Weeze Cake

It's Miss C's birthday today and, as is tradition, I made a cheesecake (now named the Weeze cake in her honour). This year's version is strawberry.

Strawberry Shake Cheesecake

2 250-g bricks of cream cheese, softened.
1 envelope gelatin
1 c whipping cream
1 cup sugar plus 2 tbs
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed and divided
2 cups graham wafer crumbs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, chopped
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract

In small pot, sprinkle gelatin powder over 1/2 cup cold water. Place pot over low heat and leave until gelatin dissolves. Remove from heat.

In microwave-safe bowl, melt the 1/2 cup butter. Stir in 1/3 cup packed of brown sugar and 2 c. graham crumbs. Mix well and then press into bottom of greased springform pan. Bake at 350 F for 10 min. Remove pan and cool on rack.

Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, and remaining brown sugar. In separate bowl, combine chopped berries and 2 tbs sugar and mash. Add strawberries, vanilla, almond extract, and gelatin  to cheese mixture and stir well. In yet another bowl, whip the cream. Fold the cream into the cheese/berry mixture. Pour into pan over crust. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours before serving. Can drizzle chocolate or caramel sauce over before serving.

Rain, followed by showers

It's dank and dismal today - I need warming up. Inspiration struck - too many mushrooms leftover from a salad recipe and lots of fresh asparagus in the garden. Pan-fried asparagus, mushrooms and garlic in butter with lemon pepper and sea salt. Mmmm, mmmmm. To round out the meal, spicy pork medallions and oven roasted potatoes, onions, cauliflower and orange pepper.

Getting My Samosa Fix

Samosas are a big deal here in Fredericton - we even had a "samosa war" at our local market once upon a time. The product was so popular that customers lining up to buy them blocked the aisles and prevented other vendors from doing business. The market management team told the samosa vendors they'd have to take their wares outside. People were outraged. Protests ensued. Eventually, they compromised and bought a couple of trailers, parked them on the market grounds, and told the samosa vendors to set up business there.  In the end, the original purveyor of samosas, Mr. Patel, decided to retire, and with him went the best samosas I'd ever tasted. The remaining vendors at the market continue to do a thriving business, but the product in my opinion is inferior. All this to say that, today, I had a hankering for the Patel samosas, so I went hunting online in search of a reasonable facsimile. What I found far exceeded my expectations. Although they took considerably longer to make than I anticipated (and although my pastry skills are sadly lacking!), the results were imho *damn* good!

So, here's the link: http://www.samosa-recipe.com./ I strongly recommend this site. I made the vegetable filling in phyllo and the beef in puff pastry (seriously, I'm severely challenged when it comes to working with pastry!) and they were delicious!