Lemon-Blackberry Cheesecake

On Valentine's Day our kids were sick. We didn't get a babysitter to have a night out so we decided to dine in. The menu included steak, creamy mashed potatoes, broccoli and to finish it off, some lemon-blackberry cheesecake.

My hubby loves cheesecake and I love anything lemon...so this was the perfect combo. It's a bit time consuming but not complicated. It's very worth the effort! It's from the cookbook "My Family Table: A Passionate Plea for Home Cooking"  by John Besh

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter, softened		1 cup sour cream
1 cup graham cracker crumbs		1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 pounds cream cheese		1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar		1 1/2 pints blackberries
3/4 cup milk		Zest and juice of 1 lemon
4 eggs

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350˚. Grease a 9-inch springform pan with 1 tablespoon of the butter. Mix the graham cracker crumbs with the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a medium bowl. Press onto the bottom and halfway up the sides of the pan.
  
  
• In a large bowl, use a handheld mixer to combine the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth. Blend in the milk, then beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. Mix in the sour cream, flour, and vanilla until smooth. Divide the mixture between two bowls.
  
  
• In a food processor or blender, purée 1 pint of the blackberries with the lemon zest and juice. Pour the purée into one bowl of the cheese mixture along with the remaining 1⁄2 pint of whole blackberries and mix well.
  
  
• Pour the blackberry filling on top of the prepared crust. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and pour the remaining filling over the top. Return to the oven to bake for 1 hour, until the topping is set. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
  

Pinkalicious Pancakes

My daughter loves the Pinkalicious books by Victoria and Elizabeth Kann and the color pink of course. Last Saturday I thought it would be fun to add some food coloring to my pancake batter to make them 'magically' transform into Pinkalicious pancakes. Needless to say...they were a success!
All you need is your favorite pancake recipe ... I like Martha Stewart's basic pancake recipe...find it {here}, some pink food coloring and your favorite toppings. We used bananas, strawberries, walnuts and syrup, of course. Naturally, they turned out pinkatastic! =)

 

This week in pictures...

Emma holding our new little puppy

Bentley ...our little labradoodle

Valentine mailbox downtown Loveland

Mailing their valentines to friends and family

A rare sweet moment of brother/sister affection

Not pictured:

• Decorating for a missions banquet
• Snow... over a foot =)
• Supper at Panera by the fireplace
• Practicing for our Easter cantata
• Studying for a ladies Bible study on Prov. 31
• Playing Kinect with friends...oh the laughs!
• Purell, boogie wipes, tylenol, humidifiers, cough drops...you get the picture
• Cabin fever
• Potty training, Lukee
• Cartoon marathon
• Pinning
• Starbucks...salted caramel latte

Recent Pinterest Favorites

I've tried several crafts and recipes this week that I found on Pinterest and thought I would share them. (The no-bake nutella cheesecake is a BIG favorite, now) =)

(No Bake Nutella Cheesecake) Go {HERE} for the recipe!

This guy, is SO delicious and easy to make! We had some friends over for supper and I made lasagna, garlic bread, tossed salad and these little bowls of heaven...mmmmm. =) On a side note, you can find these 'mini bols' and spoons at Pier 1. They come in a set of 24 and they fit this dessert perfectly!

Mini legos in your soap dispenser. =)

Germs have been going around our church and my kids got sick. Hopefully my husband and I will stay healthy?? Maybe?? =) ...wishful thinking, perhaps. But needless to say we've been washing our hands non-stop. I bought some Softsoap bottles at Target and took the stickers off and filled them with legos like in this picture. It makes washing hands more fun for the kids.

Boy Valentines

  I have a little girl and boy. It's super easy to find girly valentines but a bit more challenging to find boyish looking ones. I was excited to find these free printables this week. If you have a little man you need to give a valentine too...here are some more options. You can print them via SHE Paperie.

 

Valentine treats

We have a Valentine's party coming up this next week at our church and I'm bringing these fun little snacks. I love the girly colors!

Princess Paper Dolls

I found a website HERE with a ton of free Disney princess paper doll downloads. I remember printing off the Rapunzel paper doll as a party favor for my daughter's 5 year old birthday but I didn't realize this artist made a ton more paper doll designs. Paper dolls are so much fun! I remember playing with them when I was a little girl. Check them out!

A week in pictures

This last week was very eventful. I haven't had much time to sit down and create any new posts but I had some good excuses. =) My Mom flew out to Colorado for a couple weeks and we all enjoyed our time with her. But on a sad note our sweet almost 12 year old cat 'kitty' died on Sunday. We noticed that for the past week she hadn't been eating and then on Sunday morning she crawled behind our couch and when we came back from church she had passed. It was a sad day and we miss our Kitty.

Colorado is always beautiful, even when it's windy.

Fun around the lake

Lake Loveland

Menchies

Frozen apple pie yogurt from Menchies makes anybody happy =)

 

It's always a good idea to shop at Ikea... =)

Drove by the Broncos Stadium. Too bad Tim Tebow wasn't there.

Emma's first time ice skating. She loved it! =)

Kitty's grave

DIA on a bright and sunny January day

Not pictured: 

• Story time with Grandma
• Hot chocolate and cookies
• Hemming pants
• Many episodes of Downton Abbey
• Tapas for supper
• Walking around historic downtown Fort Collins
• Gelato
• Church, fellowship and friends
• Puppet fun
• House hunting
• Attempt made at homemade laundry detergent...success =)
• Listening to my daughter as she reads
• Date night!

John 3:16

Desk makeovers, bulletin boards and homeschool fun!

So, remember back in September of last year, I posted about finding this beauty here? =)

Well, then we had to move across the country before I could put everything together that I had envisioned but finally it's finished and looks more like this:

After a good paint job and hardware from Anthropologie, the desk was finished. Then I bought a $10 dollar bulletin board at Target and got the square shelves and chair from Ikea.
The bulletin board needed some help, though. I realized why it was so cheap...the cork came off very easily. My good friend LeAnn over at The Modest Homestead had a post last month about a fabric covered bulletin board that I thought was absolutely adorable. I tweaked it just a tad and instead of covering the whole bulletin board with fabric so the border didn't show I used upholstery tacs right up against the border.

I love the finished look! It's so easy to staple or tape things to her bulletin board now and I don't have to worry about the cork peeling off. =) Thanks LeAnn!

Now, the really fun part. It's January but Valentine's Day is just around the corner and I wanted to try to find a bulletin board idea that I could at least leave up til March or so. I found a cute idea at First Grade Blue Skies for a Snowology bulletin board. And the snowman or should I say...girl...was wearing red, so I thought it would be cute for Valentines as well. =)

Basically, 'snowology' is a term to describe anything that has to do with snow. So, I posted different facts about snow like their unique shapes and texture. I added a little history lesson about the worst blizzard that Colorado has seen...since (1913), cautions about the snow, and some fun facts, too.

Now when this school year started I did not own a laminator or a Cricut but now I see how useful these things are for creating bulletin boards. My free-hand abilities were not 'cutting' it. No pun intended. ;) I found a good deal on a mini Cricut and love it. It will cut any shape out for you and I liked this model because I only do occasional scrapbooking and school projects. I used it for making the letters in snowology and the informational flashcards.
Then I laminated everything so it would be sturdier and last longer. I used the laminator pictured below. You can find one on Amazon for about 20 bucks give or take.

Now, I'm really excited about future bulletin board and home school projects. ;)

 

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