Hi folks. Today is a very special day. 1 year ago today I entered the blogosphere. I was encouraged to open a cooking blog by a very dear friend named Amy Valentino. I met Amy online playing a game called Mousehunt. After playing the game together for some time we became buddies. I was always posting what I was making for dinner or what I was baking on facebook. Quite frankly I was making people drool on keyboards before even opening the blog. Â I started to get a lot of requests for recipes. As you know I am a pretty busy mom. Even though my kids are older I am still fairly involved in the day to day stuff. So time has always been a factor for me. I hate taking time away from my kids. So I was trying to figure out how to get recipes to the people who wanted them without always needing to be at the computer sending emails. Amy mentioned a blog would be useful as people could just get them there. I was unsure at first. I had only read one blog and really did not know much about them. Me being me I jumped in with both feet. I kept the blog on the down low for months and months. I know it's shocking to you all but I am actually sort of shy and quiet. I know right! Hard to believe. I coasted along posting recipes with terrible pictures for months. Then I found foodbuzz and started to connect with other bloggers. It was a bit of a rocky start. At one point I almost quit as I had a couple of ladies who were not very kind to me. I think I assumed every one blogging was kind and friendly. Most are but I was unfortunate to run into a couple who were not. It almost had me quitting. Then I had a chat with a lady you all know as my bbff, Dee from Deelicious Sweets. She set me straight and got my head in the right place. From there the rest is history. So a huge thank you to Miss Amy Valentino for giving me the push to start this blog. Also a big thank you to Dee for giving me the best advice and keeping me from throwing in the kitchen towel.
When I started I had no idea how time consuming blogging could be. Doing quality posts and trying to improve photography is a ton of hard work. It's work worth doing though. I have always been passionate about cooking. I had no idea I would find passion in the writing as well. I enjoy it immensely. There are days where trying to be funny is hard, I'm not going to lie. Without a long drawn out story my life is difficult at best. We have been faced with some huge challenges this past year but I really try to keep that part of my life off the blog as best I can. Some days trying to be upbeat and cheery can be quite difficult. But I just refuse to let my circumstances dictate my mood or my voice. I may not have control of some things in my life, but I sure can control my attitude. I love to laugh and have a great time. I hope that comes through every day on the blog. I really am having this much fun with life. There's little taken seriously here. At the end of the day you can choose to laugh or cry, I always choose to laugh.
I'd like to take a minute to thank everyone who reads. Without you this blog is just dead air. You give it life with every comment. It means the absolute world to me that you enjoy visiting and welcome my zany life into yours. Hearing back from people who have made recipes lights up my life. Having you all share in my adventures of mommyhood also makes me happy. The fact that you all know me so well, and the kids shows how invested you are. I do not take that lightly. I never will.
So moving forward this little blog will continue to go through changes to make it operate more smoothly. I will be adding things and changing things that I think will enhance the site. If you ever have any suggestions or requests never hesitate to shoot me an email. I enjoy the feedback and am always thrilled to hear from readers. I hope I can continue to improve the site and myself while never forgetting the root of it all is the reader. If I ever have a moment where I seem too big for my britches feel free to slap me a little bit. Or a lot. Whatever works.
I am trying really hard to improve my photography. I am somewhat limited by my craptastic camera. Every day I work with it I try to figure out how to best utilize it and work it to it's full potential. A new camera is a huge priority but until hubs is working again it's taking a back seat. But I promise once things improve it's on the list of must haves. Better photos are a must moving forward. I think I've hit the proverbial wall with this old thing.
So enough of the talky talk talk. I love ya, I appreciate ya, I shall try to continue to entertain ya, and above all I shall feed ya! Muah Lunatic fans, you rock my Lunatic world! xx
Ingredients
- 1 cup whipping cream
- ½ cup icing sugar
- 1 package 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 2 squares semi-sweet chocolate melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¾ cup graham crumbs or Oreo crumbs
- ¾ cup skor bits
- ¾ chopped pecans
- 1 batch of caramel sauce recipe link below
- 2 ounces of chocolate melted or chopped for garnishing top
Instructions
- In a mixer combine your whipping cream and icing sugar until well blended. You should see some peaks and then you know it’s ready.
- In another bowl using a mixer beat your cream cheese until super smooth.
- Now add half the cream cheese to mixer with whipping cream and icing sugar and beat until well blended. Once it is add the other half and continue beating until smooth.
- Now add your melted semi-sweet chocolate and vanilla and beat again. Scrape sides as needed.
- Now take 4 canning jars, I used the 250 ml size.
- Place a layer of graham crumbs in each jar. You will be repeating this step so don’t use them all. I used about 2 tablespoons per jar for each layer if I recall correctly.
- Now add a layer of chocolate cheesecake filling.
- Now add a layer of skor bits and pecans.
- Now repeat those steps by adding a layer a graham crumbs.
- Then chocolate cream cheese.
- Then skor bits and pecans.
- Pour your caramel sauce over top.
- Now garnish with either chopped chocolate or melted chocolate.
- Now pop them in the fridge for about an hour or two.
- Serve with a smile!
Caramel sauce recipe can found on Banana Sticky Buns.
Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. You all know I love me some Turtles. For more Turtle recipes follow the links below:
Yup, I need a new hobby. Preferably one that shrinks my butt not expands it! But who can resist Turtles.
Toodles and smoochies! xx
The Mom Chef ~ Taking on Magazines One Recipe at a Time
Happy blog anniversary! I'm so thrilled that I landed on your page one day and have been able to follow along with your food discoveries. Even though I'm not a chocolate fan, I do love me some cheesecake and caramel so this lands right in the realm of what I'd devour. It looks amazing.
wok with ray
This cheesecake looks amazing. Congratulations on the first anniversary of your blog. Wishing you more success, Kim!
Christine
Congrats on your blogiversary!
Janet@FCTC
I'm so glad you decided to start a blog, Kim. Please keep doing it for about another 72 years... then we'll let you stop 🙂
Alyssa
Happy blogiversary! I love people's stories of how they came to blogging. You certainly are a natural. I love this cheesecake too. One of the only cheesecakes I actually like is turtle. I love that you made it in a jar too!
missymaki
You have GOT to be kidding men - this is ridonkulously awesome! YUMMY! Well done!
Deeps @ Naughty Curry
wow, one year? congrats! i love ur blog & ur cute stories, a big fan of ur wit & humour too. really respect ur attitude towards life, even i believe in choosing laughter over tears 🙂 the cheesecake looks mouth watreing. wishing u many more years of blogging
Emily @ Life on Food
Happy 1 year! You hit on so many key points about blogging and its challenges as well as incentives. So glad you found support and kept going. You little jars of goodness look fantastic. I wish I could order one up for breakfast! 🙂
Tya @ Note Etc.
congratulation for your blog first anniversary Kim!, I hope you never stop to writing blog because you have natural talent to cook and writing anything from it. your turtle cheesecake remind me of the first time I'm I saw your blog, you made a dish and it put on Jars too, and you always made a wonderful presentation in a Jars, and your food and snack always amazing and I love it.
so once again Happy 1st Anniversary for your blog!
cheers
Denise
Congrats on One year!! I will be there in about a week so we began at the same time. I appreciate your sharing about the ups and downs. I love blogging when I feel like people are reading and enjoying the recipes but I have never had a lot of response. Sometimes I am not sure why I do it and then I talk to someone or read a comment that says how much they love making this recipe or that and it all seems worthwhile. My little blog is not any where near as nice or popular as yours but I enjoy it. However, hats off to you that you perservered even when some people were mean. I think I might have given up. I am so glad you didn't because you have an awesome blog!!
I am not an expert ( my photos are pretty awful) but I know that your photos look really good to me. i think composition in a photo is very important and you set up your shots to look very appealing and fun! You are very creative and have a great eye for pictures. Your recipes are great and it is fun to read your blog. So please know we are all grateful you are here and you are doing a wonderful job. Here's to learning and growing for another year...just where might that take you??!
Happy Blogging, keep up the excellent work!
Carolyn
Woohoo! Happy blogiversary!!! Mine was yesterday, but it was my 2nd.
Jessica | Oh Cake
Actually your photos are pretty great. I love the way you set up the shots in this post for example. I completely understand when you talk about the blogging being hard - it's so time consuming! But yes, so worth it. I'm sorry to hear you had a rough start with some not nice people - that just seems so unnecessary. Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to the air, but (for now anyway) people have been great - including you! Thank you for welcoming me to the blogosphere and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!
Kiri W.
Congratulations! Amazing how far you've come, and honestly, your photography is amazing. 🙂 Love your blog and you, but you know that!
Cucina49
Happy blogiversary! I look forward to reading your posts for a long time to come. This cheesecake looks like the perfect dish to celebrate with.
Dee at Deelicious Sweets
Omg, BBFF! You are the total sweetest girl on earth! Could you even imagine being a celebrity? I mean, you're in the store, checking out, and you look over at the magazines and you're on the cover in your swimsuit for all the world to see. I don't know how they do it. I'm sure lot's of drugs are involved, LOL! Anyhoo, little woman, your pictures are beautiful and I love you you loony loon <3
Oh, and that Turtle Cheesecake = da bomb diggity!!
Dara
Happy Blog Birthday! Congrats on a wonderful year. I love anything in a jar, so I am totally charmed by these cheesecakes - however - you really are a turtle addict! 🙂
Amy
🙂 Awww thank you for the shoutout! (I'm actually getting around to catching up on my blog reading so I apologize for ALL OF THE COMMENTS YOU WILL BE GETTING. Ahem) Just remember me when you're famous...and send me food. 🙂
Joan Hayes@chocolate and more
Kim, I love this recipe, I'm all about no-bake!
Congrats on your blogiversary, it's so good to get to know you a little better and I'm so glad you didn't let those few "unkind" ladies get the better of you, it would be our loss.
Big hugs!
Kim Bee
Thanks so much Joan. I love a good no bake recipe. I refuse to let other people control my moods. I am so glad I kept my cool and stuck with blogging. Hugs right back at ya.