Cookies and Cream Cheesecake

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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

The BIRTHDAY BOOK IS DONE!!!

At long last I am actually writing this post. I have dreamed about this for almost as many years as I have been authoring this blog. It is with great satisfaction I can finally say–and mean it–The birthday book is done! 

I have told my husband and the kids so many times "the birthday book is done" that it started to loose meaning. Draft after draft, after frustrating small-tweaks-here-and-there draft, it is really truly completely, no-more-to-do done. I invite you to to pop some champagne for me... no not really, I can do that myself, but geez luize, it is good to put this one on the shelf and say fini! 

It was a project my good friend Robin and I started back when the kids were little. We traveled through so many stages of our lives and I have lived in five houses since we started. I guess I like to move! Or it has just taken a long time and finding the place that is home takes a long time too. 

But anyway, enough about that, here are some of my favorite images from the book:

Filled to the brim with step-by-step instructions for making original gifts, favors, cakes, wrapping, decorations and games, BIRTHDAYS: HANDMADE, HOMEMADE is interwoven with stories, photographs, illustrations and anecdotes. We invite readers to pull up a chair, pour a cup of tea and spend the afternoon making and creating. Our goal is to offer inspiration on how to make a birthday handmade, homemade and your very own.

Readers will love the creative ideas that make this book so personal and tangible. Projects range from fast and easy . . . Dinosaurs in real eggshells, to more timely and in depth . . . Dining table forts. Young parents and do-it-yourself enthusiasts will find endless help onhow to prepare and execute a homemade birthday party.

At a time when it seems like families are trying to take back just a bit of their own and blogs hum with self-reliant know-how, this book is a great jumping-off point for those aiming to leave commercialism behind and bring it all back to the ones they love. 

Birthdays: Handmade, Homemade is available online. 

Hope everyone is enjoying summer!
                                   

                                              Cheers~
                                                         Marica


P.S. I have one copy to give away, so if you live in the United States and would like to enter for a chance to win, leave a comment below. I'll pick a name at random and post a winner Sunday July 23rd.

Vegan Sweet Potato and Lime Soup Recipe

BLOG OVERLAP FROM DEAR COUNTRY MOUSE

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

Strawberries and Biscuits… a recipe…

BLOG OVER-LAP from DEAR COUNTRY MOUSE

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

Monday, monday…

BLOGGED OVER-LAP from DEAR COUNTRY MOUSE

Dear Country Mouse,


It was so nice to chat on the phone today, even if just for a few minutes. After we got off I spent my morning drawing:

Then we managed to hit the woods for a bit. (we are planning our future wilderness living)

The drawing I worked on is for our one-year anniversary of opening the pie truck. So exciting! We will be making T shirts to wear, and sell, what do you think? 

Hope you had a nice day off; free of too much other work : )


     Sending lots of love,
     
               City Mouse


    P.S. We are considering getting a puppy. Talk me out of it!

    XXOO

Flowers and Tomatoes…

BLOG OVER-LAP from DEAR COUNTRY MOUSE...

Dear Country Mouse,

How is your week going? Did the rain come? I took today off. I still plan to head down and putt around the pie-truck a bit, help get it open, but I mostly plan to have a leisure day at home. Hooray, there are never enough of those.

Did Alena like Annalisa's work? It really makes me want to get out needle and thread and make some pictures for my wall. Readers, you can still enter to win a print of her work…

The plant nursery near my house says they'll have tomato plants in by today. I'm so excited to pick some up get them in the soil. The sky is gray and dripping just enough to be perfect for planting.

I just read a very invigorating blog post on Floret Flower's Farm Journal, totally inspiring for my tiny backyard… and yours? She has such a lovely blog, but this post is so inspiring as it tells about a Toronto based florist, Sarah Nixon who grows her gardens in other peoples yards. Grass roots or what??? I spend so much time trying to figure a plan for my wee yard. Remember when we used to sit in my half-acre expanse and ooo and ahhh over all the space? Well now we both have mini plots to work with. I say it's a fun challenge.

All right beautiful lady,

Let's talk soon!

               Love,
             City Mouse

P.S. Kiss the kids for me!

                      XXOO

Shall we hike?

BLOG OVER-LAP from DEAR COUNTRY MOUSE…  

Today I snuck away from the truck early to hike a small round of Sauvie Island. It is mostly a large meadow with old oaks covered in moss and lichen.  We were met by cows as we drove up the gravel road to park...

  

It has been a while since I was is such a wide open field and it made me want to run and jump like a pony...

I took extra special care to stop and capture pictures of mushrooms. I figure if we ever manage to shrink, we'll need to have made our acquaintance with most of these lovely specimens… Which one shall we live under? Or we can keep looking for one with a wider brim… 

Hope you are having a good week!

Sending love,

     City Mouse


P.S.  Tea?

Launching: Dear Country Mouse...

Hello Everyone Lovely,

I am so excited to post about a new blog my goodest friend Robin and I are Launching:

Dear Country Mouse

Please stop by and check it out!

                                         All my best!

                                                         Marica