Cheesecake Pillows

We had some friends over for dinner this weekend. The theme was Italian, with Lasagna, Bruscetta, and Oil/Vinegar dipping sauce. I had seen this recipe on Allrecipes.com, and was instantly hooked.  I decided to use my muffin top pans and make individual "pillows'.

Let me just tell you... Wow. These are little pillows of heavenly goodness. I expected to bite into a big glob of cheesecake filling, but that's not what happened. The filling cooked into the crust, and it was one big, yummy, pillow of goodness. Seriously good.  We drizzled blended strawberries over the top, and every last person loved them.  There was a little 4 yr old boy in the group who sat eating his saying "Mmmmm... Mmmmm..."! His mom called it his "Yummy Motor"!

After I snuck another pillow when cleaning up, I decided that these are going to be made again and again and again... they are even good cold!


Cheesecake Pillows 
Recipe by Double Dipped Life

Makes 12 pillows

2 cans of Crescent Roll dough. *Pillsbury now has a seamless crescent dough that makes this really easy.
2 packages cream cheese, softened. *You want this at room temperature so the filling isn't lumpy.
2 cups sugar
2 teas vanilla
1/4 cup (1/2 a stick) of melted butter 
3/4 cup sugar
1 TB cinnamon

Strawberries or chocolate for topping!

Preheat the oven at 350.  Spread the crescent roll dough out, and cut to fit your muffin tins. I used muffin top pans, but you can use regular muffin tins. The other option is to use an 9x13 pan,  layer one crust on the bottom, spread the filling on top, and cover it with another layer of dough. Then you have cheesecake bars instead of pillows.

Once you have your dough placed in the tins, spoon roughly 1/2 cup of filling into the middle.

Now, fold each corner up and over the filling. Try to enclose it completely. A few leaked after cooking, and deflated when cool, but they were still yummy!

Melt the butter, and brush generously over each pillow. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together, and sprinkle over each pillow.  Bake for 30 minutes, and let cool for 10 minutes.

Drizzle strawberries or chocolate over the top and enjoy!

Lemon Meringue Cheesecake

How was your Easter? Did you have enough delicious food and family to satisfy you for awhile?

We spent Easter dinner at my In-laws. The meal was very nice; the company even better. I wasn't asked to bring anything, but I like to contribute. I had also wanted an excuse to make this dessert!

I found this recipe on Betty Crocker and was instantly drooling. I followed the directions exactly, but the cake turned out differently then I thought it would. It wasn't really cheesecake texture. It was more like a lemon meringue with a cheesecake crust. That didn't stop it from being mouthwatering good though! It is very rich, so thin slices served with
milk or water are best! We had a large amount of strawberries at dinner as well, and those went with the lemon perfectly!

Lemon Meringue Cheesecake

Prep time: 30 min.
Total Time: 7 hours!!

Crust:
1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 teas grated lemon peel (if you don't have fresh lemon, this can be omitted)

Filling:
2 packages (8oz each) cream cheese, softened- and at room temp. to prevent cracking.
3/4 cup sugar
3 packages (3.5 oz each) lemon pudding (You know... this might be why the texture was different! I used instant pudding mix. But reading this again...and looking at reviews- they mean the pre-made puddings in a cup! The original wording was "from a 4-pack container". If you try it that way, let me know!)
1/2 cup sour cream
3 eggs
2 cups frozen (thawed) whipped topping

Heat oven to 300°F. Spray bottom and side of 10-inch springform pan with baking spray with flour. Wrap foil around outside of pan to catch drips.

Reserve 1/4 cup of the cake mix; set aside. In large bowl, beat remaining cake mix, butter and lemon peel with electric mixer on low speed until crumbly. Press in bottom and 1 1/2 inches up side of pan.

In same large bowl, beat reserved cake mix, the cream cheese, sugar, pudding and sour cream on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until mixed. Pour over crust. (Mine was a big glob of meringue, so I just smoothed it out the best I could)

Bake 1 hour 20 minutes to 1 hour 35 minutes or until edges are set but center of cheesecake jiggles slightly when moved. Turn oven off; open oven door at least 4 inches. Leave cheesecake in oven 30 minutes longer.

Remove cheesecake from oven; place on cooling rack. Without releasing side of pan, run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake. Cool in pan on cooling rack 30 minutes.

Cover loosely; refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Remove side of pan before serving. Pipe or spoon whipped topping around outside edge of cheesecake. This is excellent with fresh strawberries on top as well! Store in refrigerator.

** This cake won everyone's vote, although I might try it with pre-made pudding next time!

Enjoy!

Dinner Party!

I co-hosted a wonderful dinner last week. We were supposed to have 3 women and their kids come, but only ended up with 1. It was a great night, and I have tons of yummy leftovers!

Here is my menu, plus links to the recipes! Enjoy!

The main course was a Minestrone soup made by the co-host. Sorry, I don't have her recipe! She also provided a yummy green salad.

For sides, I made:

Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips - Also from OurBestBites.com. (Can you tell my new obsession?) This dish was absolutely fabulous. I did Strawberries, Mango, Kiwi, Pineapple, and Blueberries. Squirted some Lime juice, and added Sugar. The fruit was amazing on it's own, but eaten with the Cinnamon Chips brought it to a whole new level. Everyone took home leftovers, and I finished up the rest in about a day. A healthy and super yummy treat!

Pesto Alfredo with Roasted Vegetables- The original recipe was found on OurBestBites.com, but I will make it a different way next time! It was good, but needed a few more things.

Croissant Rolls- again, a little bit of a disappointment here. I wanted to make my Challah Bread, but for some reason, my bread maker didn't want to cooperate. It ended the cycle, and instead of a nicely risen bread, I had a pile of goop. :( So, I used the Croissant rolls in a can as a substitute.

Lemon Bars - The perfect "light" ending to a fall meal! I don't have a picture, but the recipe comes from my good friend, Bonnie.

White Chip Lemon Bars

Bonnie

1 1/4 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup white chips

2 eggs slightly beaten

The zest and juice from one lemon

Powdered sugar

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees

2. Stir together 1 cup flour and 1/4 cup sugar in medium bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press mixture onto the bottom of 9-inch baking pan.

3. Bake 7 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven; sprinkle with chips.

4. Stir together eggs, lemon juice, lemon peel, remaining 1/4 cup flour and remaining 3/4 cup sugar in medium bowl; carefully pour over chips and crust.

5. Bake 10 minutes or until set (you can touch center and it's springy). Cool in pan on wire rack; sift with powdered sugar when completely cool. Cut.

Cheesecake Chocolate Pudding. Okay, this desert was so easy, it was ridiculous. However, when I told the ladies it was "just" pudding, they laughed at me. It's all in the presentation folks!

How to make:
Pour 2 3/4 cup of COLD milk in a large bowl.
Mix in one dry box of Instant Chocolate pudding mix and 1 box of instant cheesecake pudding mix. Stir for 2 minutes, and pour into serving dish.
I used a large, shallow serving dish. When set, I sprinkled candied pecans on top! You can also do fruit, coconut, graham crackers, etc!
The cheesecake flavor was hard to distinguish, but you can do any flavor puddings together!

Lastly, we topped it off with cold Lemonade.

It was a terrific night of food and friendship.

What is your favorite party food?