Mesa Grill's Southwestern Potato Salad

Hello! How's everyone's summer going? Obviously mine has been busy. I can't believe how long it has taken me to get back here! I apologize for neglecting my foodie friends, but it's really not my fault at all.

You see, it's mostly his fault:



Mark and I have been spending a lot of time at sporting events lately. We went and got season tickets to both the Cleveland Indians and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs in the playoffs was SO exciting and it consumed our lives for a while there. Hey, we get excited in Cleveland when one of our sports franchises decides to be good! Unfortunately things didn't work out in our favor (in true Cleveland fashion), but it was a great (and sometimes hungover) ride.



It's also his fault:



We love our Cleveland Indians and our Progressive Stadium. It's just about the best place to be on a sunny summer day. Warm sun and cold beer... what else is there?



So you see, my absence from FOODIE was not my fault at all. It was everyone else's fault, including Mark's, for getting me so damn interested in sports these last couple years. Love ya! :-)

So as you can imagine, I haven't been doing my usual amount of cooking and when I have cooked, it's been somewhat boring stuff that I didn't bother taking pictures of. However some of it has been very good and we've documented that stuff and plan to share it with you soon. One of those things was this recipe for Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Southwestern Potato Salad. If you're sick of that boring 'ol potato salad you've had 350,000 times in your life, MAKE THIS ONE. It's got a tang from the lime juice, a kick from the jalapeno and cayenne pepper, and a fantastic freshness from the king of herbs, cilantro. It's absolutely delicious and positively addicting - I could not stop eating it! So, if you have a picnic coming up and you're asked to bring something, consider bringing this potato salad. It'll be the life of the party, I guarantee it.

I didn't take too many pictures while making this, but here is the mise en place:



Check out the recipe below and make this right away! I hope you love it, and I will try and get my butt back here very soon to share with you more delicious meals. Oh, and in the future, look forward to seeing a video of me trying to cook a Rachael Ray 30 minute meal in 30 minutes! Mark has bet me that it can't be done, so I told him I would do it and he could video tape me. THIS should be funny. See you soon!

Oh, one more thing, if you're not already a fan of FOODIE on Facebook, why not???!!! Click on the FOODIE logo below to remedy that situation immediately!



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Thanks for all your support and see you soon!

Mini Blackberry and Macadamia Nut Cheesecakes

Don't you just want to pick this off of your screen and eat it? What's better than a bite-sized creamy little cheesecake with a chocolate graham cracker crust, blackberry sauce, and crunchy macadamia nuts on top? Not much!

I made these for Easter this year and aside from a little difficulty getting them out of the mini muffin pans, they turned out great and were delicious. I love the idea of bite-sized ANYTHING because those type of things are perfect for parties and gatherings.

I used Giada's recipe and tweaked it a bit, omitting the orange zest and instead adding the blackberry sauce and the macadamia nuts. I love the idea of using ricotta cheese in the cheesecake mixture... it made them light and not too incredibly sweet. They were just right in my opinion. I think the next time I make these, however, I will try omitting the water bath. I think the graham cracker crusts were not able to get crunchy enough with the constant moisture coming from the water bath. Plus, since we made extra filling and crust, we ended up making a regular full sized cheesecake the next day and did omit the water bath, resulting in a crunchy crust.

To make these little gems, start by making the blackberry sauce.



Start by adding some sugar and water to the blackberries and heat the mixture up over medium-low heat.



Cook until the mixture starts to get jelly-like and the liquid coats the back of a spoon. Then let the blackberry sauce cool down, which will thicken it more, before topping the cheesecakes.



Next, make the crust by smashing up graham crackers, then adding cocoa powder and melted butter.



After spraying the mini muffin pan with Pam, press a teaspoon of the chocolate graham cracker mixture into the bottom of each cup. Use the bottom of a shot glass if you'd like.



Fill each muffin cup with a heaping tablespoon of the cheesecake mixture consisting of cream cheese, ricotta cheese, sugar, and eggs.

If you'd like, place the mini muffin pan on a cookie sheet and fill the cookie sheet halfway with hot water to create a water bath. However, I suggest you skip this step.



Bake the cheesecakes at 350 degrees for like 45 minutes. The recipe only calls for a baking time of 25 minutes, but that just ain't gonna do it folks. Sometimes I wonder if they even test some of these Food Network recipes.



Once the cheesecakes are done, and you will know that they're done if a toothpick stuck into the center of one of the cheesecakes comes out clean, and they have cooled, use a sharp knife to cut around each cheesecake to loosen them and pop them out of the muffin pan. Some of the crust will inevitably stick to the bottom, but most of it comes out. Top each cheesecake with some of the blackberry sauce and some coarsely chopped macadamia nuts. Yum!