Chocolate Cheesecake like WHOA

HOLY JJEEEZZZZ I just made the BEST freakin' Chocolate Cheesecake I have ever tasted in my LIFE. I don't have pictures or any of that for some reason, (slacking, I know...) but here's the recipe. It was adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe I found. I am giving the recipe for the crust as well, even though I do not make crust for my cheesecake. I'm just not a big fan of crust, on anything really.

Chocolate Cheesecake

What You'll Need:
9 oz chocolate wafer cookies
6 T. unsalted butter, melted
4-8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
8 oz semisweet chocolate

1. Preheat the oven to 325. Most cheesecake recipes say to use a spring form pan, but I always use a regular glass baking dish. This time I used a round, glass pie dish. If using crust, mix crushed chocolate wafer cookies with melted butter, press evenly over the bottom of your greased dish, bake the crust for 10 minutes, then set aside.

2. Place your semisweet in a double boiler contraption, whatever you have, or melt it however you like to. In a mixing bowl, beat the softened cream cheese, sugar, and salt together with an electric mixer. Add the eggs one at a time. Add the sour cream. Then add the chocolate. Blend it until it is super smooth.

3. Pour the batter into your pan(s) and bake for 1 hour. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN. Turn the oven off and let it sit for another hour. This prevents the cheesecake from cracking. Mine still cracked a teeny tiny bit. Let it cool completely at room temperature, and then refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight.

Simply amazing. Everyone has absolutely loved it so far.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sorry for not getting this recipe up last night. I fell asleep EARLY! And then 5 minutes after falling asleep, I was woken up by the AIR CONDITIONER REPAIR MAN ringing the doorbell at 9:20 pm. Call me an old cranky lady........ but..... 9:20 pm? Really? I have a child. Really? It just blows my mind.

Needless to say, I'll be finding a new air conditioner repair man.

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We are having a yard sale this weekend where Ryan and his cousin, Emery, will have a Bake Sale!! We had the yard sale and bake sale last weekend as well.. and even considering it was Memorial Day weekend, the sale was a success. Hopefully we will have a lot more traffic this weekend and do even better. This is a GREAT way for some extra cash.

All year long I have a designated closet where I store stuff we don't need or use anymore. Old toys, clothes, house decor, EVERYTHING. Then I have a big yard sale and sell it all! This year we will have at least 3 yard sales to try and get rid of it all for a profit. My mom and my sister both brought stuff over to sell as well. We are redoing the sale this weekend because of Memorial Day weekend. My neighborhood always has an annual neighborhood sale, so we will partake in that too. It's amazing the things that sell at yard sales! I even sold used lotions, perfumes, and body washes. Some stuff I put in "Free" boxes.. well, a LOT of stuff.

The night before the sale last weekend, my sister and I baked up some homemade cookies, brownies, cupcakes, and muffins. The toddlers were in charge of advertisement and sales! The bake sale was also a success. All of the proceeds from the bake sale were split between Ryan and Emery, and put into their piggy banks!

The sale was not only great for making cash, but the two days spent outside selling, working, playing, bonding, and in the kitchen cooking and eating together were priceless.

ANYWAYS. The first thing I have made for the bake sale this weekend is chocolate chip cookies. This is just a quick, standard recipe for DEEELICIOUS chocolate chip cookies.

First thing's first: gather your supplies and your helpers.

Mix the baking soda and salt into the flour very well before slowly beating it into the butter and sugars.

Use an electric mixer to beat together your melted butter, white and brown sugars, and vanilla extract. Add your eggs one at a time, beating after each one. Ryan went ahead and added one of our eggs, shell and all, at the very beginning.

Place the dough by heaping tablespoonfuls on your cookie sheet.

Voila!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

What you'll need:
2 sticks (1 cup) of salted butter, melted
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups chocolate chips or chocolate pieces (more or less depending on taste)

1. Preheat your oven to 325. Beat together your butter, sugars, and vanilla with an electric mixer. Add the eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt very well. Slowly beat the flour into the butter and sugars until all blended very well.

2. Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto greased parchment paper or aluminum foil on cookie sheets. Bake for 13 minutes or until golden.  Cool for a minute or two and then remove paper or foil from the pan to finish cooling.

This made 25 cookies for me. This recipe was adapted from a recipe I found on a bag of chocolate chips.

NOW GET TO BAKING!

The Beginning

AND HERE IT IS! Oh, how I've been waiting for you...................

Welcome to my blog! Welcome to our world!

I'm Kim and that's Ryan. Ryan will be turning 2 at the end of July, so get ready for a choo-choo train birthday party! Ryan and I are always up to something; cooking something, making something, organizing something, rearranging or redecorating something, or strategizing... Well, I'm trying to make all of this rub off on him a little bit anyways.

I've got at least one maybe more recipes coming later, so I'll keep this short and sweet.

Through this blog I'd like to share my own ideas as well as connect with and learn from other people/moms. So here we go!