Creamy Tarts with Fruit

Creamy Tarts w/Fruit

Made these for Easter, and they were kind of addicting :)

Ingredients:

1 -8oz package softened cream cheese
1 -14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 roll of Fillo (Phyllo) dough (or you can buy a few packages of already made fillo shells)
1/2 stick melted butter (salted or not)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. 
Thaw fillo dough for about an hour. Enough where it is easy to handle and won't crack. You may want to cover with a damp cloth or paper towel so they don't dry out.
Cut a 2 to 2.5 inch wide piece. Take one sheet at a time and brush with butter, until you have five sheets total on top of each other. Cut into 2 to 2.5 inch squares. Shape into mini muffin cups (see photo). 
Bake for 7 to 10 mins or until lightly browned.

While baking, or after you've finished about 2 dozen or so fillo cups, beat cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add condensed milk.
When mixed well add lemon juice. Set aside, do not place in fridge.

Fill fillo shells and top with favorite fruit, chocolate, or topping of sweet topping of your choice.

thanks!!

-shan

Carrot Cake Cream Cheese Pie

Ever since Jon and I started the P90X workout I've been craving sweets like never before. I look at various blogs and recipes to find deserts without too much sugar or carbs or unhealthy ingredients. Sometimes I can't resist and just go for the bad for you mix. Food is worth every bite I take. :-)

Carrot Cake Cream Cheese Pie

Dry Ingredients
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon (add more if desired)
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (add more if desired)
1/4 tsp course salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 Tbls brown sugar


Wet ingredients:
2/3 cups boiled carrots (soft enough for the blender or food processor)
2 1/2 Tbls skim milk
1/2 Tbls canola oil
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 350•.
Mix dry ingredients in bowl.
Blend wet ingredients in blender or food processor. Blend to chunky or smooth consistency, all your preference.
Mix all ingredients together.
Grease small baking dishes or cup cakes cups. Pour contents.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Let cool. Place in microwave for 2 minutes or until small knife comes out clean.
Wait to cool to place on plate.
When cool place the cake on a plate turn it upright and cut in half.
Spread the desired amount of cream cheese frosting (see below for recipe) on top of both halves and put back together. Chill in microwave or eat right away.


Cream cheese frosting:
3/4 (8oz) package of cream cheese, softened
2 Tbls softened butter
1/2 powdered sugar
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

Cream together cream cheese & butter until creamy. Mix in vanilla, gradually mix in powdered sugar. Store in fridge after use.

One tasty desert.

-Shan

Chickpea Feta salad

I took a little break from posting on my blog. Today I start off with this amazing Chickpea Feta Salad.

Ingredients (combine all in bowl):

1 can of chickpeas
10 kalamata olives
1/4 green pepper chopped
10 cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup red or yellow onion
2 Tbls parsley
1/4 cup or more Feta

Sauce:
3 Tbls lemon juice
2 Tbls olive oil
2 Tbls vinegar
2 Tbls cider vinegar
S & P to taste

Mix all together and top with Feta. 

It's refreshing and I can't stop eating it!!

Thanks!!!

-Shanna

Events and stuff

What a crazy couple weeks it's been. Life has its ways of telling you to slow down and just relax.

Simplifying is the hardest part. Your body and your mind will fight with each other non stop and you just have to find a happy medium. One thing that always brings me back to reality is love. The others are photographs and music. These three things have always been in my life. My family has been very close, we've always taken insane amounts of pictures and music is constantly in the background. You should have seen all 14 of us on Christmas. We looked like a circus show.

I love how my family is so far from normal. If we were normal, there would be no farting at the Thanksgiving dinner table and man would our bathrooms smell worse than they did.

We can bullshit about everything from how we said a certain word in high school to how long it took some of us to finish college. We yell at each other over a scrabble play, but then reminisce about my dad playing Santa every Christmas or how good mom's old pizza recipe was.

It's priceless how honest my family is. We take everything in and just shove it back, all in fun. We all think we're crazy, but yet unconditionally love each other.

There is no family like the Schultz family, perfect in every way. :-)

I also can't wait to officially join the Fisher family. There is something calming yet exciting about it.  Possibly because there are fewer kids cruising around, beautiful dinners we have, and amazing places I've visited. Everything is perfect in every way.

Cheers to the past, present, and future. It's been quite a beautiful ride. :-)

I'm getting married!!!

When I got home from work Jon said he was kinda cold and was wondering if he should turn the heat on. I was fine and warm, but if he needed to he could. We went back and forth a little bit, but then just sat down on the couch to cuddle instead. We chatted about what we were going to do that night and weekend. Talk about dinner and other things.

Jon then asked if I want to see some candy/food he got from work in a stacked box thing. I said heck yes and started following him to his office, he said, naw I'll just bring it to you. I thought that was nice of him. 

He handed me the stack of pretty boxes and I plowed through them, unexpectadly in his eyes, since he was kinda nervous. Mint candy, lemon cookies, chocoate covered pretzels, truffle, I thought yum, I can't wait to dive in!

I got to the largest bottom box and felt it was little light. I opened it and pushed the paper open and there is was in the pretty blue box.

I immediatly threw the entire box down in the couch and started weeping and looked at Jon and smiled and hugged him. He was already crying his eyes out at this moment.

We hugged & kissed again and again, he then said, well are you going to open it?

I said yes but you have to put it on.

I opened the little box and it was exactly how I envisioned it 2 months ago when we looked at rings.

Perfect!

He put it on my finger and we hugged and smooched and said I love you.

Then...I called him a punk. Of course I would, he was so sly about it.
He wasn't cold after all, just quite nervous/excited. :)

Everything about the moment was so perfect.

Memorable and original. 

Cheers to Cheesecake Season!!

So to start off the season I made a Raspberry white chocolate cheesecake with cinnamon sugar & white chocolate sauce for my sister Melissa. Pretty damn good way to start off the season!! The consistency was perfect and a great cake to put sour cream in.
It was also the first cake I made in my new apartment with an electric oven. I haven't had good luck in the past with electric ovens; at first it didn't seem like it was going to make, since I had to bake it for an extra 30 minutes, but it turned out damn damn good!!
For the Thanksgiving holiday I tried a mini cheesecake recipe and it worked almost perfectly! Made a batch of pumpkin and a batch of apple pie mini cakes. Electric oven worked pretty great with the minis as well.

Can't wait to try more varieties with the mini cake recipe and bake a crap ton more cakes!!
Cheers to Cheesecake season!

Always taking cake ideas! :-D

til next time
-shan

Octopus

I was watching a blind man from the distance walking on the beach of a lagoon approaching the water, which was like a sulfur lake. He did not have his walking stick with him, so he had to feel about with his feet. He took step by step feeling for a drop in the water. After he was confident there wasn't one he trotted forward with confidence, but suddenly he dropped into the lagoon. Thankfully he could swim and surfaced almost immediately and propped himself on the ledge where he dropped in. The moment he surfaced I seemed to enter his body, because I could see through his eyes. As I was on the ledge there was a Lochness monster type creature, that swam inches from me. I stood as still as possible with legs, still under water, squeezed to the edge and my arm locked in place holding myself steady. The creature slowing sank back into the murky water. Moments later people about 10 people gathered and watched from their doorways of the large houses circling the lagoon. A helicopter dropped a net into the water and took out a massive black octopus with cream colored spots & tentacles. The creature looked at me with it's sad small eyes as it was being lifted away.