A Paula Deen Kind of Wednesday

Lately, I've been watching a lot of cooking shows. I especially like The Barefoot Contessa, The Neely's, and Paula Deen. I like to cook, and it makes me happy to watch other people who like to cook. Besides, Ina is really calming, the Neely's have this great energy and are constantly bantering, and we all know that Paula is adorable. "I'm in the kitchen with Bobby, Ya'll!!!"

I felt like a sweet treat, and so I started hunting for a good new recipe. I decided that I had a hankering for some cheesecake, but alas! I don't have a spring form pan. But then I found the answer -- Paula's Cheesecake Cookies. They have the taste of cheesecake but the ease of cookies! (They're not really cookies, though... more like bars.)

Here's what you need:

Crust:

1 Cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

(But I used a cup of graham cracker crumbs instead, because my momma can't eat nuts)

1 stick butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. I stirred the flour into the butter with a spoon, but then mixed in the crumbs and sugar with my hands. (Make sure to take off any rings! It's pretty messy.)

Once it's a crumbly paste, press the mixture into an ungreased 9x13 pan. Pop it into the oven for about 12 minutes. It'll smell divine.

Here's what mine looked like when it was done.

What you need for the filling:

2 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese, softened

(I used reduced fat, and it set up just fine)

1 cup granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

(I added a little splash of almond, too!)

Beat the cream cheese and slowly add sugar until smooth. Add eggs and extract and beat it some more. My batter was unfortunately plauged by the widely feared vanilla monster, who was unhappy seeing as how he could sense I was about to put him in the oven.

Once it's nice and smooth, pour your batter over the crust and bake it for 20 minutes. Cool completely. (That's the hardest part... it felt like eons!)

Once it was cool, I decided to put some rasberries on top of mine. I bet it'd also be great with a chocolate or caramel glaze, or any kind of fruit. Mm! I would also suggest chilling it for a while before you try to cut it, so it doesn't get too sticky.

Man, oh man!!!

In other news, I did a watercolor version of my drawing of Colton. I'm pleased, although the scan doesn't do it justice :)

What are some of your favorite new recipes?