No one likes to have a bad day… but if you are going to have a bad day, it would be a nice coincidence if it happened on National Cheesecake Day (July 30th).

If you follow me on Instagram (and I’d love to have you, by the way) you may have noticed that the Dine & Dish family has hit a little bit of a rough patch this past weekend. What started out as a fun filled day at Grand Falls in Joplin, MO…

…turned into Kelly breaking her leg (tibia and fibula right up by her knee and possibly something wrong with her hip). She’ll be spending the rest of the summer in a full cast, with crutches and a wheelchair. So, bad day? Indeed….

Read More

The post Rough Days {Recipe: Peaches and Cream No Bake Cheesecake} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Not only are we celebrating Easter this weekend, we are celebrating Nick’s grandmas 90th birthday!! I’m so excited to get together with his family, including all his aunts, uncles and cousins (and they are Irish Catholic, so that means there will be a ton of people there) to celebrate this wonderful woman! I really love his grandma…and we know how lucky we are to still have her in our lives! 90 is definitely worth having a big, huge celebration, don’t you think?…

Read More

The post Rustic Italian Spongecake with Creamy Cheesecake Filling appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Is it too soon in the holiday season to talk eggnog? Because I’m not trying to rush past Thanksgiving by any means, but eggnog season is just soooo short, and I kind of love it. I really want to stretch it out as long as possible.

Are you an eggnog fan? For me, I usually buy one carton of eggnog a year to drink and that tides me over, but oh how I love to bake and cook with eggnog. As soon as eggnog hits the store shelves, I’m buying it and adding it to pancakes, cookies, bread, coffee, etc. Eggnog adds such wonderful flavor to so many recipes!…

Read More

The post Eggnog Love {Recipe: Eggnog Cheesecake Bars} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

I’ve had a love affair with cheesecake practically my whole life, but, would you believe this is my first time ever making cheesecake? It is my absolute favorite dessert, hands down, but for some reason I’ve always left the cheesecake making up to everyone else.

I should have known that once I actually made cheesecake for the first time, it’d be a dangerous thing. And of course, in making cheesecake, I knew if I turned to the Philadelphia Cream Cheese, who has been making America’s favorite cream cheese since 1872, I would be thrilled with my results. Now that I know how easy these Philadelphia Cheesecake Minis are, I won’t likely be stopped!

…

Read More

The post Cheesecake Minis with Strawberry Balsamic Mint Topping appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Food photography can be tricky. Sometimes, you have to try different angles to get the right shot. A photographer is always willing to do whatever it takes to make a photo interesting, even if that means taking a taste of the food… I like to call that “styling”.

In the name of creating something truly interesting, sometimes you may have to take several tastes.

And what if after all that hard work, you don’t get the shot you were looking for? You’ll just have to start over. Darn. Such a sacrifice, but all in the name of a trying to get that perfect shot!

My friend Julianne has been spoiling us with this cheesecake for several years now. It is an absolute favorite… I don’t even attempt to make it anymore because I know I just can’t make it as good as she does!

Recipe: Philadelphia Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake from Philadelphia Cream Cheese

Julianne makes a traditional graham cracker butter crust instead of the ginger snap crust the original recipe calls for.

• 25 nabisco ginger snaps, crushed ( 1 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped Planters pecans
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 32 ounces Philadelphia Cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sugar, divided
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1. PREHEAT oven to 325°F.
2. Mix ginger snaps crumbs,pecans and butter; press firmly onto bottom and 1 inch up side of 9-inch springform pan.
3. BEAT cream cheese, 3/4 cup of sugar and the vanilla with electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, mixing on low speed after each additional just until blended. Remove 1 1/2 cups of batter; place in small bowl.
4. Stir remaining 1/4 cup of sugar, the pumpkin and spices into remaining batter. Spoon half of the pumpkin batter into crust; top with spoonfuls of the reserved plain batter. Repeat layers. Cut through batters with knife several times for a marble effect.
5. BAKE 55 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Cut into 16 slices. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.

The post Food Photography Tip {Recipe – Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

My main blog has always been my food blog but as any of you who read my blog have noticed, the family portion is a huge part of it now as well. Most of my posts relate somehow back to my personal life and often my kids. My “mommy” blog is often very neglected as I have found that it is easier for me to just work with the one blog and combine the two categories.

Over the next several weeks, you are going to see a lot more of my mommy side coming out in my posts as I have been chosen to be a part of a really fun blogging opportunity. I’ll share more about it next week, but wanted to give you fair warning up front! Don’t worry – Dine & Dish will remain a food blog and you will still continue to get a dose of my foodie side with each post.

Speaking of combining things, are you one of those people who likes to add things into your brownies or do you prefer to just go with the simple chocolate fudge version? I typically like my brownies as plain as can be, so I would consider myself to be a brownie purist in that regard. No mix-ins or toppings needed because then I think it becomes too much of a good thing, which really can ruin a good recipe sometimes. This was my firm belief until I recently tried the Black-and-White Cheesecake Square recipe from the Easter issue of Martha Stewart Living Magazine. Holy heaven on earth – these little squares are soooo good. The chocolate brownie batter is incredibly thick and rich. It is topped with a layer of delicious cheesecake and finished off with dollops of more fudgy brownie batter.  I have now discovered that sometimes, combining the right amount of two really good things turns out great!

Print

Black & White Cheesecake Squares

Black-and-White Cheesecake Squares (from Martha Stewart Living Magazine)

Author Dine & Dish

Ingredients

• Vegetable oil cooking spray
• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 10 ounces 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 21/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 8 ounces cream cheese softened
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Line dish with parchment, leaving a 2-inch overhang on both long sides, then spray parchment.
• Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Cream butter and granulated sugar with a mixer until smooth. Add 2 eggs and 2 teaspoons vanilla, and beat until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl. Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture. Increase speed to medium; beat until incorporated.
• Reserve 1 cup of dough; cover, and refrigerate. Press remaining dough into bottom of prepared dish. Refrigerate for 30 minutes (I eliminated the refrigeration step). Bake until base is set and edges are puffed, about 25 minutes. Let cool in dish on a wire rack.
• Mix cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, and remaining egg and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla in a medium bowl. Spread over cooled base; crumble reserved dough on top. Bake until filling is set, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool in dish on wire rack, then lift out using overhang. Cut into 24 squares. Squares will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to 3 days.

The post The Fall of a Brownie Purist (Recipe: Black & White Cheesecake Squares) appeared first on Dine and Dish.

I love Trifles. They are one of my favorite desserts to make because they are always delicious and they always make a beautiful presentation. The problem with trifles is that they are almost too pretty. When it comes time to serve them, the very thought of scooping into the big trifle bowl to tear apart the creation is enough to send shivers down my spine. Isn’t it good enough to just sit and look at the pretty dessert without destroying it? Apparently not…for some odd reason people actually want to eat the trifle. Admiring the beauty just will not do.

Last evening, my good friend Sara had my family and another friends family over for Easter dinner. My assignment….bread and dessert. We enjoyed a wonderful meal, with a Martha Stewart worthy table setting and friendly conversation. Once it came time for dessert, Sara pulled the trifle out of the fridge and handed it to me. “You serve it,” she said. “No…this is your house, you are the host… you serve it.” “I can’t bring myself to cut into it…it is just too pretty,” she said. Reluctantly, only because I knew the guys would not understand not getting dessert because it was too pretty to cut in to, I picked up the spoon and scooped out the first serving.  Trifles are not nearly as beautiful plopped down on a plate, are they? At this point though, appearance doesn’t matter. One you have the first spoonful of this trifle in your mouth, you will not care at all what it looks like or the beauty you destroyed. Trust me when I say this…cutting in to any trifle is well worth mutilating it in the process. Very well worth it.

To create a trifle for your own mutilating pleasure, follow this recipe. Light versions of all of the ingredients can be used without sacrificing flavor.

The post Strawberry Cheesecake Trifle appeared first on Dine and Dish.