happy family day!!

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My mom got me the CUTEst thing everrrr.  See that little lemon?  That would be a tea steeper!!  Completely adorable.  I couldn’t wait to try it out with some new tea I picked up in the bulk tea section at Whole Foods.  It is pomegranate green tea with real tried pom!  It smelled fabulous.

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At first the flavor was a little tart/sour.  I didn’t add any sweetener and it really grew on me.  Republic of Tea makes this, if you’re curious.

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A lemon steeper top! So cute :)

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Farm freshies…sooo good!  I made my mom pour, poke + spread eggs with toast for breakfast.  She loooved them!

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I was totally craving steel cut oats.  These were Easterific ;)

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Today’s mix:

  • 1/4c steel cut oats
  • 1 1/4c water

In the last 5min this went in:

  • 1 med banana,
  • 1t vanilla
  • 1/3c coconut milk [SO delicious brand..not from a can]

Topped with:

  • unsweet coconut
  • peach fruit spread
  • Heather’s jam
  • pnut butter
  • almonds

Yummmm

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The Easter bunny found Chris + me.  My mom + dad shipped a HUGE box to us before my mom got here with all of these things in it.  The box had instructions to NOT OPEN.  She organized it when she got here and had it all set up this morning ;)  Totally cute.  So many fun things inside, like the tea steeper, Malley’s chocolate, a few things from Trader Joe’s, etc. mmmm 

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I introduced my mom to Caramel Oikos and she loved it!  She said she doesn’t like caramel mixed in things usually, because it has a fake flavor but she really liked the caramel in this.  ME TOO!

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Time to hard boil some eggs!  [not with the farm fresh…they don’t hard boil very well..you have to wait at least 5 days]

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Time to make my graham crackers to make graham cracker crust!  This was the first time I used my graham’s to make crust and it worked perrrfectly.  I promise these graham crackers are super easy :)

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Lemon infused cheesecake!  The easiest most foolproof recipe EVER!

Lemon Infused Cheesecake

  • 2, 8oz packages cream cheese [I used Organic Valley, full fat]
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4c pure cane sugar
  • 2t vanilla
  • 1T lemon zest
  1. Leave cream cheese out for about 30min to soften. Pre-heat oven to 350*
  2. Whip cream cheese with a mixer for a few minutes until creamy + smooth.
  3. Add eggs, sugar, and vanilla.
  4. Beat with mixer until light and fluffy ~3-5min. 
  5. Stir lemon zest in at the end.
  6. Fill on top of pie crust in a 9” pan.
  7. Bake ~30-35min until pie starts to crack around the edges.
  8. Let cool on a cooling rack for ~2-4hrs.  The pie will probably be poofed up and then while it’s cooling it will fall.  This is totally normal.
  9. Cover + place in the fridge for at least 2hrs but best if refrigerated overnight.

I noticed:  I have made this many time but for some reason it seemed like the lemon zest curdled the cream cheese a bit.  It left little lumps that would not smooth out with mixing.  So, that is why I said to stir in the lemon zest after mixing all the other ingredients.  The cheesecake texture still came out perfect though, but I would do it that was as a precaution.

Also, do not cover the cheesecake and put it in the fridge if it is at all warm because it will form condensation and then you will have a soggy cheesecake!

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I have posted about the graham cracker crust I make but here it is again:

For a 9” pan

  • 2c ground graham cracker crumbs
  • ~4T butter
  • 2-3T honey
  1. Mix in a bowl until well combined.  If it seems extremely dry, you might need another T of butter.
  2. Pour in pan.  Pat down with your hands and work up the sides.
  3. Optional – bake at 350* for 5-10min

I use my fingertips to spread it around and then work around the pan pressing the sides to compact it.  If you want you can bake it for 5-10min to kind of set it.  These grahams were pretty dark already so I didn’t bake it at all.

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fluFFed UP!  Note the slight cracking.  It will still have a slight jiggle to it, but will solidify when cooling. 

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I also made Mama Pea’s vegan key lime pie with my non vegan graham crust ;)  Well the grahams are vegan but then I added butter for the crust…hehe

Agar Agar – a natural, vegan gelatin!! 

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I also decorated Easter eggs, which I haven’t done in YEARSSSS.  Thanks mom + dad for the kit ;)  Next year I’m definitely trying to use natural dies with beats and turmeric. hehehe 

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ooops

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Tye-died eggs..so cute!

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Ahhmazing carmelized onion dip from 101 cookbooks.  Seriously this was FANtastic. 

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baguette + baby bellas + cucumber + carrots – diPPers!

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Hi!!!

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My mom and I were suuper busy in the kitchen today.  It was so much fun.  We also made smokey deviled eggs.  Wow, were these good!!  No mayo or mustard! 

Smoky Deviled Eggs with Greek Yogurt [slightly altered from original]
Made 24 halves

  • 12 eggs, hard boiled and peeled
  • ~1 - 1 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
  • 4T sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
  • 1t paprika [use smoked if you can find it, I couldn’t]
  • 1/2t cajun spice blend [added this to make it smokey]
  • 1t salt, 1/2t salt
  • 1 shallot, thinly sliced
  • 1-2T olive oil
  • pepper cracked on top
  1. Mash eggs with 3/4c of the yogurt.  Add more yogurt until it’s smooth and creamy.
  2. Add paprika, cajun spices, 1/2t salt, few grinds of pepper, 2T sun dried tomatoes.  Taste and season to your liking.
  3. In a small saucepan, heat oil on medium.
  4. Add shallot and cook for ~3-5min until caramelized.
  5. Pour on a paper towel lined plate and sprinkle with 1t salt.
  6. Top eggs with pepper, onions and the rest of the sun dried tomato.

If you can find smoked paprika use 1 1/2-2t of that instead of the paprika + cajun spice blend.

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There were reallllly tasty!! 

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Yaaay mom :)  Wish you were here too dad!

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Little mini pita pockets to house pork tenderloin.  Yes, I actually cooked meat today!  I haven’t had it in about 2 months except for a few litttttle bites here and there.  I just haven’t had the taste for it.  We got 2 high quality tenderloins from Whole Foods today so I had to give it a try. 

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Kurtz and Ann came over for dinner!!  They brought this amazing green bean casserole with cherry tomatoes and herbed goat cheese.  It was such a fun spring dish and full of flavor.  LOVED it.

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Pat + Natalie came too!  Natalie made TWO killer dishes.  Also very springy and just amazing.  This was a warm quinoa salad full of spinach, zucchini, lemon, dill and topped with feta.  Perfection.

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She also made a tomato and asparagus dish that was crunchy and fabulous.  YUMmmmm :)

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Not very photogenic but this was actually incredible.  The few bites of meat I’ve had in the past 2 months I’ve been very “meh.”  I definitely haven’t been too excited about meat.  I baked this at 350* for about 45min until it got to 160*.  There were 2 pounds total and I marinated it in a garlic herb marinade for about 3hrs in the fridge.  It was THEE most tender meat I think I’ve ever had in my whole life.  You know pork can be really dry.  This was NOT in any way.  It was extremely juicy and didn’t need extra sauce.  The quality was outstanding.  I’ve had great luck with all of the meats I’ve gotten at Whole Foods and alwaaaays find out exactly where my meat is coming from and what the animal was fed during it’s life. 

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Chow time.

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Pat + Chris

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A blurry Pat + Dakota…they’re pretty much BFF’s

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Ann + Kurtz also brought some delicious LOCAL pinot noir.  It was fabulous and the story about the winery is pretty cool.  It’s a biodynamic farm.  Basically the whole farm works in 1 huuuge cycle.  Very sustainable :)

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So the key lime pie.  I know it looks a bit weird in color but I obviously wasn’t going to die it to look greener…also the kitchen lighting isn’t the best.  The flavor was AWESOME.  I really liked it but it was completely impossible to cut and serve.  It didn’t fully gel to where you could make a clean cut at all and the texture looked a little strange when scooping it out.  It seriously was delicious though and went great with the graham crust.  I also made some coconut cool whip!!

Coconut Cool Whip  [I didn’t know if this would work but wanted to give it a try]

  • 1, 15oz can full-fat coconut milk
  • 3T cane sugar
  • 1t vanilla
  1. Refrigerate the can for a few hours before making this.
  2. With a cold metal bowl and beaters, whip this until soft peaks form ~3-5min.

This whipped up perfectly and was creamy + coconutty. 

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The very outer edge of the crust was slightly burnt but you couldn’t tell at all.  This cheesecake recipe is so simple + delicious.

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The ladies!! :)  Ann, me, mom, Natalie

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It was an awesome day cooking with my mom and an awesome night with our family.  Kurtz + Ann aren’t family related, but they’re still family ;)  I call this “family day” because that is what I think holidays are all about. 

Wowoww…time for beddddd..I’m beat! 

~Ashley