Chocolate and saffron cheesecake – Cakes and tarts

This is one of my favorite cheesecakes, next to almond creme cheesecake, which is sometimes a little complicated. (I don’t have a ready recipe for that and traditionally, it is a winter holiday cheesecake: the almond creme cheesecake.) But the taste of saffron, gives the cheesecake a special dimension that you are not used to tasting and brings out all the vanilla creme tartness of the rest of the ingredients.

So, if you are not sure what dry chocolate biscuits to you, I suggest using Stella D’Oro’s Chocolate Margherites. They are delicious by themselves, but they should easily work for the crust requirements. (I have provided a picture of them for easy identification on a shopping visit to a standard grocery’s cookie isle.)

 

Chocolate and saffron cheesecake – Cakes and tarts

 

 

Squid fry – Fish

Since I introduced so many Italian ingredients into Independence Week, I couldn’t leave out fried squid. This is a real snack-meal for picnics and BBQ’s if brought to the table on time from the kitchen. So you’d have to be having an at home picnic for it. But, it’s also true, that, it seems to make its way into a lot of Italian and Greco-Roman Festivals and National Festivals of all kinds.

 

Squid fry – Fish