderful idea.  At least for a little bit.  

I just washed out the ketchup bottle (thank goodness there were no lingering smells.  As much as I love ketchup, I don't like to co-mingle it with honey)  and viola!  My new honey dispenser.   Since it's a no-drip cap, it's perfect for the honey too!

So, tell me, what have you repurposed?  I'd love to hear.  Please share in the comments, or if you have done a blog post, leave a link there so we can all come visit!

Make your own Fruit Flavored Waters

Ok, I'll admit it.  I'm behind the curve on this one.  Oh sure, I've been drinking "water with lemon" for years. But my mind was totally blown when I saw (sensory overload) all the different fruit water options!   I found some strawberries and kiwis at Aldi's for ultra-cheap.   The strawberries were from Wish Farms, and honestly they tasted like someone had injected pure sugar into them!  I couldn't resist snacking on some as I'm cutting them for my water. (I like it that Wish Farms is a local USA company too!)

My drink of choice was strawberry and kiwi.  But think about the options....

Strawberry/blueberry 

Pineapple/peach, mango 

Blueberry/raspberry

Orange slices

Watermelon

Cantaloupe/Grape

Peach/Nectarine

Plum/Apple

Raspberry/Lime

You could go absolutely wild!!!

Oh!  and at the health food store, I found a chocolate flavored stevia.  Mix that with a spearmint and woozers!  Chocolate mint water!  Yummm.... 

First I just put the fruit into a glass with water.  Since I liked it so much, I wanted it at the ready in the frige for the rest of the week so in comes...

A fusion pitcher!

This is perfect for my fruit.  There's a "tube" that screws into the lid. I just poured in my water filled the tube with my cut up fruit, screwed it back on the lid  and I was good to go.  

You can get one at Amazon.com here which I'm excited about, because that one is cheaper than I paid for mine!  If you want a really full flavor, do your water a day before.  The flavors are out of this world!  That's what I did and it made such a difference in the "flavor level".  

Do you do your own flavored waters?  I'd love to hear what you do.  Please leave me a comment and share with us all. 

Salad in a Wrap

I recently had lunch at this really cool place called The Corner Store in Plant City (FL) and they made a veggie wrap that was...well, nothing short of awesome!  I got it with a stuffed grape leaf inside.  It's all I could think about since then!  In  a moment of desperation, I tried to duplicate it.  Now, honestly, mine is nothing like theirs (I'm planning another visit there soon for lunch again!) but it was good.  No, make that awesome in it's own way.   So good, in fact, that I'm looking forward to making this for my lunch again.

Do you do that too?

See that vinaigrette dressing in the background?  My niece and I went to Aldi's yesterday morning and she introduced that to me.  It was wonderful!  I used it in the wrap.

Ok, here's how I "built" my version of the veggie wrap:

Start with some good bread, I couldn't find a decent Pita style wrap bread, but lucked out when I spied this Italian Flat Out bread! 

  It's great, only 90 calories, and doesn't taste like paper towels!

Spread some hummus  on the bread, starting in the middle and leave the edges free

I added some green onion (totally optional)

(I totally love Sabra brand hummus!)

I cheated and bought a "bag-o-salad", premium mix and plopped a good sized handful on top in the center.

Hmmm.... Maybe I should've called this "Salad in a Wrap"?  

Poured a little of that dressing I told you about from Aldi's on top, and then added some feta cheese.  

Now sit yourself down and enjoy!

I'm looking for new ideas for healthier eating.  Got any suggestions?  You can leave a link to a blog post in your comments too and I'll be sure to check it out.  

Be Sweet

Pecan Pie Cake Challenge

Do you remember the Pecan Pie Cake post I made a while back?  (It is so stupidly delicious, I can't even begin to tell you!)  

Well, a reader posted a very good question...  Can this be made Gluten Free.  I'm making that a blog post because, frankly, I don't know how it would turn out.   Any GF readers? Wanna take a stab at it?  Pretty Please?  For a guest post and a prize?    If you're up for the challange, leave me a comment. If you're commenting anonymously, please leave an email address that I can contact you.

Word Verification - a love hate relationship

You've been there, right?  You go to a blog.  You type your comment like a good surfer because you want to let them know you were there and to say hello, or add to the conversation, and BAM!  There it is!  That Word Verification!   Ugh!    I know, I've been there too.  I vowed not to have that on my blog.
Until now.  Thanks to Pinterest making my Pecan Pie Cake post getting so many views, it's now the target of all sorts of spammers.  I seriously get 30-50 a day!  Some I catch, some I don't. I'm not complaining that so many people view this post.  I love the company!  But trying to clean up all these spammy comments is taking up too much time.  Time I could better use killing my plants.  So, this is the only way I know of now, to (hopefully) take care of that.  Please understand, and bear with me.   And, if you know of a better, quicker way to take care of those varmints, please let me know.

Cabbage and Sausage Soup

Winter Soup Weather Soup

I posted a pic on my facebook timeline of this soup this week and got a lot of requests for the recipe.  So, I thought I'd just post it here so everybody can try it.  Let me just say, this is "da bombdigity" y'all!  It is so incredibly good.   You have got to try it, and then come back and leave a comment and let me know how ya liked it.  Expecially if you tweaked it!

1 lb bulk breakfast sausage

2 lg onion  diced

1 small head of cabbage  chopped

4-5 medium russet potatoes  chopped

Chicken stock (I make my own brown from bones left over and freeze - so much better than the store bought broth!)

2 cans evaporated milk

sea salt and pepper to taste

Cook sausage in Dutch oven over medium heat. Add chopped onion and cabbage and saute until they begin to soften.

Add chopped potatoes. Add stock covered ingredients. Bring to a boil then put lid on and turn heat down. Simmer 30-45 minutes or until potatoes and cabbage are tender.

Remove lid, turn off heat, and stir in milk or cream until the broth is as thin or creamy as you like. Taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as desired.

This is so good...and filling!    It's good, like it is, but I thought I'd try this....

It was ok, but I decided I didn't want anything to detract from the great flavors already in the soup.   Use your own judgement.  

By the way, I really hope you'll try to make your own chicken stock.   There's nothing like it.  Next time you roast a chicken, boil it, or even after Thanksgiving turkey, take all the bones, throw it in a pot with cold water, add about 1/4 cup organic apple cider vinegar and boil all day, and night.  (no kidding)  You want the bones to be so tender, if you stuck them with a fork, you could go right through 'em.   Then strain the broth.  Put in the frige to let the fat come to the surface and skim that off.   What you have left is a jell like substance - or pure liquid gold.   You can put in zip lock bags and freeze, or if you want cubes, just use ice cube trays.  (I use way more than a couple of cubes at a time, so I opted for the bags.     Enjoy!

  

An interview from 2011

You all know I have an Etsy shop, right?  (See the right column at the top, you can click it to go there and look around)  Tonight I was going through and cleaning up some of my bookmarked sites and came across an interview that Shop Happens did with me back in March of 2011.   If you'd like to read it, then follow this link and check it out!

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!

Remember the giveaway I posted with the winner to be announced by January 1st?

And did you also notice there has been no conversation from me in some time?   My mom has been in the hospital.  We spent Christmas in the hospital with her.   She's home now, but there just has been no time to chat with all my friends on SweetJeanette since then.   BUT, it's passed midnight and I have some time to steal away and draw a name out of the old hat (so to speak).     (So sorry I haven't been around lately)

ok, ok  now the winner  ~~~~~ drum roll ~~~~~
Tammy Malone come on down!   Tammy has a blog called Not Just Paper and Glue
Congrats Tammy.   Now I just need your info to send it out!