Cooking On the Side » Desserts

Chocolate-Layered No-Bake Cheesecake Bars

Kathy — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:10:49 +0000

I brought dinner and a few of these Chocolate-Layered No-Bake Cheesecake Bars over to my friend Catherine, who just welcomed a new baby boy a few weeks ago. She e-mailed me a few hours later: “I sneaked a ‘before dinner taste’ of the cheesecake bars and it was the best thing I’ve ever eaten!”

Granted, Catherine is big chocolate fan (which is why I knew she’d love these bars), but I have to agree with her that they’re pretty amazing. Without question, they’re rich. But at least in bar form you feel a little less guilt since they’re small. And now that the sun is finally back in San Diego, I’m finding the opportunity to make desserts without having to turn on the oven very appealing!

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More from Cooking On the Side...

~ Get grilling with these mouthwatering Teriyaki Burgers.

~ It's strawberry season! Try this quick and easy recipe for fresh Strawberry Freezer Jam.

~ Want to see more great recipes from the side of food packages? Browse the index of all of the recipes I've posted on Cooking On the Side (more added all the time!).

About Cooking On the Side...

It’s the recipe collection I didn’t even realize I had – the one derived from the side of a bag of fresh vegetables, a box of sugar, a jar of mayonnaise. Cooking On the Side – as in on the side of food packaging – is all about “revealing” these on-the-package recipes, with photos of how they actually turn out, cooking notes and more descriptive directions than package space usually allows for. -- Kathy

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Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie & Gelato Sliders

Kathy — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:59:05 +0000

They look like hamburgers, don’t they?

Or maybe it’s just me and my current obsession with sliders. I don’t know why I’ve been finding mini-sandwiches so appealing, but if they’re on the menu I order them. I’ve justified it as a means of portion control – I eat two and share the third. But in reality? I just think they’re cute…and who can resist cute food?

This started out as a cookie post, featuring the Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie recipe I found on the back of a baking powder canister. But as I was nibbling away – rest assured I do plenty of taste testing before posting recipes on this blog – I couldn’t help wanting some ice cream to go with them. I was all set to pick up a pint of Haagen-Dazs when my strategic-minded husband suggested I make some from scratch. Next thing I knew I had a batch of David Lebovitz’ ultra-rich, super-smooth, intensely-chocolate gelato (from his Ready for Dessert cookbook) churning away in my ice cream maker. It’s good to listen to your spouse sometimes.

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Sea-Salted Smoky Almond Chocolate Bark

Kathy — Wed, 05 May 2010 18:53:56 +0000

I’m secretly hoping that this will be the year the homemade Mother’s Day gifts start coming. Aren’t they sort of a rite of passage? Our school classrooms would turn into little workshops this time of year, turning out everything from tissue paper flowers to ceramic ashtrays (Did we seriously make those? I am really dating myself here.). I would be bursting with pride as I presented my mom with my annual creation. And my mom did her very best to convey awe and admiration. That’s good stuff.

If you’re looking for a homemade Mother’s Day gift that’s sure to be a hit, think about pulling together a batch of this Sea-Salted Smoky Almond Chocolate Bark. It’s incredibly simple – just three ingredients – and you can just imagine how it tastes. Whoever discovered that salt brings out amazing flavors in chocolate is my personal hero. The combination of smoky almonds and rich dark chocolate is also striking. In a fabulous way.

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Coconut Almond Macaroons

Kathy — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 02:49:26 +0000

A little known fact about me: I am a bit of a family history buff. I’ve assembled more than 1,500 names so far in our family tree. One branch goes back to the early 1600′s. It’s been like putting together the ultimate jigsaw puzzle, just a few pieces at a time over many years. I don’t know if any of you have been watching the “Who Do You Think You Are?” show on NBC for the past few weeks, where they trace celebrities’ family trees, but I find this stuff incredibly fascinating.

Like that of a lot of families, our heritage is comprised of a multitude of cultures, which is why we went as “American” for a little friend’s heritage-themed costume birthday party this past weekend. In honor of the side of the family that will be celebrating Passover this week, I made the unbelievably easy Coconut Almond Macaroons recipe I found on a tube of almond paste.

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Vanilla Cupcakes + Calphalon Bakeware Giveaway!

Kathy — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:24:56 +0000

Cooking On the Side is one year old today! What better way to celebrate than with the best vanilla cupcakes I’ve ever made and a bakeware giveaway?

I started this blog after becoming intrigued by all of the recipes I noticed on the side of the food packages in my pantry, fridge and freezer. After writing Panini Happy for a little over a year I felt a yearning to explore food blogging beyond sandwiches. “Revealing” these recipes has been an incredibly rewarding (and tasty!) ongoing project – thank you all so much for your thoughtful comments, for sharing the recipes and for coming along for the ride.

And now for the giveaway…

I love my Calphalon cookware and bakeware and have used it to prepare pretty much every dish on this blog. So in honor of my 1st anniverary on Cooking On the Side I want to send one lucky reader a Calphalon Classic 5-Piece Bakeware Set.* It includes the following:

12-by-17-inch jelly roll pan
6-cup muffin pan
8-by-5-inch loaf pan
2 round 8-inch cake pans

That ought to set you up pretty nicely for a whole lot of baking!

[THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED] TWO ways to enter the giveaway:

Leave a comment on this post – What was the best dish you cooked or baked in the past year? Feel free to leave a link to the recipe if you have one!
Leave a comment on the “It’s GIVEAWAY Time!” post on the Cooking On the Side Facebook Fan page (there’s another question to answer over there).

You can enter once in each place, for a total of 2 entries. That’s it – no other crazy hoops to jump through. That said, if you feel like tweeting this giveaway I’ll love you forever.

The giveaway closes on Monday, March 29, 2010 at 12:00 PM PDT. Each entry will be assigned a number and one winner, selected at random via random.org, will be announced on Tuesday, March 30, 2010. Due to shipping costs, this giveaway is open to readers with U.S. and Canadian addresses only. [THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED]

* This is not a sponsored giveaway. It is funded 100% by yours truly.

Who wants cake? (Recipe follows)

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Mississippi Mud Bars

Kathy — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 04:29:07 +0000

I had no idea what a Mississippi Mud Bar was. But I wanted one.

As you can tell from the photos this was an over-the-top, incredible treat. It turns out that Mississippi Mud Bars, as defined by Ghirardelli in a recipe inside their semi-sweet chocolate baking bar wrapper, are comprised of a chocolate-white chocolate chunk and walnut cookie base with more melted chocolate, white chocolate and walnuts sprinkled on top. I imagine they’re a riff on the Mississippi Mud Pie which, according to Wikipedia, “contains a gooey chocolate filling on top of a crumbly chocolate crust.”

Would you believe me if I told you my husband and I actually thought these tasted light?

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More from Cooking On the Side...

~ Get grilling with these mouthwatering Teriyaki Burgers.

~ It's strawberry season! Try this quick and easy recipe for fresh Strawberry Freezer Jam.

~ Want to see more great recipes from the side of food packages? Browse the index of all of the recipes I've posted on Cooking On the Side (more added all the time!).

About Cooking On the Side...

It’s the recipe collection I didn’t even realize I had – the one derived from the side of a bag of fresh vegetables, a box of sugar, a jar of mayonnaise. Cooking On the Side – as in on the side of food packaging – is all about “revealing” these on-the-package recipes, with photos of how they actually turn out, cooking notes and more descriptive directions than package space usually allows for. -- Kathy

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/mississippi-mud-bars/

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Baileys Irish Cream Ice Cream

Kathy — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:36:39 +0000

I did a smart thing this past fall and began storing the freezer bowl of my ice cream maker in the freezer so I could be ready to whip up a quart of ice cream whenever the mood struck. Well, the mood struck this weekend.

I had to sort of bend my “rules” a little to include this ice cream recipe on Cooking On the Side. They don’t actually have any recipes on the Baileys Irish Cream bottle, which was a bummer as I really wanted to try a Baileys recipe for St. Patrick’s Day. So I invoked a “holiday exception” and went over to the Baileys.com website for this one.

This stuff is pretty awesome. It’s basically a rich, vanilla custard base with a shot of Baileys for good measure. The flavor balance is just perfect – the taste of Irish cream is definitely there, but not “boozy”. Since the Baileys goes in after the cooking process there is alcohol, so this isn’t really one for the kids. But it’s just as well, because that means more for you!

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More from Cooking On the Side...

~ Get grilling with these mouthwatering Teriyaki Burgers.

~ It's strawberry season! Try this quick and easy recipe for fresh Strawberry Freezer Jam.

~ Want to see more great recipes from the side of food packages? Browse the index of all of the recipes I've posted on Cooking On the Side (more added all the time!).

About Cooking On the Side...

It’s the recipe collection I didn’t even realize I had – the one derived from the side of a bag of fresh vegetables, a box of sugar, a jar of mayonnaise. Cooking On the Side – as in on the side of food packaging – is all about “revealing” these on-the-package recipes, with photos of how they actually turn out, cooking notes and more descriptive directions than package space usually allows for. -- Kathy

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/baileys-irish-cream-ice-cream/

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Cookies and Cream Cheesecake

Kathy — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:45:34 +0000

I was the last hold-out among my local circle of friends to hire a babysitter. I just couldn’t bear the thought of entrusting the care of my precious little ones with anyone outside of our family. And given that we have no family closer than an 8 hour drive away…well, you can just imagine how rare our date nights have been.

It wasn’t until I was about a month away from my due date with our second child (as it turned out, it was just a week before he was actually born!) that the reality of two kids finally set in with me. My sanity was going to depend on having a trustworthy helper. End of story – the most wonderful woman now comes over to watch Dora the Explorer and rock the infant seat for a few hours every week while I “get things done”. She genuinely loves children (she’s got three grown ones of her own) and, best of all, she loves my children. My daughter took to her immediately which was pretty much all I needed to observe to move past my fears. If she could get comfortable with a babysitter than so could I!

Did I mention that our Mary Poppins likes to bake too? When I told her about Cooking On the Side she remembered a cookbook she had at home, Philadelphia Cream Cheese Classic Recipes, and offered to lend it to me. How cool is that? I definitely had to make one of the cheesecakes – the Cookies and Cream one, complete with Oreo crust, called my name.

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More from Cooking On the Side...

~ Get grilling with these mouthwatering Teriyaki Burgers.

~ It's strawberry season! Try this quick and easy recipe for fresh Strawberry Freezer Jam.

~ Want to see more great recipes from the side of food packages? Browse the index of all of the recipes I've posted on Cooking On the Side (more added all the time!).

About Cooking On the Side...

It’s the recipe collection I didn’t even realize I had – the one derived from the side of a bag of fresh vegetables, a box of sugar, a jar of mayonnaise. Cooking On the Side – as in on the side of food packaging – is all about “revealing” these on-the-package recipes, with photos of how they actually turn out, cooking notes and more descriptive directions than package space usually allows for. -- Kathy

Join us on Facebook Follow me on Twitter
© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/cookies-and-cream-cheesecake/

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Peanut Butter Bars

Kathy — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:49:12 +0000

Secretly, I’m very excited it’s Girl Scout cookie time. I’ll admit I look forward to it every year. Their scarcity tactics work very well on me – I feel compelled to buy a bunch of boxes as it will be a whole year until they’re available again. Plus there’s the nostalgia factor, as I was once one of those eager little girls in brown uniforms positioned in front of the grocery store.

They got me in front of Vons over the weekend.

I had to buy a box of Thin Mints, that was a given. Beyond that, I’m all about the peanut butter. Specifically Do-Si-Dos (the peanut butter sandwich cookies) and Tagalongs (the chocolate coated ones with the peanut butter filling). You’d think this would have satisfied my hankering for peanut butter cookies for a while, but no. It actually bolstered it. Yes, despite having all of those other cookies in the house, I made the Utterly Peanut-Buttery Bars recipe from the back of the C&H brown sugar box.

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More from Cooking On the Side...

~ Get grilling with these mouthwatering Teriyaki Burgers.

~ It's strawberry season! Try this quick and easy recipe for fresh Strawberry Freezer Jam.

~ Want to see more great recipes from the side of food packages? Browse the index of all of the recipes I've posted on Cooking On the Side (more added all the time!).

About Cooking On the Side...

It’s the recipe collection I didn’t even realize I had – the one derived from the side of a bag of fresh vegetables, a box of sugar, a jar of mayonnaise. Cooking On the Side – as in on the side of food packaging – is all about “revealing” these on-the-package recipes, with photos of how they actually turn out, cooking notes and more descriptive directions than package space usually allows for. -- Kathy

Join us on Facebook Follow me on Twitter
© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/peanut-butter-bars/

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Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake

Kathy — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:10:24 +0000

I never ate cake until I was 8 or 9 years old. But I sure ate a lot of frosting! I was that kid at birthday parties who hopped up and down when the corner piece – the one with the profuse amount of frosting flourishes – was being passed out. I’d extract every last bit of sugary, fluffy stuff and leave the cake on the little paper plate. It wasn’t until the middle of my elementary school years that a frustrated parent of a friend finally urged me to try just a bite of the cake “just this once” that I discovered the treat I was missing.

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More from Cooking On the Side...

~ Get grilling with these mouthwatering Teriyaki Burgers.

~ It's strawberry season! Try this quick and easy recipe for fresh Strawberry Freezer Jam.

~ Want to see more great recipes from the side of food packages? Browse the index of all of the recipes I've posted on Cooking On the Side (more added all the time!).

About Cooking On the Side...

It’s the recipe collection I didn’t even realize I had – the one derived from the side of a bag of fresh vegetables, a box of sugar, a jar of mayonnaise. Cooking On the Side – as in on the side of food packaging – is all about “revealing” these on-the-package recipes, with photos of how they actually turn out, cooking notes and more descriptive directions than package space usually allows for. -- Kathy

Join us on Facebook Follow me on Twitter
© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/chocolate-fudge-layer-cake/

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