Yummy Yummy Flan

Mix evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, cream cheese, eggs, and vanilla in a blender. (forgot to take a picture of the custard)

Melt sugar in a non-stick pan once it starts to melt and caramelize pour into your pan(s) of choice. Move the pan around to get caramel up the sides a bit.

Place pan with caramel into a hot water bath. Then pour custard mixture from the blender into pan. Bake on 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes

Invert allow to cool about 10 minutes or chill before serving.

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
6 large eggs
1 (14 ounce) can condensed milk
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ounce cream cheese

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350°F.
2.Select 2 oven safe containers, one that can easily fit inside the other.
3.The large one will be used for a water bath and the smaller one will actually house the flan.
4.Fill the larger container a little less than half way with water and place in the cold
oven to heat up while you prepare the caramel and the custard.
5.In a large pan, using a wooden spoon caramelize the sugar until it turns a light golden
brown.
6.While still hot, transfer the melted sugar to the smaller container, swirling it around until the entire bottom is covered then set aside.
7.In a blender add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.
8.Open up the oven where you have placed the water bath and then place the small pan with the caramel inside the large water bath pan.
9.Pour the custard into the pan being careful not to splash it.
10.Bake for 30- 45 minutes until the top is golden brown and the center passes a toothpick test.
11Remove from oven and allow to cool on rack.
12You may invert this onto a large serving dish with lip or just server out of container you cooked it in.

Tamale Pie

I'm all for complicated recipes but after looking through many tamale recipes, I decided I wasn't ready for it yet. So I used a recipe I found on Foodnetwork.com for a tamale pie. I really hope it tastes as good as all the reviews said it did, cause it's for a friend.

First chop one large yellow onion, one bell pepper (whatever color you like) and add olive oil to a skillet, add chopped pepper, onion and one pound ground turkey, saute until turkey is no longer pink. Add garlic cook one more minute. Drain off any excess fat.

Sprinkle the meat and veggie mixture with cumin, then add pinto beans (drained), diced tomatoes, and 2 chipotle in adobo chopped plus adobo sauce. Bring to a boil then reduce heat til thickened. Add cheese and cilantro. (I forgot this step so I topped the corn bread with it)

Use an 8 oz package of corn muffin mix ( I used self rising corn meal so it wouldn't be so sweet) Add egg and milk. I decided to tweak the recipe a little and added a small chipotle in adobo, and a small scoop of rotel. Mix thoroughly. (You may have to add more milk)

Put meat mixture into a casserole dish press down firmly, put corn bread on top of meat mixture and spread until it's covered.

I topped mine with the cheese cause I forgot to put it in with the tamale mix. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Recipe:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature (for greasing pan)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound, lean ground turkey
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, any color, diced
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 (15-ounce) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed (I like the brine they're in so I didn't rinse mine)
1 (8-ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 chipotle chiles, plus 1 teaspoon adobo sauce, from can chipotle in adobo
1 cup grated Cheddar
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 (8.5-ounce) package cornbread mix or 8 ounces self rising corn meal (if you don't want a sweet corn bread topping)
1 egg
1/3 cup milk

Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake

For the base: grease bottom of a 9x9 pan with butter. Line with parchment paper. In a food processor, combine sugar, cinnamon, and graham crackers (short bread or Oreo cookies) until you have the texture of bread crumbs. Then add melted butter until fully incorporated. Pour into lined pan and pat down gently with the bottom of a glass. Bake 10-12 minutes on 325 degrees until lightly browned. Let cool.

For the filling: Add cream cheese, egg, lemon juice, lemon zest, and sugar in the food processor and process to a smooth consistency.

Pour into cooled base...
Cover with blueberries. Bake in 325 degree oven about 35 minutes or until center only slightly jiggles.

Remove from oven and cool completely then refrigerate for 3 hours before cutting.

Recipe...

• For the base:
• Butter for greasing
• 9-12 graham crackers (shortbread or Oreo cookies)
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 stick of butter melted
• For the filling:
• 16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 2 lemons, zested and juiced
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
• Powdered sugar (optional) for dusting