Pumpkin Cheesecake

I've been wanting to make a pumpkin cheesecake since last year, but for any different reasons, I couldn't, so finally, I made it. It was so delicious, definitely a keeper. I had many many recipes for this cheesecake, and wanted to try them all, but finally, I decided that the first test would go to Jamie's recipe, althought I ended up changing it a little bit. And it was a great adventure, the oven caught on fire! Anyways, read more about this later in the post..... 

Chiles en Nogada 2

So again, to celebrate Mexico's Independence Day, my family and I got together and celebrated, with Chiles en Nogada. These chiles are delicious, and well, if you'd like to know more about them, you can check my older post here. This time, I used walnuts (original recipe) instead of pecans, and I added a handful of pine nuts. The chiles were amazing, I had nothing left!!! Some of them, even ate two chiles! So, here goes the recipe...

Rib Eye Steak for Valentine's Day

So this is what I cooked for dinner for my Valentine and me. It was so good, and I really improvised! I made some gravy and I wasn't even sure how it was done, but somewhere in the middle of the recipe, I couldn't let the beef broth go to waste! The hubby was really amazed with the food. So simple, so easy to cook, and yet, so romantic and delicious. This is our first Valentine as a married couple, so I didn't want it to go as any other Valentine we had previously celebrated. This was totally worth it, an we enjoyed it with a delicious red wine cup.

Loaded Double Baked Potatoes

For Valentines I decided to bake these delicious potatoes as a side for the romantic dinner I planned to have with my husband: Rib Eye Steak for Valentine's Day. They were so good, even when I would have loved to have more cream... or sour cream... or cream cheese (can you believe it? I had no left! I used all the cream cheese I had in the No-Bake Red Fruits Cheesecake I made for dessert. Anyway, they were still so good... But I definitely recommend adding sour cream to this recipe. So, here goes the recipe.

No-Bake Red Fruits Cheesecake

Happy Valentine's Day!

On this special Valentine's day I decided to prepare a cheesecake for my husband. He loves cheesecakes, and I haven't done any in a long time. So, I went and gathered all the ingredients and prepared it a day before. Here goes the recipe.

Candy Cane Dust Cake

So, in order to bake this cake I didn't went on too much trouble. 

Candy Cane Dust

So, I got an idea from Mama Loves Food when she shared her Peppermint Candy Cane Dust.

Rosca de Reyes {Kind-of-King Cake} - Part 2

So, as I mentioned on Rosca de Reyes {Kind-of-King Cake}, this is a very good excuse to get together with friends and family. So we got together. Family. It was so nice!

So, I'm gonna share with you some pictures! My dad was the lucky one that got Baby Jesus in his slice!

Oh, and I prepared some hot chocolate with cinammon. Yum!

Rosca de Reyes {Kind-of-King Cake}

So, in Mexico we celebrate the "Kings' Day" -"Three Wise Men's Day"- on January 6th. The tradition goes at follows: Children leave a shoe outside before goint to bed. By outside, I mean in the living room or under the Christmas tree or outside their bedroom. This way, they get a present from the Three Wise Men (it's a little present, not like Santa Claus).

Then, in the afternoon, a Rosca de Reyes is served. Usually with hot chocolate. This is a good excuse to getting together with family and friends!

Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve Lasagna

So I was thinking about what could we have for dinner on New Year's Eve, and I thought of a meat lasagna. With a little bit of veggies on it.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

I hope you spent time with your family, friends and loved ones. This is the most important part of Christmas. More than presents. More than food. I hope everything works for the best this next year. 

Our Nativity Set

Placing a nativity set has always been an important tradition in my family. So now, that Julio and I (and Princesa) became a new family, there had to be a nativity set at home. I was looking for one in which the characters had very clear features. And when we went to the US, I found the one I fell in love with.

I couln't find the other part: the donkey, the mule, the cow, and the rest. But the coming year I will totally look for them. so here are some pictures of our nativity set.

Xmas Decoration

So, here are some of the decoration details I used at home. Of course, some of them are missing. Actually, the second floor decoration is missing. But you can get the idea!! 

Xmas Pasta {Oven-Dried Tomatoes Penne}

So, for Christmas, we usually and have lunch with my grandparents. So, this year, grandma found out I have a blog were I upload some recipes and asked me to cook the Christmas pasta. My mom usually was the one cooking the pasta. Some years she made pasta with cheese sauce and some others with tomato sauce. 

This year, grandpa asked me to make tomato sauce pasta. So I figures, why wouldn't I use, besides the regular tomato pasta, some dried tomatoes like the ones I dried some months ago? So here it's the recipe.

Natural Christmas Potpourri

Christmas season. I just love it; always have, always will. And now, I have my own house and I want it to smell so good. I bought a Febreeze Air Effcts Air Freshner Apple Spice & Delight, that it actually smells so good, but the smell won't last. 

So, I started looking on Pinterest for a DIY Christmas potpuorri and found one recipe that sounded so good to me on Make it Do blog, called "The Smells of the Season". So I wrote down the recipe, and went to look for the ingredients. I already had all of them in my kitchen, except for the fresh cranberries. Here, in the North of Mexico, it's difficult to find fresh cranberries. You can find almost everywere dry dranberries, but fresh are more difficult to find. I started looking for them in different stores, asking people, and finally, asking on Facebook. Walmart Mexico replied and told me they had, so I went to buy them and here it is. the final product. I hope you enjoy it and try it too. It's real good.

So, you need:

• 200 gr (6 oz) fresh cranberries
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1 orange
• 10 whole cloves
• water

Cut the orange in quarts.

Cut or crush the cinnamon.

The cranberries.

The original recipe calls for a tablespoon of cloves. Please don't ask me why I used only 10 cloves! Please don't, because I DON'T KNOW WHY. I will add more tonight.

Place everything in a pot and cover with water. Leave on the stove top, on the lowest heat, and stir occasionally. Your home will start smelling so delicious. My mom came to visit and she was like "Oh, it's smells delicious" and then I took her to the kitchen and show her the potpourri and she was like "Why don't you make a marmalade instead?" LOL. Anyways, the smell is delicious. And maybe I will make a marmalade. I will just add sugar and a lot of stirring, right? Let me think about it, because I've been thinking on doing one Mango, Ginger and Mint marmalade.

According to the other blog instructions, you should never leave the pot withouth water, so if you see that it's drying, add more water. I will turn it up every day from here to mid-January (the blog says it lasts several weeks). I love the smell! My husband loved it too, and he also thought I was cooking marmalade. LOL. Beautiful smell. So peaceful, full of joy and a constant remember of Christmas season. I just love it.

December 14:

 I'm linking to Michelle's Fabulous Friday party at Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust 

 I'm linking to a daydreaming blogger pinterest pintest linky party  

   Look for it in Pinterest!

December 16:

 I'm so honored to be featured in Michelle's Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust Fabulous Friday Favorties 14!! Thanks do much!

Santa's Belly Cushion

So, I'm really behind schedule on my Christmas DIY crafts!!!! I can't believe it's almost Christmas and I still haven't done almost anything!
Here I will show you how I made a cushion that looks like Santa Claus's belly. I think it's beautiful!

You will need to cut all the pieces for the belly, depending on the size of the cushion you want, it's the size of the pieces of felt you will cut:

• two red circles for the belly
• one yellow reclangle with a rectangle hole in the middle
• one black rectangle for the belt
• thread

Sew the black belt to the belly. Now, place the yellow rectangle on top of the belt and sew, trying to join the three of them: red, black and yellow. I used transparent thread.

Looking good.

Now, sew the "insides" of the cushion. All the edges, and leave one part open, so you can turn the cushion  inside-out and and fill it with filling.

Here's the opening I left.

This is how it looks in my living room!

Do you like it?

Do you have any suggestions? Ideas?

December 6, 2011:

 I'm linking to Stacy's Show Me What Ya Got #52 

December 14:

 I'm linking to a daydreaming blogger pinterest pintest linky party     

 Look for it in Pinterest!

Christmas Red Velvet Cupcakes

I can't describe how excited I was because I was going to bake the red velvet cupcakes. I want to make some Cake Balls or Cake Pops too. Remember I told you my hubby and I went on a roadtrip?? Ok, so I was able to buy many things we unfortunately can't find here in Mexico. For example, red velvet flour mix. And many other things =D so I'm really excited about this. This is the first time I bake red velvet flour, so I was really excited about how it tasted or how it looked. I was also really nervous.

So, I used:

• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 package of Duncan Hines' Red Velvet flour mix
• 3 large eggs
• 1 can of Duncan Hines' Cream Cheese flavored icing, which I'm really disappointed on the flavor, I thought it would taste as Cream Cheese, but it tastes like any regular VANILLA icing. And I like vanilla icing, but I also like cream cheese icing.
• 1 tsp baking powder -I always forget to call this little character for the photoshoot

First, I preheated the oven to 350°F and sifted the red velvet flour together with the baking powder.

Now, with an electric mixer blended the eggs, milk, butter, and flour.

OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, 

You can't imagine how happy and surprised I was when I saw the color it became! It's so beautiful!

After greasing the cupcakes pan with PAM (nonstick spray), I added the mix to each cupcake and filled a little more than 3/4. Placed them in the oven for 22 minutes and got them out.

As these are jumbo cupcakes, I had enough flour for 11 haha, so for the second round I added some mini semi-sweet chocolate chips from Hershey's, because I know Julio loves chocolate chips cupcakes. 

Like I told you, I was so excited because of this new experience, and while taking the cupcakes out of the oven, suddenly, out of nothing, I grabbed the pan with my naked fingers!!!!!! Can you believe that? It should have been at least 350°F. I burned my fingers :'( and then, here's the BEST TIP EVER:

Immediatly, after burning your skin, place some regular mustard and leave it there for at least 20 minutes, or until dry. I can assure you, I stopped feeling pain IMMEDIATLY and I have no marks in my fingers. It's amazing. It will burn a little while it's working -maybe you will hear a little mmm bubbling, but it will hurt nothing compared to placing ice, cold water or nothing at all. I repeat, DO NOT PLACE YOUR BURNT SKIN UNDER COLD RUNNING WATER AND DO NOT PLACE ICE. USE MUSTARD.

Here are the beautiful jumbo gigantic cupcakes.

Now, I spread some "Duncan Hines' cream cheese icing" on top of each cupcake. It tastes delicious, but it tastes VANILLA, not CREAM CHEESE. If you want CREAM CHEESE taste, you can use the recipe I used for the Ghostly Cupcakes. 

Here is a summary of the icing recipe: Use 1 Philadelphia cream cheese bar, 1/2 cup whipping cream and 3 tbsp icing sugar. Start mixing the cream cheese until it starts fluffing. Add the whipping cream and keep mixing, at low speed, for 5 minutes. Blend at medium speed for 3 minutes and go back to low. Add sugar and keep blending for 2 or 3 minutes.

Yum! I couldn't take a picture of all of them because my husband ate 3!

I started decorating the cupcakes, and my husband was really excited LOL, he wanted to decorate his cupcake... with mini kisses. Told you... he loves mini kisses. And he discovered the secret place were I usually keep them. OMG, you can see the photoshoot set in the back, LOL.

Ok, I tried to decorate one of the cupcakes with a candy cane. And I used these:

One word: FAIL

Now, the pictures of all my cupcakes. They were delicious... so fluffy!!!!!

Xmas sprinkles 

 Mini kisses and gingerbread flavored marshmallow

Toffee bites

 Pretzel

Red and green sugar

 Red sugar

Red and green sugar

 Green sugar

Xmas sprinkles

They taste so good, I'm in love with red velvet.