Things That Make Me Smile

I've been spending way too much time lately on my blog, so I'm going to just throw out a couple of photos of happy things and a recipe today and move on to something else! Hope you're enjoying the cooler weather if you live in my neck of the woods.

This watermelon is so sweet and juicy--I can't stop eating it!

I found this fabulous Indian tablecloth on clearance at Pottery Barn over the weekend and was so excited. It pulls in all the colors that I have going on in that room and the kitchen, plus adds some much needed pattern to the area. Yeah!

I cut my hair on Monday. Here's a shot of it from the side. Doesn't Rachel do fabulous work? It feels so good to have the length gone. No regrets.
While I was making dinner last night, Ian asked me to read to him and got the common answer, "Maybe when I'm finished with this." A few minutes later, I discovered that he was a"reading" it to Bronwen. So adorable.
Henry wakes up slowly. And with great hair!
Our little mermaid loves the water. And looks so cute in a bathing suit!

Finally, the recipe:
Zucchini Rice
From one of my favorites: Cooking Thin with Chef Kathleen (both hilarious and scrumptious)

• 1 T. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 1/2 cups 1/4 inch cubes zucchini
• Coarse kosher salt & ed black pepper
• 1/2 c. finely chopped onion (I use sweet onion like Vidalia)
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 1/2 c. long grain rice, rinsed well
• 2 3/4 c. chicken broth
  
• Pinch of red pepper flakes (if you don't live with my husband)

In skillet, heat 1/2 T. olive oil over medium high heat. Add zucchini to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook and stir until zucchini just begins to soften, about 3 minutes or so. Remove zucchini from the pan and set aside until rice is cooked.
Add the remaining oil to the pan with the onion and garlic. Reduce heat to medium low. Add a couple of tablespoons of water if it doesn't seem like you have enough liquid. Cover and let simmer about 12 minutes.
Chef Kathleen's recipe is for making this rice in the microwave. I like to throw it in my rice cooker at this point--the onion mixture, rice, and broth. If you don't have one, then put these three items in a microwave safe bowl with an 8 cup capacity (because the rice will expand). Do not cover it! Microwave on high for 10 minutes, then on medium-low for about 15 minutes, without stirring.
When rice is done, add zucchini and fluff with a fork.
I served this last night with grilled chicken & artichoke hearts, sliced watermelon, and a green salad and we gobbled it down.
What's on your gratitude list for the day? Send me a comment and share what makes you smile.

I might as well face it,

I'm addicted to blog! I confess, I am having so much fun with my new little project that I wake up wondering what I'm going to write about. There are so many options and heavens knows that I never run out of things to say! I just deleted a post that was much too long all about whether or not to cut my hair. I decided not to bore you with such a self-centered topic (but if you have an opinion on short vs. long hair, please send me a comment. I'm seriously considering mine off again at my next appointment on Monday. And by the way, I made it so that anyone can comment without registering. We'll try that out and see how it works.)
This photo (by Maggie Rassmussen) was taken on our family reunion trip to Newport Beach in May, which was positively fabulous. We stayed in an amazing beach house half a block from the beach that actually had enough rooms for all 22 of us to be comfortable and not make each other too crazy. I love that Maggie caught Ian's run, because I just love watching him move--and his run is hysterical. He s himself back like he's a superhero about to take off at light speed and then dashes away and we are left grinning. Too cute. It's hard to imagine right now that he'll ever have a gawky stage when he just is so adorable.
Today I made a lemon raspberry cheesecake for my friend, Laura, who wants to do cheesecake for her wedding cake instead of the standard. After shopping around and discovering the amounts that a professionally decorated wedding cheesecake can fetch, I offered to make the cheesecake portion and recommended someone who can do the fondant and piping portion. However, that was weeks ago and I still hadn't gotten around to making a test run cheesecake (we'd like to try it out with the fondant and then put it outside an a summer's evening and see what happens.) This morning I determined to do it. Jared questioned my sanity when he came home at 1:00pm and found me in the kitchen with the oven on--since it was 105 today in our town, you do have to wonder what I was thinking.
Anyhow, this recipe is one that I created a few years ago when I was trying to win the Philidelphia Cream Cheese Taste The Riches recipe contest. I spent that fall busily coming up with cheesecakes that I thought would wow the judges and planned my trip to NYC to have lunch with the editor of Gourmet magazine, not to mention how I would spend the $100k cash prize--and then they never contacted me to tell me that I had won!
So, I'm giving it to you. One day it may go in the cookbook that I want to publish, but for now it will go to my loyal readers!:) Try it out--it's fab. Sorry for the lack of picture--it's still chilling in the pan.

Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake

• 5 8oz packages cream cheese at room temperature (the light will work if you're cutting calories and not making this for a wedding! DO NOT use the fat free. If you can't afford the calories from the light cream cheese, just have some carrots and move on!)
• 1 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 c. sour cream or light sour cream but not fat free
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 c. fresh lemon juice (yes, fresh does make a difference)
• zest of two lemons
• 1 pint fresh raspberries (or 1 1/2 c. frozen, not thawed)
• 1 c. prepared lemon curd (Trader Joe's sells it if you don't want to make it, but it's better homemade and you'll have a little leftover to eat with a spoon!)

Preheat the oven to 350.
For the Crust: I prefer to make a shortbread crust for this, but a graham er one will work. You can make a batch of shortbread for the crust or you can buy some good shortbread cookies at Trader Joes, stick them in your food processor, and then bind them with a little melted butter and press into the bottom of your 9 or 10 inch springform pan. With either crust, I recommend baking it for about 20 minutes for it to set--if you make a shortbread recipe, cook it until the shortbread is almost done (about 45 minutes for most recipes.)

Once the crust is ready, let it cool and get started on the filling. Mix the cream cheese for about 2 minutes in your stand mixer until it's nice and creamy. Add the sugar and mix again until smooth. (If you didn't wait for the cream cheese to come to room temp you are now dealing with lumps, so just wait the extra hour for it to soften up.) Add the sour cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Mix until combined, then add the eggs and mix until combined, about 1 minute on medium speed.
Pour the cheese mixture into your springform pan with the crust that's been cooling. Scatter the raspberries across the top of the pan and gently submerge them into the batter.
Put foil around the bottom of the pan and up the sides, then place the springform on a jelly roll pan (that's a cookie sheet with sides, folks). Place it in the oven and put about 4 cups of hot water in the jellyroll pan to give this baby a water bath.
Bake for about 90 minutes, but check it regularly after an hour. When it's done, it will be a bit jiggly but a knife will come out clean (or your digital instant read thermometer will say 160 F.) Turn off the oven and let it sit for an hour in there. Remove from oven but leave it in the pan. Bring to room temperature, then cover and chill overnight.
When completely chilled, remove sides of pan. Spread lemon curd over the top of the cheesecake and chill for at least one more hour. Serve with a drizzle of raspberry sauce on the plate. You should get about 16 servings from this recipe.
(Since this one is going to have fondant over it, I put the layer of lemon curd in the middle, after putting in half of the cheese mixture, and then covered it with the remaining cheese and went from there.)
Hopefully this turns out to work great and some of you will get to sample it at Laura's wedding on August 18th. I'll post a picture later.
Now I'm off to kiss my sleeping children goodnight.