Master hates both coffee and chocolate, but somehow THIS is his favorite cheesecake of all time. It’s rich. It’s incredibly yummy and it will make your waistline spread faster than butter on hot toast. This serves 12 hypothetical people, 6 real people and 1 to 4 depressed or chick flick watching people depending on the level of depression or length of movie marathon. You can substitute sweetened espresso for the 4 tablespoons of coffee liqueur. If I know I’m going to make this, I grab an espresso from $tarbucks and have them put in a shot of amaretto flavored syrup and it works just as well as the coffee liqueur.

If you’re a crust lover like myself, take some lady fingers and cut them in half, then pour some sweetened coffee or espresso into a spray bottle and spray the cookies with it and stand them up along the sides of your spring form, just touching and then pour your cheesecake mixture into the center so that there’s a lady finger edge. Not only does it add a stability to the cake but it adds more delicious crust. make sure that the lady finger edge is only a few millimeters above the top of the cheesecake batter because otherwise the tops of the ladyfingers might burn once they dry out from cooking.

Very important. DO NOT remove it from the oven until you let it cool with the oven door open for 20-25 minutes. The cake will be done when the cooking time is up, but it needs to firm up in the oven for a while. Anyway that’s it. If you make this, let me know how it went! And don’t substitute for the Mascarpone. It’s worth running around town to find if your local doesn’t have it. It really sort of makes the cake worth baking.

Tiramisu Cheesecake

Prep Time: 30 Minutes Cook Time: 1 Hour

Ready In: 6 - 24 Hours depending on refrigeration. Yields: 12 servings

1 (12 ounce) package lady fingers 4 tablespoons butter, melted 4 tablespoons coffee flavored liqueur 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese

1 (8 ounce) container mascarpone cheese 1 cup white sugar 2 eggs 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 (1 ounce) square semisweet chocolate

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F Place a pan of water on the bottom of oven.
2.	Crush the package of ladyfingers to fine crumbs. Mix the melted butter into the crumbs. Moisten with 2 tablespoons of the coffee liqueur. Press into an 8 or 9 inch springform pan.
3.	In a large bowl, mix cream cheese, mascarpone, and sugar until very smooth.Add 2 tablespoons coffee liqueur, and mix. Add the eggs and the flour; mix SLOWLY until just smooth. The consistency of the mascarpone can vary. If the cheesecake batter is too thick, add a little cream. Do not overmix at this point. Pour batter into crust.
4.	Place pan on middle rack of oven. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until just set. Open oven door, and turn off the heat. Leave cake to cool in oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, and let it finish cooling.Refrigerate for at least 3 hours Then Garnish and refrigerate 2 more hours or overnight, before serving.
5.	Freeze the chocolate and once it’s hard, use a sharp knife or a vegetable peeler to shave the chocolate into thin shards and then scatter them over the top of the cheesecake. You can also garnish with a fine dusting of unsweetened cocoa powder mixed confectioner’s sugarOR you can be sinfully decadent like me and mix confectioner’s sugar, mascarpone and cream cheese together into a nice pasteput it into a piping bag or a pastry bag and pipe it along the edges then dust the whole cake with unsweetened cocoa powder and semi-sweet chocolate shavings.

Don’t you love Masters? So last night, I’m in bed. It’s 4 AM. The phone rings and it’s Master. I pick up the phone and say “What? Yes? What? Whhat? I have a test tomorrow. ” and he says “wake up! This is important.. listen to me…”

So I sit up, and prepare myself for something horrible and what I hear instead is, “What’s Twitter?”

“I was having a dream about Bugs Bunny and his house burned down and his family died and then he was the Last Hare actor…. it’s so sad…”

And he said.. “Kitten, baby… Stay with me honey.. Wake up but don’t wake up all the way. Go get your laptop, sign up for Twitter, use it, and then tell me if I’d like it… Go right now, sweetie.”

And like an obedient little slave twat, I stumbled out of bed, tripped over a couple of dogs and got my computer and with bleary eyed glee, I signed up for Twitter to please my Master. (Trust me, if I had been awake, it would not have gone so smoothly…) So now I have a Twitter account and if you have a twitter account and would enjoy knowing what I’m doing at any given moment of the day, add me.

EDITED TO ADD…

Master got around to reading about twitter and told me to delete my account. He saw high cell phone bills in my future if I got too involved.? Geez oh Man that guy is hard to live with sometimes…

Does anyone who reads this blog have a bread machine that they just love love love? If so, feel free to rave about it with pros and cons because I’m in the market for such a contraption. Finding bread without HFCS has become an exercise in futility.? I have never actually made truly leavened bread. I’m more of a pita, naan, lavash kind of girl.? I’ve never really worked with yeast, know nothing about the protein contents of flour or why it matters.? I think that a? bread machine will be a good addition to the kitchen.

Also, if you make bread without a bread maker, feel free to tell me how easy it is, leave tips and tricks, and links to favorite tried and true recipes or recipe books.? I’ll roll up my sleeves and bake the old fashioned way with just a little guidance from those who’ve gone before me.

Okay, I need a new acronym for that because MAWL just sounds really wrong. Anyway, The Master Approved weight loss plan fell to the wayside when school started and I began “hydrating” with coffee, sleeping 4 hours a night, and eating anything that crawled close enough to my desk to be ensnared. I didn’t gain any weight back (whhoohooo!!) But I didn’t lose any either (sad face) so I’m looking forward to getting back on track. If you don’t know, I’m doing a modified version of the 6wbm plan by Michael Thurmond that you have no doubt seen on infomercials night after night if you’re up as late as I am. It’s actually not a bad plan as long as you tweak it just a bit to make it realistic for your life. I went to a nutritionist with the plan and she helped me rework it so that it works with my low metabolism, low blood sugar, PCOS, and all of the other hindrances to successful weight loss. I have enjoyed learning about food combining and at last weigh in I was still around 35 pounds lost and maintained for nearly 2 months.

I don’t have a pound goal for weightloss, but I have some success markers like getting both feet behind my head again, being limber enough to kick to the head and execute a standing roundhouse kick, and being able to take Master to the mat when we spar would be nice but that’s more about getting my leverage and balance right. At this point, he’s kicking my ass because of technique AND inflexibility. Anyway, Master bought me Taebo Amped. I love Taebo inspite of the number of times doing it incorrectly caused slight injury. I find the Amped Bar cumbersome but doing the same workout using 2 pound single weights proved beneficial. I will absolutely be looking forward to getting back to the cardio. I feel so sluggish and drained all the time right now. I’m pretty sure that exercise will fix that.

The best thing about this weight loss has not been that I feel better in my own skin. I’m not insecure about my weight but I am realistic about it. It’s not healthy and many of my health issues are made worse by the extra baggage. Not to mention the amount of money we’ll save with my semi-monthly immunoglobulin treatments which are dispensed in grams per kilo measurements. I’m happy about that!

Getting back on track is making me happy. The fact that school is winding down and I’ll have time for myself again has made me just about ecstatic, but it’s not over yet so I guess I should hit the books at least a little bit today.