I have been having a chocolate pudding craving lately.  I love Swiss Miss puddings but none of the stores in my area carry them any more.  I just don’t think any of the other store bought puddings are as rich and smooth.  I experimented with this chocolate pudding and it didn’t tun out very well-it is definitely meant to be a vanilla base.  So my second try was an adaptation of Gundy’s Chocolate Pie filling from my friend Kelly’s mom.  It turned out perfectly, rich and chocolately and smooth.  Thanks again Jan, I love this recipe!

I decreased the flour by a tablespoon so it would be a little thinner than pie filling and I increased the chocolate by a tablespoon because I thought my aging cocoa powder needed a little boost.  Essentially it is the same as the pie recipe only no pie crust involved.  The best part: I did successfully make it in one pot, without having to temper the eggs like my lemon pie.

Chocolate Pudding

• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 cups milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp flour
• 4 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tsp vanilla

1. In a medium pot with out heat combine all ingredients except vanilla.
2. Whisk ingredients in combine and turn on heat to medium high.
3. Whisk mixture constantly as it thickens, do not boil.
4. Once mixture is thick about 10 to 15 min, remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
5. Pour into individual pudding cups, cover and chill.
6. Pudding will form a slight skin so press plastic wrap against the surface if pudding skin bothers you.

Yum, delicious chocolate pudding!  Perfect for lunchboxes or an after dinner treat.

I love cheeseburgers.  Actually, what I love is the combination of textures and flavors in a classic burger.  Hot, juicy beef with melty, gooey cheese, the crispness of the lettuce and sour pickles combined with the sharp tang from the red onion and mustard all balanced together with the sweet tomato and rich mayo.  The bun is an important factor in the total burger experience-too much bun and the textures are lost in TOO MUCH BREAD, too little and you have no way to contain and deliver your juices and sauces.

Burger night is a great, easy weeknight meal that pleases everyone.  Like taco night, sandwich night, or gyro night, every picky kid or grown-up gets to control the construction of their burger.  For our recent burger night I made the buns ahead of time so when it was time to eat it was simply a matter of making hamburger patties and grilling them.  I used the bun recipe from What geeks eat… which was easy and delicious.  I was very nervous because the buns didn’t really rise much on the pan but in the oven they puffed up beautifully.

Also, to change things up a bit I made sweet potato fries: super easy with a bag of frozen julienned sweet potatoes.  I deep fried them at 370° for about 5 minutes then sprinkled with kosher salt.  Overall a super easy, fast family meal.

Most comfort foods are ones that we had as children, that make us feel happy and warm inside due to some nostalgic connection.  Then there are the foods that are comforting because they are rich and creamy and warm and delicious-without any ties to the past.  Risotto is one of those foods for me, as I’ve mentioned before.  It is so naturally comforting that, even though I never had it until well into adulthood, I crave it when I am sick.  The sicker I feel, the richer I want my risotto.  This recipe from Elise at Simply Recipes was the perfect medicine for me this past weekend.  I make risotto occasionally and my last risotto post was full of wise, well worn foodie advice: risotto must be made with Arborio rice.  I even made fun of some poor soul who had once given me the advice that I could use long grain rice because I had once failed at making risotto that way.

Well, let me tell you, when you are halfway through making a pot of risotto and realize you used the wrong rice, you are willing to experiment.  AND GUESS WHAT?!  It does work.  I was a rude jerk and now I am apologizing and saying I was wrong.  I think the crucial step is have the broth you are cooking with hot.  I think that’s where I went wrong before and the reason it worked just fine this time.  So, by the way, if you are interested in making risotto but alas, have only long grain rice on hand-never fear, just forage onward and it will turn out fine.

Our family cheesecake recipe has always been made sans water bath.  I have always heard nightmares about water baths: glass casserole dishes shattering, splashing boiling water on oneself, cheesecakes swimming in water where the crust should have been, etc..  So I never bothered with a water bath and, despite a few cracks, our cheesecakes have always been delicious, fluffy and um, delicious.  Not super pretty, but seriously when it tastes this good, who cares?

So over the holidays I decided to experiment.  Yes, I braved the water bath for you dear reader.  The verdict: easy, super pretty, very very moist cheesecake.  First, the easy part.  The water bath wasn’t hard at all.  I think had I tried to do it in one of my shallow glass casseroles it would have been a different story.  You really need a good, deep roasting pan with nice handles for this.  Also, buy the 18 inch wide foil and use one continuous sheet rather than trying to wrap multiple sheets around the base.  The 18 inch sheets are wide enough to come up around the sides of the cake evenly.  This prevents any worries of leaking between sheets of foil.

Second, the pretty part.  The resulting cheesecake was very pretty-smooth and white like the ones in the freezer aisle.  The only problem I have ever had with our usual method is the cheesecake comes out very brown, crusty at the edges, and generally cracked all over from the sides of the cake rising so high and then collapsing back down.  In fact the cheesecake was so smooth and white I had trouble deciding if it was cooked or not.

Lastly, the very very moist part.  The cheesecakes (I made two just in case) were very very moist and creamy.  In fact, for our family, they were too creamy.  The texture was the epitome of “melt in your mouth” and yet this cheesecake already melts in your mouth.  The texture was very different from the fluffy, light cheesecake we are used to.  It was more dense, more creamy.  I served these cheesecakes at two different family parties and the vote all around was that it was delicious-but next time make it the way we usually do.

Chalk it up to familiarity, taste, or the specifics of a recipe but we all agreed that the water bath wasn’t necessary.  So if you haven’t tried using a water bath but want to, go ahead and try it-it isn’t hard and makes a beautiful, impressive cake.  But if you want permission to not use a water bath, then stop worrying about it.  This recipe doesn’t need it to be any more creamy and moist anyway.