Cookies and Cream Cheesecake

Dear Country Mouse,

Happy September to you!

I indulged at the food truck and made this dreamy cookies and cream cheesecake. The best part was that I forgot I had made it, went into work the next day, opened the back refrigerator and POP, there it was un-sprung from the pan with just the one slice cut out of it. Somehow the surprise of it gave the cake an extra skip of charm.

Anyway, I thought I'd tuck the recipe here so that if you're feeling cheese-cake-y you don't have to search too far : )


COOKIES AND CREAM CHEESECAKE


FILLING:

Whip in a large bowl until smooth:
16 oz cream cheese (letting it warm first to room temperature makes it easiest)

Add to the cream cheese and continue to whip:
1 + 1/3 cups white sugar

Add and continue to whip:
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt

Add and continue to whip:
2 cups sour cream

Add and mix but try to keep some chucks:
1 + 1/2 cups Oreo style cookies (I use Newman O's) broken into pieces. 

Add one at a time and mix until everything is combined:
4 eggs



CRUST:

Remove the cream from 2 cups of Oreo style cookies. 
Pulse the cookies in a food processor until they are crumbs. 
Add 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil and pulse again. 
Add water until the mixture holds together (about 1 tablespoon).

Press into a buttered 10 inch spring form pan. Fill with the cream cheese filling and top with half a cup of cookies.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 24 minutes or until the center is only slightly jiggly. 



Alright lovely, I miss you and hope to hear from you soon!

Cheers,
City Mouse

Refrigerator Pickles

Dear Country Mouse,

I was recently making pickles and thought I'd send you the recipe. I feel like I got too large of cucumbers this year though. It might have been worth the extra few dollars to get the smaller ones, but oh well, it just took more work to get them to fit in the jar.

Refrigerator Pickles 

In a very clean 1 gallon jar place a washed strand of fresh dill weed. 

If you don't have fresh use a tablespoon of dried.

Add roughly 4 lb. pickling cucumbers washed (they are all over at the farmers market right now)

4 cloves fresh garlic

1/2 cup salt

1 + 1/2 cups white vinegar

1 tablespoon black pepper corns

1 tablespoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon whole allspice

a few cloves

6-8 cups water or until jar is full.

optional: pepper flakes or a couple fresh hot peppers,

fresh strand tarragon. 

Cover with wax paper and fasten with string or a rubber band.

Let sit out for two days, out of direct sunlight, then refrigerate for up to two months.

Recipe is re posted from this post.


Anyway, miss you like always!

                    Love,
                          City Mouse


PS

Isn't this a wonderful kitchen island? I was looking on pinertest as I am hoping to build one, one of these days...

Strawberry Basil Spinach Salad

Dear City Mouse, 

Thank you for all your encouragement.
I want artichokes now after seeing that photo. I can't tell you how much I love them.

I have fallen off the wagon and consumed entirely too much sugar, wheat and alcohol this holiday season. I am really wanting to get myself back on track.  I just made this salad for a snack.

It really should include goat cheese but I didn't think to buy any.  

We have been enjoying some real rain finally and the kids are doing very well.

Strawberry spinach basil salad

Ingredients:

Spinach, washed and dried

Chopped strawberries

Raw pecans

Diced fresh basil

Goat cheese

Balsamic vinegar

I love and miss you, 

Country Mouse

   

Vegan Sweet Potato and Lime Soup Recipe

Dear Country Mouse,

Oh my gosh it is so dark and rainy up here. I do love it, but seriously it is rain, rain, rain right now. I'm trying to send some of this dripping, wet, goodness southward, but I have yet to succeed.

Your succulents are so wonderful! How fun to find the old pieces of ceramic-ware to turn into pots. Come spring, I think I will do that with a couple of my cracked tea pots I've been holding on to.

I made a nice sweet potato and lime soup today. Just note, I kept it vegan for the sake of some of my regular customers that I was expecting, though it would be lovely with chicken stock instead. You'd think my food truck was vegan as lately all the recipes I send you tend to be vegan. But truth is, as you know, we are far from it. 

Vegan Cream of Sweet Potato Soup

Bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes or until soft:

2 lbs sweet potatoes

In a decent size pot sauté for several minutes:

1 teaspoon safflower oil

1 large sweet yellow onion chopped

Add and continue to sauté for several more minutes:

2 cloves garlic chopped

Add and simmer for 20 minutes:

4 cups vegetable stock

Once the sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel and blend with:

1 14-ounce can coconut milk

Continue to blend adding the soup stock and add:

2 limes zest and juice

3 tablespoons molasses

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon salt or more to taste

1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon black pepper 

Return to the pot and bring to a desired temperature.

Also, I liked it with tabasco and  fresh parsley or cilantro on top. 

Anyway, I love you to pieces! Thanks for the cool idea on plant pots, I will be on that soon.

Hugs and hugs again,

City Mouse

Vegan Banana Muffins Recipe

Dear Country Mouse,

I want to pass on this recipe that I think might be nice for the cold weather coming up. I already posted in on Wasabi Honey Bee, so sorry if you stopped over there and it is duplicate information. Anyway, it's a vegan banana muffin recipe that I have been making at the truck, and thought maybe all the kids in your world would be excited about. It's a little healthier than some muffin recipes as it has ground walnuts in addition to flour.

VEGAN BANANA MUFFINS

In a large bowl mix:

3 ripe bananas 

1 cup orange juice 

1/2 cup grape seed oil

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup ground walnuts

In a separate bowl sift together:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup white flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

Mix both sets of ingredients together. Pour into an oiled muffin pan and bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes and then rotate the the pan and bake for another 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Anyway, how has everything been going? Have the doll faces you are working on been coming out as you are wanting? I can't wait to see pictures when you are done... hint...hint!

As always, I love you and miss you and send hugs a thousand miles over mountains and hills, rivers and valleys, and—uggg—dust bowl deserts. Hope the rain is on its way and that I see you before too long.

XXOO
City Mouse

P.S. What will we do if Henry and I decide to move out to the wilderness to homestead. Will it be country mouse and field mouse then?

Strawberries and Biscuits… a recipe…

Dear Country Mouse,

Today I realized strawberries taste like springtime. I was making salad at the pie-truck, our seasonal salad which is  made up of mixed baby greens, candied walnuts and bright, red sliced strawberries, when I couldn't help but pop a slice in my mouth. We did the same salad last year for as long as decent strawberries held out and then moved on to autumn and winter fruits. Later on when winter was gearing up for spring I cheated—impatient me—I couldn't wait and started our strawberry salad before the season was abundant. I should have waited. This morning as I sneaked that slice of strawberry, I tasted true, brilliant, vibrant flavor so different and so much more definable than it's cardboard counterpart that I had been wasting my time with. My tongue shouted SPRING. And, the best part, we aren't even onto my favorite variety yet. I like the little button-like strawberries, so almost pungent and deeply determined to carry through.  With a quick cut of the stem, the whole berry gets added to the salad. 

So Dear Country Mouse, we should have strawberry short cake soon. I have truly found a wonderful biscuit recipe, it has been honed over this years time, and after three hundred and fifty-five  days of making biscuits, I do want to share it with you.

Biscuit Recipe (copyrighted Paiku 2015)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit

In a food processor pulse, or if you don't have one simply combine: 
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder

Slice then add and pulse until resembles crumbs (or if using your hands crumble with your fingers until it looks like a coarse crumb-like texture)
12 tablespoons cold butter

Add and pulse until combined:

1 + 1/2 cups sour cream

Add and pulse until combined:

1/2 cup water

Press into a one-inch thick rectangle and cut into twelve equal squares.

Place on a buttered cookie-sheet. Bake at 375 for ten minutes, rotate pan and bake ten more.

Hope you are well and write soon!!!

Love,

   City Mouse

   XXOO

Loving your characters and making pancakes… a recipe…

Wow Country Mouse,

You took my breath away. Those characters are AMAZING!!!!

I love the grandfather, with his felt puckered hat and perfect face. Did you notice he looks like your father? Was that intentional?

The detail is stunning, the balalaika is too wonderful. Now I am going to be on the edge of my seat to see more…

I'm glad the weather has been nice, spring is such a magical time!

I have been making lots of pancakes lately… I wanted to perfect a recipe for the truck, and then I had to make more at home for the kids. Too often I find my self cooking up wonderful food for customers and then heating up leftovers or a frozen pizza come nighttime at home. The funniest part about the recipe is when I first made the pancakes they tasted like restaurant pancakes. It's weird how being in a commercial kitchen environment makes the food more "real" tasting. Note, letting the eggs and milk warm to room-temperature and then letting the finished batter sit for twenty or so minutes adds to their successes. I added blueberries after I poured the batter onto the pan. Sam is obsessed with blueberries...

Anyway, have a wonderful day!!!

          City Mouse