Best. Dessert. Ever.

Classic Cheesecake

source: Lisa Hawks

Ingredients

Crust

• 1 ½ cups crushed graham cracker
• 6 T. powdered sugar
• 6 T. butter, melted

Filling

• 3 pkgs. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
• ¼ cup butter, softened
• 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
• 3 tsp. vanilla
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 4 eggs
• Whipped cream

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
2. In bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Stir in butter. Press in bottom of greased 9-inch springform pan.
3. Beat cheese and butter till fluffy. Add milk and vanilla; mix well. Add powdered sugar; mix well. Beat in the eggs just until combined.
4. Spoon onto crust.
5. Encase bottom and sides of the pan with foil (to keep water from leaking into pan). Place pan into a large baking dish and place it in oven.
6. Pour boiling water into the large baking dish until it comes about 1-inch up the side of the pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until center is almost set.
7. Remove from oven. Remove pan from baking dish and allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Cool completely.
8. Refrigerate overnight. Garnish with whipped cream and fruit sauce.

*If the center still looks quite runny, even after 55 minutes of cooking, turn off the oven and allow the cake to sit in the oven as it cools off. It will thicken up as it sits in the cooling oven.

**Russ made a strawberry sauce by macerating the strawberries overnight and then blending them up the next day.

This recipe is actually taken from my mom's all time favorite cheesecake recipe, it's a brownie cheesecake. I will put the recipe below because it is seriously delicious. Here you go:

Brownie Cheesecake

Ingredients
Crust

• 1 ½ cups crushed vanilla wafer (about 45 cookies)
• 6 T. powdered sugar
• 6 T. baking cocoa
• 6 T. butter, melted

Filling

• 3 pkgs. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
• ¼ cup butter, softened
• 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
• 3 tsp. vanilla
• ½ cup baking cocoa or powdered sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 ½ cups crumbled brownie
• Whipped cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
2. In bowl, combine wafer crumbs, sugar and cocoa. Stir in butter. Press in bottom of greased 9-inch springform pan.
3. Beat cheese and butter till fluffy. Add milk and vanilla; mix well. Add cocoa; mix well. Beat in the eggs just until combined.
4. Fold in brownies. Spoon onto crust.
5. Encase bottom and sides of the pan with foil (to keep water from leaking into pan). Place pan into a large baking dish and place it in oven.
6. Pour boiling water into the large baking dish until it comes about 1-inch up the side of the pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until center is almost set. Remove from oven.
7. Remove pan from baking dish and allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Cool completely.
8. Refrigerate overnight. Garnish with whipped cream and pecans.

*If the center still looks quite runny, even after 55 minutes of cooking, turn off the oven and allow the cake to sit in the oven as it cools off. It will thicken up as it sits in the cooling oven.

 

Now THIS is a salad!

The amount of veggies is really up to you. This is a total and complete approximation! It really just depends on how much salad you want to make. It is in layer, unlike your average salad. So you need to approximate and base it on your taste! This salad is great for parties, or get together's. Russ' mom always makes this and it really is quite delicious!

Ruth's 7 Layer Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 head of romaine lettuce, shredded
• 4 green onions, sliced
• 1/2 bag frozen peas
• 8-12 pieces bacon, crumbled
• 1/2 head cauliflower
• 2 celery stalks, sliced
• parmesan cheese

Dressing

• 1/2 packet Italian salad dressing mix
• 1/3 c mayo
• 2/3 c sour cream

Directions:

1. Pull out a cake pan, whatever size you want! Put a layer of shredded lettuce, green onion, peas, bacon, celery, and lastly cauliflower.  You will want to layer them in this specific order, it seems to work best this way!
2. Mix together the ingredients in the dressing (this is specific!) and spread over the top of the cauliflower. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top and serve! 

Fire House

Firehouse Pizzeria

location: Logan, UT 
This restaurant was pretty tasty, but not good enough for the price. It cost about 10-15 dollars per plate. They do have a date night on Fridays for 25 dollars, which is a great deal. It is an appetizer, two main dishes, 2 side dishes, and two desserts. The dessert is called like Foshizzle or something random like that! But let me tell you, it is INCREDIBLE. Oh my goodness. They make delicious cookie dough, stick it in the oven just long enough to make it hot, soft, and gooey then they drizzle chocolate syrup and caramel over the cookie and top it off with a few scoops of vanilla ice cream. MAN. I'm not a HUGE sweets person, that would be Russ, but this? I would eat 2 on my own. The cookies are pretty big by the way. SO FREAKING GOOD.

This is one of my mom's classics. And it. is. AMAZING.

40-Clove Garlic Chicken

Ingredients:

• 8 chicken legs and thighs, skinned
• olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 tsp. dried parsley
• 4 ribs celery, chopped
• 40 cloves of garlic, separate, but not peeled
• 1/2 tsp. tarragon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• dash nutmeg
• 1/2 c water
• 2 tsp. vinegar
• 1 loaf french bread

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Brush chicken on all sides with the oil. In a large roasting pan, place the onion, celery, parsley, and tarragon. 
3. Lay the chicken on top and pour water and vinegar over the chicken. Sprinkle the chicken with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Tuck the garlic under the chicken. Cover the pan tightly with foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Do not uncover in that time!
4. Serve with french bread and squeeze the garlic onto it then dip it in the veggies and juices.

This recipe sounds too yummy to believe

Broadway Brownies

Ingredients:

Cheese Mixture

• 6 oz. Cream cheese
• ½ c sugar
• 2 tbsp flour
• ¼ c softened butter
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp vanilla

Base mixture

• 1 square unsweetened chocolate or 3 tbsp cocoa powder + 1 tbsp fat (Butter or oil)
• ½ cup butter
• 1 c sugar
• 1 c flour
• 1 c chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs

Topping

• ½ c chopped walnuts
• 1 c. semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 c mini marshmallows

Topping 

• ¼ c butter
• 2 oz cream cheese
• ¼ c milk
• 1 square unsweetened chocolate
• 3 c confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

**NOTE:This TOPPING makes a lot, so we cut the recipe in half, except for the cream cheese!-you can never have too much cream cheese!!! :)

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. In a medium sized bowl combine all ingredients for the cheese mixture, set aside.
3. For the base mixture: place a medium saucepan over medium heat. Combine the butter and chocolate and melt. 
4. Remove from heat, add sugar, flour, 1 c nuts, baking powder, eggs and vanilla. Blend well. 
5. Spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray, Spread the base mixture in pan. Spread cheese mixture over batter. Combine semisweet chocolate chips and 1/2 c chopped walnuts together. Sprinkle over cheese mixture. 
6. Bake for about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle miniature marshmallows over all. Bake another 5 minutes.
7. For the topping: place a medium saucepan over medium heat. Melt butter, chocolate, cream cheese, and milk. Remove from heat, stir in confectioner's sugar and vanilla. Immediately drizzle over marshmallows. Chill brownies in fridge overnight, then cut into bars. 

Did You Hear About The Morgans?

Did You Hear About The Morgans?  ***

This movie looked like it would be really funny so we picked it up at the library and it didn't satisfy my sense of humor. It had some very funny parts, but Sarah Jessica Parker was SO ANNOYING. She really ruined the movie for me. She was stupid and whiny the entire movie. I thought Hugh Grant was hilarious and I really liked his character. However he did not make up for how annoying Sarah Jessica Parker was. Blegh. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if she wasn't so irritating.

I honestly had never made banana bread before!

Banana Bread

Ingredients

• 1/2 c butter, melted
• 1 c white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 c sour cream
• 1/2 c chopped walnuts, chocolate chips, or peanut butter chips
• 2 medium bananas, sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the melted butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the butter mixture until smooth. Finally, fold in the sour cream, walnuts and bananas. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool loaf in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

I found this recipe here