Fluffy Raspberry Cream Cheesecake

Its spring break and my youngest, Scarlet, wants to make some kind of yummy dessert. She likes to make desserts but rarely eats them and leaves it up to me to eat the whole thing.  We have some raspberries that are ready to go bad so I figure whatever we make we should incorporate those raspberries. We settled on making this dessert and yes I ate almost the whole thing on my own, Alexandra who flew in from NYC helped out with a piece or two.

2 8 oz. packages of cream cheese
1 t vanilla
1/2 C sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 C whipping cream
1/2 C powdered sugar
11/2 C fresh raspberries crushed and soaked in 1/4 C chambord liqueur

Crust
1 pkg oreo's without centers crushed
2 T sugar
1/4 C butter melted
In a spring form pan place a piece of parchment paper.You can butter it to make it stick. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into the bottom and part way up the sides of a spring form pan. Bake at 350 for 8 min. Put in the freezer and let cool down completely

Filling
With a mixer beat the softened cream cheese then add the vanilla, sugar, and lemon zest and set aside. Beat the whipping cream into stiff whipped cream adding the powdered sugar while beating. Fold the whipped cream and raspberry mixture into the cream cheese mixture and pour into the crust and and refrigerate until firm. It will never be as firm as regular cheese cake.

This dessert is light and fluffy and will hold its shape for a short amount of time so serve immediately!
You can make it with a graham cracker crust instead of the oreos and I think I prefer it that way but this is how Scarlet wanted it and I do think it looks pretty this way.

Giant Soft Peanut Butter Cookies

There is this bakery in Austin Texas called Texas French Bread and they have delicious cookies that I am trying to imitate. My ultimate favorite is their molasses cookie which I am still working on. My second favorite is the peanut butter cookie and by george I think I've got it! I don't eat their chocolate chip because mine are a million times better and we call them cowboy cookies. I will be posting that recipe at a later date with their story...they are amazing! They make a decent sugar cookie but mine are just a smidge better.

Now for that peanut butter cookie...first of all it is big and I love big cookies, in fact my daughters make fun of me all the time teasing me about the ever growing size of my cookies. You can tell when I get tired of baking because the cookies become enormous in my effort to just get finished. The peanut butter cookie's edges are airy so when you take a bite your mouth goes cush as you bite down. The centers are chewy and delicious. And as for most peanut butter cookies they taste more peanut buttery when they have cooled down completely.

1/4 C butter barely softened
1/4 C coconut oil
1/2 C sugar
1 C light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 C peanut butter (I used skippy natural super chunk)
1 t vanilla
1 1/4 C flour
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Blend butter and oil then add sugars. Add peanut butter and beat till smooth. Add the egg then the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture. Refrigerate the dough till cool covered in plastic wrap. Spoon the dough onto the cookie sheet and shape the edges with your fingers. Smash down the dough with a fork in a crisscross fashion until they are the height you want them. Make them kind of thick and big!
Bake them for about 12 min. unless you made them small and then only about 10 min. Let them cool on a wooden table or cutting board to assure softness.

Butternut Squash in Sage butter with Pasta

It is so fun to have different vegetables to eat in different seasons. Now that winter is almost over I will soon have to say goodbye to butternut squash until next year. Of course I love butternut squash just roasted in the oven in olive oil with salt, pepper and garlic but then I feel obliged to figure out  things to go with it. I wanted to come up with a one pot meal if you will and this is how the recipe came about.

1 squash peeled and cubed (the way I cube it, which seems the easiest for me, is to slice it first then peel around the edges.
1 med. onion roughly chopped
3 T olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic minced
1/2 stick butter
6-8 medium to large sage leaves chopped (reserve a little for sprinkling on top)
1/2-3/4 c white wine
1/2 box thin spaghetti (I used Barilla plus)

Bring a pot of salted water up to a boil.
Pour olive oil in the skillet and let it get very hot but not smoking.  Add the squash in a single layer as best as possible and let brown then turn to other side and let it brown. Add the onion and saute. Salt and pepper. Add the butter and let brown a bit then add the garlic and sage. Pour in the wine and let reduce. Put the pasta in the water to cook as the instructions on the box tell you. Turn off the squash and add another Tablespoon of butter and the reserved bit of sage.The squash should be tender by now but with more of a bite to it than if you had roasted it.Taste to see if it needs more salt and pepper then add the drained cooked pasta and toss to coat the pasta evenly with the butternut squash and sauce. Taste again for seasoning.