Super Bowl Dessert - Black Forest Cheesecake

Another Super Bowl has come and gone and that means most of us are now regretting some of the food decisions we made on Sunday. Some of us are even attempting to start up our 2016 New Years resolutions again. Do it! I Believe in you! I am too! In fact, I jumped on my bike yesterday and cycled up the wonderful hills that encompass my awesome city. It's day 1 version 2.0.

Now not to throw a damper on this get fit and eat right party, but after much debate, I have decided to actually post a recipe. This recipe is the dessert I made for Super Bowl. Enjoy! Oh and check out our new Instagram account - TheBerginsLoveFood

Black Forest Cheesecake

The Base

1/2 - 3/4 Box Oreo Crumbs
1/2 C Butter, melted

The Cake Part
2 Bricks Cream Cheese (room temp)
1/3 C Sugar
3 Eggs (room temp)
2 tsp Vanilla 
2 Packages Dark Chocolate Chips
1 T Butter, melted
1 C Whipping Cream

The Chocolate Ganache Layer
1 Package Milk Chocolate Chips
1/2 C Whipping Cream

The Cherry Topping
1 Can Cherry Pie Filling

The Directions

I find this recipe works best in a 9 inch spring form pan, although I did screw up the cake part once which I'll talk about later - I actually made little cheesecakes in a small cupcake tin. So there is some forgiveness, but not much!

Start by making your base. Just mix the melted butter and the Oreo crumbs until you get a nice consistency where you can press it into the bottom of the buttered and wax papered pan. Put the pan aside and start the cake part.

Now this is where I give a shout out to my mother-in-law Nova, she has graciously allowed me to store and use her Kitchen Aid mixer while she waits for her new house to be finished. Whilst this is happening I have lovingly named the mixer Martha! Martha has been amazing, trying to make this cake with a hand mixer is indeed possible but incredibly messy and annoyingly time consuming. Martha has changed my life, I will miss Martha.

Start with the the cream cheese and get that into your Martha-like mixer. While the cheese is being whipped add the sugar. Once you feel the sugar and cheese are combined, start adding the eggs, make sure you take time in between adding each egg to let the mixer combine. Once the eggs are mixed in, add the vanilla. You can now also add the butter.

Here is where I made the mistake I referred to previously. You need to stop mixing everything and start melting the dark chocolate chips. I decided to try adding the whipped cream first. This is not a good idea as once the cake cooked I ended up with a crack that was so big, Grand Canyon tours were lining up with donkeys in hopes of descending into the chocolaty cheese cake canyon. Anyway...

Start a pot boiling on the stove, don't put too much water in it as my wife has informed me that you don't want the water to touch the bowl you are melting the chocolate in or there will be a chocolate catastrophe. I have learned to listen without asking questions... Once the pot is boiling turn it down to a simmer and place your bowl of chocolate chips on top and start stirring, don't burn yourself on the steam by the way.

Once the chocolate has melted to the point where there are no more chips, turn on the mixer and start pouring the chocolaty goodness into the cheesecake batter. Make sure the speed is going fast enough to mix the chocolate before it thickens too much.

Once this complete and the mixer is a nice consistent chocolate colour (what does that even mean?), get your cup of whipping cream, put the mixer on the lowest setting and fold in the cream. The reason you don't want this to whip is due to the air bubbles that will form and later cause you the crack that I mentioned. Once the cream is folded in you can pour it into the springform pan where you have already prepared the Oreo base.

If you are making this in the afternoon or evening feel free to make yourself a nice drink or pour a glass of wine as you have to let the cake sit on the counter for about a half hour to 45 minutes. While this is happening preheat your oven to 325C and place a pan of water on the bottom shelf. This will keep the oven air from drying out and hopefully help the cake not to crack.

Once the half hour has passed place the cake in the oven and cook it for 60 minutes. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR! Once the hour has passed turn off the heat and gradually open the door over a 30 minute period. I do this in 10 minute increments, and I only open it less then a half inch bigger each time. This will also hopefully help the cake not crack (but truth be told, I have never had a cheesecake not crack on me - that's why I put the chocolate ganache on top).

Once the cake is cooled, I place the cake in the fridge for at least 4 hours before I add the ganache and cherry pie filling. Use the same process to melt the milk chocolate chips but this time add the whipped cream to the chips while you are melting it. Once melted pour the ganache over the cheesecake. After this has cooled in the fridge, I add the cherry pie filling on top and when I am about to serve it, I add actual whipped, whipped cream to the top. Oh and to cut the cake, boil water and keep dipping your knife into it to heat the blade, also wipe the blade after heating it up, this will give you amazingly perfect slices.

Alright, there's my first recipe, please try  it out and if you would like to give me feedback please do!

And make sure you follow our new Instagram account - https://www.instagram.com/theberginslovefood/

Smoked Salmon and Avocado Rice Cake

The past couple of weeks have been an adventure of epic proportions. I battled pneumonia, which caused me to miss a week of work. On the Friday of said missed workweek, my amazing wife (who might guest blog here or there and will more than likely voice her opinion on some of these feats of alphabetical prowess) had knee surgery. 

This in itself was an adventure that has been going on since August of 2015 when my amazing, beautiful, slightly older than me, but certainly doesn't show it better half, went on a mountain bike ride with yours truly and the man cub. About a kilometer into the ride, on the last down hill part, Nicola decided she was done with riding her bike, FOREVER. The bike made it though unscathed as Nicola decided to protect the Honolulu blue paint job, by making sure it was cushioned from hitting the ground by using the entire contents of her left knee. 

It is now 6 months later and Nicola has a new knee. I myself will soon have a new awesome bike as I have been given full permission to sell a barely used, brand new mountain bike - Honolulu blue in colour - PM me if any of you are interested... But, now my wife has to learn to walk again.

My wife is one tough cookie, 25 hours of labour is more than enough evidence of that, and considering that I've had poos that have brought me to tears, I will not argue with this, and neither will any of you. But, I really don't envy the pain she has had to work through over the past week.

Because of this, I have been lucky enough to be my wife's personal chef and truth be told, nothing fills my heart with more joy than to watch her eat my food and tell me she loves it. It is one of the joys of our marriage. We even have a hash tag - #theberginslovefood and if you follow us on Instagram or Facebook, you have seen us use it, a lot!

When it comes to food sometimes it's the simple things that bring the most pleasure, here is one of the breakfasts I made for Nicola.

Rice Cake with Herb & Garlic Cream Cheese, Smoked Salmon and Avocado

This is so ridiculously simple it's stupid. And apparently it tastes really amazing! I wouldn't know though as I can't stand salmon, so I'll just take Nicola's word. 

Anyway, for those of you who need to know how it's made, follow these instructions:

You take a rice cake.

Spread herb & garlic cream cheese on the rice cake.

Take the smoked salmon and whilst trying not to gag, place the smoke salmon on top of the cream cheese.

Quickly put the salmon back in the bag before the gag reflex takes over, run to the washroom and scrub your hands like a surgeon about to perform brain surgery on the president. And not like the president of the chess club, but like the president of the United States of America!! Scrub those hands up to the elbows, make sure there is no lingering smoked salmon stench left over that could possible taint your food smeller and therefore ruin any soon to be eaten delicacies that may enter your life that day.

Now take an avocado, cut it in half, slice it, and place slices gently on the smoked salmon. DON'T TOUCH THE SALMON!

Pour a cup of coffee.

Enjoy!

The simplicity of this meal reminds me of how easy it is for us to allow our lives to get so complicated that we forget about the simple and easy things that bring us so much joy. When was the last time you sat by the fire pit, just the 2 of you? When was the last time you parked your vehicle out in the dark, by a farmer’s field and the two of you just sat and stared at the stars? 

So many times in our lives we try so hard to make love complicated because we feel if we aren't pushing the relationship envelope, we aren't trying hard enough. Or sometimes we are simply so distracted by life, children, or work that when we do finally have the time, we feel we need to do something amazing and over the top. And you know what, sometimes we do, but not every single time.

Sometimes we look so hard for the roses, we end up ignoring the daisies.

Sometimes all we need, is to start off with a rice cake.

The Simple Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Well, here it is nearly 5 years since my last blog post. I would like to say that I have been working on an epic novel that is filled with adventure, romance, science fiction (that part would have been for our good friend Sarah Ball - who is an actual blogger, who knows what she's doing. So, you should all go check her out! Here's the link - http://virtuouswomanexposed.com/), ... where was I, oh yeah - a novel that would make even Clive Cussler jealous of the inspiration it gives the reader to attain their dreams!!!

But alas, no. I actually grew bored with trying to come up with something new to write every few days. Which is really weird, particularly because if you ask any one of my friends, they would have no issues informing you that I am not a person who is ever short for words, stories or just general chit chatting. That's why I love my job in radio, I'm literally paid to talk.

I don't plan to go into great detail on what has transpired over the last 5 years in this post, but over the course of the next year, I really feel I am to commit to posting at least once a week. As the year progresses, all 12 of you who may still be following me will get to hear of the craziness that has dominated my life, our life... the life of my family!

But today, today I want to talk about something highly controversial, a topic that will aim arrows right at the heart of people who are filled with hate. A topic of such importance that people need to stop what they are doing and read this right now.

The grilled cheese sandwich made with white bread and Kraft cheese slices. 

Yup, I said it. I make my grilled cheese sandwiches with unhealthy, processed/refined flour packed sandwich bread that will take 68 days off of my life for every moist, stick-to-the-roof-of-my-mouth slice that I use. I also use plastic cheese, but not the expensive Velveeta plastic cheese that all the rich people use so that they can lift their noses to us bottom feeders in the fake cheese tank of life. And, I don't even bother with the real cheese slices you can get at Costco either. Listen, I'm all for 600 slices of real cheese for $8, but in the end it just isn't the same. Real cheese is awesome, but when I want a grilled cheese sandwich, it's not at 4 o'clock in the afternoon when I have the time to remove the child proof wrapping, find the cheese knife in the bottomless, if-you-grab-something-the-wrong-way-you -may-lose-a-finger, utensil drawer - don't laugh, we've all got one.

Nope, when I want the grilled cheese sandwich, it's usually right before bed, once we've already cleaned up for the day. OK, OK, maybe it is at 4 o'clock in the afternoon sometimes... but that's besides the point now.

There is something so amazingly comforting about the deliciousness of the original grilled cheese sandwich. There's safety in it, it's something you know. It's something you grew up with. Maybe you're like me and you dipped it in Ketchup, maybe you had it with tomato soup. Or maybe, you're like my wife who likes it untainted, just pure creamy, melty toastiness. There's no issue here, because no matter who we are, we all love the grilled cheese sandwich, even if we all like it made a different way.

I would like to sound all spiritual and relate this post to something relevant to the changes that are happening in the world around us. Or how it's a representation of a scripture that will make us realize that we need to change our hearts in some way... but in the end, it's just a grilled cheese sandwich.

Or is it...