Piña Colada Cheesecake!

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Well it was time for a dessert, and what could be more fitting then a cheesecake from a guy raised in Wisconsin?  The thing that I love about cheesecake is that you can put pretty much anything in it and it still tastes great!  There are of course exceptions I am sure,  but I have yet to find any.

Sorry for the not so pretty picture,  I was rushed a bit in doing it today since I was doing it on my lunch break before packing it all up to take off to work to have them devour the rest of it!

So apart from this decadent cheesecake, I am waiting for the an interview call with the foster parent of the Siamese cat that I am looking to adopt. Hopefully that all goes well too.  Don't know why it wouldn't, but you never know!

Anyways on to the cheesecake.

Piña Colada Cheesecake  (serves 12)

3 8oz bricks of cream cheese
1 can crushed pineapple
1 cup coconut
1/3 cup butter
2 cups  graham cracker crumbs
3/4 cup sour cream
4 tablespoons rum (imitation in my case)
1 tablespoon almond extract
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs


In a bowl mix the crumbs, butter (melted), half cup of coconut, and almond extract. mix well, and pres into crust of greased or parchment covered spring form pan.  Pre-heat oven to 325, and bake crust for about 5 minutes, remove from heat and set aside for the moment.

In another bowl mix cream cheese, half cup of pineapple, 1/4 cup coconut, sugar, rum and sour cream together,  mix completely.  Fold the eggs into it 1 at a time, if you use a mixer you may need to knock the air bubbles up after you are finished.  Pour entire contents into crust filled spring form pan.  Bake for about an hour at the 325.  Take out and let cool for about a half hour just on the stove top.  After that you can move to the fridge to speed up the cooling down process.

Once it is cool, you can remove from spring form,  and add the rest of the pineapple to the top (sweeten as you want, I like it a bit tart)  and then garnish with the left over coconut around the edges.

Leftovers Surprise!

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Right!  Just a quickie tonight since I still have to finish making the Cheesecake as I said I was going to be doing this evening.  However before it will be completely ready for pictures, it will have to set for a while,  and that would just get too late.  So I decided to just toss something together quick for supper and then go back to making the cheesecake!

Looking in the fridge is always a fun way to start an episode of experimental cooking.  I found the stuff that needed to be used, and then went... what else do I have that will go with it. The picture was the result!

Leftover Surprise!  (serves 2)

The leftovers:
1/2 lb of ground turkey (from the failed wanton attempt)
1 cup chopped spinach (from the salads for sister)
5 slices deli ham, thinly chopped, then cross chopped and well... shredded by the end
2 tablespoons of cream cheese,  left overs from the cheesecake
2 slices of swiss cheese (last of the pack)

The Rest:
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
1 pouch of shiritaki tofu noodles
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt


Brown the meat, toss in the rest really and let it simmer and meld together,  I plated on a bed of spinach since I have so much extra!  Very quick and easy.  Oh, and just some Pepsi Max to drink.

Now back to the cheesecake prep!

Tomorrow the work peeps are going to eat well, since I needed a way to get rid of the rest of the ice cream in the house without tossing it out.  So a cheesecake and ice cream are going with me to work!

Wanton Surprise?

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Right well...  My sister and family are headed off to Disney for the rest of the week, so I thought I would try to finish up today's entry.  Remember me saying this was about experimenting?  Well that is what this dish did completely!  Needless to say it was an experience too!  Pan frying is something I hadn't done before as you can see from the picture farther down this page, but 20 or attempts later I got the hang of it! 

I am actually going to work on this recipe a little bit before sharing.  The problem with this particular method is that you have to make a batch of it before you can taste test it.  The flavor is a bit off.  So I want to try it again.  They were edible,  but not to the point of wanting to eat every last one of them.  Which is what I am after when it comes to Wantons!

They weren't bad with the left over dip from the salmon though,  that seems to be an all around good dip to make anything taste good!

Well That is it for tonight.  Tomorrow... Dessert!  that way I can take into work to dispose of.  As it stands now I have a couple of containers of ice cream I don't know what to do with.

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This is how bad my first batch turned out!  Just pay attention to what is happening when you cook and adapt accordingly.  Then you can get stuff that comes up properly,  like above!

Summer Salad - Requested by my Sister

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Well my sister is on her way here with her husband and my nephew,  and she let me know the time they were going to be here.  I asked her if they were going to have supper before if they wanted to wait until they got here.  She wanted some real food, something that said Florida.  Which apparently to her means salads and fresh fruit!  She said she wanted "Meat salad, fresh fruit and ice cream" which later turned into sherbet so I went and got some from the store since I don't keep any in the house.

I had to ask what a meat salad was,  apparently just a salad with meat :)

Other then that just waiting for them to arrive to eat up!

Baby spinach leaf salad with onion, black olive, mushroom, red and yellow peppers.
Fruit salad with honeydew, pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe and green apples.
Some fresh Cherries
And a Plate-o-Meat, some steak, some chicken (with seasonings) and my left over salmon just in case!
And a bowl of the extra veggies for finger food if needed.

Lunch Club - Beef O'Brady's

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Feather Sound

2325 Ulmerton Road #3

Clearwater, FL 33762

So when I moved down here from Wisconsin, I left behind a tradition of the lunch club with my old building (which was closed down).  As I got more and more incorporated into the new building here,  I felt the need to revive this in a new location.  It is a good way for the "peons" in the department to get away together and vent about work and such things.  Some days there is no work talk at all, others that is all there is. It is good though to be able to get out with your peers and see how they are doing in a non work setting.

On to the food though!  Beef O Brady's is a chain,  but for me they always have be best wings (well that or Buffalo Wild Wings which they don't have here that I have found).  I had to get the Traditional Wings with the garlic Parmesan sauce.  They were excellent as always,  crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside!

I also got the lunch grilled chicken salad which was pretty basic except for the addition of sauteed mushrooms which was new for me, but helped an otherwise boring standard salad. The pablano ranch dressing was actually quite good on the salad as well.  The rest of the table got the Veggie Rice bowl, which looked pretty good, and the other two got the Chicken taco's which they both seemed to like a lot.

As for the service, that would have to be my only real complaint from this location.  We got seated and our drinks came just fine,  and we were early enough to beat the lunch rush,  however our food still seemed to take quite a long time to get out to us.  Our waitress what we saw of her was nice and friendly,  but only saw her once at the beginning and once at the end,  and one drink check towards the end.

Overall though I enjoyed the place.
Rating I would give it a 3/5 star,  one star for food wait time and half star for limited attention from our waitress, and the other half for a VERY cluttered table,  half of our table was covered promo stuff.

Crammin Salmon!

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Well after a slight delay... forgot I had put the salmon in the freezer and not the fridge,  We got around to cooking the salmon :)  I have never actually had salmon in steak form or in many other forms really,  being that I don't really care for the fish,  but this is about experimenting in cooking, so I have to go to stuff that I may not even like to at least try it for the first time with a new perception and taste buds willing to potentially suffer through something not so nice.

I am gearing up for the weekend as well by taking tomorrow off from work.  My sister and her family are going to be visiting me this weekend, so I wanted to have a little "prep" time.  Like clearing the huge boxes from the bed I purchased for the spare bedroom.  That would be an example!

Hopefully the weather will be comfortable, right now it is a tad too warm outside for my liking, thank goodness for air conditioning!

Well on to the salmon!

Crammin Salmon (serves 2)


1/2 lb piece of salmon, (seared both sides then baked)
1 teaspoon of ginger
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper
1 teaspoon of dried dill
1 lime (juice)
1 tablespoon of butter


Dill Dip

1/2 dollop of sour cream
1/2 dollop of mayo
1 dollop of whipped cream cheese
1 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
1 teaspoon of dill


First I let the salmon soak in the lime for about 15 minutes, and then mixed the seasonings and rubbed them into the top side of the steak.  Then I seared the salmon in a pan, both sides for a minute or so, just to kind of seal them (in a bit of olive oil)  then transferred it to a greased pan and stuck the butter on top.  Baked for about 10 minutes at around 475 uncovered. Check and see if the middle of the steak flakes you know it is done.

While that was baking I mixed together the dip,  add a little pepper if you want more kick then the ginger.  I taste tested with one of the red pepper spears I had already sliced up and YUM!

Pull the Salmon out and I sliced in half,  it looked too huge for one serving otherwise.   I paired it with a baby spinach and mushroom salad and some red pepper spears with a spare dollop of the dip!  Peppermint iced tea to drink.

Dirty Beef!

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This evening was Grocery night,  as is most Wednesdays. Since the apartment complex where I live is in the middle of resurfacing the roads, I was going to do some light shopping, since I was going to have to park some distance away.  That didn't happen...  While I was in the meat section I ran across a salmon steak that was on sale, so I got one of those,  and some beef and chicken.  The attendants were trying to get me to buy some pork,  but I have never really been a huge fan of pork chops in general.  So I passed on those.

This evening however I was undecided between a beef Stroganoff variation or a chicken cordon bleu variation.... I finally ended up going with the beef as you can see!

Since this deviates from stroganoff,  lets call it....

Dirty Beef (serves 2)

1/2 lb of beef steak, cubed then braised
1 cup finely chopped portabella mushrooms
1 cup cooked spinach (I had some frozen)
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 cup water
1 cup sour cream
dash of nutmeg
couple dashes of paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 pouch shiritaki tofu noodles (quartered)
2 beef bullion cubes


Pan seared the beef cubes and then added a cup of water and covered to let finish cooking.  Removed the lid, and added the mushrooms, spinach, garlic, and seasonings at this point and cover to cook for a bit longer mixing occasionally.

After everything starts to meld, add the quartered noodles and sour cream,  stir together, and then let the liquids reduce down to a sauce consistency.  This took about 5 minutes for me on medium high heat.  Once it reaches a sauce consistency mix again once last time and then it is ready to plate.  I added a bit of shredded swiss cheese to the top for a bit more flavor (or just because I like cheese).

For garnish  I just cut a left over portabella mushrooms into slices and coated the back side with a bit of whipped cream cheese with chives.  To drink, blueberry lemonade.

Fish-n-Ginger

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Good evening to everyone who pops in!  Since I still have left overs from yesterday of the delicious Chicken noodle soup,  I am pulling out one of my recent experiments instead for this evenings addition. Now let me premise this by saying that I am not really a fish person at all, but when I was at the grocery store I was in the seafood section, on my way to get some shrimp when I saw sale on Swai (apparently a catfish sub breed big in asia) fish fillets for under $1.00 a fillet (and they looked like a full side of a fish! huge!).  So I was like why not,  it was cheap enough I could live with a failure.  Much to my surprise it was actually good! Who knew.

So for supper I made the following.

Pan Seared Fish with ginger


1 fillet of Swai Fish
1-2 tablespoons of fresh cut ginger root (finely minced
1/4 cup of Lime juice (which I let the fish sit in for a while first)
a few dashes of Dill

I added a bit of olive oil to the pan, and seared each side of the fish for a little bit to start the process on a higher heat,  then lowered it a bit and slathered the ginger root, dill and lime mixture onto one side of it, and covered for a bit again (I am horrible with times).  I then flipped the fish over, so the mixture side got a good bit of time on the cooking side, to help crisp that side of the fish up as well, then just pulled out of the pan and plated.

For the sauce I just used a bit of mayo, lime, pepper and a couple more dashes of dill.  I like it to be a little spicy so I dashed a bit more pepper then some may like.

Since I just bought an iced tea maker,  I have been playing with flavor combinations.  The drink with this one was raspberry and ginseng,  it was delicious!

Salad on the side is Baby spinach, chopped up, with some radishes and feta cheese, tossed with just a bit of peppercorn mayo to give it some zing.   Yes peppercorn mayo is on my love list!  it is Peppercorn mayo  that is made with olive oil.... so good!

Chicken Noodle Soup! Yum!

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Well this evening I decided to put into practice something that I have been meaning to do for a long time now.  And that is to catalog all of these tasty creations that I make for myself or for my guests. What a better way to start things off then with something everyone can relate to... Chicken Noodle Soup!  I paired this with a dish of cucumber salad and Peppermint Iced Tea.


For this dish I used:

Chicken Noodle Soup (made 4 servings, 2 cups a serving)
2 thin cut chicken breast ( pan cooked in a little olive oil, then diced)
1 white onion
1 1/2 cups of thinly sliced bok choy (including greens)
4 chicken bullion cubes
6 cups of water
1 package spaghetti styled Shirataki Tofu noodles (chopped into smaller pieces)
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon of sage


Cucumber Salad (made 1 serving)

1/3 of a cucumber (sliced and quartered)
1/2 tablespoon of peppercorn mayo
sprinkling of crumbled Feta Cheese
mix together  then dash with more fresh pepper