Cheesecake On the Brain

This weekend is fast approaching. I'm not eagerly watching the calendar/the clock b/c it's Easter (which also means the conclusion of Lent which means I can go back to chugging brewed coffee) but rather I'm a bit nervous. Why nervous? It also happens to be my pastor's birthday weekend. Who gets to make his birthday cake? Yep. How/Why you ask? I somehow volunteered; or it has just become some unspoken tradition... I shouldn't BE nervous. You'd think after all the years of cooking with my mom, baking for fun, "catering" for a crowd I'd quash all the nerves - but no such luck. I get nervous about the "what-if's" - hopefully one of these days I can sweep the "what-if's" out the door.

I should clarify, I am not making ALL of his birthday cakes for Sunday... His wife is ordering 2 other cakes from bakeries for the lunch celebration for the bulk of the church members (translation: the Korean speaking adults & the kids). She asked my advice on bakeries in the area for birthday cake - tastes good for a relatively good price. She asked me what kind of snacks the young adults & college students might prefer (chips, soda, pretzel etc etc etc). To simplify things (I knew she already had so much to juggle that day anyhow) I recommended simple chips & salsa & some other chips & dip along with soda/iced tea. In terms of the cake, our beloved pastor is a cheesecake killer. Typically he doesn't like sweets but he loves a healthy slice of cheesecake.

In my opinion, if you're going to take the time to make something you should make it from scratch. None of this semi-homemade Sandra Lee slop. I really can not stand all of the pre-packaged, overly processed, more chemicals/artificial fillers & stabilizers than nutrients crap that floats around out there passing itself off as food.

I went through a cheesecake phase a couple years back; I experimented with every possible variable to achieve a crisp crust, smooth filling & absence of cracks. So this weekend I thought I'd try yet another flavoring variation BUT my pastor, being the simple taste kind of man, requested just straight NY style cheesecake. *sigh*

So to reminisce here's a look back at a couple cheesecakes from the past:

Triple chocolate cheesecake made for a belated housewarming party. Oreo cookie crust, white chocolate (which really isn't chocolate), milk chocolate, dark chocolate cheesecake layers

 I think I should have put the white chocolate in the middle to get more definition between the layers

 Vanilla Bean cheesecake made for pastor's birthday last year served during DT Bible study.

I think I made some sort of cheesecake at least 6 times... but a few of them I forgot to take a picture - OOPS my bad.

So this weekend, in order to be able to serve everyone some cheesecake I'm doing mini cheesecakes and then one regular cheesecake for pastor blow out candles & cut etc etc etc (or at least that's the plan).

비빔 메밀국수 - "mixed" buckwheat noodles

^I know, at first glance that it doesn't seem appealing but it's actually pretty good. Living in So Cal, I'm fortunate enough to have an avocado tree in the front yard. Did you know that it takes pretty much a year to mature from flower to avocado? <-- main reason why avocados are so $$. Our family likes to eat buckwheat noodles when we can to avoid the over-processed nutrient-deficient white noodles... (We still have those noodles in the cupboard though) In the summer we usually make a quick noodle salad with greens & other veggies plus the noodles tossed in a homemade soy vinaigrette but a friend of my mom's turned her on to a new way of preparing a buckwheat noodle dish a few years ago and we haven't looked back since. My mom was looking for more ways to incorporate avocado into our meals since it's a shame to put the fruits of the tree to waste - I tried to convince her that chips & guacamole was a suitable lunch but she shook her head furiously in protest.

Recipe? People ask me for recipes all the time but I really don't use them. I search for recipes to get ideas but I don't follow them at all; it's more for reference or inspiration than anything. My mom sticks to the 1:1 ratio - 1 avocado per person. In a large bowl, scoop out the avocado flesh, a few healthy dollops of gochujang (Korean red pepper paste) & a drizzle of sesame oil & then mix to combine w/ a fork (mash the avocado). You pretty much mix it until it looks like something unappetizing (but looks are deceiving! Trust me, it really IS good.) Serve it up & use your chopsticks to mix up your noodles & avocado paste into something relatively "homogenous". It's pretty good if you shred some dried seasoned seaweed over it too.

hey, don't judge a book by it's cover... it's pretty good!

Veggie Spaghetti

On the weekends when my parents and I are all home together I usually make lunch. My dad CAN cook he just chooses not to. My mom is usually occupied with stretching her green thumb in our garden so making lunch usually falls to me. I was craving pasta so I set about the plan of attack. One thing we ALWAYS have in the cupboard is pasta - conventional Italian or Asian ( somen, soba, ramen). I decided on angel hair because that was the only pasta that I could find we had enough for all 3 of us that I knew was going to cook relatively fast. 

If I had the time/energy I would really make my own tomato sauce completely from scratch (that's actually on my cooking bucket list) but seeing as how I'm just a trespasser in my mother's kitchen (her words, not mine) I don't think I'll be accomplishing that task any time soon. I settled on using a simple tomato basil jarred sauce I picked up from Whole Foods on a whim (I went there looking for stewed tomatoes contained in tetra packs, not glass or plastic-lined cans - my reasons for that I'll mention in another post down the road sometime). Next in the fridge I grabbed some red bell peppers & some bok choy that was already rinsed and trimmed. I grabbed an onion out of the freezer. (A tip: stick an onion in the fridge for an hour or more or if short on time then in the freezer for 15 min or so & you WILL NOT cry when cutting/slicing/dicing. Trust me.) Broke down all the produce & some cloves of garlic & sautéed them in a heavy stock pot. When the vegetables were about 1/2-way done I poured in the sauce to finish cooking. I also added a couple tablespoonfuls (yes i said TABLEspoon) of crushed red pepper. I'm Korean, I need a little heat in my food. I prepared 1/2 the package of angel hair - I wanted the least amount of pasta, my mom wanted more & I knew my dad wanted the most (it really was like the three bears from Goldilocks). Lunch was served - there was a comical moment when my mom was sprinkling the grated parmesan cheese onto her bowl - half the cheese poured out into her bowl! So she was furiously scooping the excess cheese into the other bowls... After we finished eating I noticed my dad still looked hungry - he wanted even MORE pasta. Thankfully, the extra pasta was ready quickly. My father LOVES noodles.