Baked Goodies!!!

I decided part of my new life will consist of me doing exactly what I love doing...Baking!! Yesterday, in the middle of a CT snow storm I decided that I wanted to make something. I went with something I know basically everyone loves, Mini Cheesecake Bites!! I found two delicious crusts, one was graham crack crust, with 8 tbls of butter and 8 tbls of sugar. Beat the graham crackers till they are crumbs (2 cups worth), (I imagined every ex boyfriends head on each piece...lol) then added the sugar. Mixed those two things together, then added the butter. It smelled so yummy all mixed together, and surely not on anyones diet plan!! The other crust is 2 cups of crushed Oreos, 4 tbls of butter, mixed all together. If you think the graham cracker crust smelled yummy, then you would LOVE this one. Then set off on making the cheesecake. 2 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese, 3/4 cup of sugar, 1tsp of vanilla flavoring, and two eggs. You have to leave the cream cheese packages out to get to room temp, what I did to speed that up was filled a pot full of hot hot water, and just added the packages UNOPENED to it till the were softened. Then put that in a bowl added the sugar, and with a hand mixer blended those two things together to a smooth consistency. From there just added the other items one at a time, slowly...You don't want to splash out of the bowl!!! Plus, I read somewhere that adding one egg at a time will make it smoother. You want to really blend it to a smooth, silky consistency. Lumpy cheesecake is no good!! Then add crust to the bottom, packing it down and into the corners. You don't want to add to much, it can totally take over the cheesecake flavor. The recipe said bake at 350, for 15 mins. I found that 15 mins left it a little mooshy still, so I left the next batch in for 17 mins, then once that was done turned off the oven, cracked the door open and left the cheesecakes to set up in there. I found that they were less sticky, and didn't cave in as much. When they were cooled I added cherry pie filling to the tops, refrigerated and from what I hear they are very very good!! I got the recipe from www.allrecipes.com!!
A week or so ago I made a Black Forest Tart Pie, and chocolate chip cookies with ice cream in between both. I kind of cheated with the cookies, they were cut and bake, and I didn't make the ice cream...HaHa. But they came out great looking! The Black Forest Tart was made from melted semi-sweet chocolate melted down with butter, and other ingredence that I am blanking on. Those two recipes were from Pillsbury. Target's dollar section has little booklets, and Pillsbury has been putting out mini cook books.
When baking I go into my own world, a little world that can be made better with a happy little treat. I thought about going to culinary school, but it was so expensive and they would have taught me how to bake, along with cooking. It really wasn't for me. I feel in that little word I create full of wonderful smells, and the happiness it brings to others is so worth it. It's so worth it!! So if you are ever sad, and need a pick me up bake something...Even if it's a just add water recipe.