A mama with ideas...

As mentioned in my post about prepare-ahead roast potatoes... I was determined not to spend the lead up to Christmas slaving away in the kitchen!  So when I stumbled across this special mini-cheesecake pan I was intrigued!  I knew it was possible to freeze cheesecake as you can buy ready made ones in the freezer section, so I was hopeful that this could provide me with the perfect solution:  a tasty, classy dessert with a bit of Christmas 'wow factor', that could be prepared weeks in advance and simply defrosted in the refrigerator overnight, placed on a serving plate (no need to even cut into portions) et voilà!




PART 1:  Review of Norpro Mini Cheesecake Pan

The Norpro 3919 Mini Cheesecake Pan has 12 individual cups with removable bases to enable easy release and while it is described as a cheesecake pan I see no reason why you could not use it for a variety of bitesize appetisers or desserts, for example muffins or quiches.  Each cup measures 2 inches diameter and is 1-3/4 inches deep, and holds approximately 3 fl oz (90ml).  The pan itself has non-stick coating, plus riveted stainless steel handles.  It is dishwasher safe.


As with all new gadgets and gizmos I wanted to do a trial run, and so made some vegan cheesecakes for a Thanksgiving pot luck dessert!  They turned out better than I'd hoped and the tin was very easy to use.

Advantages

• The individual cups enable you to create professional looking individual desserts perfect for entertaining. 
• You can use it for more than just cheesecake!  Be creative!
• The non-stick works very well and the desserts I made slid out of the pan with ease.
• The pan feels well constructed and high quality.
• It washes well in the dishwasher.
• The standard recipe supplied with the pan works well and is reliable.
• You can freeze the pan (see the Christmas recipe below to find out more!)
• One of the best things about this pan in my opinion is that you can create a variety of different flavors in the same pan at the same time.  I used a basic vegan cheesecake recipe and created 3 additional variations by adding chocolate, lemon juice/zest and coffee to 4 different batches.  The results were delicious...

Disadvantages

• The pan is quite expensive when you consider the size of it!  However, it is solidly made and should last to make the investment worthwhile.  The RRP is $30, however, they are available online for much less.
• You can only make 12 at a time and it takes a long time to create a batch of cheesecakes, so if you are catering for a larger number of people, you may need more than one pan.
• If you are making cakes (with thin batter) rather than cheesecakes I can see that the batter may leak out of the cups as the loose bottoms are not secured.  This could be remedied by placing a baking sheet under the pan to catch any small leakages.

Verdict
I love this pan... it was very easy to use and gave very professional looking results.  However, one of my very favorite things about this pan is the ability to pop it in the freezer as I did a few weeks before Christmas.

• 2 Cups Graham cracker crumbs
• Half a bar of chocolate (I used some almond dark chocolate) - optional
• 1/4 cup sugar 
• 5 Tablespoons butter (melted)

• 8oz cream cheese (softened)
• 1 egg
• 12 oz can evaporated milk
• 14 oz La Lechera condensed milk (sweetened condensed milk)
• 1 /2 tsp Mexican vanilla or pure vanilla extract
• 14 oz can Nestle La Lechera dulce de leche

To make the filling, simply blend the cream cheese, egg, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla with a hand mixer or blender until creamy and very well mixed.  Add 2-3 tablespoons of the dulce de leche and blend again.  Spoon the mixture into each cup to almost the top (leaving a small gap at the top for the topping).






Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.  It may look jiggly still but will carry on cooking in the next step.  Turn the oven off, and open the door an inch or two and leave the cheesecakes in there for an hour.  At the end of the hour, take the pan out of the oven.  Insert a skewer in the cheesecake to ensure it is done... it should come out clean.
Once completely cold, I spooned a dollop of the remaining dulce de Leche on each cheesecake and spread with a knife.  I placed a sheet of non-stick baking parchment over the pan and then double wrapped in foil to prevent freezer burn.  Then the whole thing went in the freezer.




Click here to get your own mini pan!
 

The Big One is a Lego fanatic (see my earlier posts about making a Sensei Wu costume, creating Lego cupcakes and Lego minifig head storage pots). In fact this obsession has been going on since he was the tender age of 3 when we inherited a large box of the stuff from my husband's mother! She had carefully hoarded it since the early 1980s with future grandchildren in mind, and oh boy, are those grandchildren grateful! However, as the Big One approaches his 7th birthday I have noticed that other toy fads are coming onto his radar ... Beyblades in particular. The nice thing is that these battle tops overlap nicely with his collection of Lego Ninjago spinners (I'm guessing these were inspired by Beyblades in the first place?).

So with his birthday coming up, I've been looking at Beyblades and accessories to add to his collection. One thing I was particularly interested in was getting him a battle arena ... not because I have ambitions for him competing in a WBO championship (that's World Beyblade Organization, and nothing to do with boxing by the way!)... rather, I am sick and tired of tripping over spinners and beyblades littering the hard floors downstairs! However, the official Beyblade arenas from Japan are ludicrously expensive... $75+ I was gobsmacked to discover. And the Hasbro Beyblade ones, while available for only $10 in places like Target and Walmart, look very flimsily made out of thin plastic and unlikely to survive my 3 terrors for more than a few minutes! I was also a little disappointed by the quality of the Lego Ninjago Battle arenas which seemed very flimsy for the price.  So I then tried to think of things we could use to create our own.

And that brought me full circle back to Lego. One of the best things about Lego as a toy in my opinion, is the way it fosters creative thinking. The Big One has been designing and making his own Beyblades out of Lego pieces for a while and this inspired me to apply the same principle to creating a Beyblade arena!




You will need...

• A large Lego baseboard
• A selection of  Lego  flat tiles
• A variety of other bricks to create walls, seating, winners podiums, ramps, storage areas and just about anything else your imagination can come up with!
• Some Lego Ninjago spinners or Beyblades

I aspire to feed my kids fresh, homemade food every day.  Not that we don't indulge in the occasional fast food or ready-made option, but I do prefer to serve them food that I have made myself.  Home-cooked food tastes better, is healthier and costs less... but when you're a busy parent or have a day job, sometimes life makes this ideal unattainable.  Finding an hour to lovingly prepare and cook dinner when you have squabbling kids to referee, homework to supervise, groceries to unpack, play dates to entertain, after school clubs to attend and the dishwasher to unload is a challenge! So I have been on a bit of a mission to stock my freezer with my own home-cooked 'convenience meals'.  A couple of hours spent at the weekend can provide me with a months' worth of ready prepared dinners that simply need defrosting and cooking or reheating.  Perfect for those days when time is short and the kids are hungry NOW!

• Bolognese sauce - just defrost and reheat in the microwave while cooking the pasta - dinner in just 10 minutes!
• Cottage or shepherd's pies - either defrost and reheat in the microwave or cook in the oven (if in an ovenproof dish).
• Fish goujons (that's posh fish fingers/sticks to most) - freeze breaded strips of fish uncooked, then shallow fry or bake from frozen.
• Chicken nuggets - as for the fish goujons.
• Meatballs - I freeze these cooked and then they just take a quick zap in the microwave to be ready!
• Mashed potatoes - this freezes, defrosts and reheats well and is a quick accompaniment to many dishes without having to peel and boil the potatoes from scratch!
• Lasagna - freeze unbaked portions of lasagna in foil trays and then bake from frozen.
• Canneloni - as for lasagna. 

My boys are quite partial to pot pies and so I was suddenly struck with the idea to create small, child-sized individual pot pies to cook from frozen.  For this purpose I needed freezeable, yet oven-proof small pie dishes... inspiration came in the form of disposable foil muffin trays!  My local supermarket had a sale on these disposable foil trays after the Christmas holiday season, so I decided to stock up!  And this is the result!  A perfect mini pot pie for a little one's dinner... home cooked, tasty, healthy and nutritious... and ready to eat in 30 minutes (just unwrap from the freezer and bung in the oven... ta da!).  Perfect for a busy evening!


You will need:

• A disposable foil muffin tray.
• Shortcrust pastry (either your own recipe or ready rolled)
• A rolling pin and circular cookie cutters.
• Pie filling, cooled - our favorites include minced beef and onion, chicken, ham & sweetcorn or steak & ale.
• Egg wash.
• Baking parchment.
• Foil.

Firstly, I cut the foil tray into strips of 3 ... I have 3 kids so this means I can grab a strip and stuff it in the oven and I have dinner sorted. But you could cut them into singles, pairs or whatever combination suits you. A word of warning, the edges of cut foil are quite sharp so take care not to cut yourself!




Using a large circular cookie cutter, cut rounds of pastry to line the base of the individual muffin cups. Spoon a generous amount of cold pie filling into each pastry cup.












Using a slightly smaller cookie cutter, cut another round of pastry to top the pie. Press the edges with a fork to join and create a few small slits in the top to allow air to escape whilst cooking.







Brush the top with a wash of beaten egg.  I made a variety of different sized pies for different occasions. 










Then wrap your pies ready to freeze. I did a layer of greaseproof baking parchment, followed by two layers of foil (to prevent freezer burn). Label them with details of the contents and a reminder of how to cook (I did this for the occasions when Him Indoors is on dinner duty!).

Just a quick post to apologise for the hiatus in blogging since Christmas! January and February 2012 have flown by in a blur and life has been very busy. We've had visitors on-and-off since mid-December and so blogging has been a bit tricky to squeeze in without seeming a completely anti-social toad... although, the long-suffering Him Indoors clearly doesn't get treated to the same courtesy (sorry, babe!). As it is, I just wanted to make it clear that I haven't given up... if anything the break has given me the chance to think of some exciting new ideas to share!

Coming up...

• Lots of ways to make the most of your freezer (something I've been perfecting while we've had visitors).
• The odd craft project, including Beyblade and Ninjago DIY projects :-)
• Some potty training tips (learnt the hard way with twins... *sigh*).
• Reviews of some new kitchen gadgets I've been trying out.
• Some ideas on ways to set up a babysitting cooperative.
• Birthday party ideas for a Raptor-obsessed 7-year old!