Paula Dean's Savannah Cheesecake Cookies or Rather Bar

My daughter and I love anything cheesecake, so when Paula Dean made her Savannah Cheesecake cookies that required little more than mixing, I was like, I have to make those! Why is it that I'm always watching the Food Network during my 30 minute treadmill? Well, Sundays are the days that I cook up a big Sunday dinner, this week, my corned beef and roasted veggies with smashed red potatoes, delicious. Of course no big Sunday meal could come to a satisfying conclusion without something sweet so it was time to try those cookies. This is a perfect recipe to let your kids help.

Crust:

1 cup of flour

1/4 cup of brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans (I used walnuts because it was in the pantry)

1 stick of melted butter

Mix everything together-press into 13 x 9 pan (I used one that was slightly smaller because I wanted the cheesecake to be taller)

cook for 12-15 minutes at preheated-350 until lightly brown.

Filling:

2 8oz packages of cream cheese softened

1 cup of granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 t pure vanilla

Fresh berries

Beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth (with hand held electric mixer)

Add eggs and extract and beat till smooth.

Pour over crust

Bake for 30-35 minutes until top is lightly brown. Let cool completely before cutting. Add fresh strawberries or other fruits.

I thought the cream cheese filling wasn't as sweet as it should be but I think with fresh berries, it's a perfect compliment. Less of a cookie and more of a bar.

And now for my Big Sunday Dinner:

Corned Beef with roasted veggies and smashed red potatoes:

Cook corned beef according to package directions-about 3 hours in water

Boil red potatoes (whole) until tender but still firm, drain. In skillet, add olive oil and 1/2 stick of butter, add red potatoes whole in pan. With a large fork or wooden spatula, smash red potatoes till broken but still somewhat intact. Chop 4 cloves of garlic and sprinkle on top and add salt and pepper and onion powder. Cook till brown and has a nice crust.

Since my family is not to fond of boiled veggies with the corned beef, I roast them instead. Take about 6 stalks of celery, wash and cut into thirds leaving the leaves on. Peel six carrots and cut into thirds and if the bottoms are rather thick cut those in quarters so they will cook evenly. Sprinkle oil olive and salt and pepper. Roast in oven for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, once corned beef has cooked, take out of pot, let rest and then slice. After slicing, I like to place the slices on top of the roasted veggies and put in oven on broil until the meat is firm and crusty, about 5 minutes. Hey, I like everything crusty. Serve and enjoy and hey, happy St. Paddy's Day!

Super Easy Caesar Salad Dressing

Getting my daughter to eat her salad is a challenge, but with my homemade Caesar Salad dressing, she loves her salad, even if it does has carrots in it. I used to make this dressing with raw eggs, but with all the scare over salmonella, I've sub mayo.

In food processor:
4 whole cloves of garlic-pulse till minced
Add-a good squeeze of anchovy paste (or use can anchovy about two fillets)
Pulse till mixed
Add about 2 cups of mayo (my measurements are approx since I just spoon the mayo in)
Generously sprinkle Parmesan cheese over top
Salt and pepper
Turn on processor-
While processor is running, slowly add olive oil (about 1 cup) till dressing looks yellow and smooth. Squeeze half lemon pulse till mixed. Add more salt and pepper and cheese to taste. If you accidentally add the olive oil too fast (this I've done when my daughter distracts me) dressing will become thin and separate. That's ok, it will just need to be shaken before dressing your salad. Otherwise, it should be somewhat thick. Enjoy!

Let's Make a Deal-Moving to Los Angeles

Let's Make a Deal is permanently moving to Los Angeles, because the show is having a hard time filling the seats here in Las Vegas, with taping two shows 4 days a week. When Donna went the second time, she said that after her show (her and her husband dressed in fifties outfits) they were asking the audience to stay for the second showing by offering free buffet tickets and other freebies. By then Donna said that her and Mark were so tired, since it is still a long process, 4 hours without food or drink, all she wanted to do was get the heck home and have a martini. Still no word when our show 1011 will air, but I am somewhat happy that I have 1/2 of our prizes, the TV and the Sony PS3. When my daughter hooked up the PS3, I was like what's it for? When I looked online to see how much the games cost, I was appalled at the price tags, $60.00 on up. But the other night, my daughter, she's 12 figured out that we could get the Internet on it. I'm like cool, maybe we can watch stuff on Hulu. We went out and bought a gift card for it so my daughter could buy some cheap online games. I can't let her wait for us to receive the second half of my winning prizes, the Beatles Rock Bank for PS3, so I let her buy a $20.00 gift card. When we came home and she activated the card, we found out that we could also rent movies. WOW, I never have to go to Blockbusters ever again. We rented "The Box". It's a 14 day rental, but after the movie is viewed it goes away within 24 hours. It takes about 20 minutes to download, so download it before you pop that popcorn. I'm still amazed that we can rent videos on it, so I guess the PS 3 is good for something. Still hoping that our show will air, maybe more towards the summer when the show goes on hiatus. Either way, they better not tax our prizes for the length of time we've had to wait!

Death by a Killer Whale

It sadden me when I heard of a trainer's death by a killer whale at Sea World. Years ago while putting myself through college, I worked at Sea World. I worked for the production department at Sea World, which meant I would be part of running the shows at the theme park, namely the Shamu show, the penguin show, the water fantasy show and the dolphin lagoon show. Summers consisted of running from show to show. The animals involved in the shows would have to “work” back to back shows, which meant during the summer months there are as many as 10 to 12 shows without a break. I know Sea World has done some wonderful research on marine animals. They are involved in the clean-up of oil spills, rescue animals, and they help educate the public about marine life. My question is however, must we insist on making these amazing marine mammals do tricks for their keep? Why do they have to jump through hoops, do the hula on their tail fins, let a trainers ride on their backs? How would you feel being pent up in a tank and made to perform many shows daily? These animals are God’s gift to planet Earth. I’ve seen first-hand the frustration of killer whales having to perform and turn their frustration on their trainers. I've witnessed trainers being pushed around the tank by a very angry killer whale. I think I heard some press people say that Tilly was not angry, that he was interested only in the trainers ponytail, that he was being playful. I think not. The public must be, should be educated on the captivity of these magnificient creatures and what their daily lives are like. We must stop animal entertainment to make a buck. Isn’t keeping a large animal in confinement animal abuse? These whales are meant to travel hundreds of miles a day, what must that whale feel like when he can barely swim in the tank that he's in? Aren’t we outraged when we see how cows and pigs being confined in a small area, without any means of turning around, don’t we call that animal abuse? Aren't we outraged at the puppy mills, when dogs are caged and sold for a buck? Then why aren’t we outraged when we see dolphins trained to do the hula on their tail fins to music for public amusement? Is it because the park is a nice place to visit and that makes it ok? How would you feel if your freedom was taken away and every day you were forced to perform tricks? I think not. We must stop the animal for amusement mentality and fight for these magnificent creatures.

Not to make light of the situation, but one of my jobs at Sea World was to perform the hula while dolphins did their hula on their tail fins. I shared a dressing room with a very irate chimp. Our dressing room was the hollowed out volcano in the show. I would go in to change into my costume, with the chimp in the cage awaiting for his appearance. While changing he would jump up and down and scream all kinds of monkey chatter. On a really bad days he would take his poop, roll it into balls and throw it at me. He was an angry chimp, he didn't want to go out on water skis being pulled around the volcano by dolphins he'd rather be in his home with other primates. But day after day, he would perform his tricks and day after day, I would be pulled out in a boat after the chimp exited his stage, by dolphins and do the hula with them, while they did backflips. Back then, it was a novelty, it was an interesting job. I had little interest in animal conservation and preservation. Gads, I could barely keep my cat fed. Today is a different story. I can barely get through that Emperor Penguin movie without shedding copious tears. I can't stand to watch Planet Earth when animals eat each other, even if it is Mother Nature's way. And so, I can't bring myself to support places like Sea World and circuses that profit off animal entertainment. Sure, places like that do educate the public but at what cost?

Let's Make a Deal-Prize Delivery

The other night, out of the blue, I got a call from Heather at Let's Make a Deal. Apparently they want to deliver my TV that I won. She said that they were closing the warehouse and were going to deliver the TV but the other prizes that I won would be delivered once our show aired. Of course I was so excited! I'm getting my TV, ha ha as I danced around the house. Finally reaping some reward for our appearance as contestants on that damn show! It's been what 5 months!! Yeah, but would they really air our show? Heather assured me that it would air in season one. I ask her when is the season over with then? June she replies. I'm guessing with the move to Los Angeles, tapings are falling behind for this season and they will have to air some of the earlier shows which includes ours. Yipee is all I can say for that, because if they hadn't moved from Las Vegas, I might not have gotten anything, so the move from Las Vegas was a good thing right? Donna's disappointed because she was trying to get on the show again because she wasn't really a contestant, just my side kick. Myself, I'm SOL, I will have to wait another 3 years to be eligible, thems the rules.

They told me they would be delivering the TV between the hours of 10-2. By one o'clock still no delivery. Then a call, Travis said they were having some sort of trouble. What could it be? Were they going to renege on giving me my TV? Finally after some kind of scrambling on their part they finally delivered the TV. Now mind you I wasn't home, so my husband accepted the TV. He called me and praised how nice they were, young kids, he said. Said that they told him the show was moving, because they couldn't make the show work here. Which was true, Donna told me they had a hard time filling the audience for the tapings. When I came home, the TV box was in the middle of the living room. I suspiciously spied duct tape on the box. Humm, looked opened and used. When I looked in the box, the TV was sloppily inside without the original packing. What?@! Was that a used TV? Did I just win a used TV? Hey what kind of show is this? When someone wins a car, is it a used car? I'm yelling at this point. How could they give a used prize. I bet all the scrambling before the delivery was probably because they couldn't find the remote for the TV. It was really insulting that Let's Make a Deal could deliver a prize that had been used on the show. The box was marked Show 1001, Act 4. The taping I went to was Show 1011, so obvious, this TV was the display model they used on the set. What a disappointment. Not only did we suffer the disappointment of our show not airing in a timely manner, now they do the low class thing and give away prizes that have been used. And I am supposed to pay taxes on a used prize? Very disappointing! That same night, Heather calls again, this time she says they have my PS3 and will deliver it later that evening. Of course I didn't want to be rude about the TV I had received that was in less than new condition, but told her that the TV was used. Her reply was that they checked it out to make sure it was in good condition. Yeah, but I didn't know when I won the prizes, that they were going to be used goods (I'm thinking). Of course this isn't her fault, so I didn't rant on like usually do, I was getting my PS3 (whatever that is?). All I could think of I wonder if that's going to be used to?

Travis, (he's a cutie) quietly knocks on the door, it's 9:30 by now and hands over the PS3. I say my thank yous and go back inside. Madison runs down stairs (since she has laid claim to it) and we look over the box. Humm, well, it looks like it hasn't been opened. I know what was happening. The people at Let's Make a Deal are moving to Los Angeles, and in order to move less, they got rid of their stuff here. On the one hand, at least I got some of my stuff but on the other hand, it has been a mix bag.

Being picked as a contestant, getting lucky and actually winning was thrilling, not showing our show, a total disappointment, and finally getting some of the prizes only to get used goods, totally horrible. LMAD, not a class act. They acted more like thugs that stole hot merchandise and were getting rid of it on the sly. Don't get me wrong, the TV looks good in my media niche, even if it does have a few scratches in it and appears to work just fine, but it's the principle of the whole thing, you expect when you win something that it's new and unused, but the whole thing was just a total misrepresentation and that's the real deal.