The hot week is finally coming to a close! In the midst of this most recent heat-wave and with the start of the semester, I just can’t stop thinking that I’m ready for it to be Fall in all of its glory. I’m ready for leather boots, cozy sweaters, hearty soups and warm pies. Being that I am extremely pale, of Irish/Scottish decent and a self-proclaimed “indoor girl”, the Summer is really not that enjoyable. I do love to swim and sandals are awesome, but for me, perfection is a sleeveless dress, cowboy boots and my ten-year-old Gap jean jacket. Is that jacket retro now? Who knows…
Last year I started baking. I began baking out of spite really, which I doubt most people start baking in this way. My super fabulous BFF is an amazing baker. Sometime last year during a conversation about baking, she proclaimed in shock, “You’ve never made a pie?” In her universe, everyone should make pies. And if everyone could make pies as delicious as hers, I’m sure we all would. But anyway, I gave baking a try and I’ve made some tasty muffins, cookies and pies. The highlight of my baking endeavors is pictured in the image above – a cranberry cheesecake. This was a tough recipe – the cranberries had to be reduced and chilled in a very specific way. Plus, cheesecake (and this is a low fat version which can always mean disaster) really requires that you pay close attention to baking times. This was tough for me, because I tend to try to rush things once they’re underway. But I took my time and this was such a delicious treat if I do say so myself. I did cheat a little bit and used a pre-made crust.
Below is the recipe so you can make this tasty treat yourself once it gets cool enough to heat up the kitchen! So hurry up Fall, we’re ready for you.
The Recipe
Filling:
Pie crust (make it yourself or buy one at the store, I recommend a graham cracker crust)
8 ounces light cream cheese
8 ounces fat-free cream cheese
2 cups fat-free vanilla yogurt
1 cup fat-free cottage cheese
2 large eggs
2 egg whites
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Topping:
1 (16-ounce) can whole cranberry sauce
3 tablespoon orange juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
2. In a food processor, blend both cream cheeses, the yogurt, and cottage cheese until smooth. Add the eggs, egg whites, sugar and vanilla extract and pulse until just blended. Pour the mixture into the pan with your pre-made or pre-bought pie crust. Place in the center of the oven.
3. Reduce the heat to 325 degrees and bake until the cheesecake is almost set but still jiggles a bit when shaken, 70-75 minutes. Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake sit in the oven 1 hour longer. Transfer the cheesecake to the refrigerator and chill at least 3 hours.
4. Meanwhile, prepare the topping. In a small saucepan, combine the cranberry sauce, orange juice, cinnamon and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, stirring often; cook 1 minute. Dissolve the cornstarch in the water and stir into the saucepan; return to a boil and cook until mixture is thickened, 1 minute longer. Remove from the heat and stir in the orange zest; cool completely, then chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour.
5. Spread the cranberry mixture over top of the cheesecake just before serving or after the cheesecake is well chilled.
What is Foto Friday? I post a photograph every Friday. Let me know what you think!
Everyone’s got a friend in a band, and I’m no different. I’m happy to report that most of my friends’ bands are pretty good. I created the image above for Meeting in the Aisle (you should follow them @mitaisle or www.facebook.com/MeetingInTheAisle). They happen to be a Radiohead tribute band and they are insanely good. Sure, it’s fun to hear a band cover “Creep” for the billionth time, but I’ve seen these boys rock out “National Anthem” with a horn section at The North Star Bar. Nut-so indeed!
I wanted to take a look back at these “portraits” I created of each member of the band. Now that the Fall semester has officially began, it’s great to be back in the classroom and be able to show my students the cool stuff you can do with really low-end technology. These images were made with my Mom’s crappy all-in-one Hewlett-Packard scanner, copier, printer. So although it looks like I applied some weird noise-inducing filter, the rainbow lined markings you see in the image are just the digital artifacts left behind from a crappy scanner. Most scanners – especially an all-in-one like my Mom’s – is designed to just pick up flat images like pictures and documents on the surface of the glass. So when you put three-dimensional objects on the scanner – in this case a person’s head – weird stuff can happen. Super weird and fun stuff!
This is Karl, he is the Thom Yorke of Meeting in the Aisle. He does a very nice Thom-style dance thing that you need to see.
Check out this amazing detail.
Some scanners can pick up amazing amounts of detail. I’m what you might call a scanner expert. Below is another scanner composition, from a series I am developing called Buzz Bomb. “Buzz Bomb” was the colloquial name given to the German V-1 flying bomb rockets of World War II. These bombs and their more advanced descendent the V-2 rocket were equipped with auto-pilot guidance systems, so they did not require the vision of an individual bomber. This has nothing to do with Radiohead or Meeting in the Aisle, but hopefully you appreciate the technique none-the-less.
In conclusion, you should check out Meeting in the Aisle’s next show on October 2nd at The North Star Bar. It’s the 10th anniversary of Radiohead’s Kid A album and Meeting in the Aisle will be playing it from start to finish! What’s better, my man friend who runs Atop An Elephant Design creates all of MitA’s super cool posters. Here’s the brand new poster for the upcoming show:
