hill country casserole

I know the idea is for me to blog about things I find on pinterest, but after I post this- I'm going to put it on pinterest myself so I can keep to my word. Clever, huh? BUT-- this recipe is probably one of my favorites, especially if I can get my hands on some ground venison like the recipe calls for, but even if not- ground beef and ground turkey work as great substitutes.

This recipe has been in my life for a few years. I was dating this guy who lived with his brother in this house and his girlfriend (the brother's) found this recipe because it was deer season and we had lots of deer meat to cook with. Again, if you can find some ground venison, I really suggest using that, but it tastes just as good with ground beef or ground turkey. So.. here's how it goes:

It calls for

• 2 tbsp olive oil 
• if you don't use a clove of garlic you don't need to use the olive oil. I have had it both ways and it turned out just fine
• 1 clove of garlic 
• I have used garlic powder before. Just enough to sprinkle over the meat while its browning) 
• 1 tsp salt 
• 1/2 tsp pepper 
• I use 1 tsp because I enjoy pepper in a dish. it really adds to the flavor
• 1 lb ground venison 
• ground beef/ground turkey is fine too...ok, i'll stop saying that 
• 2 8oz cans of tomato sauce 
• I buy the hunts sauce and I buy 2 8oz cans just like it calls for
• 1 8oz small package of egg noodles or spaghetti 
• I have never been able to find an 8oz package of noodles. EVER. soooo use half of a 16oz bag. duh....I also have never used egg noodles before...just spaghetti... tonight I used organic whole wheat spaghetti which will be my new default spaghetti. yum
• 1 3oz package of cream cheese (softened)
• I use 4oz reduced fat philadelphia cream cheese
• 1 1/2 cup sour cream 
• I buy the small 8oz container reduced fat daisy...its exactly 1 cup of serving--so if you enjoy sour cream, which I don't, buy more
• 6 green onions chopped 
• I've left this out before. It does add flavor, but is just as delicious without it.
• 1/2 pound cheddar cheese, shredded
• Sprinkle however much you like!!! I use about half a bag, and of course, its reduced fat. 

Preheat your oven to 350. Saute the olive oil and garlic. Brown the meat. Add the salt, pepper, and tomato sauce. Simmer for 20 minutes. 

Cook the noodles according to the package. 

Make sure you set your cream cheese out so it can be room temperature and soft by the time you cook. I set mine out at 3 today and it still wasn't as soft as I would have liked at 6 when I started cooking. Mix the cream cheese, sour cream, and green onions in a separate bowl. 

Place noodles in a 9x13 casserole dish, followed by the cream cheese mixture (I kind of spread it out with a spoon on top of the noodles; meaning there are no globs), then the meat mixture and then sprinkle your cheddar cheese on. 

Bake in the oven uncovered for about 30 minutes. Mine is usually done at about 23 minutes. Yes...I've got it down to a T. 

This recipe is one of my favorites. Delicious. DELICIOUS. Ask anyone who's been at my house when I've made this: YUM YUM YUM!!!! 

yours truly, 

dauphin gal 

cheesecake thumbprints

Well... I put a lot of effort into this one because I was pretty confident they'd be perfect... but alas, I am clearly not a professional. I have not put in enough hours to consider myself a master. Someone told me once it takes 7 years and 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill. This will be one year and who knows how many hours of practice at this skill they call baking. 

Obviously I found this recipe on Pinterest and noticed he made these back in 2005- I'm a little slow on the blogging apparently- story of my life. I want something after its out of style, etc etc. Here's the recipe. I'm going to make a little bit more effort in this post, simply because there are multiple steps. I'm copying and pasting from the original blog and adding my thoughts. His blog post is in red and my comments are in black. duh. 

For the cheesecake filling: 

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar (I use Splenda in all my recipes. 6TBSP)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons sour cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar and salt until smooth. Mix in egg yolk, sour cream and vanilla - cover and place into the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

I had no problems with this part. This was easy. I used my hand held mixer to do the 'beating' and used a spatula to do the 'mixing'. I put it in the fridge and while it was in there, I started on the cookie dough. 

For the cookie dough

16 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened1/4 cup granulated sugar (again, I used Splenda. 6TBSP)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg yolk
2 cups all-purpose flour

In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter, sugar and salt until creamy and combined. Mix in egg yolk until incorporated. Gradually add flour and mix just until combined.

This is where something had to have gone terribly wrong. I did everything just as he said. My dough was very crumbly. I did not use exactly 2 cups, which I think is okay seeing as how crumbly these cookies turned out. Maybe if you make these for yourself... hell, when I try these again I'll probably only use 1 1/2 cups of flour. Again, I only used the mixer to do the 'beating' and a spatula to do the 'mixing'. You can see how crumbly my "dough" was. edit: i used splenda. that is where it went wrong. sugar has the moisture needed for this recipe while splenda does not.

After I followed those instructions, I turned the oven on and preheated it to 350, which he calls for. My oven doesn't take very long to heat up. 6 minutes to be exact (it counts down for me--its like an oven for dumbies). 

My cheesecake filling had passed the 30 minute mark by this point and I left it in there until I was ready for it. Figured a little more "chilling" couldn't hurt. 

Scoop out level tablespoons worth of the dough and roll into balls. Place balls onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Using the handle end of a thick wooden spoon, lightly dipped in flour, make an indentation in the center of each ball. 

I do not have a wooden spoon. I used the end of a metal spoon. Didn't make a difference. At this point, the dough was so crumbly it cracked when I made the indention. 

Place into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and carefully use your thumb (or the end of the same wooden spoon) to press the middle of the cookies back down, remaking the indentations. Place cookies back into the oven, rotating them from their original position, and continue to bake until slightly golden around the edges, about 7 minutes. 

When I put them in for the first 10-minute bake, I pulled the cheesecake filling out of the fridge. After the first 10-minute bake, when I had to remake the indentions, I used the end of a wooden spatula to remake them (light bulb went off, clearly!!) 

Remove cookies from the oven and fill the indentations with the cheesecake filling using a teaspoon. Place back into the oven and bake for 7 more minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer cookies to a wire rack to cook completely. When cool, place cookies into the refrigerator to chill before serving.

Makes about 30 cookies.

I'm not even going to put mine to shame by showing you his picture. You can just go look for yourself. In my defense, he's a professional dessert chef. These cookies take awhile. I think I started the process at 2 something and finished around 6 (just in time for the Baylor game). While they may not look like his do, I must say they taste pretty good. Gooey and crumbly, maybe it ended up helping them in some way. I had left over filling, but probably because the cookies ended up being quite small, but if they hadn't been so small in size-- I wouldn't have ended up with 30. 

yours truly, 

dauphin gal 

(ps I know this blog looks wonky. i don't know how to fix it and don't care. i'm tired. hahaha)