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.

Pimento Cheese

This recipe came from Aunt Erma Lee that I discussed in my toffee recipe. She was a marvelous cook and and seemed to make everything taste exquisite. I was standing her tiny apartment kitchen watching her cook, amazed how how she could make anything delicious come out of such a tiny space, and asked her to share with me some of her secrets for always having her dinner guests exclaiming with delight over her culinary efforts. She said, "make them wait!" It was her belief that if you were really hungry when you ate the food it tasted better and after careful thought I have decided she is right!

 I had a friend in college who wanted to come home with me for the weekend. I was so excited that I called my Mom right away to ask if she would mind having company. She said she was giving a little party and wondered if another weekend might be better. Being as impatient as I am, I insisted that Audrey be allowed to come anyway deciding that she would be a big help. We made pimento cheese as one of the dishes served with fancy crackers. It was delicious but what was funny was that years later and after Audrey and I had drifted apart living in two different cities with our own families, I get this call out of the blue and its Audrey. She says that she had never forgotten that pimento cheese and how good it was and could she have the recipe. I have to say we still get together once a year and I think what reunited us was that recipe! Audrey is in the blue!

Pimento Cheese

1 jar roasted red peppers

1 8oz. package of cream cheese (room temperature)

1 small can chopped black olives

3 cloves garlic, pressed through a garlic press

5 green onion chopped (the whole thing)

32oz. cheddar cheese, half white cheddar and half medium sharp cheddar ( I used Tillamook for the yellow cheese and Boars Head for the white)

Mayonnaise, enough to make it creamy 

Salt and Pepper to taste

Use one and a half of the of the peppers from the jar and chop them up. Chop the green onion and the tops. Shred the cheese on the standard shred size...not too fine. Put all the ingredients in a big bowl except the mayonnaise and give it a toss. Now start adding the mayonnaise until the whole thing is creamy. Refrigerate.

Recently my old high school buddies got together to celebrate a birthday and we were each to bring a favorite dish to the party and this is the one I selected. It was fun seeing everyone again!

Vegan Pizza

For this pizza I needed a little help as you well know, yeast hates me and Samantha is still in Europe and unable to help. I went to Breadsmith where they will sell you unbaked pizza dough in a ball from the refrigerator. They sell white and whole wheat and I have used both and both work well in this recipe but the picture is of the white.

The first recipe I need to give you is for the pesto...you can make it vegan or you can make it traditionally but then you don't have a vegan pizza! The pesto will keep in the freezer for longer than you can leave it in there because it is so good you will be using it a lot of other dishes.

Pesto:
2 C packed basil leaves
1/4 C toasted pine nuts
3 garlic cloves
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper
2/3 C olive oil
2-3 T nutritional yeast to taste or if you are not vegan you can use 1/2 C parmigiano reggiano

Blend the basil leaves, pine nuts, garlic, salt, and pepper in a food processor then through the top drizzle the olive oil in slowly until smooth. Stir in the nutritional yeast or for non-vegan 1/2 C grated parmigiano reggiano. Pour into ziplock container and freeze or use.

Roasted Tomatoes:
2 or 3 pounds roma tomatoes
olive oil
kosher salt, pepper, dried oregano, dried basil and garlic powder

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Slice tomatoes and place in a shallow metal baking dish (like a jelly roll pan) slightly overlapping. Sprinkle with olive oil then shake on the salt, pepper, oregano, basil, and garlic powder. Place the pan in the oven uncovered for 5 or 6 hours. They will shrivel up but don't let them burn. Let them cool and place in a ziplock container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Now for the pizza:

Pizza dough
Pesto
Roasted Tomatoes
1/4 C toasted pine nuts
1 small can black olives sliced
2 t  fresh chopped rosemary
5 large basil leaves sliced or chopped

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with pizza brick in the oven.
Roll out the rested pizza dough on a floured surface to about 1/8 of an inch. Place the dough on the pizza brick in the oven and poke holes with a fork and cook for about 5 min. It should be slightly browned on top of some of the bubbles and the edges.Take it out and evenly spread on the pesto on the dough then add some chopped fresh rosemary. Place the roasted tomatoes on top and then sprinkle on some black olives and toasted pine nuts. Add the fresh basil on top and put back in the oven for about 5 more minutes until edges are well browned. Remove and cool slightly to serve.

Mexican Chocolate Caramel Cake

My youngest daughter has deferred college for a bit while she travels the world and right now she is along the southern Pacific coast of Mexico in Puerto Escondido. It is so beautiful and warm there that I am seriously considering selling everything I own to buy a house and live out the rest of my days in pure paradise!

All this got me thinking about chocolate cake! I wanted to make a cake that captured the essence of Mexico and I wanted it to taste like Mexican hot chocolate which I love so much. Scarlet had brought me some Mexican coffee the last time she had come back from one of her trips to Mexico and I still had it in the freezer unopened. I was going to use a simple base chocolate cake that called for coffee and used mayonnaise. I decided to doctor up the coffee to get the flavor I wanted so I added cinnamon and Mexican vanilla and then brewed it up...I used a french press. It smelled amazing...just what I needed to get the flavor that I wanted!

Then I thought what else can I add to evoke that Mexican flavor experience and thoughts of dulce de leche ice cream crossed my mind. So I decided to make a caramel sauce that I could pour over the cake like a tres leches cake.

Here is the recipe I came up with:

11/2 C flour ( I used Gold Medal unbleached flour)
1 C sugar
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/2 C dutch processed cocoa
2 ounces 60% cocoa bittersweet baking chocolate bar chopped fine
1 C hot coffee brewed with 1 T cinnamon, 2 t Mexican vanilla or any premium vanilla, and  4 T sugar in a french press
2/3 C mayonnaise
1 large egg
2 t  Mexican vanilla or any premium vanilla like Madagascar
sifted powdered sugar and cinnamon for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter an 8 in. square baking dish.Whisk flour,sugar,baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl pour hot coffee over the chocolate and whisk till smooth then add the mayo, egg, and vanilla and whisk again. Add chocolate mixture to the flour mixture and whisk till just combined and smooth. Pour into the baking dish and bake in middle of the oven for 30 to 35 min. or a wooden pick comes out almost clean when inserted into the middle of the cake.

Caramel Sauce:
4 T unsalted butter
1 C light brown sugar packed
pinch of salt
1 C heavy cream
1 T Triple Sec orange liqueur

Melt butter in a small pot on the stove over med. high heat. Whisk in the brown sugar and salt till smooth and cook until darkened for about 3 to 4 min. Add part of the cream whisk smooth then add the rest along with the Tripple Sec and reduce the heat to low and simmer about 3 min. till bubbly on top.

Dust the top of the cake with cinnamon sugar and poke holes all around the top of the cake while still warm. Pour the half of the caramel sauce over the cake taking care to get some in each hole.

Pour remaining caramel sauce over slices of cake when you serve them. This cake can be served warm or room temperature. Just warm up the sauce to serve.

Blackeyed Peas and Wild Rice

Happy New Year!

I remember my Mom making blackeyed peas every new year and she would force one bite down me so we wouldn't be destitute for the next year. She was very superstitious, you know, turning around if a black cat crossed our path, never venturing under a ladder, and having to say "cut the butter" if we had to split up walking around a pole. I am not superstitious at all but I like the tradition and comfort of having certain foods at designated times.
 I sort of look at food as seasonal even though my girls say that what I do is completely arbitrary. Some examples are that I like to save oatmeal cookies and pot roast for fall, tres leches cake and fish tacos for summer and toffee and beef burgundy for winter.
New years day equals blackeyed peas so I had to come up with a recipe that would make me want to eat them. An old boyfriend introduced me to a blackeyed pea casserole that I couldn't stop eating. Unfortunately, it relied on bacon and bacon fat so I clearly had to come up with something new when my daughters got older and opinionated.

Here is the recipe we are all happy with:

1 onion chopped
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 large sprig of fresh rosemary chopped
1 15.8 oz. can of blackeyed peas drained ( I used Bush's)
1 C homemade vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
1 C wild rice cooked in homemade vegetable broth cooked according to instructions (I used Lundberg Wild Blend)

In a med. sized pot cook the wild rice in vegetable broth according to the package instructions.

Drizzle olive oil in a skillet on high heat and then add the chopped onion and salt and pepper. Saute until edges are browned. Turn down heat to med high and add the rosemary and cook for a minute or two then add the garlic for just a few seconds. Add in the broth and blackeyed peas that have been drained and salt and pepper again then reduce a bit.
When the wild rice is done pour the blackeyed pea mixture over the rice and mix.

You can add sauteed mushrooms if you like...just slice a handful of mushrooms and saute them in butter till browned in the skillet before you add the onion then follow the recipe as usual.