Crisp, Rad, Radish Salad

It's HOTTTTT!!! 90 plus degrees and I need refreshment. So I made up a recipe fit for any Summer night!
This has the crisp bite of a radish and the with a tart of the lemon dressing it marinates in.
You will need:

1 Large Bunch of Radishes (rinsed with tops discarded or saved for later)
1/2 Med Red Onion
1/2 Teaspoon Dijon Mustard
1 Tablespoon Honey
2 Tablespoons Rice Vinegar
8 Mint Leaves Julienned
Heavy handed amount of salt as well as pepper

In a bowl whisk all ingredients together in a bowl minus the mint, radish and onion.
Next, MINCE the onion and radish until tiny, tiny. Fold into vinaigrette and then add in the mint. Chill or serve right away.
Bon Appetit

Late Night Cheesecake

Hi there friends- I made this cheesecake at 2 a.m. this weekend when I couldn't get to sleep. From start to finish it put me in bed tired by 5:15 a.m. Doesn't take too long to put together but like any good cheesecake it takes watching it like a hawk. I think my Saturday dinner party gets were thankful for my poor sleep habits the evening before! This is a classic NY style cheesecake with just enough fluff to not be dense - but trust me- I slept like a baby after a slice of this and no sleep the night before.

To make the cheesecake you will need:

Crust
4 Ginger Molasses cookies (recipe found from previous post)
4 Tablespoons of Butter
1/4 Salted Almonds
A Pinch of sugar

Put this in the food processor until blended into a ball and spread on the bottom of typical sized spring form pan. Bake in preheated oven at 375 for 10 min. Remove from oven and set aside.

Set oven to 325 and wait for temp. Meanwhile get together the following ingredients for the filling:

Filling
2 1/2 lbs (or 5 packages) Neufchatel cheese *
1 1/4 Cup Sugar (rough cane)
1 Tablespoon Fresh Lime Juice
1 Teaspoon Grated Lime Zest
4 Eggs
1 Cup Sour Cream
Dash Himalayan Salt- course

After taking these items out and letting your cheese come to room temp put on a half full kettle of water to boil. Your cheese cake will eventually get a nice warm sauna bath. How lovely.

Prepare your spring-form pan with aluminum foil nearly to the lip of the top of the open pan. Why? It's a swimsuit for your pan whose going to take a bath- and more like a wet suit than a swim suit you don't want your crust or cake getting wet!! So place your spring form pan into a wide roasting pan (minus the rack) and wait for the water to boil.

Meanwhile, in your mixer with a paddle mix all neufchatel cheese until fluffy. Scrape the side of the bowl and then add sugar. Scrape again- add all citrus and salt. Add in the eggs one at a time- again- scrapping sides when needed and finally add in the sour cream- blend until it's a smooth consistency.

At this point your water will be boiling and screaming at your distracted self. Go ahead and shut that off! Now empty the cheese mixture into the spring form pan and add kettle water around the pan until it's about halfway up the pan depending on how safe you feel with your "suit" - you don't want any water getting in.

Bake for 1 3/4 hours. Turn off oven and yet wait ten min to remove pan.
After ten min open the door of the oven and wait another twenty min. Take roasting pan out of the oven- the water bath should be mostly gone so you may remove it now but regardless wait to put in a refrig until completely cool. This is extremely tedious- I know- but this will save you in beauty because it will come out smooth and gorgeous - no cracks!

Finally- chill and serve, Bon Appetit




*(this is very much like cream cheese but lower in fat and tarter - please don't get the idea this is a "low fat" version of cream cheese- it just happens to be very much like cream cheese but naturally lower in fat- if you want to use good ol' fashioned cream cheese go for it!)

**I served this with a strawberry, blueberry, rhubarb compote YUMMY

• Molasses Micah's 

I'm calling these cookies Molasses Micah's because I made them for my friend Micah who loves Molasses Cookies :)

2 cups flour (shifted – this can be traditional white unbleached flour or a gluten free mixture of 1 cup cashew flour and one cup sorghum or other substitute)

• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 cardamom pods split and seeds crushed
• ½ teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 large egg
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• ⅓ cup dark molasses
• ¼ cup (packed) dark brown sugar
• Coarse sanding or raw sugar (for rolling)
• Place racks in lower and upper thirds of oven; preheat to 375°. This sounds funky but is key for good cookies.
• Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and salt in a small bowl. Whisk egg, butter, granulated sugar, molasses - don't be afraid to add a little extra, and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Mix in dry ingredients just to combine.
• Place sanding sugar in a small bowl. Scoop out dough by the tablespoonful and roll into balls (if dough is sticky, you can chill 20 minutes). Roll in sugar and place on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2” apart.
• Bake cookies, rotating baking sheets halfway through, until cookies are puffed, cracked, and just set around edges (over-baked cookies won’t be chewy), 8–10 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and let cool.

Stuffed Peppers (Need I say more?) 

Hi there Friends!
I need to be more consistent with my posting to say the very least. This next recipe is for some good friends of mine who have asked maybe twenty times for the recipe of these stuffed peppers which I have been holding hostage wayyyy too long. So no picture comes since they were enjoyed with these very friends over a few months ago and I haven't made them since but they deserve a blog spot even though they seem like less of a summer food they are pure comfort so maybe save them for a cooler, rainy day. They can be baked or put in a cock pot. Even baked briefly the evening before and put in the cock during the day if you are working or out and want to come home to a hot meal... 

Ingredients:

6 green& red (mixed is best) bell peppers

1 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes or four juicy fresh :) diced 

1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce

3 clove garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon dried leaf oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried leaf basil

1 1/2 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

2 teaspoons salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, divided

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef or chuck

1 1/2 cups cooked long-grain rice - 

(Note:I use white rice this works best, but you can certainly substitute Quinoa or a short grain brown rice)

shredded Parm cheese, about 1/2 to 3/4 cup, optional

Directions: 

Cut tops off peppers; remove seeds and membranes. Put burner on high and place peppers (one at a time on burner to char and heat all sides- giving them a quick blistering. Put aside. 

Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat until hot. Sauté chopped pepper (from tops), chopped onion, and chopped celery for about 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, crushed garlic, oregano, basil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.Add uncooked rice. Simmer for about 15 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine egg with remaining 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Gently stir to blend; add ground beef, cumin, smoked paprika and 1 cup of the tomato mixture. Mix well. Stuff peppers with meat mixture and place in a glass 9x13 or dutch oven baking dish. Pour remaining tomato mixture over the stuffed peppers. Bake at 350° for 55 to 75 minutes. If desired, top stuffed peppers with a little shredded Parm cheese (for extra zest and salt just before peppers are done; bake until cheese is melted.
Recipe for stuffed peppers serves 6. Bon Appetit