The little one had been yammering at me for cheesecake.  I don’t know for sure what got him started, but once he gets on a thread he won’t let go.  For the record, though, the “little one” is now a good inch taller than I am.  He thinks his size is compelling, but really I just like to spoil him!

  The reasons I didn’t want to make cheesecake? 

• Too many calories hanging around the house – even though they could be worked-in to just about any diet plan. 
• No room for a big cheesecake in the refrigerator
• The fuss of the spring form pan and the water bath.

None of those mattered to the cheesecake monster, so I set out to find an easier way.    Mini Cheesecakes with Raspberry Coulis seemed to be a good compromise – no fussy cooking technique, and only 15 minutes in the oven.  I’ll be honest here; at the grocery store, I looked for raspberry sauce to get out of making the Coulis.   Sadly, every jar or can of raspberry product I could find had high fructose corn syrup as the first or second ingredient.  I am not paying $3 for that (see for example  Homemade Apricot Jam in June for an example of the things I will do to reduce my family’s HFCS intake).  Frozen raspberries cost the same, even though I knew it would be more work.

Don't let the word "mini" imply that these are made in the tiny muffin tin, they are made in the regular size tin.  Foil cupcake liners come with paper liners between them, but you can use them for other things - don't trash them.

I whipped up the cheesecakes and they rose beautifully, got golden just on the edges, and then deflated when out of the oven.  This is not failure, this is the sauce holder!

IMHO, the Raspberry Coulis was more involved than the cheesecake.  You can skip the blender and strain the sauce directly into a bowl, but the blende helps separate the pulp from the seeds and the sauce gets much thicker (I tried it both ways).  

So, there I was with 20 cool little cheesecakes. They stacked nicely in a large container with a sheet of waxed paper between the layers.  It took about 5 days to eat them.

Next time I might try spritzing the liners with non-stick spray to help the cheesecakes release easier, but , no one else seemed to notice that they didn't come out as easily as a cupcake.

These are easy enough to make ahead for a platter to serve at (or bring to) a party, or just because your teenager wants cheesecake.  Add them to your meal plan to spoil your family!

I was an earn-at-home Mom until our youngest was in 8th grade.  It was gut wrenching to make the change to working in the world.  Not only the self-imposed horror of not BEING THERE every single moment that the boys MIGHT need me, but also being accepted back into the fold of people who had always held traditional jobs.   However, I didn’t want to totally give up our life style.  To my surprise, we all survived, and actually thrived.

My meal planning strategy had to change.  Gone were the days of being able to plan and execute a whole week of completely from scratch meals, with few time constraints for getting those meals on the table.   We tried, for a week, to do the “standards” hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta with just sauce…  It made meal planning simple, and the grocery list short, but we just aren’t used to eating that way and no one was happy.  Friday pizza night lasted twice before the troops mutinied.

Now I plan some less preparation-intense meals from our favorites – do the pre-prep on weekends and in the morning when possible, and leave directions for whoever gets home first to start the set-up or cook.   I often make extra portions for leftovers, lunches, and things that can be dual purposed.  For example, one day last week I put 5 lbs of pork country ribs and a bottle of beer in the crock-pot and went to work.  When my husband got home he drained and shredded the pork, then split it in half.  Part of this got barbecue sauce for pulled pork sandwiches, and the other part seasoned for pulled pork tacos (just a slight alteration in cooking method – no problem).  UNFORTUNATELY, no one could agree on what they wanted for dinner, so they ate them both (in theory my plan should have worked)!  The voracious appetites of my family and the impact of that on our grocery bill is a different post…

Like most Moms, I dash between work, kids activities, volunteer efforts, and errands.   Staying organized is crucial, and knowing that I have the plan and ingredients for 21 meals per week makes life a lot easier.

I am not sure how it got to be November.   Time has been racing lately!  What I do know is that after a large event I was handed a good quantity of dried cranberries and walnuts and asked to “do something” with them for the upcoming banquet.

The first thing I did was to search for recipes using “dried cranberries”  there were quite a few things there that tempted me, but the objective was something that could be made in advance, and hidden from the boys.  Cranberry Walnut Biscotti looked like a winner!

Biscotti are really easy to make. No scooping and no cookie cutters. If you don’t over beat and/or over bake the dough, the cookies will be just fine, but even if they do come out a little tough, you just serve them for dunking in tea or hot chocolate…

Some people think that biscotti don’t look festive.  There are two ways to solve that, in my opinion.   One is to drizzle them with white and dark chocolate, hit the still wet chocolate with sprinkles, then pile them on a pretty platter.   The other is to brush them very lightly with honey or corn syrup and then press them in decorative sprinkles or big sugar crystals.

If you want to give biscotti as a gift, buy some Chinese take-out boxes and shape the dough log slightly narrower than the height of the box.  You can pair it with another box that has tea, hot chocolate, or coffee…  Perfect small gift!

If you know you have some holiday baking to do, start adding recipes to your meal plan so you know you have all of the ingredients on hand.