Savory Appetizer Cheesecakes

One of the things I love about what I do, is that I get to play with different flavor profiles with our cheesecakes! I subscribe to a lot of cooking and culinary magazines and I will see some recipe, not necessarily cheesecakes or desserts, but I see a flavor profile or combination that might just work in a cheesecake.

Over the last few months, we have developed a new product line, which are 'Savory' Appetizer Cheesecakes, which you spread on crackers, pita chips or the like. We started with four flavors, Sun-Dried Tomato w/ Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto, Bacon & Blue Cheese (ya gotta love bacon!), Smoked Salmon and my personal favorite, The 'El Diablo' which, yes, is a Ghost Pepper/Habanero Cheesecake with an Ancho/Chipotle Pesto, definitely not for the timid, but believe it or not, it is our most popular savory!

On another occasion, I was playing around with what I thought was going to be another Savory, but I had started adding sugar to the first test batch, when I said to myself....

Self.. you dummy.. there is no sugar in a Savory!!

I was about to dump the batter when I gave it a quick taste and went.... WHOA!!! This is good and with a little heat and that is how our newest dessert cheesecake flavor, The Habanero/Key Lime came about.

You get the sweet and tart taste of the Key Lime come through and then you get the heat, not overpowering, from a roasted Habanero sugar that I made....

Turns out it is the fastest selling new flavor I have put out in over 2 years!!

Go Figure!!

Got many more on the drawing board when we get through the fair/festival/market season, at least 20 other flavors that I want to do!!

Yeah, I do so love to play!!

Downtown Grand Junction's Farmer's Market

Every Thursday, from 4 - 8 pm, a great Farmer's Market is held on Main Street in downtown Grand Junction. This is where we launched our line of gourmet 'Cheesecakes in a Jar' four years ago and while we do not do a lot of these, just this one and the Glenwood Springs Farmer's Market, we will continue to do this one as long as they will have it. Besides the fact that we routinely sell out, it is a great bunch of people!

You have over 15 orchard and farm vendors and another artesianal vendors, ranging from custom jewelry, from our friend, Susan Jeansonne and Jeansonne's Fine Designs, to some of the best chili (and four time winner and the Southwest Chili Festival) from Katie of Guera's Chili, to many food vendors and much. much more!

Music emenates from all the corners, fun stuff for the kids and a great time for all!

This season's market ends on Thursday, September 16th, so get on out there and see what the Grand Valley has to offer!

Ah Hah Moments

About a month or so ago, Mutual of Omaha had emailed me, they were coming into town to film 'Ah-Ha' moments, a moment which changed your life. Seems that they had heard about us and Decadence Gourmet Cheesecakes and wanted to film our story, along with some others in town.

Just got an email that the video was now on their website, click here to check it out!

Palisade Peach Festival

This past weekend, the 42nd Annual Palisade Peach Festival was held here in Palisade, Colorado. Over 20,000 Peach Fans turned out for what is one of Palisade's finest moments. From a Ice Cream social on Thursday, to the Peach Festival in RiverBend Park, to the Feast in the Fields, Palisade turns into the Peach Capitol of the known universe.

One of the highlights of the Peach Festival is the Peach Cuisine with Colorado Chefs, and an event that I have been proud to be a participant in for the past four years. This year, I demonstrated Chocolate Dipped Dried Peach Bytes, double-dipped in a Peached Cayenne Sugar. In past years, I have done salads and 'Wings over Palisade', which is are BBQ Peached Chipotle Chicken wings. As all the chefs do, we all try to introduce many ways of using Palisade's pride into peoples culinary thoughts. If you would like any of my recipes over the past few years, email me at decadencecheesecakes@mindspring.com.

We also had one of our employees, Katrina, participate for her 3rd year! Talk about going from shy and nervous to a budding Rachael Ray! Congrats to Katrina for demonstrating Easy Peached Pork Tapas!

The Colorado Mountain Winefest is coming up next month, stop on by!

This event is the first event that we ever participated in when I first opened Decadence Gourmet Cheesecakes. I was still in culinary school and when I started working with Wine Cheesecakes, they invited me and for the last five years, we have been a fixture in the VIP Tent, serving slices of our Blackberry/Cabernet, Port/Fig w/ a currant reduction sauce and our Chocolate Decadence. For the past four years, we have also had our own booth, selling our 'Cheesecakes in a Jar'.

Over 50 wineries participate in this great event, which also has food and wine pairings, and this year, a chef demo from Chef Kelly Liken, now on Top Chef!

Come on out to Palisade and enjoy the fruits of our labors!

Return to the Shore Part 3

Every summer when I take Austin out to the Jersey Shore, we make a run down to Wildwood and it's boardwalk and rides! The first few years I took him out, when he was real young, I used to take him to The Ocean City Boardwalk as it has some young-kid friendly rides, but once he turned 10, Wildwood and it's Amusement Piers was the obvious choice! We always start with a go-kart track, right off the boardwalk and he really does seem to enjoy it!

Now right after that, we have been stopping at the same Pizza & Fries place, but saw this season that it was replaced by a fish place and while fish may have it's place, it's not what we consider boardwalk food! So we have always passed Sam's Pizza and this year stopped in there. Good East Coast Pizza, reasonable prices, perfect to load up before the rides!!

Now Wildwood has 'Morey's Piers' three separate piers, two of which include waterparks (Ocean Oasis and Raging Waters) and just a ton of rides, from High Thrill Rides, such as The Great White & Maelstrom to Log Flumes and almost too many to ride in one day! Austin loves these (as his Dad used to when he was younger and pre-abdominal surgery) and we make sure to run him ragged!

After the excursion to Wildwood, we took Austin out for his first time to a Hibatchi Steak House, Ginja on The Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township. They prepare the food right in front of you. The food was ok, maybe a little better than ok, but when the chef started flipping pieces of food right into your mouth, Austin was in heaven, someone else playing with food!

Now I realize that as he gets older, he may not want to leave his friends in the summertime, but until that day comes, we will continue to explore Da Shore and all it's gems with my boy!

Return to the Shore Part 2

As I had mentioned, the last trip to Da Shore was too much for just one blog... so....

There were a few places that I always take Austin to when we are out at Da Shore, Dino's Subs in Margate and, believe it or not, WaWa. For those of you who are not from the east, WaWa is what a 7-11 ir Quick Stop would be on steroids.... open 24/7, you can virtually get anything (legal, that is) anytime of day or night... Got a craving for a Cheesesteak at 3 am.... head to WaWa.... got that salt fetish that only a soft pretzel will quench at 6 am.. head to Wawa!!

We stopped by Dino's again, need that real Cheesesteak fix, and as we were getting ready to pay for our order, i looked down and there was an article from the Grand Junction Free Press that I had written last year when we were out there, all about Dino's! ya gotta love life!

We were headed up to the Boardwalk to check out the Ripley's Believe it or Not (what the hey, he is 12!) and decided to stop by an Atlantic City Tradition... The Irish Pub. No, he is still too young to drink (and has never seen me drink!) but the Irish Pubis also known for it's food too! (Not that I knew that when we used to stop by there in the 70's and 80's when I was out there!).

Me, I had a corned beef special ( I truly love that sandwich!), Mom had the Fish & Chips, Ann had the Pub Salad and Austin had the Mozzarella Sticks and we all had the Lollipop Meatballs as an appetizer. As you can see by the prices on the menu picture, none of these will break your bank and the food was good!

Next.... Japanese Hibachi steakhouse, where, yes, they do toss food in your mouth!

Return to the Shore Part 1

When you get off the plane in Philly in July, you walk off and almost immediately break into a flop sweat. Nothing better than having 95 degree heat with the humidity being over 85%!!

But when you are bringing your 12 year old son out for yet another trip to 'Da Shore', it really doesn't matter! Ever since Austin turned 5, I have been bringing him out to the Shore twice a year, once in July and once for Thanksgiving. As much as I do love Colorado, (well, let's just say LOVE Western Colorado, the Front Range is ok, but getting was too crowded!), I want Austin to know where his old man grew up and what helped shape me.

My sister and mom picked us up at the airport and we drove down to the shore.

Now my mom moved 'off-shore' about 5-6 years ago, but still lives within 15 minutes of the beach, but I do miss the house I grew up in, which was only 5 houses off the beach in Margate.

We got down in about an hour and after travelling most of the day, we were hungry and as much as I prefer to try and eat 'local' as much as possible, Mom wanted to stop at a the Berkshire Grill, which is located in Egg Harbor Township. Now I googled this and really did not find any others, so it may be a local, but I got a feeling that it may be a small chain, whatever!

Austin was really hungry and as he is truly my boy, he is stating to get a little curious about other foods and not his usual chicken nuggets and pizza.

I started him off with sharing an order of 'Pot Stickers', which he initially grimaced at, but after trying one, wanted more and more. Yeah, he be my boy!

I was just in a steak mood and ordered the Steak Au Poivre, which was above average, but when Austin saw the Fajitas, he was in heaven and yeah, even though it was an adult entree, he cleaned the plates!!

Coming next... The Wildwood Boardwalk, Kohr Brothers Frozen Custard, Dino's Subs and The Irish Pub!!