Blueberry Cream Cheese Pie

Or you can make it cherry cream cheese pie if you like...and use a chocolate crust...and die of happiness...


• 1 graham cracker crust
• ½ pint heavy whipping cream (DO NOT use Cool Whip or canned whipped cream – it’s not the same!)
• 4 oz Philly Cream Cheese, softened (Do not microwave! Cream cheese gets too soft & ruins the pie.)
• ½ cup sifted powdered sugar
• ½ tsp. Vanilla
• 1 can blueberry (or cherry) pie filling

Before you begin, put a glass bowl and the beaters to your mixer in the freezer for at least 10 or 15 minutes. These are going to be used to whip the cream and must be really cold.

Graham Cracker Crust:

You can either buy a ready-made crust or make one using the recipe on the back of a box of graham cracker crumbs. Bake either according to directions and cool thoroughly before filling.

Filling:

With a fork, cream together the cream cheese, sifted powdered sugar and vanilla. Set aside.

Pour your whipping cream into the cold glass bowl and start mixing. After about 10 minutes the whipping cream will get thicker and form stiff peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture until well blended.

Assembly:

Spoon the filling into the cooled crust and smooth, not quite to the edges of the crust. You want to make the center of the whipped cream filling a little lower than the edges so your pie filling won’t spill over the sides. Spoon the pie filling over the whipped cream filling. Sprinkle a few drops of lemon juice on top and refrigerate, preferably overnight.

Pizza Pasta

Yay pizza! Yay pasta! What more is there to say?

1 lb. whole grain rotini
12 oz. ground Italian sausage
2 oz. turkey pepperoni
1 green bell pepper, diced
1/3 red onion, diced
2 cups pizza sauce
1 cup mozarella cheese, grated
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Boil water and cook the rotini per package directions.

Brown sausage and drain most grease, but leave just a little bit (maybe a teaspoon or so).

While sausage cooks, dice the bell pepper and onion. You'll want enough onion so you've got roughly equal portions of onion and bell pepper. Also, cut the pepperoni into quarters.

Turn the oven on to 350. Add onion, bell pepper and pepperoni to drained sausage (in skillet) and saute for about 4 minutes, or until veggies start to soften.

Mix noodles, pizza sauce, and meat mixture in a 2 quart casserole dish. Top with cheese. Bake for 22 minutes, or until heated through and cheese is melted.

This is my re-work of a recipe I found at Life's Ambrosia. For the pizza sauce, I used her recipe and it turned out great. If you use her pizza sauce recipe, just use the entire batch for the casserole.

Mashed Potatoes

Another one from my awesome Aunt Heather, these are the best mashed potatoes.

4 lbs. russet potatoes
1/2 cup butter (salted or unsalted, you pick)
8-12 oz. neufchatel (low fat cream cheese)
6 oz. sour cream (I use light)
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
kosher salt
pepper

Peel potatoes and cut into chunks. Place potatoes in a large saucepan, barely cover with water, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer; cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and return potatoes to hot pot or a large mixing bowl.

Mash till almost smooth. Mix in the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Mix in the sour cream and nutmeg. Season to taste. Transfer to a serving bowl. If using, top with a slice of butter and sprinkle with fresh thyme leaves. Serve immediately.

Alternatively, transfer potatoes to a buttered shallow baking dish and sprinkle with fresh thyme leaves. Cover with foil and refrigerate. Return to room temperature, reheat at 300F for about 30 minutes.

Lisa's Chocolate Mousse

This was developed by one of my old co-workers, and man is it good. I made it recently and realized I hadn't gotten around to posting it, so here it is.

2 packages Nabisco famous chocolate wafer cookies
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1 bar German sweet chocolate
8 oz. cream cheese
2 12 oz. tubs cool whip
1 cup powdered sugar

For Crust: Crush wafer cookies in a food processor or blender. Add half of butter, mix, and add more butter as needed to work into a moist, crumbly consistency. Press around the bottom and sides of a springform pan, chill for 30 minutes.

For Filling: Beat powdered sugar into softened, room temperature cream cheese. Melt chocolate, add to cream cheese mixture. Add 1 tub cool whip.

Spoon 1/2 of the cream cheese mixture into the crust. Mix 3/4 of the second tub of cool whip into the remaining cream cheese mixture, then spread on top of the previous layer in the crust. Top with remaining cool whip. Sprinkle chocolate swirls or crushed cookies over the top, or top with fruit.

Green Chili Chicken Enchilada Casserole

This is another family recipe my Aunt Heather was generous to pass on. Yay!

3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
2 cups roasted, peeled & chopped New Mexico green chilies
1 26 oz. can cream of chicken soup
Milk, per directions on soup can
2 cups shredded cheese - I'd use pepper jack
1/4 cup onion, chopped
10-15 corn tortillas, torn into quarters
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine chicken, cream of chicken soup, milk, New Mexico green chile, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and stir. Remove from heat. In a 13" x 9" glass pan layer corn tortillas, chicken sauce and cheese. Add onions to middle layer. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 20 minutes or until casserole begins to pull away from side of pan.