Strawberry Cheesecake

Next to ice cream, strawberry cheesecake has to be my go-to desserts.  Last time I made it was over 20 years ago.  Why so long? I could eat it everyday.  I love the consistency and the creaminess.  My strawberry cheesecake have undergo a change, now everything is organic, can't wait to taste it.  Here we go 


BEFORE:

AFTER:

Not bad!!! This is New York Style Cheesecake.  I haven't made this before, so I will let you know how I like it next week.

Remember, in my previous blog, I wanted to do puff pastry by scratch.  Well the first was no good, but I revised my recipe and we have a winner.  I still have to perfect it more but I'm getting very, very close.  Here we go:

Not bad.  I made it with butter, not lard.  Very flaky!!!  My mother had three and gave me a compliment that I should open a store and sell them.  I'm not ready for that yet, but coming from her that made the arm exercise worthwhile.  

Until next week!

S&S

Valentine's Day "Sweets for the Sweet"

For the next three weeks, I will be creating my special treats for Valentine's Day. Yes as predicted, I am known for my milk chocolate and dark chocolate turtles.  I have many requests for Valentine's Day already.  So, my first creative special will be the milk chocolate turtles ( I will have a new name for the turtles soon). 
My second creation will be my second all time favorite dessert.  Yes, strawberry cheesecake (YUM).  Lastly, Oreo and Golden Oreo cupcakes with a twist.

My first creative special:

Until next week

S&S

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! A new year that holds many excitement and a new journey.  I'm happy to declare that my long awaited dream of being a legal entity happened December 10, 2013.  M Catering, LLC is in good standing with the State of Illinois.  My blog will have pictures of actual catering events and of course recipes of perfecting my craft.  

Speaking of perfecting my craft, well the pastry puff didn't quite turned out like I wanted.  There will be no pictures until I get this right, by the way, I did get a wonderful work out.  My shoulders and arms hurt for two days.  Every week I will be perfecting my pastry puff for the pate until I get it right.  

Since this is a new year, the traditional Haitian food for the new year is (soup joumou) or pumpkin soup.  In Haiti whenever you ask for soup you are talking about soup joumou.  If you want anything other than soup joumou you will have to ask for bouillon.  Growing up the soup was more broth like.  I found out that I like my soup like a stew ( my assimilation to the states).  So I made a new name it's called "soullion". So this is my version, it's thick, like Campbell's Chunky Soup.  It's a meal in itself.  It is usually served with Haitian bread, another of my tried and tested recipe like the puff pastry( to be accomplished at a later date, let's get the puff pastry first.

So, you will see two before and after pictures of the authentic, traditional Haitian soup joumou.  Enjoy:

Until next week S&S

The end of Christmas and the beginning of a New Year, bittersweet and very promising.  This blog is in two-part.  I will attempt and will succeed in making puff pastry from scratch, hence the additional week to perfection.  I will be making Pate, it is a traditional appetizer that is always found at any Haitian festivities.  It is very time consuming and so worth the effort.  It is usually filled with spicy chicken, ground beef, and mouri ( or salt fish).  I will be making the chicken version.  I will create a vegetarian pate for the non-meat clients.

The authentic version is made with lard.  I love it freshly made, I don't like leftover pate made with lard.  If and when I make it, I will specify that it's made with lard and include the details of it.  I know most non-Caribbeans are not used to eating lard, so really perfecting the puff pastry with butter is crucial.  Here are some pictures of what Haitian pate looks like:

Not to be confused with Jamaican Beef Patties below:

It's all in the crust as you can see.  So this is my challenge for the next week, I hope it doesn't  turn into a three-parter. Wish me luck!!!!!

S&S

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!!!! How about you? Nothing says Christmas like soft white snow falling and you are in a nice toasty house eating sweet delectable desserts.  Ok! Maybe not every ones memories, but I've been blessed because it's mine.  This post is dedicated to my daughter, Jaime, she loves white chocolate. So, as an ode to her, I will be making my favorite dessert with white chocolate.  Yes, turtles, also white hot chocolate, and white chocolate chip cookies.

The texture of white chocolate is richer, smoother, and tastes very gourmetish.  I found that the homemade hot white chocolate was extremely tasty.  I'm sold no more regular hot chocolate, I will be having the white.  Here are some of the process, I added some caramel glaze on top.  It's the holidays, why not?.  It's time consuming but so worth it:

YUMMY!!!!! 

Now for the white turtle.  Same process as the original except for the white chocolate.  Here are some of the process:

Yes, I loved it.  Worth the try.

Finally the white chocolate chip

I made them extra large and such a treat.

Finally the packaging, that will be for Christmas with the family

I believe this will be my last Christmas dessert for this year.  Many calories later and some wonderful sweets.  

Until next week

S&S

There is nothing better for a chef or a baker to find a new recipe for Christmas cookie cutter done in a totally different way.  While looking through one of my favorite cooking magazine, I came across this awesome creative recipe.  It's wonton wrappers cut out with Christmas cookie cutter, brush with pesto sauce and baked.  Wow! I took it a step further, of course.  Since the title of my blog is Spicy and Sweet, I brushed mine with ground fresh chili paste for the mittens and ground hot jalapeño peppers for the trees and the sweet, a paste made with Equal sweetener and water (my mom is diabetic). Here's the process:

Hot Christmas trees and red hot mittens

Sweet snow angels and white light bulbs

Can we say Spicy and Sweet!!! 

Until next week S&S

CHRISTMAS is here!!! Yes, it's my all time favorite time of the year. The lights, the decorations and of course the baking.  I haven't started baking yet, but last year I did.  One was a Oreo Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Unfortunately, you can't see the inside last year I wasn't as tech savvy as I am now (lol).  The best part was that there was an actual Oreo cookie  at the bottom.

One day I was watching The Chew, love that show, I need to follow Karla on Twitter.  Clint did this amazing craft idea that I fell in love with.  My daughter and I did this.  We lined green and red starlight candies on parchment paper and melted them in the oven and used christmas cookie cutouts and these are the results.

Sorry, didn't take a picture of the green ones.

Lastly, I saw this on Pinterest and I had to do this

Beautiful.

This is just the beginning of my Christmas selections.

Until next week

S&S