Fried Chickpeas

This is one of those recipes that sounded so weird, I just had to try it.  Plus I had all the ingredients at home already except the lime.  Instead of cayenne pepper, I used peppercorns.  And I squeezed the juice from the lime in w/ the olive oil about 1/2 way through cooking.  I'm munching on these now.  They are really good, an 8 1/2.  I am sure they could be an 9 - 9 1/2 but I over cooked them by 1-2 minutes.  They looked perfect so I walked away for a minute to work on my laundry.  And when I walked back into the kitchen, they were over cooked and at least 1/2 of them were burnt.  If that hadn't been my last can of chickpeas I would have started over.  Oh well, even the burnt ones taste good!  P.S. Note the new leaf dish.  I got that for the fall soups I'm sure I'll make.  I also want to get the pumpkin shaped one.

Orange Sour Cream Cheesecake

This is the cheesecake I made.  It's pretty good, an 8 1/2 - 9.  I changed the crust.  I added ginger, cinnamon & coconut; that's why I took a photo of just the crust.  I also added shaved white chocolate to the top.  I think it would be good w/ chocolate syrup since I like orange & chocolate together, but I haven't tried that yet.  My only complaint is that it wasn't as orange-y as I had expected.  So I think I would add some orange marmalade to it next time and swirl it throughout.

Swiss Almond Roma

This is the drink I made.  So good, a 10!  I had another one this morning.  P.S. I love that cook book.  I think everything I've tried from it has been super good.  I also have part two: "More Choices." 

Pecan Meatballs

I finally got around to cooking my dad's b-day dinner yesterday (his birthday is Aug. 16, but he was gone for 3 weeks).  I made him these & the cheesecake & drink following.  As you can see in the photo, these are not meatballs!  I could not seem to get them thick enough & didn't want to ruin the taste  by trying, so I just made patties out of them.  They were so good, easily a 10.  Dad loved them too.  I will definitely make them again.  I messed up and completely forgot to take a picture of the ingredients before I made them.  By the time I remembered, I had mostly cleaned up & threw things in the garbage.  So it's only a few ingredients in the photo.  I used the crackers you see in the photo instead of plain crackers.  I used real garlic & chopped it up instead of garlic powder.  I did everything else the same except that they weren't the right shape.  Oh, and I added some corn meal to to thicken them up.  

Cherry Milk & Orange Cream Smoothie

My dad also got me this mini blender for my b-day.  (In the 3rd photo) I has a lid with it so you can take it with you and drink it on the go.  I made these 2 drinks with it yesterday.  I give the cherry one a 7 1/2 - 8 & the orange one an 8 - 8 1/2.  I added the toppings to spruce them up a bit.  It's Valencia orange peel on top of the orange drink.  I have more drink recipes from a differnt cook book I'll be trying later.  an hopefully next week I'll get back to real cooking - I miss it!! 

Pineapple, Coconut, Walnut Cupcakes

Real quick, b/c I'm tired & want to watch a good movie... I made these last night, and frosted them this morning.  Not really homemade, but I added some of my own ingredients to make them yummy.  A 9 1/2!  Happy 39th birthday to me!  P.S. Notice the pretty new fall plate!!   
P.S.S. I'll post more b-day photos later.