Baking with Dragons

Baking with Dragons Oreo Cheesecake

Nora Taing

With Thanksgiving being right around the corner, you should treat yourself to some dessert (even if you are not celebrating this year)! This easy recipe for cheesecake is perfect if you are craving something sweet. There is no baking required (so no need to clean your oven for this). You can make a regular cheesecake by substituting the Oreos for Honey Graham crackers as the base. In this recipe, we will be using Oreos for the base and toppings!

Ingredients

- A 5-inch cake pan (preferably springform to easily get smooth sides) - 10-12 vanilla Oreo cookies (a good amount to cover the base of the pan) - 2 tbsp of melted butter 100 g of cream cheese (room temperature) - 3 tbsp confectioners sugar (also known as powdered sugar) - 100 g of cream cheese (room temperature) - ¼ tsp vanilla extract - 250 ml of heavy whipping cream (chilled)

1. Put the Oreos in a ziplock bag. Get a tool with a hard, flat surface. I suggest using a meat tenderizer for this step. Using all your pent up anger, smash them cookies! >:0 Break the Oreos up until they become fine crumbs.

2. Transfer the Oreo crumbs into a bowl and add your melted butter. Mix! The butter will be the glue to stick the crumbs together and shapen the base. Once mixed, add the crumbs into the pan and flatten it. Make sure to cover the entire bottom part of the pan. Set it aside in the freezer to get the base hardened when finished.

3. In another bowl, add your chilled cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix until they’re well combined. Next, add your whipping cream and beat with a whisk or hand mixer.

4. Take out your chilled pan, and add the cream cheese mixture into the pan. Smooth the layer with a rubber spatula. This is the part where you can add whatever toppings you’d like! I like to top it off with chocolate ganache, which can be easily made by simmering heavy whipping cream in a pot and pouring it over a bowl of chocolate chips. I also like to add pieces of fruit such as strawberries and raspberries.

5. Place your cake in the freezer for an hour or two to get it nice and chilly. And that’s it!

I give credit to David Hood for making this great recipe. You can check out his other recipes on his website or Youtube channel. Stay safe, everyone, and have a great Thanksgiving!

Dining with the Dragons: Pho Lucky Noodle House By: Elizabeth Rocili

I ordered food from Pho Lucky Noodle House, which is a Vietnamese restaurant located in Stockton. They serve a variety of delicious foods, including pho, soups, noodles, rice, and meats. They also serve boba here. Pho Lucky is open every day from 9:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M.

The food here is available for take out and delivery through DoorDash and GrubHub. I ordered through DoorDash, and it took about 45 minutes to arrive, which isn’t too long of a wait. Because you are ordering through one of the apps, there is a delivery fee on top of the cost of the actual food.

I thought that the food was phenomenal. I ordered the pho, with brisket and rare steak, and it was amazing. I also ordered the pork fried rice to share with my family. My sister ordered the spring rolls, which had shrimp and pork inside of them. She also ordered a mocha drink with boba. The food wasn’t too expensive either. My bowl of pho cost $7.95. A lot of the other restaurants that I have ordered from for these articles have been a little more expensive, but I think that this place had the best food and the price was really good.

The last time I ordered food from this restaurant, it was before Covid, so I hadn’t ordered the food to go. When the food was delivered, I was actually surprised to see that the noodles, meat, onion, cilantro, mint, and sprouts came in a seperate box, while the broth for the pho came in a separate container on the side. Once the food is delivered, you can add what you want to a bowl. Once I put the food in a bowl, I left out the sprouts, because I personally do not like sprouts. Since this was the first time I ordered this food to be delivered, it was surprising, but the taste of the food was still as amazing as it was the last time I ate it.

Whenever I eat here, I usually order the same pho every time. However, this time I wanted to try the pork fried rice, because I always think that it sounds really good, but I have just never ordered it before. I am glad I ordered the rice because I actually think that I liked it more than the pho. The rice had great flavor to it, especially with the taste of the pork inside of it. Another thing that I really liked about the food that I ordered was the taste of the broth for the pho. This dish had an amazing flavor that was extremely prominent every time with every bite of the meat or the noodles. I liked ordering pho, especially since it has been getting colder outside and soup always makes me feel warm in the fall or winter.

When ordering the pho, there is an option for a small or large bowl, and the large is only one dollar more. If you order the large, it comes with a little more noodles, yet the small bowl already comes with plenty of food.

I would give this restaurant a 5 out of 5 stars because the food here was outstanding. I would definitely order food from this restaurant again. If you really like Vietnamese food, then you should definitely try Pho Lucky Noodle House!