Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets

                                             Photo: Helana Brigman

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets: From Denny:  Do you enjoy cheesecake but want an easier way to make it?  Then this recipe is for you.  I like cheesecake too but find it too large for just two of us to eat and too time consuming to make unless I plan on entertaining a hungry crowd.

A springform pan is an absolute must to make a proper cheesecake - and the patience of a saint to leave the oven door cracked open as it slowly cools down for hours so you can hopefully avoid it cracking straight down the middle like an ugly scar.  Usually, I've been pretty lucky over the years.  Of course, when I wasn't lucky it was evident that a wonderful fruit topping like blueberry or strawberry could hide a multitude of sins just like gravy on a screwed up dinner. :)...

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets

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Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Cream Cheese Pastry Blueberry-Apple Cobbler and Traditional Blueberry Cobbler

     The Advocate photo: HEATHER MCCLELLAND 

                                                                                  
Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Cream Cheese Pastry Blueberry-Apple Cobbler and Traditional Blueberry Cobbler: From Denny:  Blueberries.  The awesome blue food we all love.  So, I went hunting for something interesting in the cobbler department for us this week.  The first recipe is from our local newspaper, a blueberry cobbler made with a cream cheese pastry and a filling that consists of a combination of blueberries, apple and lemon.  A cream cheese pastry always tastes great with a fruit filling, especially blueberries!  It's a simple and straightforward pastry recipe with flour, salt and butter but also with cream cheese and a bit of orange juice added to the pastry to spike up the flavor.

The filling calls for fresh blueberries, an apple and lemon juice and lemon zest.  While this recipe calls for sugar I often substitute brown rice syrup or agave syrup in its place for a lower glycemic index than refined white sugar.  Try it half sugar and half agave as an idea, whatever you like at your house, just try experimenting until you find that sweet spot Goldilocks zone for your taste buds!

The second recipe is a traditional blueberry cobbler made in a 9-inch square baking pan like you do for brownies and is from a local Louisiana blueberry grower.  When a recipe calls for margarine, well, I'm no fan of margarine, so I use clarified butter.  If you don't have the time to make your own clarified butter it's now available in grocery stores as I saw a jar in Trader Joe's just last week.

Also note that I use "Tablespoon" and "teaspoon" as an easier read so you don't get confused by small type - by writing it out instead of an abbreviation and also capitalizing Tablespoon.  There have been those moments when I was busy and scan read a recipe only to make a mistake with too much or too little of an ingredient so I changed all my recipes to reflect what I do here on my food blogs.  The whole point is to enjoy a good food experience!

Oh, and the Denny Lyon Gifts ads are from my Cafe Press store.  The profits go to my two favorite charities:  the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank that feeds half of Louisiana and St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital that has helped thousands of children on the Gulf Coast.  After all, should anyone go hungry in America?  Should any parent have to emotionally stress and experience financial ruin because their child got sick?  Thank you to those of you supporting my gift store effort!...

(As these articles post this week I'll add the links, so check back often!)

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Dennys Food and Recipes: BBQ Grilling: Goat Cheese Stuffed Grilled Sweet Potatoes

                                            AP photo: Matthew Mead 


Dennys Food and Recipes: BBQ Grilling: Goat Cheese Stuffed Grilled Sweet Potatoes: From Denny:  This is a delicious unusual recipe twist for the popular sweet potato.  We all know that goat cheese is a low salt and low fat alternative to the regular highly salted - OK, totally yummy - cheeses.

I've tried goat cheese as the soft melting quality cheese in my omelets and found it a bit sour in comparison to  my favorite cheddar cheese but eventually created a medley of white cheddar, fontina or mozzarella in addition to just a touch of goat cheese for my favorite blending of flavors..

Yet that slightly tangy sour taste is the perfect healthy complement to the very sugary sticky sweet potato.  This recipe also adds fresh thyme and olive oil for aromatic delight and lots of fresh garlic and butter for robust flavor.  To sweeten it up a bit the zest of an entire orange is added for that citrus brightness that pairs so very well with sweet potato!

It's advised you slice the sweet potato in thick chunks so it is easy for the thick smear of cheese, oils, herbs and citrus zest to adhere better.  If you like your potatoes to have a bit of crispness on the skin, then open up the aluminum foil in the last 10 minutes of grilling to brown and crisp up a bit.

Also note that you will require a microwave to partially bake the potatoes before placing on the grill.  This recipe is best done at home instead of at some remote fishing camp with no electricity - like we have so many of here on the Gulf Coast, especially Louisiana. :)

This is such an easy recipe it is kid friendly and a good choice to help teach the kids to learn how to grill by helping you with the prep work.  What creative kid would not enjoy smearing a gooey mess onto those sweet potatoes?  I rest my case. :)  Enjoy!

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                  AP photo: Matthew Mead -- Butterflied Barbecue Chicken With Alabama White Sauce

Dennys Food and Recipes: BBQ Grilling: Butterflied Barbecue Chicken with Alabama White Sauce: From Denny:  With all this ridiculous hot weather across the nation we are all left wondering if we are the ones getting grilled!  But wait!  Time to grill that famous summer BBQ chicken, this time with the Alabama White Sauce becoming so popular.

If you are not familiar with Alabama White Sauce it's based on mayonnaise.  Yucky mayonnaise, you say?  Hey, all that oil delivers the spicy flavor of this unusual sauce and the mayonnaise taste is completely changed by the following:  There is plenty of cider vinegar and lemon juice to cut the oil and the addition of cayenne pepper, black pepper and horseradish definitely spices up the taste.  The recipe for this sauce follows so you can make your own...

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Dennys: News Politics Comedy Science Arts & Food: 15 Funny Tasty July Fourth Posts

Dennys: News Politics Comedy Science Arts & Food: 15 Funny Tasty July Fourth Posts: From Denny:  Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday time off.  It certainly is hotter than ever this summer.  And we have global warming to enjoy for years to come.  So laugh a lot while you are figuring out how to adapt to this new extreme weather sport:  scorching summers.

Meanwhile, I have some great photography to give you a smile and some amusing poems to read while you try some new recipes.  Be sure to check out the July Fourth quotes both funny and serious that will certainly make you think.  Happy July Fourth!

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