Tag Archives: Aldi

ny style cheesecake

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I wanted to make my husband a special anniversary dinner and one of his favorite things in the whole world is cheesecake. Good cheesecake, not loaded up with anything, so I went rummaging around and decided to make him a New York style cheesecake.

I will give you the basic recipe. Mine is slightly bigger than this recipe because my spring form pan is a little bigger. But if I try to explain how I increased it incrementally, it will get too confusing for people who are just trying to follow a recipe. For those who really want to know, I didn’t increase the filling. It was just that I also had more graham crackers and no place to use them so it was an additional half cup or so of graham cracker crumbs, so I added half a stick more of melted unsalted butter.

I originally found this recipe on the Aldi tab on Instacart. Instacart has these little recipes that they put in next to the different stores that they deliver, and this one looked fairly simple and it was. I did tweak it a little to suit me. I increased the vanilla extract, I increased the sugar slightly, and I added cinnamon and a dash of cardamom. I also substituted cinnamon graham crackers for regular graham crackers. I make my own crumbs in other words and it’s not very scientific. I put them in a plastic bag and I beat them with a kitchen mallet until they’re crumbs.

Full ingredient list

  • 2 cups cinnamon sugar graham cracker crumbs
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 4 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
  • 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar (I say a generous 1/3 of a cup. )
  • 2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup sour cream
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • Cinnamon
  • Dash cardomom

Preparation:
1 Preheat oven to 350°F.


2 In a bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs, about a teaspoon of cinnamon, a dash of cardamom, and melted butter until well combined. Press mixture onto the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.


3 In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract until smooth. Add about four dashes of cinnamon.


4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.


5. Stir in sour cream and heavy cream.


6. Pour mixture over the crust and smooth the top with a spatula. Dust the top with a few dashes of cinnamon. 


7. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the center is almost set. *Bake with a Bain Marie or pan of hot water* on shelf below shelf you place cheesecake to bake on in the oven* I will also note that I put my springform pan on a lined cookie sheet before putting it into the oven because I have had pans like this leak before in the oven. in the case of a cheesecake. I think it helps. Keep it level as well. The original Aldi recipe does not call for these additional steps and apparently you can bake this cake without a Bain Marie.


8. Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake cool inside for 30 minutes.


9. Remove from the oven and run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the cheesecake.


10. Let it cool completely at room temperature before refrigerating for at least 4 hours or overnight.


11.Serve chilled and enjoy!

semi-homemade cream of celery soup.

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So what do you do when you end up with two giant heads of celery less than a week? You make soup. I went through recipes for cream of celery soup and I didn’t really want something that delicate. I wanted something with a little bit of flavor, so I came up with my version. Yes, wing it soup.

I saved some of my celery for the salmon cakes I’m making on Friday, but the rest of it got a rough chop and tossed into one of my soup pots with about 3 tablespoons of butter, four cloves of garlic, also chopped, and rough chopped onions. I also added salt, thyme, a couple of bay leaves, and 1/3 cup of water. I put the lid on the pot and let the vegetables cook down a few minutes.

Normally cream of celery soup calls for leeks but when I went to Aldi this week they didn’t have any, so I used red onions and yellow onions specifically are used one big red onion and two regular yellow onions.

To the onions and garlic and celery, I next added two chopped up yellow Yukon Gold potatoes I had. I also peeled and chopped small a bunch of parsnips that arrived in my vegetable box from Lancaster this week. We use Doorstep Dairy if you’re interested and are in their delivery area.

I let all the vegetables kind of meld together and cooked down about another 15 minutes. Then I used a box and a half of prepackaged chicken stock. Each box is 32 ounces so in total, I added 48 ounces of chicken stock. Two that I added a dash of Herbes de Provence. I brought it all up to a boil, then reduced to low and covered, and let everything cook.

When the parsnips and potatoes were both soft, I removed the bay leaves, and I took out my Cuisinart hand blender and puréed everything. I then let it all cook down more. I did this part of the cooking on low heat, and I stirred fairly often, so nothing stuck to the bottom of the pan. This was probably about another 40 minutes.

Then I added half a cup of half-and-half, and a dash of curry powder. Not a spicy curry powder just Keen’s Traditional Curry Powder. I know that sounds weird to add, but it just struck me that it would make a good addition to the flavor profile and I was right. I love curry so I do add curry powders to a lot of recipes.

I then use my hand blender once again, and emulsified everything a little more. I served the soup with Italian breadsticks. I have always loved breadsticks, and people always forget about them.

Now you have my semi homemade recipe for cream of celery soup. I will note I rarely use heavy cream when I do a cream based soup because I don’t like the extra thick and heavy, which means I will use half-and-half, canned unsweetened coconut milk, or even buttermilk. I think this recipe could be done with any of the above, but I just happen to have half-and-half in, so that’s what I used.

I know people don’t like it when I say a dash of this or a dash of that, but it really just is depending on what your taste level is and if you’re unsure of some thing you can always add a little less at first because you can always add a little more later.

Good soup, even semi-homemade, does take a little bit of time, but the thing about soup is you can cook it while you’re doing other things. So if you work from home it doesn’t really interfere with life.

I have been working really hard to try to use and not be wasteful with food. That even includes with leftovers. Like a pasta sauce and ricotta that was the leftover last week became baked ziti.

Food prices are crazy and what’s even nuttier are what the stores are out of from week to week and it’s not even Covid anymore. And with high food prices, it doesn’t mean you can’t eat well, it just means sometimes you have to be a little more inventive and use what you have versus buying lots of new things. I have been shopping more at places like Aldi, because they have great prices and their products are not bad.

Anyway, this is an easy enough soup to make, so I thought I would share it with you, because it did turn out to be quite delicious. I will probably have more for lunch today since it’s damp and rainy.