Eatables!

Despite how sore I still am from our last derby practice (I fell on my arse...hard.  A lot.), I still managed to make today fairly productive.  Part of me regrets it only because I can't remember the last time I just sat around and watched movies all day, haha...

One of the errands I ran this morning included buying ingredients to make cheesecake!  A while back, my mom's friends brought back a ton of fruit for us from their trip to Ohio.  There was more than we could ever hope to eat before it all spoiled (and it was getting awfully close, believe me), so I was just looking for a means of using it all up.

In the end, I made 2 different kinds of cheesecake: 1 pear, and 1 lime-pawpaw.

Pear cheesecake with walnuts (on the bottom)

I'm not going to post a photo of the lime-pawpaw cheesecake because it looks like crap... :/

Both cheesecakes taste just fine, but they didn't quite set as solidly as I wanted.  And this was with me baking it twice as long as the recipe called for (there were even a couple of cracks along the top).  I'm going to make the assumption that the fruit puree to cream cheese ratio wasn't quite correct.  If only I could find my purple sweet potato cheesecake recipe...

In addition to the cheesecakes, I also made some quinoa!  Had some sitting around so I figured, why not?

Quinoa with peas, bacon and sliced almonds

I've made quinoa a number of times before, but for some weird reason, this batch was the best I've made so far!  It was so much more flavorful than others I've made, which I don't entirely understand because I didn't reduce the stock for more concentrated flavor like I normally do.  Maybe it was just the different combination of the ingredients that I used this time.

Eh well, if anyone would like the recipe, here it is!

Ingredients:
2 cups uncooked, pre-washed quinoa
1 cup sliced or slivered almonds
4 cups chicken stock
1 large, very ripe tomato, chopped into oblivion
5 large garlic cloves, finely minced (also into oblivion, unlike you like big ole chunks of garlic)
2 cups peas (I used frozen)
4 strips of bacon (chopped into whatever size pieced you'd like)
1 whole serrano chili pepper
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine the quinoa and the almonds in a pan over a low flame.  Stir regularly until the almonds and quinoa are slightly browned.  Transfer to a pot (or in my case, the rice cooker)
2. Cook the chopped bacon in the pan.  Once it's done, add the chicken stock to the pan as well.  Stir well to make sure you scrape up all the little browned bits (aka the deliciously fatty flavor, bwah ha ha).
3. After you've brought the stock to a simmer, combine it with the almonds and quinoa in the pot.  Add the tomatoes, garlic, peas and the serrano chili pepper.  Don't chop up the serrano chili pepper until you know you can take the heat >;)
4. Stir until evenly mixed, add salt and pepper to taste.
5. If you're using a rice cooker like I did, just set it like you would for regular, white rice.  If you're preparing this on the stove, bring the pot to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  Cook until the quinoa is tender, but still "chewy."  The little white tendril thingies on the grains should be visible. 
   
   Or you can just follow whatever directions are on the quinoa packaging :)
6. Once the quinoa is done, don't forget to remove the serrano pepper!  An unsuspecting diner who bites down on that with either love you or hate you.  I'm guessing hate...haha.