Elementary Chef

It’s summer. It’s hot. It’s time for a nice, cool dessert that doesn’t involve icecream! I’m a big fan of cheesecake. In fact, I once made my biggest cooking faux pas EVER with a cheesecake.

I forgot to add sugar.

Yes, that’s right, folks. A cheesecake with no sugar. Vile? Yes. Revolting? Yes. Did I throw it away? Of course not! I turned it into an artichoke/spinach spread for crackers. No one but me ever knew….

For this one… please add sugar.

Easy Cheesecake

1 frozen or refrigerated Pie Crust in a pan of some sort (tin foil is fine)
8 ounces Cream Cheese brought to room temperature (FYI — cream cheese does NOT freeze well. It’s tasted very strange when it thaws!)
1/2 cup Sugar
2 whole eggs brought to room temperature
Juice of 1 lemon
2 cups Strawberries — cut in half and sweetened with sugar to taste and a splash of champagne

Preheat the oven to 325F. Brown the pie shell until golden. With an electric mixer, mix together the cream cheese, eggs, lemon, lemon juice, and sugar. When throughly mixed, turn off mixer and stir in 1/2 of the strawberries. Pour into the pie shell and sprinkle the rest of the berries over the top.

To protect your pie crust edges from over-browning, you can cover the edges with strips of aluminum foil. Bake for 35 minutes at 325. Refrigerate for 4-6 hours before cutting.

cheesecake, dessert, easy recipes

Here’s a great treat! A knock-off on an Outback staple!

Outback Steakhouse Queensland Chicken & Shrimp

1/2 cup milk
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 pint cream
1/4 tsp poultry seasoning
1/8 tsp cayenne (adjust to taste) — (1/8 to 1/4)
1/8 tsp white pepper
1/8 tsp onion powder
1/2 cup white wine
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 lb.linguine
4 chicken breasts
8 oz shrimp
1 Tbsp olive oil

Combine spices. Whisk cream and milk in pan with butter and 1/2 spice mixture. Thicken and reduce, and set aside. Cook linguine to the al dente stage (not fully soft.) Saute chicken breasts with wine and remaining spices until done. Remove and set aside. Saute shrimp in pan, adding wine if necessary. Serve each breast on a bed of linguine with shrimp. Cover with sauce.
Serves 4.

Outback, chicken, shrimp, Queensland

There really is nothing better than sweet tea. But I often hear people bemoaning how they just can’t get it right. I’m sure there are 100 methods for brewing sweet tea, but here’s how we do it at my house! And when you’re done brewing your tea, check out Tips Around the House for ways to use those teabags!

Southern Style Sweet Tea

8 regular-sized tea bags (or 2 family sized tea bags)
8 C water (plus some)
3/4 C sugar
Lots of ice

Pour 8 cups of water into a medium sized sauce pan. Add teabags. Boil the water (with the teabags in the water!) Once the water starts to boil, turn off the heat. Add sugar and stir. Allow the tea to steep for 3-5 additional minutes.

Fill a 2-liter pitcher (non-melting!) half-way to the top with ice. Remove teabags. Pour tea over the ice. I usually add water to the top of the pitcher.

Enjoy with lemon or mint!

recipes, tea, sweet tea

I hope you’re all getting the grill ready for a 4th of July cook-out! While you’re busy with prep work tonight, or more likely, sipping a beverage while you wait for the grill to heat up, throw together this winner of a pasta salad. It’ll be fabulous for lunch tomorrow!

Cold Pasta Salad

1 lb. cheese ravioli, boiled and drained
1 diced red pepper (marinated red pepper strips are great, too!)
assorted olives (preferably Greek, but your choice)
4 or 5 marinated mushrooms
1/4 C olive oil
1/4 C red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
Rosemary
salt
pepper
capers

In a large bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, garlic, rosemary, salt, pepper, and capers together.

Add the ravioli and pepper. Mix well.

Cover and allow flavors to blend in the refrigerator overnight.

recipes, pasta salad

This is my daughter’s absolute favorite dish. I can’t verify that this is the REAL Olive Garden recipe — it didn’t come from them. But, it certainly is yummy and easy! Feel free to add cut up grilled chicken or frozen, but thawed shrimp! I would toss either of those in a little Italian dressing before I topped the fettuccini.

Olive Garden Fettuccini Alfredo

8 Oz cream cheese, cut in pieces
1/2 C milk
3/4 C Parmesan cheese, Grated
8 Oz fettuccine, cooked, drained
1/2 C butter (or margarine)

In large saucepan combine cream cheese, Parmesan, butter and milk, stirring constantly until smooth. Toss pasta lightly with sauce, coating well.

Olive Garden, recipes, fettuccini alfredo

For my birthday, my mother took me out to lunch at a local tea room. There, I had a cup of chilled strawberry soup with my sandwich. Neither my mother nor my daughter was very excited about the strawberry soup, but I liked it. I like chilled soups in general. They just seem very refreshing on a hot summer day. So, today, I decided to share a recipe for my favorite chilled soup.

Chilled Cucumber Soup

2 onions
4 T olive oil
salt
pepper
4 C chicken broth (bullion cubes & water are fine)
1 C white wine
2 T butter
2 T flour
4 large cucumbers
1/4 C parsley
1/4 C celery leaves
2 C cream

Finely slice onion. Heat the oil in a soup pot, saute the onions over medium heat until the onions turn a light brown color. Add chicken broth and white wine, season with salt and pepper. Simmer for about 15 min. Meanwhile, finely chop the peeled and seeded cucumbers, the parsley and the celery leaves. Then, in a small saucepan, make a roux by melting the butter in a saucepan and cooking the flour over medium heat for about 2-4 minutes, constantly stirring. When the roux turns a golden brown color, it’s done. Add the chopped cucumbers, parsley and celery leaves to the soup pot; reduce to low heat and allow to simmer until the cucumbers are tender (takes about 7 to 9 minutes). Add the roux to the soup and let simmer for another 15 minutes.

Cool. Process the cooled soup in a food processor or blender, add the cream and chill well. Garnish with chopped cucumber and one slice of lemon.

chilled soup, cucumbers, summer soup