Thursday, May 31, 2012

My Recipe Box - Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

If I don't put a new recipe that we liked into My Recipe Box I end up forgetting about it. That is what happened with this one. I first found this at Chez Us.
These were super easy to make, the only thing I didn't do quite right was to keep only 1/3 of the plain cream cheese batter, resulting in less than a colourful top. I had too much white to mix through the pumpkin layer.


Recipe:  Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
Crust
1 10 ounce package ginger snaps  283 grams gluten free graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted 85 grams
Filling
2 8 ounce packages cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
14 ounce can solid-pack pumpkin  414 ml
3 large eggs
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cardamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons pure dark maple syrup
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, leaving a slight overhang on two sides.  In a food processor pulse the gingersnaps with sugar until you have a fine crumb.  Slowly drizzle in the melted butter and pulse to combine.  Pat the crumb mixture gently into the bottom of the pan.  Bake for 15 minutes, until slightly firm.  Set aside to cool.
Wipe out the food processor with a paper towel.  Blend the cream cheese and the sugar until smooth.  Add the eggs, flour and salt.  Blend until combined.  Remove 1/3 cup of the mixture and set aside.  Add the pumpkin and cardamon and blend until combined. Pour over the cookie crust.
Mix the maple syrup in the 1/3 cup mixture of plain cheesecake batter.  You can add a little more or a little less depending on how much of a maple flavoring you like.   Place spoonfuls, that are slightly spaced apart, on top of the pumpkin mixture.  Take the end of a sharp knife and gently swirl the two batters together to form a pretty pattern.
Bake until the cheesecake is set, about 45 minutes.  It will jiggle slightly when gently shaken.  Cool in the pan, then chill in the refridgerator until firm, at least 2 hours.  With a sharp knife, cut into squares.  Serve.  Eat.

Alphabe-Thursday


Jenny MatlockI'm linking up at Alphabe-THURSDAY today!
Today's letter is B.
Beer and beer coasters.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Watery Wednesday



i'm posting over at Watery Wednesday today.
From the deck of our rental home in Redonda Bay, Nicaragua, overlooking the Pacific.

Wondrous Words Wednesday


Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading and is hosted by Bermuda Onion.
I worked in the data processing business and recently worked on a project with a US banking client of ours.
It was interesting the different terminology that we used in our data centres (Canadian) centers (American). When they have to correct a cheque (Canadian) or check (American) that was keyed incorrectly by an operator they call it scrubbing, hence the operator is called a scrubber.

This made us Canadians of British/Irish background (or who are drawn to British/Irish books/movies/TV) laugh to ourselves.






scrubber 
In Britain, a promiscuous woman; in Ireland, a common or working class woman.














I have been in IT a long time and started out in a data centre as a summer job, and in the last 10 years worked for a company that provides outsourcing for data processing. As seen from the photos above the process has not really changed over the years.

Wordless Wednesday - Honolulu Hawaii


I'm linking up over here.


Monday, May 28, 2012

May 11 - Regensburg Bavaria

This was the planned itinerary for today.

Friday May 11- Full Day in Regensburg
Enjoy a walking tour of Regensburg, built in 179 BC by the Romans, today it stands as one of the largest and most well preserved cities in Bavaria. The tour includes such sights as the Old Town Hall, the Dom St. Peter, the Roman Gates at Porta Pretoria, and one of the oldest stone bridges over the Danube. Enjoy an afternoon at leisure and depart for Nuremberg just after dinner.
Overnight: Cruise
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner



Instead of joining the escorted walking tour of town, we stayed on board and had pedicures done in the spa.
We relaxed and caught up on email and I had a bloody Mary while John was having his pedicure.

Most people came back to the boat for lunch, but we chose to go out and sample some good sausages on our own for a change.

Regensburg is a prosperous city of about 150,000 inhabitants, 3 universities and many landmarks, most dated to the Middle Ages (e.g. the Cathedral of St. Peter, Old City Hall and Imperial Diet, and the Stone Bridge). Since July 2006 the old city of Regensburg has been a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The terrace is the photo is the "Wurstkuchl" just at the Steinerne Brücke (Stone Bridge), founded over 500 years ago and presumably the oldest fast food restaurant in the world.  It was too crowded so we crossed the stone bridge to find somewhere else.




First order of business is lunch!

A glass of cool beer is ideal with the sausages: the traditional brands of beer in Regensburg are made by the Bischofshof, Spital, Kneitinger and Thurn & Taxis breweries.


These are white sausages, you order by the number you want "6 and kraut". I loved the semi-sweet mustard they served with the sausages.






Waitress is local dress at an outdoor café.





Benedictine Monastery of St. Emmeram, which is both a parish church and the chapel of the Thurn and Taxis family. The sanctuary is a riot of Baroque plaster and gilding layered onto a pre-Romansque building.


Regensburg escaped damage from Allied bombs in World War II, its architectural heritage consists of original buildings instead of postwar replicas.



Dom St. Peter, a.k.a. St. Peter's Cathedral, which was built on the site of an earlier Romanesque church (portions of which are integrated into the current Gothic structure). Its façade is a patchwork of two materials: limestone and a greenish sandstone.



It was a beautiful day to stroll and window shop.


We sauntered back to the boat.
Dinner was on board and then we set sail for Nuremburg.





The crew put on their talent show.







Macro Monday

MM3
Macro Monday is hosted by Lisa at Lisa's Chaos.

Macro Monday is easy to play, snap a macro (or any close-up) photo, post it on your blog and come back to Lisa's blog and sign McLinky.

Lion on the Victoria Train and Bus station in London, England

Blue Monday





I had this poster made from some of our photos from our trip to Russia last spring. I used Snapfish as I have used them in the past.


Saturday, May 26, 2012

Saturday Snapshot



Cloud Gate, also known as The Bean is in Millennium Park in downtown Chicago.

 Cloud Gate is British artist Anish Kapoor's first public outdoor work installed in the United States.
The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect Chicago’s famous skyline and the clouds above. A 12-foot-high arch provides a "gate" to the concave chamber beneath the sculpture, inviting visitors to touch its mirror-like surface and see their image reflected back from a variety of perspectives.

Inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture is among the largest of its kind in the world, measuring 66-feet long by 33-feet high.
 You can just see us in the middle - I'm wearing green




We spotted this wedding party coming to get their photos taken of their rather unusual outfits, well maybe not so unusual for Chicago.