I ruined my pie.

I just spent the past several hours of my life making the perfect pie. Yes perfect. Here's the recipe. I made it all up tonight.

Julianne's Apple Cinnamon Cheese Pie

I have made several cheesecakes now, and I find it interesting that they all have slightly different amounts of ingredients and different ways to cook it. I decided to make up my own recipe and see how it turns out. From the sounds of it, you can change a lot with a cheesecake, and it will still turn out good.


Ingredients:

• 9 inch graham cracker crust
  

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup apple cider
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  

• 1 large apple or 2 small apples peeled and sliced thinly
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp lemon juice (leave out if you use granny smith apples)

Directions:

1. Prepare a graham cracker crust or use pre-made graham cracker crust. Preheat oven to 350 F.
   
2. Beat softened cream cheese until smooth (this is important if you like your cheesecake smooth). Add brown sugar and beat until smooth. Add heavy cream, sour cream, apple cider, and vanilla.
3. In medium saucepan, saute apples with butter cinnamon and lemon juice until softened (medium to medium-low heat).
4. Beat egg in separate bowl. Add to cream cheese mixture and mix until consistency is even. Poor half of mixture into pie pan. Add apples in one layer (two if necessary). Poor rest of mixture into bowl. Optional: I saved about 1/4 cup of the mixture and added 1/2 tsp cinnamon. I then added this in drops/ swirls over top and used knife to create a marble effect. You can just add the cinnamon ahead of time if you prefer.
5. Put pie pan in large pan filled with about 1 inch of water. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes. Turn off oven and leave in oven for 30 minutes. Let pie cool to room temperature. (All of this helps prevent cracking.)
   
6. Refrigerate several hours or over night. Enjoy!

The cheesecake was beautiful. The marble effect gave it just the right look I wanted. I made certain to slowly let the cheesecake cool to avoid cracking, and I used the water pan for the same purpose (see directions # 5). And it worked! No cracks. Like I said perfect. Well, almost. The crust was a little too high. It didn't make as much as I thought it would, so the crust came a bit above the cheese filling. So, to fix that, I used a butter knife to flake off the extra. It was going to be perfect. But then... If you're food ruining-phobic, stop reading now. This part is pretty bad. But then as I was tipping the pan sideways a little to let the crumbs fall onto a plate, the entire cheesecake fell on to the plate! The whole thing, crust and all. And now it was broken. My beautiful marble effect was ruined. I guess I am rather fortunate that it didn't fall on the floor. It's still edible and will likely taste almost the same, but there's something about looks that makes a food taste better. Anyway, I was able to put it back into the pan slightly intact. I ended up spreading the filling all around to make it symmetrical. Poor cake. Lesson learned. Never attempt to make something that's already quite beautiful more beautiful by cutting it and removing parts of it. Just like plastic surgery.

On a more positive note, here is a picture of a marble cheesecake I made that I didn't ruin. Happy Birthday Mom. I'm glad yours turned out. Sorry for ruining your birthday cake Brett. I'll think of some way to make it up to you.

Update: Though the pie didn't look very pretty, I thought it tasted pretty good.

Juice!

Earlier this week I went to a talk by a well-known operations research professor who is also one of the authors of this book that I'm using for my algorithms class, Cliff Stein. We thought there would be refreshments beforehand so we arrived 20 minutes early. No refreshments were to be found, so instead I discovered a bookshelf full of free books! The sign said to take books if you want them and to leave books you no longer need. I found some interesting books on machine learning, logic, and data structures which are now an important part of my textbook collection, and we found one book which didn't belong: The Big Book of Juices and Smoothies . It inspired us to make smoothies during our The Office / Rock Band night tonight. We ended up not using the recipes in the book, but its inspiration was priceless.

Here is my favorite smoothies that I made (all amounts are approximated):

1/2 of honeydew melon
1 kiwi (peeled)
1 banana
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
ice (optional)

Directions: Blend the first 4 ingredients until smooth. Leave as is for a thick juice or add ice and blend for a smoothie. Enjoy! Serves about 3.

(Note: Since my camera is lost, I found this picture if another honeydew smoothie recipe found here. Feel free to try that one. It looks good too!)

Biltmore

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the biggest privately owned house in existence. At least I think it is. It has 250 rooms each of them nicely painted often with ornate wall decorations and neat molding. One of the rooms had a really neat design on the ceiling. I've decided that I want a house similar to it one day complete with a personal garden and greenhouse. I think I could settle for 125 rooms though. 250 seems just a little extravagant to me.

Unfortunately, I lost my camera while I was there. The picture above and to the left is the last place I remember using my camera. Fortunately I wasn't the only one with a camera, but I do miss my camera. I had a canon SD1200 and it treated me very well this summer. Plus it was green which made it very unique. They told me things always turn up in the lost and found but that has not happened yet. Still, when I get around to getting a new camera I'll probably get a different one. Either a cheaper one that I can afford to lose, or one with a wide angle lens.

New Post

Preface

Someone complained to me the other day that I haven't updated my blog recently. I guess life has been fairly uneventful recently. I signed myself up for more credits that I probably should have because I was bored, and now I'm not bored ever so that's good. The only unfortunate part is I worry about homework that I haven't done yet because I'm doing other more fun or more important things like river rafting, cleaning my house, playing on my new piano, making English horn reeds, or playing soccer. I can hear your voices now---River rafting? New piano? Didn't you say your life is uneventful? Fine. I'll explain more. I guess. I generally intend for this to be a picture blog, and seeing as my camera is not waterproof, I don't have pictures. I tried to add links to spice it up a bit.

Piano Buying Adventures

On labor day, I bought myself I new piano! A digital one. I told myself at the end of last semester that if I got the job I wanted that I would spend some of the money I made during that summer on a piano. I really like the few opportunities I have to play around on the piano. I'm not serious about it or anything, but it is a nice escape. I feel like it helps my mind focus better after I play on the piano. Whenever I had some free time this past school year, and the LDS Institute building was open, I would play the piano. I even compiled a notebook of a few fun songs to play on the piano. So now I can play anytime I want! Being a big purchase, I had a rather difficult time choosing a piano, but when the labor day weekend sale came up and all of the pianos were I sale, I couldn't resist. After much deliberation, I finally chose this one. I have no regrets, and it fits beautifully in our living room. I owe my roommates some credit as well. Thanks for being my moral support and letting me use your car for transportation!

Rafting Down the Nolichucky

Last weekend, I went on my first ever river rafting trip. I went with the other young single adults from church. In total, there were over 40 of us that went. We rented a cabin  for the night, and began our descent down the river in the morning. When I say cabin, I mean old, rusty, bunk bed filled cabin that was built before the civil war. It was quite the experience. I felt like I was at a summer camp again having to walk to the bathroom and shower with the spiders. I think that just added to the experience.

As for the rafting---it was amazing! I want to do it again! Our rafting guide was a true North Carolinian. His accent added to whole experience, and he's been doing rafting since he was 7, so he was an expert. My favorite part was when I fell out. Seriously. The drops were all really fun, and towards the end I started getting confident. I looked at one small drop and thought, "Oh this is nothing compared to the last one. No Problem." Consequently I didn't brace myself and was flung from the raft. The guide promptly held out his paddle for me to grab and advised me to keep my feet up until we arrived to the calm section of the river. That part totally added to the experience. Falling out was really not that bad. No problem.

Orchestra

I've recently discovered that most people have no idea what an English horn is. Well, I'm happy to report that I am officially an English horn player now. Here is a picture for those of you who thought it was a brass instrument. That's right; it's a woodwind. It's quite similar to an oboe but longer with a really cool shaped bell. I've began making English horn reeds, and I need to start practicing for our second concert because there is a huge solo in Pines of Rome. It's a really neat piece. Listen to it if you get a chance.

Closing Remarks

While I'm at it, I might as well make this a five section blog. Kind of like a five paragraph essay except since this isn't English class I can write poor sentences like the one you're reading right now. Anyway, school is pretty much awesome. I might be crazy by taking 12 credits + orchestra + dealing with 240 students + learning more about family history + student congress + LDSSA, but I love my life and don't want to drop anything, so I'll just see how it all turns out. Hopefully I won't make future mistakes like I did yesterday when I posted the solutions to the turkey extra credit problem rather than the problem itself. And hopefully now that I spent today cleaning my house rather than doing homework, I will spend all of my free-time this week doing homework and practicing the English horn and the oboe. Although, I did really get into a book today while cleaning. I listened to Inkheart on CD which really made the work enjoyable. Unfortunately I can't do that while trying to figure out my complicated homework.

Arachnomaniac

I just noticed how the past two posts on here have been focused on spiders. People must think I'm arachnomaniac or whatever you'd call someone who is obsessed with spiders. I'm not. I guess I just have a slight fascination for them. Well, let me tell you about the spider in the previous post. I named her Buffy. She'd build a web every night right there on our door frame, enjoy the delicious bugs that flew into the web, and then take down the web and hide out in the corner of the door frame until the sun went down. Crazy spider. The sad story is that she's gone. One day she just disappeared. I'm glad she enjoyed our door for a couple of weeks. She's lucky we're not spider-phobic or she'd have been dead by now.

White Lasagna

Go here to read my very own white lasagna recipe. Enjoy!

And I'm happy to report that the bugs have not-so-gladly welcomed me back to school. I have met 2 cockroaches, a colony of ants, a bunch of weevils, and more spiders than I can count. Look at this one who decided to make our front door his new home.

Full of Life

I learned two interesting things today:


1. Spider webs are invisible. I didn't notice this web until the sun shown on it just right at about noon today.
2. Spider Webs are strong. Above: Before. Below: After.
Even after rolling down my windows while going 65 mph, the spider web was still in perfect condition.

Now if I could just figure out why the spider decided my car is a good place for spider web, that would be good to know. Maybe I need to deep clean my car. Or perhaps closing my window completely (it was open a crack) would help too.

Adventures

When I was younger, one of my favorite computer games was Myst. I loved exploring and seeing the neat places they had in the game. The graphics were really good. Now that I'm older, life has gotten busier. I never even got around to beating Myst IV. Maybe I will in a couple of weeks when I have a week off... Anyway, today instead of exploring in games, I go exploring in real life. I love hopping on my bicycle and exploring a neighborhood or a trail I've never been on. This summer I explored the University of Maryland campus (which I have yet to take pictures of), my new neighborhood, a few biking trails next to the Washington DC lds temple, some neat bike trails in a neighborhood nearby my apartment until it dead ended, a nice neighborhood nearby with and artificial blue lake and stream, and I explored a little hiking trail through the forest, on foot. It's all been really enjoyable. I wish I had more time to go exploring around here because there is so much to see! I guess I'll have to find more places by school to explore. I haven't really done that yet. Enjoy the pictures. It really is beautiful out here. I love the green trees and the natural water sources that you don't see very often back home.

A Whole New Me

My Mom would be so proud. I used to be the pickiest eater. And look here! Vegetables! Broccoli, zucchini, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, onions. So maybe I left out the peppers, mushrooms, and olives, but hey, I'm getting there! I also ate at an Indian restaurant today (buffet style) for lunch, and enjoyed it. That's really saying something considering the last time I ate at an Indian buffet was with my mom and my older sister, and let's just say I told her I would never eat curry again.

Now, perhaps she would tell me that the extra cheese counterbalances the healthy veggies, but I think I'm still doing pretty well.

And to top it off, I had a healthy glass of 100% pure grape juice.







And a brownie. :D

Visiting different parts of my nation!

After, well... uh... cleaning my camera with lots of soap and water, it died. But what better excuse to get a new one! I got a canon SD1200 and I'm pretty happy with it so far. So, I had to take some pictures with it.

Last weekend, after orchestra rehearsal, I took a stop by the Washington DC LDS temple. It was so pretty. These pictures don't do the temple justice. But they do give an idea of the surroundings of the temple. I never realized from pictures I've seen before that it's so green here! Washington DC is surrounded by trees. It's a good environment, and even though I know I'm in a big city, I don't feel like I am because the air seems cleaner with all the plant life around.












Hopefully soon, I'll be posting pictures of places in the actual city of Washington DC. But first, I have to go there.

Handmade wallets!

So I did one of those pay it forward things, and had to come up with something handmade. I thought about crocheting a scarf, making a boquet of origami tulips, or crocheting something else, but I thought that at least one of the people who signed up would not appreciate these types of handmade things. But then today, inspiration came and I flew to the store and bought some duct tape AND some duck tape. (Yes there is a difference.) I then used my good friend, Internet, to help me make a wallet. It turned out great! So I made another one. These wallets are so great! They're nice and thin, customizable, and I suspect rather durable as well. Next I plan to buy some other color of Duck tape and make myself a multicolored wallet. Woohoo!

And for the two of you who I haven't made something handmade for yet... if you would like a duck tape wallet, just tell me what color(s). Or if you want to be surprised with something else, that's fine too, just let me know!

Springtime is nearly over.

It's so crazy. I've never seen so many flowers in my life. Everyday I walk around admiring the beauty around me. I think a new type of flower blooms everyday. I've taken a lot more pictures this past month; however, I never did quite get all of the different types of flowers, and most of them are dying out because it's too warm for them now. And it's just time. They don't need to stay flowers forever afterall.

Springtime is here!

I've never experienced such a colorful flowery spring. And apparently, it's just getting started. I am really grateful for the beauty around me!


I never would have guessed that such pretty white flowers would be...
in such large numbers and...

on so many trees!


I don't think I've ever seen so many purple trees before or if I've ever even seen any purple trees before.

I found these flowers in my front yard. Can you guess which one was pre-planted by my landlord and which one just popped up in my lawn one day?