Easy Mini Cheesecakes

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Takes: 25 minutes      Makes: 6 mini cakes      Tastes: Neutral-sweet, plus how you top it

If you’ve met me, you know I have a cheesecake addiction (and if you look through my recipe book, I have 38 distinctly different cheesecake recipes). Most of my recipes err on the side of complex and gut-busting, contributing greatly to my growing waistline. But when I found the mini graham cracker crusts at the grocers, I decided that I needed to downsize one of my more straightforward recipes for a simple, fast mechanism to pump out a handful of personal-sized cheesecakes without the fuss. I’m afraid in this process I’ve stepped away from the custard heritage of the cheesecake (but I’m guessing that I’m the only one bothered by this!).

Original source: Desperation for fast portion control. And cheesecake.

Chewy French Bread

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Takes: 3 hours      Serves: 2-3 people      Tastes: Fairly basic salted bread

Whew, after that massive hiatus from cooking while attending a conference and camping, it felt great to be back in the kitchen. When we first moved out west, our landlord made the comment that she hasn’t been able to make a dense, chewy loaf of bread since moving to such high elevation. I generally prefer lighter, airy bread so this wasn’t much of a concern. But then finding myself out of bread and hungry for a sandwich, I dug this recipe out of my disorganized stack to see how it would fare at 7000 feet. It does just as well as back at sea level; I need to share it with the landlord!

Original source: Not sure! This may have been one of my “mistake” recipes.

Indian Fry Bread

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Takes: 60 minutes      Serves: 3-4 people      Tastes: Like it should be illegal

Not to be confused with the Chapati, fry bread is definitely a favorite of Ashley and I. The first time I had it (at a pauwau with my 1st grade teacher!), I ate so much I was horribly sick afterwards. But it was worth it! In contrast, Ashley grew up making Indian Tacos with it (a tradition we continue now) and eating it as a staple food.
Now don’t kid yourself, these things are high fat and high calorie (at least via this recipe). But they’re totally worth it. The good news is that it’s a fairly flexible base to work from; you can add green onions and serve with/as a savory dish, or you can douse with cinnamon and sugar to make a sort of shortcut Elephant Ear! Either way, they’re best eaten hot; they don’t reheat particularly well and turn rather chewy overnight.

Original source: Memories and experiments

Challah

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Takes: 160 minutes      Serves: 4+ people      Tastes: Absolutely succulent

I have to admit, I love Challah. It’s such a dense and sweet loaf of bread that looks gorgeous, is easy and fun to make, and turns out wonderfully at any altitude. I don’t even remember where I picked up the first recipe, but what always bugged me was having to use only egg yolks; unless I was interested in cooking up the whites, it felt like I was wasting material. So I tweaked the recipe over and over (the recipe card looks like four 7 year olds all tried writing their own ideas down at once on it), and this is the result! Part of the secret is the honey, the fresher the better! I love the slices plain, as toast, grilled, etc!

Original source: An old recipe (from the library?) and 2 years of experimentation!

Olivia’s Italian Sausages

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Takes: 65 minutes      Serves: 2-3 people      Tastes: Hearty and strong

This has to be the favorite recipe I learned from my roommate back in my undergrad. I’ll admit that I can’t remember what the story was behind this one, but the simplistic combination of strong flavors knocks your socks off and makes you desperate for more. It’s also ridiculously easy to make, which is part of the reason we make this at least once a month. Following Olivia’s suggestion, I always serve it with a dry and flaky baguette (sometimes covered in cheese), as it provides the perfect palate cleanser (that I always use to sop up the extra vinegar!).

Original source: My old roommate Olivia.

Cast Iron Monkey Bread

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Takes: 50 minutes      Serves: 2-3 people      Tastes: Delectably sweet and cinnamony!

Monkey bread is another food that iconically framed our childhood; the sweet, sticky, messy deliciousness was a favorite for our Saturday morning breakfasts. Mom would always make a huge bundt pan full and we’d polish it off with gusto; along with the eggs and whatever else she made to accompany it. But I wanted to scale it down for two people and remove the bundt requirement; it’s one of the few kitchen icons I don’t have. Eventually I’d like to find a dough recipe that I’m satisfied with; in the meantime, this recipe sticks to the tried-and-true biscuits from a tube.

Original source: Mom and my experimentation

Calzones

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Takes: 70 minutes      Serves: 2-3 people      Tastes: However you choose to build it!

The calzone will always be the staple of our childhood. I think it was for my 11th birthday that we went to Pizza Hut and they had just released the Pzone. I, being young and impressionable, immediately wanted to try it. I was relatively impressed, but my mother declared that she could make it better; this heralded in a new era in the Camp Chaos household! My mom poked, prodded, and tweaked the Pzone into a magnificent product and my brother and I continue to do the same on our own. As such, this is simply my take on the venerable calzone.

Original source: Pizza Hut and the family hive mind.

Chicken Curry and Chapati

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Takes: 60 minutes      Serves: 2-3 people      Tastes: Spicy but not hot, with lots of flavor!

I’ll admit that I was a bit skeptical of this one before we made it a couple of times. Ashley’s old coworker Zareen is originally from Pakistan and brought with her a plethora of local recipes; many that inspired us to dive into the Pakistani and Indian palette. We found that the real secret ingredient wasn’t curry or turmeric as expected, but ground cayenne. Don’t even try to make this curry without cayenne! The chapati is a dry-fried bread that serves quite well as a sort of tortilla for the curry. And as a snack with butter as you’re starving while you cook everything else.

Original source: Our friend Zareen and this cookbook for inspiration.