Creme de menthe Cheesecake

Welcome!

Kaleidoscope by inkspired and KaleidoCam 

 For St. Patrick’s Day I thought you might want to make this delicious Creme de Menthe Cheesecake. It is a lovely shade of green and a refreshing ending to a traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage.

CRUST:

2 Cups finely crushed chocolate graham crackers   (Honey Maid, Kroger)

1/2 Cup butter, melted

FILLING:

1 Cup sugar

3 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened

4 large eggs

2 Tablespoons white or green creme de menthe liqueur*

1 4.67 oz package (Andes) chocolate/creme de menthe candy thins, chopped

1 teaspoon flour

*or substitute with 1 teaspoon peppermint extract + 6 drops green food coloring

PREP:

Pre-heat oven to 325’.

Wrap outside of springform pan with aluminum foil. Lightly grease inside of pan.

MAKE IT:

MIX all crust ingredients until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press mixture all on the bottom and 1inch up the sides of pan.

Set aside.

COMBINE cream cheese and sugar in bowl. Using mixer cream together on medium speed, scraping sides and bottom often, until creamy. Continue beating mixture, adding 1 egg at a time.

Do not overbeat.

ADD creme de menthe liqueur.

STIR candy pieces with flour. Gently mix into batter. Pour filling into crust.

Place pan on center rack of oven. 

Place pan of warm water on rack below cheesecake to prevent cracking.

BAKE 80 - 90 minutes until center is just set.

Loosen cheesecake from sides by running knife around inside of pan.

COOL 1 hour. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours.

GARNISH top with whipped cream and chocolate thin mints as desired.

STORE refrigerated.

Recipe courtesy Land O’ Lakes

That’s it for today!

‘Til next time,

inkspired

Pinterest: K Kloberdans

inkspiredmusings.blogspot.com

Myinkspired.com

more Thanksgiving with native Americans and Dr. Galyon

Wo'okeyeh

('Peace' in the language of the Sioux, Native American)

Sioux leader, Chief and Medicine Man - Chief Sitting Bull

How could we ever celebrate Thanksgiving without giving honor to our

fellow brothers - the native Americans, or Indians, of North America?

I completely understand why some Native Americans do not share that feeling!

We haven't been very 'brotherly' since that first Thanksgiving.

Misunderstandings, greed, false religious fervor,

false view of any others that were not 'white',

deceit, murder, oh the list goes on.

It makes me sad.

But let us go back to a happier time - that first Thanksgiving

when there was peace, and thanks to God for food and friends and family.

vintage postcard

I have some Native American paper dolls to share with you today.

I know I have found some from

Karen's Whimsy

and

OrigamiBears.

Check out their websites for tons of fantastic paper dolls of all kinds!

Now please, don't fuss at me about details.

I am just sharing with you some great paperdolls.

I am NOT saying the clothes and accouterments are historically correct.

That would depend on the artist's research.

But I do think these are wonderful paper dolls!

Here is another small set:

I like that the artist here specifies different traditional dress for different tribes.

Just like the previous artist specified a geographical region.

Now for something completely different -

(thanks to Monty Python's Flying Circus humor)

Time for Pie!!!

My brother-in-law is one of the greatest cooks I know.

He also is a super baker, especially with pies!

This is not his original recipe for Kahlua Pecan Pie,but it has similar ingredients.

I still remember once on my birthday he baked me a HUGE Kahlua Pecan Pie.

What a treat!

Kahlua Pecan Pie:

3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup Karo Light or dark corn syrup (or Karo maple flavored syrup)
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups pecans
1 unbaked pastry shell
2 Tablespoons Kahlua (optional)

In medium bowl, stir together eggs, corn syrup, sugar, butter and vanilla until well blended.

(If desired, add Kahlua.) Stir in pecans.

Pour into pastry shell.

Bake in 350 oven 50 to 55 minutes or until knife inserted halfway between
center and edge comes out clean.

Cool.

Now make another pie for everyone else. That way you don't have to share yours!!!

You can use these patterns for tube painting, or embroidery, or painted clothing.

You can use t-shirts, tablecloths, sweatshirts, napkins, table toppers, table runners -

really anything you can think of!

This would also make a good wood burned plaque pattern....

vintage postcard

Here is another 'blurb' from an article written by Dr. James Galyon.

Here is the website to the entire article:

http://drjamesgalyon.wordpress.com/category/pilgrims/

an excerpt:

[after the 1621 Thanksgiving shared celebration]...

"The following year, the Pilgrims did not experience a harvest as successful as the first. During the year they shared their stores with newcomers, resulting in a food shortage. The next year brought extreme heat and drought. Bradford called the Pilgrims to day of prayer and fasting. Rain soon fell. A day of thanksgiving was proclaimed on November 29. The annual custom of celebrating thanksgiving after the harvest continued after that year."

an interview between Samoset and the Pilgrims

an illustration of the Pilgrims and Squanto

A nice Betsy McCall paperdoll for you:

November, 1970

more from Dr. Galyon:

"During the American War of Independence an official day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress. In 1817, the state of New York adopted Thanksgiving Day as an official annual custom. Other states followed suit, and in 1863 Abraham Lincoln appointed a national Day of Thanksgiving. Each U.S. President since has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, appointing the fourth Thursday of each November as a holiday for giving thanks to God for His blessings."

President Theodore Roosevelt signing the Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1902

vintage postcard

"Nothing will ever please me, no matter how excellent or beneficial, if I must retain the knowledge of it to myself. No good thing is pleasant to possess without friends to share it."

- Seneca proverb

(The Senecas are a Native American tribe)

Here is a fun little maze for you.

note: I don't think there are cactus anywhere near Plymouth!!!

The Sioux tribe were also Plains Indians, found in parts of Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas.

vintage postcard

found at http://www.mommylife.net/

Please forgive me if I have duplicated graphics/art/paintings/etc.

As you know from yesterday,

BLOGSPOT was not friendly to me.

I do hope today's blog will post in entirety!

Today in Colorado we are having beautiful weather with little wind,

bright blue skies and some white puffy clouds.

The mountain ranges to the West are shades of purples and blues,

with white cloud cover obscuring the tops.

I hope your day is as beautiful.

:0)

inkspired

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/

http://www.inkspiredmusings.blogspot.com/

Thunder, Green Grass and cherry pie

Good Day!

We have had so much rain in the last 2 weeks.
Everything is still quite green. I know to some of you that is no big thing, but I do live in a semi-arid plain so by the end of July things are starting to look pretty brownish.
Not this year!
The rain has decided to come with huge thunder/lightning storms.
I'm talking windows rattle.
I'm talking the whole house seems to shudder.
I'm talking humongous bolts of lightning that knocks out our power.
I'm talking HUGE thunder, that goes on for several hours.
At night.
When everyone is trying to sleep!
For two weeks now.

homepages.paradise.net.nz

I have very fond memories of sitting on the edge of the Palo Duro Canyon, Texas at Hidden Falls Ranch. HFR is a Christian youth camp where I spent many summers there doing different staff things - cook, laundry, counselor, snack shop, etc. The Palo Duro would have lightning and thunder storms, across on the other side. The Canyon is so large that we would sit on our side, and watch the lightning on the other side, but we didn't hear the thunder, or have any rain.
http://www.hiddenfallsranch.com/

Absolutely fascinating!

skydiary.com

Our storms that we have been having are not that kind! First, there's no canyon edge to sit on an watch. We live in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, so pretty much if the mountains are getting rain, we will soon; or we have the storms along with the mountains.

And yes, I can hear quite clearly the thunder!

Second, the skies are pouring sheets of rain, along with the booming thunder and crashes of lightning. (And no, I'm not being scientific here - just normal people talk- for all you perfectionists or weather scientists...)
:0)

photo by floyd menagh c.2005

middlezonemusings.com

I'm sure this is a photo of my neighborhood.

That bolt of lightning hit 2 houses down...

It sure sounded that way! Really...

So, in the last 4 days we have had to reset all the clocks in the house 2 times. One of the power outages took out a ceiling fan, light and controls. We still haven't found where to fix that!
Our driveway is crushed asphalt/rock. We need to go and shovel up 1/4 of it that has washed down to the neighbors!
My garden is being taken over by greedy, big sticker weeds. They love that combination of garden soil and tons of rain!

Am I complaining?
No, not really. Some things are a nuisance, but it could be so much worse. Our home is not flooded and we can still drive to the store and get bread and dill pickles (essentials, you know). The postman still delivers our mail. Tanner has grass to hang out on.
And everything is so green!

Here are a few Betsy McCall paperdolls,

going camping!

Time to bake a cherry pie!



Karen’s favorite Cherry Pie

1 Pillsbury refrigerated pie pastry, for two crust pie

            Or 2 pre-prepared frozen pie shells,

1 extra deep

1 regular

1  can cherry pie filling

1 /2 Cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 tsp almond extract*

Follow the pie crust directions on the package.

Pre-heat oven according to pastry directions.

(I use my Pampered Chef stoneware pie pan – I love it!)

Combine all ingredients, mix well.

Fill prepared pie crust. Place second crust on top, pinching edges together.

Follow package directions to bake.

Notes: Have fun with that top crust! You can score designs in it like a heart with rays going out from it, or trace a cherry and cut out. Do fork-tine art!

*The almond extract really brings out the cherry flavor. If you don’t have any, use vanilla extract. I prefer Watkins vanilla extract.

Feel free to adjust the amount of chocolate chips up to 1 Cup.
Try it first with the 1/2 Cup though.

Well, that's it for today!

Think I'll go bake a cherry pie...

work a little on my 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle of the moment...

Maybe watch a John Wayne Western...

while I'm working on some scherensnitte...

or

there's always laundry!

Don't forget to smile today!

inkspired

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/

http://www.inkspiredmusings.blogspot.com/

dominoes@myinkspired.com