CHEESECAKE MUFFINS/CUPCAKES

This is an easy cheesecake recipe that I tweaked a lil bit to suit my needs. So, play around with it, and I hope you like it!

CHEESECAKE
2 8oz packages of cream cheese (room temperature and softened)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

CRUST
About half box of crushed vanilla wafers or graham cracker crumbs
Butter

CRUST: Melt half stick of butter slowly. (in a microwaveable bowl is fine).
Mix with cookie crumbs until sticky and pasty, shoudn't be too loose or firm. Eyeball it. Leave in warm place so butter doesn't re-solidify.

CHEESECAKE: Beat all until smooth; at least 5 minutes. You can sub splenda for sugar. You can also sub vanilla flavoring for lemon flavoring. I prefer lemon myself.

Press the crumb/butter mixture in the bottom of aluminum or paper cupcake lined cupcake pan. Then fill with cheesecake mixture about 1/4 inch from the top of the cupcake liner. Bake at about 375degrees for 15 minutes. Let cool for an hour in open air, and then chill in fridge for about 2 hours. (if you can wait that long) Smear the top with your favorite fruit compote/jam/preserves or drizzle with chocolate or eat plain.

SUBSTITUTIONS/ADDITIONS Cookie crust with thin cut out rounds of pound/chocolate/angel food/ur favorite cake. You can even slice thin slices cake and layer the cake and cheesecake batter in the muffin tins. <---that is awesome.

You can also use chocolate graham cracker crumbs or butter cookie crumbs or your favorite cookie crumbs in the cookie/butter mixture.

Flavor the cheesecake batter with key limes (key lime cheesecake is the bizness). Top with your fav candy (broken frozen reeces pnut butter cups or m&m's r the bizness too!)

These are just my suggestions. Have fun with it.

NOTE: This recipe does not work well with full size cheesecake. So stick to muffins/cupcakes and use a traditional cheesecake recipe something larger.

It's been a long time...shouldn't have left you. (well not really, I just like that line)

Hello folks. It's been a short minute, but a minute nonetheless. Just two things I want to touch on. Enjoy, comment, don't comment, point & jeer, stare, complain, accuse, criticize, whatever....just read...lol.

1. WELFARE
Just a little gem of the welfare system from God's point of view. This is straight from His word, the #Bible.

• Leviticus 19:10 says: Don't strip your grapevines clean or gather the grapes that fall off the vines. Leave them for the poor and for those foreigners who live among you. I am the LORD your God. (CEV)
• Leviticus 23:22 says: When you harvest your grain, always leave some of it standing around the edges of your fields and don't pick up what falls on the ground. Leave it for the poor and for those foreigners who live among you. I am the LORD your God! (CEV)

In both these passages, people who owned farmland would harvest their fields. Of course it was more manual than it is by today's standards without machinery and such. When harvesting, crops fell. The poor and those travelling could harvest the crops left behind. The thing was, they had to WORK. They had to go into the field after the harvesters and gather, bundle, package, and haul the leftover crops themselves. So God's system of welfare shows us 2 things:

• Those who "have" should not be greedy and take everything for themselves. Leave some for those in need.
• Those who "have not" should have to work in order to receive what is left for them.

By today's standards, the gathering of leftover crops is not that likely. But what about requiring welfare recipients to volunteer in various capacities? Welfare can be used as a stepping stone for those who view it that way. I don't think the welfare system in and of itself is bad, but I think the way it is carried out can use some tweaking, from both ends, recipients and administrators. DONE.

2. MEN PRAISING GOD

Had a brief dialogue with some twitter cohorts on this subject. While we did not get deep into it, we got talked enough to express a few points. There is this general view of men in church. Either they don't praise God enough, they praise God too much, perceived as being effeminate or gay, or they are just non-existent/inactive in church. I could blog all day about men in church. But let me stick to MEN PRAISING GOD. When a man praises, it should be LIKE A MAN! There should be nothing remotely feminine about a man's praise. When a man claps, it should sound like the crackle of God's lightening. When a man plays a tambourine, it should sound like the mighty boom of God's thunder. When a man dances before the Lord it should be joyous and like David danced, with all of his might. If a man dances with all of his might, the steps are not light, nor with flair, but I believe that his foot stomps will shake the very foundation of satan's kingdom and send reverberating earthquakes in the dominion of hell! This is why many men don't come to church, because it is made out to be the woman's domain. JESUS WAS A MAN. Check this, he was a carpenter. DID HE HAVE POWER TOOLS? DID HE HAVE ERGONOMIC HAND TOOLS? Naw, he had MUSCLE and BRAWN. He had to be strong and burly to be a carpenter and good at what he did. So why do men perceive that church is girly and womanly? Yes we have to have compassion and love and be gentle and kind. None of those things are feminine in nature. Men, we can be those things and still be macho and manly. Its all in the way that it's done. Men, praise God like men. AND I'M DONE!

That's all for now...be blessed. Peace.

Minister Q