Grandma Donna's Cheesecake

When I was a girl, my mom and grandma frequently made this dessert. I am pretty sure I haven't had it since I moved away from home. It had been a while. We usually ate this with store-bought cherry pie filling as the topping. Since my garden is bursting with strawberries, I made a simple strawberry syrup/glaze instead. I like baked cheesecake, but they are a little too rich for me. This dessert is lighter (relatively speaking) and I like that the crust is not the traditional graham cracker crust. It uses nuts and usually I am not a nut person (at all), but I really like this crust.



Crust:

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup butter

Mix together and pat into a 9x15" pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and crumble crust and then pat into pan again. Let cool.

Filling:

8 oz. pkg cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
2 pkg. Dream Whip, prepared according to directions on package

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add prepared Dream Whip and powdered sugar and blend together well. Spread over crust.

Topping:

Use canned fruit toppings, pie fillings, or make your own. I made mine using approximately 2 cups strawberries, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 tsp. cornstarch blended with 1 tsp. water. I brought the mixture to a boil and then reduced the heat and let it simmer until it became a little bit thicker.

Three Meat Stromboli

Like most of my recipes, this is a combination of a couple of different recipes I've used for stromboli in the past. I like the combination of spices in this version and the dough is quite simple. Don't let your dough rise or it will have hollow pockets and is a bit weird.

Bread Dough:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp yeast dissolved completely in 1 cup warm water
1 egg

Dissolve yeast in water. Add remaining ingredients and knead either by hand or in stand mixer for a couple of minutes (3-5). Roll out dough on floured surface into a rectangle shape (about 12x18").

Stromboli Toppings:

1/4 pound pastrami
1/4 pound deli ham
1/4 pound pepperoni
1/4 pound provolone
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup Parmesan
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp pepper


Arrange toppings over rolled-out dough (in no particular order). Roll up dough and tuck eggs under. Lightly beat egg. Smear egg over the top of the dough (or gently use a pastry brush - I like smearing myself). Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes (until dough sounds hollow). Let sit a few minutes before serving.

I have used this stromboli dough for lots of types of stromboli. This is my favorite, but I've also really like chicken-alfredo stromboli or just a simple pepperoni and mozzarella combination.

Frosted Banana Cookies

I got this recipe from my little sis, Karlee. She got it from her roommate's mom when she was in college. I really like it and sometimes make extra frosting because the frosting is sooooo good.

3/4 cups softened butter
3/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
2 mashed bananas
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp soda

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and blend well. In alternating additions, add dry ingredients (sifted together) and bananas. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Frosting:

1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
6 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 cup butter

Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add powdered sugar to desired consistency and a dash of vanilla. Stir in the powdered sugar a little at a time to make it less lumpy. I say less lumpy because I almost never get it totally lump-free. It still tastes delicious, though.