What's Hot + What's Not: Happy Chaxgven

I love Wednesdays. Time to play along again with all the hotter-notters at Loobylu's. Head over there to check out the cute artwork Claire's featuring this week and to see what's hot and not around the globe!

HOT

Chaxgven Also known as Thanksgiving. We renamed the holiday after receiving this charming invitation a few years ago from my nephew who was then in kindergarten. (In case you don't read invented spelling, it says, "Dear Baicker-McKees Could you come over for Thanksgiving."

Naturally, we couldn't refuse.) Hope you have lots to gve chax for this year; I know we do. And it's not just the food.

The Kitchen That's because of the food. Specifically at the moment because of the Chocolate Amaretto Cheesecake that's about to come out of the oven. (I'll have to add a picture shortly.) Not traditional - but good on any occasion. We're having pumpkin pie too, and lots of other typical Thanksgiving dishes, but I'm planning to give special chax for this dessert. Here's the recipe, which came to me by way of a work colleague of my husband's. Here's the amazing part: it's low fat, but you'd never guess that from the taste. It is, quite frankly, incredible.

Chocolate Amaretto Cheesecake

2 small tubs soft light cream cheese (I've tried fat free, but the texture was weird.)

1 cup sugar

1 cup 1% fat small curd cottage cheese

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa

1/4 cup amaretto (you can sub almost any liqueur, like creme de menthe, Kahlua, Cointreau)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

4 Tbsp mini chocolate chips

8-9 crushed chocolate wafers OR 2-3 crushed graham crackers OR a 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs

Extra chocolate bar for making decorative curls (and tiding you over until it's time for the feast)

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Prepare a 7 or 8 inch spring-form pan by spraying it lightly with Pam. Then put the cookies in heavy duty zipper bags, squeeze out the air and seal. Recruit your little people to crush them. (Consider double-bagging them if your kids are "enthusiastic" workers - less chance of dog hair mixing in with the crumbs that way.) They can use the traditional rolling pin or canned peas to crush them - or for extra fun, they can run their trucks back and forth over them or stomp them to smithereens with a large toy dinosaur. Sprinkle the crumbs over the bottom of the pan, adding some extra if the bottom isn't covered. Set aside.

Put the first 8 ingredients (cream cheese through salt) in the food processor with the sharp spinning blade thing. Process the heck out of these, pausing several times to scrape down the sides. The mixture should look very smooth and creamy, with only faint traces of tiny white lumps/dots. Add the egg and process just until mixed in. Remove the blade, taking care not to cut yourself or drip chocolate on the dog or kids whining at your feet. Fold in the chocolate chips, then pour the mixture carefully over the crumbs.

Pop in the oven and bake, 45-50 minutes for an 8-inch pan or 65-70 minutes for a 7-inch one. In my oven I nearly always need an additional 5 minutes. The direction says it's done when a knife comes out clean, but I don't think that EVER happens. I look to make sure it seems set (not too wobbly in the middle) and that it's starting to pull away from the sides a tad.

Refrigerate for at least 8 hours before serving. It may crack as it cools, but no worries. Just use your veggie peeler to make lovely chocolate curls (or the grater for grated stuff) for a dense garnish that hides all the flaws. Then eat the rest of the chocolate to keep your strength up.

Coming up with an idea for Once Daily

That's Claire's ning-thing where you post one photo a day, usually around a theme. Read more about it here. I'm going to take photos of my new backyard pond. (Just wishing I'd started back when the pond first did. Here some more in-progress pictures. (It's not done yet - but done enough to enjoy.)

Last but not least, gearing up for my second annual Advent blog

Starting Sunday! Over the month (probably not daily, but I'll try) I'll have a little something holiday related. Like the tutorial for these little mushroom houses that I meant to post last year...and lots of other craft ideas too (most kid-friendly). And some recipes, book recommendations, fun if somewhat quirky traditions, and some gift ideas for kids and parents too. I'm working on a few printables and a give-away as well. Any requests or suggestions for other ideas?

NOT

Skipping the nots in honor of the holiday. Must. Bite. Tongue.

I'm Thankful

copyright, Carol Baicker-McKee, 2007

Hm. Don't really have a great image for this post (though who could fail to be thankful for tasty treats like gingerbread men). But anyway, here's a Top Ten List of things I'm thankful for:

1. Family All of it - my immediate family of husband, three kids, and a dog; my extended family I grew up in, and my husband's extended family who have made me one of their own. It's hard to say something about all of them that's not trite or too general, but here are some of the specific things about them I'm thankful for. I love how my immediate family routinely laughs so hard at the dinner table that we not only have to worry about milk coming out of someone's nose but the occasional spaghetti noodle - which the dog will be happy to eat if it ends up on the floor; I am grateful that my growing-up family never tires of huge annual gatherings at the beach (and grateful that my parents continue to fund these vacations), complete with ritual toad-catching and crab-chasing; and I'm thankful that my husband's family always makes up songs with hilarious lyrics to celebrate special occasions, and especially grateful that they let me sing along with everyone despite my severe tone deafness and complete ignorance of tempo.

2. Friends Having moved a bazillion times over the years and also having lots of friends who have moved (and now having internet-found friends), I'm lucky to have friends wherever I go, and less fortunately, some places I don't go but wish I could. Like my family, I know my friends will do kind things like ooh and ahh kindly over my latest book project (and even buy copies for gifts, even if they have to kind of stretch to pinpoint an appropriate recipient). And when I get a bad haircut, my friends don't say things like, "Oh well, it'll grow out again someday," but more tactful things like, "Doesn't the part look nice!"

3. Child #2 has almost finished his college applications And I'll be really, really grateful when they're well and truly done.

4. Affording college tuition So far at least. Child #3 should probably lie awake worrying a little...

5. Living the creative life How lucky to be working as a writer, illustrator, and kid-advice person! It doesn't get any better than this! (Well, the money part could get better, especially from the points of view of my husband, who would dearly love to be a house husband/amateur athlete and child #3 who doesn't want to lie awake worrying about her college fund.) And some people think it would be better if I didn't live the creative life all over the kitchen table and in big piles in their bedroom that they'd like to use when they come home from college for vacations.

6. That this past year I had one book published, finished one that will be out next year, and got a contract for another And that one's nearing completion. I hope.

7. The disgusting growth on the dog's leg that I've been ignoring for months isn't cancer Phew. The guilt was going to be pretty unbearable.

8. Gas prices that have risen enough that it's cheaper to fly child #1 home from college for breaks like this than to drive 9 hours each direction to fetch him.

9. Dark chocolate is good for you. And so is red wine. Now we just have to work on Fritos.

10. That the world is so full of good books, good people, and the internet, which I'm addicted to.

11. That ending a sentence with a preposition isn't as sinful as it used to be.

12. That this list could be in the 100s or more before I ran out of things to be grateful for, and I had to cheat by 2 even to wrap this up.

Thank you to all the people who have given me so much to be grateful for this past year. I hope I can repay you - and find a way to pay things forward too, in the years to come.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.