Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake

The O'Farrell/McGeehan in me is wanting to bring you a fabulous St. Paddy's Day dessert. This Bailey's Irish Cream cheesecake bakes slowly above a water bath. It's creamy, smooth, and rich in flavor. There's a hint of chocolate, but not so much as to overwhelm the distinctive flavor of this cheesecake's namesake. After years of experimenting, I have devised a very successful formula for cheesecake which adapts well to most varieties. My formula is that for every 8 oz. of cream cheese, there's 1/4 cup sugar and 1 egg. This recipe makes a BIG cheesecake, but you can scale it down to suit your self. Just remember to proportionately decrease the other ingredients as well.

BAILEY'S IRISH CREAM CHEESECAKE
Oven 350 degrees F

Place top rack in middle of oven. Set bottom rack below, and place a cake pan half-filled with hot water (hot tap water is fine) to act as an indirect water bath. (This will minimize cracking after baking.)

Makes one 10-inch cheesecake (if using a 9" pan, you'll have some batter left over.  You can save it and later bake mini cheesecakes in a muffin pan!)

Crust:

• Chocolate cookies (wafers or Oreos are fine) crushed to make 2-2 1/2 cups crumbs (in blender or food processor)
• 1 bar butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

Mix all ingredients together. Pour into base of 10" spring form pan. Using the bottom of a metal measuring cup or a cylindrical drinking glass, press crumbs on bottom and up sides of pan. Make sure the crumbs are tightly packed. Place pan in freezer while you prepare the batter.

Cheesecake batter:

• 2 lbs. cream cheese (4 8 oz. packages), softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder mixed with 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup plus two tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream

Beat cream cheese with sugar until light and fluffy. Add cocoa/cornstarch mixture and beat well.Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add sour cream; beat well.Add Bailey's and beat until very smooth, scraping sides of bowl to incorporate all ingredients well.

Pour cheesecake batter into prepared crust. 

On upper rack of oven (over lower rack with water bath) place cheesecake on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Turn heat down to 320 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes. Turn oven off and leave cheesecake in oven, door propped open an inch, for an hour. Remove from oven. Let cool completely on wire rack. Run thin knife around outside edge of cheesecake. Release spring form.
Sprinkle top with shaved chocolate or mini-chocolate chips.

Photo credit: http://www.thedeliciouslife.com/wp-content/plugins/hot-linked-image-cacher/upload/farm4.static.flickr.com/3582/3359577888_e5b6e9b945_o.jpg

Jeanne McGeehan Cella's Iced Tea

I’m named for my Aunt Jeanne. She will be ninety in October, my mother’s youngest sister. Virginia and Jeanne McGeehan were “Irish twins,” born less than a year apart, in 1918 and 1919. The youngest daughters in a family of six children, they grew up loving each other and were devoted sisters until my mother’s death at age eighty-three in 2002. It’s been sad for us, not having our own mother anymore, but whenever we hear Aunt Jeanne speak, we hear a bit of our mother in her voice. I love that. They were very much alike. Aunt Jeanne is a lovely and gracious lady. She lives in a pretty red house with a beautiful yard with gorgeous flower gardens (tended by son Jim) in Danbury, CT. You’d never guess she’s almost ninety – she is fit and sharp and until recently, when she was feeling better, consistently did one hundred sit ups a day! She has never driven a car, and I believe one of the reasons she’s so fit is due to the walking she’s done all her life. Aunt Jeanne’s been having physical challenges lately, with back problems that make navigating a little bit difficult right now. She received a good report from the doctor yesterday, though, and her back is on the mend.

Aunt Jeanne is a very special lady, and she is my Godmother, a role that seemed to carry more significance when she was given the honor a generation ago. Her husband, Uncle Eddie, passed away almost twenty-five years ago, and was my Godfather. They were a devoted couple, and she still wears her wedding and unique engagement ring, a beautiful pearl. When I was married, it could get confusing when we’d visit them at their home in Danbury: Jeannie and Gene Eddy visiting Aunt Jeanne and Uncle Eddie! Maybe that’s why we didn’t name a son “junior” – it would have only added to the confusion! The parents of eight children, six sons and two daughters, Jeanne and Eddie did a great job. They raised fun-loving, intelligent, and caring kids (who grew up to be terrific adults), and with my parents’ seven children, the only families we could visit and tolerate the crowd were each other! They used the same names for their kids, too. Both families have a Michael, a Jeanne, and a Virginia! (Back then, children’s names weren’t exclusive within a family!)

To this day, as cousins we maintain close relationships despite being raised hundreds of miles apart. The Cella kids were raised in New Rochelle, NY, where my Mom grew up, and we were raised, for the most part, in Saratoga Springs. For the summer, we’d “trade” kids for weeks at a time. Steven would go there and Ginna would come here. Anne would go there, and Jim would come here. It was something we always looked forward to and some of our happiest memories are of summers spent with our cousins. Last summer we had an O’Farrell/Cella/McGeehan family reunion at my sister Anne’s house in Saratoga Springs, and most of the Cella “kids” (as well as McGeehan and McCormick cousins) along with their kids and Aunt Jeanne were able to make it. It was over too soon, though we have happy memories and photos of that special day.

Aunt Jeanne has always made the best iced tea. At the beach house in North Carolina last summer, I tried to duplicate it every day. If I’m in a restaurant and order iced tea, I always measure it by Aunt Jeanne’s. Most don’t match it, but once in a while, I take a sip, and I am transported back to her kitchen on Elm Street. There I am, my seven-year old chin resting on the cool surface of her enamel-topped table, the one with the silverware drawer, watching her scurry around to feed her family and the surplus kids from ours.

I called Aunt Jeanne yesterday morning to say hello, see how she’s feeling, and to ask for her iced tea recipe. She said she doesn’t make it much any more because no one wants the sugar she puts in it. Well, I want her iced tea, sugar or not! It was so good to talk with her. I'm looking forward to a road trip to Danbury soon, to spend some time with this lovely lady.

Aunt Jeanne’s Iced Tea:

Place a pot of water on the stove.
Add six teabags.
Bring to a boil and turn off the heat.
Leave it for an hour or so.
Pour it into a pitcher.
SQUEEZE the tea bags to get every last drop (she emphasized that)
Stir in 3 scoops sugar
Add cold water to fill the pitcher.

Add a couple slices of lemon.

With love, I raise my iced tea glass to you, Aunt Jeanne!

Curried Chicken Phyllo Triangles

My fear of phyllo dough is right up there with a still-unreasonable fear of yeast dough. It seems a silly hesitation, since I’ve seen it used often and successfully on cooking shows. How difficult can it be? It seems no one makes it from scratch anymore. From what I’ve witnessed, you thaw out a package, unfold something, maybe give it a roll with a rolling pin, stuff, fold, crimp if necessary, and proceed. It’s not rocket science. So why have I waited so long to enter the world of phyllo? Silly me. The recipe below is perfect for the first experience. It’s not as easy as a chicken pot pie where you just lay a square of phyllo dough on top and throw it in the oven. This one takes a little bit of origami-like folding, but it is simple enough to guarantee success.

This recipe comes to me from Deborah Lewis, now a professor at St. Lawrence University, who, with her husband, taught at Skidmore College for a short time after being dislocated from their beloved New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a previous life, Deborah ran a successful catering company, and she is a wonderful cook. If you are planning a get-together and want to serve an elegant appetizer that combines sweet with savory, try Deborah’s recipe. Here’s her story:

“One of my favorite recipes is Curried Chicken Phyllo Triangles. I came up with this recipe during my career as a caterer in the 1980s (Capers Catering out of Durham, NC) and it was always a smash hit at parties. It’s slightly sweet and also a bit hot-and-spicy. This dish is also somewhat lighter than many hot hors d’oeuvres. Unfortunately, we served it so much that after going into the restaurant business, my partner never ate this dish again. Another memory associated with this dish is of meeting my husband for the first time. He was brought by a mutual friend to a party I was throwing in graduate school, but was on a health kick at the time and refused to even try the Triangles. Not a good beginning! We didn’t have our first date for five years. Our joke is now that I married him so he’d have to eat my food forever.

I do not cook using “proportions” so the following needs to be assembled according to common sense.”

Curried Chicken Phyllo Triangles

Ingredients:
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, fat removed, cut in bite-sized pieces
Cream cheese (regular
Scallions OR red onions OR shallots, chopped
Peeled tart apples, chopped bite-sized OR green seedless grapes, halved
Sliced almonds OR pistachio nuts, chopped coarsely
Phyllo dough, thawed
Butter (for sautéing and more, melted, to brush on phyllo)
Salt, curry powder (Spice Island); cayenne pepper to taste

Preheat oven to about 400.
Heat a couple of tablespoons of butter in a large frying pan until melted.
• Sauté scallions and chicken until chicken is cooked through. Do not overcook.
• Add fruit and nuts and stir for a couple of minutes until fruit is just hot through.
• Add enough cream cheese to coat the ingredients lightly when melted.
• Season to taste. Remove from heat.
To assemble:
• Unroll thawed phyllo dough on lightly floured, large cutting board or smooth surface.
• Cut two sheets at a time, lengthwise, into strips about 3 inches wide.
• Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the surface with melted butter.
• Place a couple of tablespoons filling (not too much) in the bottom corner of the dough.
• Roll the phyllo up as you would a flag so that when finished, you have a triangular “package.”
• Brush the top lightly with a little more butter.
• Continue until filling is used up.
• Bake on lightly buttered cookie sheet for about 15 minutes or until lightly brown.

Serve immediately. Eaten as finger food.

Tomorrow's blog: My Aunt Jeanne McGeehan Cella's delicious iced tea -- story and recipe!

Photo credit: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.diabeticcooking.com/food_shots/1/124/12483.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.diabeticcooking.com/DCRecipes/Printable/095/2580001095.htm&usg=__0Bs5d1X8VEqXzO21O6dHLzP4CB8=&h=255&w=200&sz=7&hl=en&start=12&tbnid=WrHY2SNEDgOuLM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=87&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dphyllo%2Btriangles%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Tuscan Bake

Sometimes it’s a wonder that I’m 100% Irish. For some reason, the inherited O’Farrell and McGeehan DNA do not compel me to cook as my ancestors did. No disrespect intended, I don’t cook Irish food, ever, and wouldn’t be at all familiar with most recipes from the old sod. I never cared for the obligatory corned beef or cabbage. My tastes lean toward Italian food, and though I’ve never been to Tuscany, or Italy for that matter, I love to cook as though I have!

This is my interpretation of a sausage and peppers dish that my sister-in-law Carolyn makes. She is half-Italian on her mother's side, and learned to cook in her Grandma DiBlasio's kitchen, so there's credibility here! Adapting her recipe, I add potatoes and chicken because there’s a local restaurant, Forno Tuscano in Saratoga Springs, that serves it this way and my son Jeffrey orders it every time.

In the rare case that there are left-overs, you have the makings for a terrific hot sandwich.

Tuscan Bake - Serves 4 or more

1 lb. sweet Italian sausage links
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about a pound)
2 Vidalia onions (or any onion you like)
2 green peppers
2 red peppers
4 red potatoes, unpeeled
¼ cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
Fresh black pepper
salt
Grated parmesan cheese


Cut sausages and chicken into 1-1.5 inch chunks.
Quarter red potatoes.
Cut peppers and onions into bite-sized pieces.

Toss all together with garlic in olive oil in roasting pan. Add a little more oil if necessary. Grind black pepper over it all and sprinkle lightly with salt.

Bake at 400 degrees F, stirring half way through, until sausage gets crispy, the chicken is fully cooked, and potatoes are fork-tender, about 40 minutes (depending on your oven). Sprinkle with cheese and let that melt for a minute or two.

Serve with a green salad, soft rolls or Italian bread, and a side of marinara.

Upcoming Post: Chunky Chicken Salad!

Photo credit: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.big-italy-map.co.uk/maps/italy%2520400.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.big-italy-map.co.uk/&usg=__9dqGXcG3gxhcrowLNuQzHqJhs8c=&h=458&w=400&sz=51&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=GgTaNZVHyLacwM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=112&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmap%2Bof%2Bitaly%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG