Blueberry Cheesecake

Dad is the cheesecake man. He makes really fantastic cheesecakes that are ginormous. And that means they are really, really big. Since I don't get to see him very often, he made a huge effort to make every yummy treat he knew how to make.

It resulted in 4 cheesecakes and a key lime pie in a week. I gained 5 pounds. Mom and Hali counted the desserts in the fridge one night: 5 choices. Obviously I had one of each. Every night. Someone please save me from myself. Nobody should be so committed to dessert. (But it is really good.)

If you know Dad, give him a call. He is the cheesecake man. If you don't know him you will have to make your own cheesecake. Several other flavors will be coming soon.

Blueberry Cheese Cake

Crust

For 10 inch springform pan For 9 inch springform pan

1 ½ cups vanilla wafer crumbs 1 cup vanilla wafer crumbs

¾ cup flaked coconut – toasted ½ cup flaked coconut – toasted

3/8 cup finely chopped walnuts ¼ cup finely chopped walnuts

3 T sugar 1/8 cup sugar

½ cup butter – melted 6 T butter – melted (a little less butter works ok) Combine 1st 4 ingredients in bowl – stir in butter Press onto bottom an 1 in up sides of springform pan Refrigerate for 15 min.

Cook Sauce

2 ½ cups blueberries

¼ cup sugar (combine sugar and cornstarch before adding) (little less sugar)

3 t cornstarch

1 T water

1 T lemon juice

Cook until it thickens.

Filling

3 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese – softened

1 (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Beat cream cheese and condensed milk till combined. Add eggs and vanilla; beat till combined Pour ½ in to crust. Add ½ of blueberry sauce. Add rest of filling. Swirl in the rest of blueberry sauce. Place pan on baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 50 to 60 min or until center is nearly set Cool for 10 min. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen. Refrigerate overnight

Nasturtium Orange Butter - And Other Creations

Aunt Marie sent me home with a bouquet of edible flowers. They were beautiful and I was thrilled - but a bit hesitant to actually eat a flower.

We wanted an excuse to see her, so we asked if we could help weed her garden. She saw through our excuses but let us come. Aunt Louise got the short end of the stick because I left with FOUR BAGS of loot and she got nothing. I guess the moral of the story is if I volunteer to help, hide your stuff because I may be really excited to use all the wonderful things growing in your garden. It's my garden envy and I must wear it on my sleeve because everyone gave me some food as a gift. At any rate, I'm a lucky, lucky girl.

Thanks, Aunt Marie. I loved everything that came from your garden and you are so generous.

These are stuffed with cream cheese and chives and next time I get my hands on a few blooms I am going to try the honey and walnut recipe.

A salad with a few gorgeous blooms as garnish looks really fancy. Aunt Marie is so nice and fun. I wish I lived closer to her so I could see her every day.

Nasturtium Orange Butter

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 t orange peel, grated

1 T lime juice

3 T nasturtium blossoms, finely chopped

Herbed Cream Cheese Stuffed Nasturtium Blossoms

3 ounces softened cream cheese
1 T heavy cream
2 T minced fresh chives

Nasturtium Stuffed with Honey, Cream Cheese, and Walnuts

3/4 cup cream cheese, softened

4 T sour cream

1 T fresh lemon juice

3 T honey

1 t vanilla

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup chopped golden raisins

20 nasturtiums and leaves, washed and dried

Salt to taste
30 large nasturtium blossoms

Monkey Bread Monkeys

Cienna promised to show me how to make monkey bread. I remembered it as a gooey, sticky, caramelized treat when I was a kid. Could it possibly be as good now?

Apparently these kids think so. They must be the monkey bread monkeys. I thought it was great, too.

Monkey Bread

In glass pie pan or bundt cake pan, mix:

2 T butter

1 T water

1/3 C brown sugar

If you are over 40 years old, add chopped nuts.

Heat in microwave 30 seconds, or until butter melts (optional)

Cut refrigerator biscuits into quarters. Add to sugar mixture and stir to coat. Push away from center and put a glass in the center.

Cook in the microwave 3 1/2 minutes or bake in the oven 10 minutes at 400 degrees. If you are using the bundt cake pan you have to bake it. Flip onto a plate and serve immediately. Double recipe if you are serving more than 6 people.

Strawberry Daiquiri

When we woke up 2 hours later than we had planned on Saturday morning, Kevin called the strawberry farm to ask if we could come later in the day. They stayed open until 1:00, so we drove to the farm and picked a flat of berries before coming home and devouring half of them. Then we realized that they would be gone soon if we didn't stop eating and start cooking.

Of course, freezer jam was on the 'absolutely must' list. If you are in need of a little jam, send me an email or a comment and I'll put you on the Christmas list. Or the 4th of July list. It lasts a year in the freezer, and we have been looking for things to give people that are consumables and not super-de-duper unhealthy. Not that jam can be classified as healthy....

I can't give you a recipe for freezer jam because all brands of pectin are slightly different so you have to use the recipe on the box. Get the 'low sugar' pectin.

The jam was setting and the berries were still looking at me when we started getting ready for a party. I suddenly realized that I hadn't had a strawberry daiquiri since 11th grade, when I ordered one on a date. It was sweet and cold and tasted just like summer should. Of course, it was a virgin one, and it was exactly the taste I wanted to sip all night.

I found a recipe and proceeded to change the amounts and ingredients. You know how I once said that I always make a recipe exactly according to the directions the first time? Well, I've been paying attention since then, and I haven't made a recipe exactly as written in over a year. Oh, well. I guess no recipe is safe in my hands.

The original called for lemon juice and white sugar, but I don't like lemon and I had a bottle of maple syrup in the fridge that was starting to crystallize. If you use regular sugar, mix it with the other juices and blend it for a bit before adding the ice to make sure it dissolves. The orange juice is so good that I highly doubt anyone will ever want to use lemon juice ever again.

Strawberry Daiquiri

1/4-1/3 C maple syrup (start with 1/4 C and add more if you want it to be sweeter)

4 ounces frozen strawberries

1/8 C lime juice

1/2 C orange juice

3 cups ice

spiced rum such as Captain Morgan (optional)

Mix everything except the rum in the blender until it is slushy and there are no ice chunks.Pour into a glass and top with a fresh strawberry and serve with a straw and an umbrella.

If you want this to be a little more like a sorbet, put it in the freezer and get it out every half hour to blend it again with the stick blender until it is frozen. That way it will stay scoopable but still icy instead of freezing into one large ice block.

If you plan to add the rum, use closer to 1/3 or 1/2 C of maple syrup and let each person add their own rum so they can choose how strong to make it.

Bye, bye, strawberry hulls.

Almond Rhubarb Coffee Cake

If you have ever wondered how heaven tastes, I've found the perfect recipe to give you a little preview. It's the almond and it is so good.

Khuong had a baby boy and has been out of the office for a couple of weeks, so when he stopped by WITHOUT his new baby but WITH a bag of rhubarb for me, I was filled with mixed emotions. Hopefully I get to get that new baby soon!

Last year he brought me bags and bags of rhubarb and I cooked a gazillion rhubarb recipes. By the end of the season I was so tired of rhubarb. He was going to rip our his rhubarb plants because he doesn't like it and doesn't want to devote so much of his yard to it. Thank goodness it squeaked in another year, because I have been craving a rhubarb fix for a while.

After eating one piece of cake, I took the rest to work where I proceeded to break one of the red heart dishes in a clumsa-tastrophe (which happens to be a clumsy catastrophe.) I may have to reconsider traveling with my fancy stuff. On one hand, I love to bring fun food to share with my friends, but I also know that my clumsy self isn't very well suited to nice things. *sigh*

Almond Rhubarb Coffee Cake

1 1/2 C packed brown sugar

2/3 C oil

1 egg

1 t vanilla

1/4 t almond extract

2 1/2 C whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose)

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

1 C milk

1 1/2 C chopped rhubarb

1/2 C sliced almonds

1/3 C white sugar

1 T melted butter

1/4 C sliced almonds

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9 inch round pans (or whatever pans suit your fancy.) In a large bowl, beat brown sugar, oil, egg, vanilla, and almond extract until smooth. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to sugar mixture alternately with milk. Beat until smooth. Stir in rhubarb and milk. Pour into prepared pans. In a small bowl, combine white sugar and butter. Stir in 1/4 C almonds. Sprinkle over batter. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cake tests done.

Strawberry Topped Brownies

Are you scared of sweetened condensed milk? If so run far, far away. And hand me your brownie before you scamper off.

The brownie itself is nothing special. It is made with a brownie mix - any box will do. Add one more egg than it calls for to make it a little extra cakey. You can make them in a pan or in cupcake papers. This time I made regular cupcakes and mini cupcakes because I wanted less messy individual servings.

Then. Get. Ready. To. Be. Delighted. The frosting is what makes these brownies delicious. It is sweet and tangy and shouldn't be eaten by the spoonful, although it is tempting. Someone please come hide all my spoons because they are just BEGGING me to get a heap of this sticky sweet ambrosia and eat the rest of the bowl.

Brownie Topping

1 Can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 C cold water

1 pkg instant pudding (vanilla, white chocolate, or cheesecake)

4 oz whipped topping, thawed

1 pint fresh strawberries

Mix the sweetened condensed milk and cold water, then beat in the pudding. Chill for 5 minutes and add the whipped topping. Spread on cooled brownies and top with sliced strawberries. Serve within a couple of hours. The strawberries start to get icky after too long.

Mmmm...tempting dessert or tantalizing husband.....delicious dessert or deliciously sweet hubby....can I have both?

Potato Salad with No Mustard

Mustard. It is such a divisive condiment. The person in my household who is in favor of mustard (Kevin) tends to be the one who makes the potato salad so it usually contains mustard. When Kevin volunteered to bring kabobs to a dinner party last weekend, and then decided to make some potato salad to go with it, I was ready to eat first so I wouldn't be hungry when I declined half the dinner. But then he found a mustard-less potato salad recipe and harmony was restored to our fridge.

This recipe is absolutely the bestestest potato salad I have ever had. That isn't saying too much because it is the first potato salad I have ever liked, but it is a tasty side dish. Even Kevin liked it better than the yellow version.

Potato Salad

1 1/2 pounds red-skinned potatoes, scrubbed and peeled
2 large eggs, hard-boiled, peeled, and chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped green onion (scallions)
2/3 to 3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon sour cream, optional
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Boil a large pot of water and put the peeled potatoes in it. Cook until they are almost soft, then drain and cool. They should be a little more firm than you would like them since they will cook a little more while they cool. While waiting for the potatoes to cool mix the rest of the ingredients together, leaving out the eggs. When everything is mixed, chop the cooled potatoes and eggs and mix until coated. The more you mix the more the potatoes and eggs crumble, so stir as little as possible.

Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Have a great day, Mom! You're the best Mom in the whole, entire, total world!!

The Good Daughter

by: Judith Viorst

She's been a good daughter, my mother Kay
(In contrast to Walter her brother,
Who showed no respect). And she kept her room clean
And she never talked fresh to her mother.

In college she tried, while maintaining straight A's,
To write twice a week or more often
(Unlike that bum Walter, who just called collect
And with news that drove nails in their coffin).

The boys Kay went with were all that her folks
And their gin club and swim club expected.
(The girls Walter went with her folks only prayed
That he wouldn't come home from infected.)

Above-the-waist petting was all she allowed
Till the day she was led to the alter.
Yes, good is the word for my mother Kay.
(Heck knows what the word is for Walter.)

She's been a good daughter, my mother Kay,
As well as a good wife and mother.
She promised her folks that she's taking them in
When they're old. (Could they go live with her brother?)

On how to raise children and which car to buy
She accepts their suggestions, and gladly.
(That Walter, believe me, you can't tell a thing.
He responds to advice very badly.)

Kay, when a card should be sent, sends a card,
And a birthday is never forgotten.
(That Walter can't even remember the day
That his mother was born. Is that rotten?)

At forty Kay can look back on a life
Where she followed the rules to the letter
And won the esteem of her mother and dad,
Except-they like Walter much better.

Butternut Soup with Pear, Cider, and Vanilla

Last time the girls were is town we made 3 separate dishes with cream. I have never seen so much cream at one time in the grocery store, much less in my fridge.

When we were shopping for cream (and a few other non essentials such as flour and eggs) a beautiful butternut squash jumped into my hands at Trader Joe's; I cradled it to my chest and rocked it back and forth in excitement. Katie was the unwilling witness to the scene and she laughed so hard that she almost fell on the ground. What an actress. Sheesh. I tell ya....

The girls eventually left and when I had recovered from being worn ragged (seriously - how do you parents with more than 2 kids do it??) I realized that there was still 1 full carton of cream in the fridge.

What on earth do you do with so much cream?? I used it instead of milk on cereal, hoping that my jeans wouldn't get any ideas and start to shrink. That's what happens when they get really, really tight, right?

Then I noticed the butternut squash sitting as quiet as a church mouse in the cupboard. It was time to make butternut squash and pear soup. It is so hearty and filling and utterly delicious. It goes great with a grilled turkey sandwich or a crusty piece of baguette. Or regular toast. Toast is the miracle cure-all food.

It really is too bad that the girls weren't here to enjoy the soup with me. There's a pretty good chance that they wouldn't have eaten it anyways, but I could have told them how good it was, and they could have raised their eyebrows, laughed, and asked for a PB&J. Good times.

Butternut Soup with Pear, Cider, and Vanilla

3 T olive oil

1 2-pound butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes (4 generous cups)

2 firm-ripe pears, peeled, cored, and cut into 1 inch cubes

1 medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped

1 C apple cider

4 C chicken broth

1/2 t salt

1/2 c half and half or cream

1 t vanilla

Heat the oil in a small stockpot over medium-low heat. Add the squash, pears and onions and stir to coat with oil. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft and transparent and the pears are starting to fall apart.

Add the cider and bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the broth, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer the mixture, partially covered for about 30 minutes until the squash is tender.

Using a stick blender (or a regular blender and working in small batches) puree until very smooth. Return the soup to the stockpot and add the salt. Continue to cook, uncovered, over medium-low heat, until the soup has reduced to about 1/2 to 1/3 of it's original volume. The final consistency is up to you - when it reaches a thickness that seems right it's ready.

When the soup has reduced, add the cream and vanilla. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Garnish with fresh chives if desired.

The Canary

There is a canary that I've been watching. You know about canaries, right? You keep one around and send it into the mine shaft ahead of you. If the canary dies you know that you should get out of the mine because the air isn't safe. In my context, it means that I can be secure in my job as long as a certain someone keeps his job.

The canary has died. Now the only question that remains to be answered is if the miners can get out of the cave before succumbing. Let the scratching and biting begin....

Cajun Chicken Salad

This salad is absolutely the best chicken salad ever to cross my lips. It started with our monthly Penzeys ad arriving in the mail. Kevin snatched it and hovered over every page. Then he announced that we simply had to go to Penzeys to buy some Cajun seasoning. Without checking the store hours, we arrived half an hour before they opened, and fiddled around in Uptown for a bit.

When we got home we started cooking. And cooking. And cooking. In all, we had three different Cajun spiced meals in three days. Was it extreme? Just really, really tasty.

Something about the chicken being coated with seasoning and pan-fried makes them incredibly tender and juicy. There is just enough of a kick of flavor to keep it interesting and make you want to dig in for another bite. And then another one.

Cajun Chicken Breasts with Salad

3 4-6 oz chicken breasts (or whatever)

2 T Cajun seasoning

2 T oil

Wash chicken and pat dry. Sprinkle with a thick layer of Cajun seasoning. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook for 4-6 minutes per side depending on thickness. Adjust the heat down a bit if the chicken is browning too quickly or up if it isn't sizzling. Remove from pan and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing into bite-sized pieces.

Salad:

1 head romaine lettuce

1 head leaf lettuce

1/2 tomato, diced

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1 avocado, thinly sliced

Dressing:

1 T Italian seasoning or salad dressing base

1 T water

1/4 C red wine vinegar or regular white vinegar

1/3 - 1/2 C olive oil.

Whisk everything together

Carmalized Cauliflower with Salsa Verde

It's been a long time since I put up a recipe. I know because Mom called to ask if I had fallen off the face of the earth. Maybe. I've been cooking, just not posting. Which is too bad because this roasted cauliflower is F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C. and I haven't been meaning to deprive you of it.

I know what you're thinking. Roasted cauliflower? That sounds gross. That's what I thought, too, but after polishing off half a head, I had definitely changed my mind. Kevin even enjoyed it, and he hardly ever eats the food I cook.

Roasted Cauliflower

1 medium cauliflower

2-3 T olive oil

salt to taste

Salsa Verde

1 medium jalapeno, ribs and seeds removed

3 T finely chopped cilantro leaves

2 medium cloves garlic, minced with a pinch of salt

3 T fresh lime juice

4 T olive oil

salt to taste

Prepare the salsa verde first. In a medium bowl, whisk together the jalapeno, cilantro, garlic, lime juice, and olive oil. Add a pinch or two of salt to taste. Set aside at room temperature for at least 30 minutes, and up to an hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash and dry the cauliflower. Place it stem side down on a cutting board. Slice it vertically, top to bottom, in 1/4 inch slices. Most of it will be in crumbles and a few slices will stay intact. Put it into a large bowl and drizzle 2 T of oil on it. Use your hands to toss to coat the cauliflower. Add an extra T of oil if necessary to coat it all.

Spread it in a single layer on a sheet pan or two, you don't want it too crowded or it will steam instead of roast. Salt lightly.

Bake until it is tender, golden, and slightly brown in spots, around 20-30 minutes. Turn once with a spatula. Salt lightly again.

Serve hot or warm, with the salsa on the side for drizzling.