Boursin Cheese Potatoes

Here's another great recipe to help you use up the rest of your homemade Boursin Cheese!

3 pounds red potatoes, unpeeled
One 5 ounce package Boursin cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 pint heavy cream
fresh chives or parsley, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash and slice potatoes into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Toss potatoes with salt and pepper. Heat cream and cheese together, on top of stove until cheese has melted. Stir mixutre until thoroughly blended. Layer half of the potatoes into a 2 quart baking dish (this is best done in a deep dish instead of a long, flat dish). Cover potatoes with half of the cream mixture. Repeat with remaining potatoes and cream mixture. Cover and bake for 1 hour. Sprinkle top with chives or parsley.

Chocolate Cheesecake Candy Cane Bars

You can't go wrong with this recipe! Chocolate....Cheesecake.....Mint! Three beautiful things! And this recipe calls for semisweet chocolate, so it's not too sweet! Yum!

Crust:

20 chocolate wafer cookies

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground coffee beans

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

Filling:

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

2 large eggs, room temperature

Glaze:

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon light or dark corn syrup

2 tablespoons sour cream, room temperature

1/2 cup crushed candy canes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8-inch square baking dish with foil.

For the crust: Process the chocolate wafers in a food processor with the butter, sugar, coffee, and salt until fine. Evenly press the crust into the prepared dish covering the bottom completely. Bake until the crust sets, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the filling: Put the chocolate in a medium microwave-safe bowl; heat at 75 percent power until softened, about 2 minutes. Stir, and continue to microwave until completely melted, up to 2 minutes more. (Alternatively put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Bring a saucepan filled with an inch or so of water to a very slow simmer; set the bowl over, but not touching, the water, and stir occasionally until melted and smooth.)

Blend the cream cheese, sugar, and sour cream together in the food processor until smooth. Scrape down the sides, as needed. Add the eggs and pulse until just incorporated. With the food processor running, pour the chocolate into the wet ingredients and mix until smooth.

Pour the filling evenly over the crust. Bake until filling puffs slightly around the edges, but is still a bit wobbly in the center, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on a rack.

For the Glaze: Put the chocolate, butter and corn syrup in microwave safe bowl. Heat glaze in the microwave at 75 percent power until melted, about 2 minutes. Stir the ingredients together until smooth; add the sour cream. Spread glaze evenly over the warm cake and scatter the crushed candy canes over top. Cool completely, then refrigerate overnight.

Cut into small bars or squares. Serve chilled or room temperature.

Store cookies covered in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Ashlee side note: I usually crush my candy canes inside of a ziploc bag with a rolling pin to keep them together and tidy. It does take a while for the cheesecake to set up, so do this a day ahead to make sure it's really ready!

You can use this recipe without the candy canes for any other time of year. It's the only mint aspect of the recipe, so it would just be chocolate cheesecake bars...but that still sounds yummy too!

Black Beans

This is a great side dish for any Mexican meal you are making! The cuisine of choice for Jaysen is Mexican so we make it frequently!


1 (16 ounce) can black beans
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt to taste

In a medium saucepan, combine beans, onion, and garlic, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Season with cilantro, cayenne, and salt. Simmer for 5 minutes, and serve.


Ashlee side note: Though very carb heavy, these beans have less than 1/2 a gram of fat per serving and only 112 calories! Not too shabby! You can use these for really great bean and cheese burritos too. I would suggest adding the cayenne to the beans in the beginning so the flavor really gets into the beans.

Santa Baby!

I made these cookies last year as part of my holiday baking and not only were they easy....they were so fun because they turned out so cute!

2 packages (6 ounces each) white baking chocolate, chopped

1 package (1 pound) Nutter Butter sandwich cookies

Red colored sugar

32 vanilla or white chips

64 miniature semisweet chocolate chips

32 red-hot candies

In a heavy saucepan over low heat, melt white chocolate, stirring occasionally. Dip one end of each cookie into melted chocolate. Place on wire racks. For Santa’s hat, sprinkle red sugar on top part of chocolate. Press one vanilla chip off-center on hat for pom-pom; let stand until set.
Dip other end of each cookie into melted chocolate for beard, leaving center of cookie uncovered. Place on wire racks. With a dab of melted chocolate, attach semisweet chips for eyes and a red-hot for nose. Place on waxed paper until chocolate sets.
Yield: 32 cookies

Ashlee side note: I'm not so great at the "dabbing" of melted chocolate to attach pieces so I just bought one of those little tubes of decorator gel and used that to attach the pieces. Much easier for me! You can also use mini M&Ms for the eyes if you'd like. Just don't let the kids turn Santa evil by giving him red eyes! Those turn out scary! ;0)

Mint Capped Brownie Cookie Cups

So excited about this recipe because it uses my new favorite candy! Mint Truffle Hershey Kisses! Chocolate and mint.....such a good combination!

48 Mint Truffle Hershey Kisses

2/3 cup butter, softened

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 Tbsp. water

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking soda

powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 48 small muffin cups (1 3/4 in diameter) with paper or foil baking cups. Remove wrappers from chocolates.

2. Beat butter, sugar, water and vanilla in large bowl on medium speed of mixer until well blended. Add eggs; beat well.

3. Stir together flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Gradually add to sugar mixture, beating on low speed just until blended. If necessary, refrigerate dough until firm enough to handle. Shape dough into 1 inch balls; place in prepared muffin cups.

4. Bake 11 t o13 minutes or until cookie surface is set. Cookies will appear soft and moist. Do not overbake. Cool about 5 minutes on wire rack. Press chocolate kiss into surface of each cookie cup. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Sprinkle each cookie with powdered sugar. Makes 4 dozen cookies.

Ashlee side note: Did you know they make Hersheys Special Dark cocoa for baking? If you are like me....the darker the chocolate the better! So, give that a try!

Wassail

OK, one more recipe for this holiday! Who doesn't like a hot drink on a cold day?

1 gallon apple cider
1 quart orange juice
1 cup lemon juice
1 large can pineapple juice
24 whole cloves
1 cup sugar
4 sticks cinnamon

Put all of this in a large crockpot if you've got one big enough. If not, put in a large pot on the stove and let simmer. Your whole house will smell yummy and you get to drink it too!

Ashlee side note: Obviously you don't drink/eat the cloves or cinnamon, but the flavor of these will soak into the liquid making the drink super yummy. This is a nice change from the usual apple cider.

Rainbow Jello

My mom makes this every year for Thanksgiving though she just puts it in a 9x13 pan and only uses colors red through green. But I thought this picture was just beautiful! I might have to try making it in a bundt pan!

1 (6 oz.) package of each color of jello you are using. We like to use cherry, orange, lemon, and lime.

1 cup sour cream for each color of jello

If you are going based off of the picture above, dissolve the grape jello in 2 cups boiling water. Remove 1/2 cup and place in medium sized bowl. To this 1/2 cup, add 1 cup sour cream and stir well. Pour sour cream mixture into your bundt pan and put on a level shelf in refrigerator and chill until set. When firm, pour reserved grape jello liquid over creamy layer; chill until firm. Repeat with remaining colors of Jello -- each with a creamy layer and a clear layer.

Ashlee side note: Be sure that each layer you are pouring on is cool enough so that you don't melt the layer you just chilled! So, the jello liquid you made using boiling water needs to be room temperature before pouring it on the cream layer. And make sure you use cold sour cream, as that should lower the temperature of the liquid you add to it enough to be ok.

I've helped my mom make this, but never actually made it myself. Let me know if you made it so I know how it went! ;0)