Me and My Cafes

When I am on vacation, even when I am traveling alone, I always try to set aside time for myself. In Taipei, this means finding a quaint dog-friendly café, with free wi-fi, delicious desserts, hip décor, comfortable couches and Louis playing in the background. Here are a few places I checked out.

Mucho Mucho Cafe
No.29, Alley 5, Lane 107, Sec. 1, Fuxing S. Rd, Taipei


Cozy place.

The Path Cafe
10, Alley 33, Ln 216, Zhoungxiao E Rd, Taipei


I think I make better cheesecake.

My Sweetie Pie
No. 3, Lane 93, ShiDa Rd, Taipei










The apple pie was pretty good.

Insomnia
13, Ln 93, Shida Rd, Taipei












There is a 150NT minimum pp at this place. Did they just charge us for 300NT for microwaved mashed potatoes, vegetables and salmon?

Birthday Cheesecake

I received the Joy of Cooking for Christmas and am finally testing a recipe out of this highly acclaimed cookbook. I'm hoping this will be my go-to book, unlike the others collecting dust on my shelf.

Happy Birthday, again, Jason!



The Joy of Cooking is celebrating their 75th anniversary for a reason. The cheesecake was wonderful - no cracks, creamy texture - just simple and classic. Enjoy.

Cheesecake Cockaigne
12 to 16 servings

Crumb Crust:
1 1/2 cups fine graham cracker, vanilla or chocolate wafer, or gingersnap crumbs
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar, depending on sweetness of the cookies
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon*
Bake for 10 mins at 350 degrees F

1 1b (3 - 8oz packages) cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla or 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
3 large eggs

Topping:
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt

Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature (70 degrees F)
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
2. In a medium bowl beat cream cheese until creamy, about 30 seconds
3. Gradually beat in sugar and vanilla extract
4. Beat in one egg at a time just until incorporated, scraping the sides of the bowl
5. Scrape batter into the crust and smooth the top. Place on a cookie sheet
6. Bake until center just barely jiggles when pan is tapped, 45 - 55 minutes
7. Cool in the pan on a rack for at least 1 hour
8. Spread topping over the cake
9. Cool cake in the pan completely before unmolding. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, preferably 24 hours before serving.

Serve with strawberries*

*Optional

My First Cheesecake

Yes my first time and no, I can't believe it either. As I searched for a recipe to try, there were so many comments about cracking and shrinking. For a full-proof run, I decided on Kraft's Philadelphia Classic Cheesecake.

1-1/2 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
4 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs

1) Preheat oven to 325 F (or 300 F if your using a dark, non-stick pan)
2) Mix crumbs, 3 Tbsp. sugar and butter; press onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan.
3) Beat cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and vanilla with mixer until well blended.
4) Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended.
5) Pour over crust.
6) Bake for 55 min. or until center is almost set.
7) Loosen cake from rim of pan; cool before removing rim. Refrigerate 4 hours.





Two thumbs up for the flavor. It came out a little dry, so one thumb up texture and one thumb down for little cracking. Chef Mags suggests I use a water bath next time - duly noted. Overall I'm extremely happy with how it came out. Not too shabby for my first time (brushing my shoulder off).

Take two...

Gobble Gobble

This year we have a whole lot to be thankful for Obama-Biden, Kate Nash (no relation to Steve Nash) and Vampire Weekend. In celebration of all our blessings we had an equally awesome Thanksgiving dinner - courtesy of yours truly, oh yeah - and the older brother. Side Note, I damn near cut my finger off!! Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!

Without further ado, onto our featured presentation - TURKEY DAY 2008 ... Starring ...

Turkey


Apple, Cranberry, Sausage Stuffing

Bacon Sauteed Green Beans

Turon

Pumpkin Pie Cheescake


Turkey Day 2008 Step-by-Step

Turkey Treatment
1 10lb butterball turkey (defrosted for 5 days)
4 tablespoons butter, melted
10 cloves garlic, minced
1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Rinse turkey with warm water and pat dry with paper towels
3. Stuff turkey
4. Rub turkey with garlic butter
5. Bake turkey in an oven bag on top of roasting rack for 2.5 hours
**Use the juices in the bag as gravy

Stuffing
1 Dutch Crunch Roll, cubed
1 White Sourdough Roll, cubed
1 package of Aidell's Portabello Mushroom Sausage, removed from casing and chopped
1 cup yellow onion, chopped
1 golden delicious apple, chopped
2 teaspoons ground sage
2 teaspoons dried rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cooked turkey liver, minced
3/4 cup celery, chopped
3/4 cups dried cranberries
1/3 cup freshed parsley, minced
3/4 cup Swanson chicken stock, low sodium, no msg
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1. Preheat oven to 350 and bake cubed bread for 5 minutes
2. Brown sausage and onion in large skillet
3. Add celery, sage, thyme and rosemary to skillet
4. In seperate bowl mix toasted bread, skillet mixture, apple, cranberry, liver, parsley, chicken stock, and butter
5. Spoon into turkey cavity

Green Beans
5 bacon strips
1 16 oz bag of frozen green beans
1. Cook bacon strips in a large skillet
2. Add green beans

Turon
Lumpia wrappers
Cooking bananas
Jackfruit
Dark brown sugar
Sorry this recipe isn't available

Cheesecake
2 8oz packages of Lucerne cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 brown free range organic eggs
1/2 cup canned Libby's 100% pure pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon Trader Joe's pumpkin spice
1 9" premade graham cracker crust
1. Mix and blend cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl
2. Blend in one egg at a time
3. Scoop 1 cup of the batter and spread onto bottom of graham cracker crust
4. Blend in pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice to remaining batter mix
5. Scoop the rest of the batter onto graham cracker crust
6. Preheat and back pie at 325F for 40 mins
7. Cool and refrigerate for 3 hours