2 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 cup sour cream
3 eggs
1 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 package (10 oz.) frozen strawberries, thawed
1/2 pint fresh strawberries, sliced

Preheat oven 350 degrees F.

Crust: 

I made a pecan graham cracker crust for this cake. It was good!

Dump one sleeve graham crackers, and 1/2 cup pecans into food processor. Whirl. It’s about

3/4 cup graham crackers and 1/2 cup pecans
3 tablespoons butter melted.

Press into pan and bake 350 for 5-8 minutes.

Beat 1/2 cup sugar, cream cheese, lemon juice and lemon peel with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended.

Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each egg is added just until blended. Pour into crust.

Bake 50 minutes or until center is almost set. Apparently a lot of people overcook their cheesecake. Mea culpa. I read about it and you’re supposed to see about 2 inches or so of jiggly. That stresses me out, but I tried it. The first bite was less cooked I thought but if that’s how you do it, ok I guess!

Cool cheesecake. Top with strawberries. In a medium saucepan cook em then mix in cornstarch, blending well. Add a bit of water if necessary. I think next time I’d use a combination of jam in there. I thought the frozen nature of the berries was not nice! Little doode, who doesn’t like strawberries and at first scraped his topping off, ate the berries when he was informed that they were from Argentina! To him a mark of exotic goodness? Dunno, we were thinking how crazy it is that our frozen organic fruit came from so far away.

5 chickens from ohio

Hard to believe you could put a price on our little flock, but there it is. Five little bundles of joy, all for 2.53 a piece! (2.70 for the mean but beautiful Bubbles!).

Let’s take a look back at the little cherubs as they near their 3rd birthday!! Can you believe it?

There's Bubbles on the left upper corner second from the top.

here's another shot of bubbles with liz and a barred rock butt

liz telling bubbles to sample life outside the box. notice edwina looking for something. she hasn't had her first worm yet!

What a great adventure it’s been. It’s good to remind us of the old days, as we’re contemplating another run west to get another mini-flock this spring! Are you planning on getting some chickens this year?? I’d love to hear about it!

The tree 2011

We had a nice tree this year. Interesting shape! You can see from the backdrop that we had a warmish holiday. We’ve been watching the light disappear, and the gloom descend. One nice moment of sun came on the solstice when lo and behold, Spanky decided that she should give us a holiday gift! Yep we got an egg! And then we got another one two days later and so on–she gave us five eggs all told, through the holiday. Enough for a nice breakfast for me and the doode. Thanks Spanky!

Then the weather changed and got really cold. Had to plug in the heat lamps and still the water was freezing. Spanky said no way am I doing my business in those kind of temps!!

Here’s some pics from our Oct. 30 snowstorm. Pretty!

first snow 2011--some leaves still on trees!

chicken coop and snow

What a nice dinner this was. And pretty easy too! The hardest part is to remember to take the filo out of the freezer to thaw! This recipe took about half a box–or 7 to 8 sheets. But really, it’s so forgiving! Go crazy.

Spanakopita pie

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
6 mushrooms
10 oz frozen spinach thawed and squeezed dry
1 egg
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
8 sheets phyllo dough
1/4 cup olive oil for brushing filo

How to make it.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil a 10 x 7 inch baking pan.
Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute onion and mushrooms until soft. You could add garlic but I didn’t.

In a medium bowl, mix together egg, ricotta, and feta. Stir in spinach and onion mixture. Lay 1 sheet of phyllo dough in prepared baking pan, and brush lightly with olive oil. Lay another sheet of phyllo dough on top, brush with olive oil, and repeat process with two more sheets of phyllo. The sheets will hang over the edge of the pan. Spread spinach and cheese mixture into pan and fold overhanging dough over filling. I had a space in the middle so I added a folded sheet of filo to cover it. Brush with oil, then layer remaining 4 sheets of phyllo dough, brushing each with oil. Tuck overhanging dough into pan to seal filling.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown. Cut into squares and serve while hot. Also good cold but it won’t be crispy.

We had:
Carrot and Feta Parcels–(filo dough packages with cumin and dill spiced carrots)
Brussels Sprouts–pan fried with olive oil and some parmesan
Sage dressing (so the kids would have something they wanted to eat!)
Swede and Leek gratin (the surprise hit in my books!–though not sure why it’s called a gratin as there wasn’t any cheese in it!)

“There is not much difference between an American and British Christmas table, other than the fact many families across the pond prefer to eat a meat other than turkey (it’s not that long after Thanksgiving, after all). In poorer, rural areas, dinner might well be whatever people can lay their hands on. Roasted possum, anyone?”

Yikes, how embarrassing. I was pretty offended. Really offended in fact. Why would they want to do this?

Sure wish Verizon would send me an apology after all the troubles we’ve had with the phone. Or that companies would say sorry I insulted your intelligence and tried to shrink the package while charging you the same price (Breyers/ Angel Soft you’re on the hook here).

Anyways, that’s a nice holiday time story for you about how consumers can make change! You go girls.

Makes two loaves–another revelation–you need to make extra for sandwiches the next day.

4 cups cooked lentils (you’ll have about a cup or so left over out of a one pound bag)
1 large onion chopped
2 large carrots chopped sort of fine.
2 eggs
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 cup rolled oats
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp ketchup
salt and pepper to taste
splash of soy on top of each loaf

Saute onion and carrot add garlic. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Smoosh it up a bit. Squish it into two parchment lined loaf pans. I grease them but you probably don’t have to. Splash a line of soy down the middle of the loaf and pop into the oven at 375 for about 45 minutes.

Goat surfs in Grover Beach | KSBY.com | San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Paso Robles.

Hmmm. First mistake the guy made—getting a goat to keep the weeds down in his yard. Ha that never works! So instead he goes for playmate and takes the goat to the beach. The goat does pretty well. Sydney and Roppongi–I just don’t see it. They’re not so amenable.

WHAAAT???!!!! The goats were out. AND they’d been out all day. Sheesh. Happily they didn’t run away. Sadly, they’d had over 8 hours possibly to roam the yard and eat anything they wanted!! UGH. A tour around the yard revealed their path.
Blackberries through the fence–check. Lilac–check. Dogwood–check. Hakone grass–check. Blue star amsonia-check. Strawberries-check. Anemone–check, check. Boo hoo, I’m getting really sad at this point. I’ve been nursing anemones for a couple of years and finally got some to bloom. Now they were mowed down. Silly goats.

Anyhow really glad they didn’t take off–they clearly had the time of their lives!! So that’s good. And they didn’t get sick. Also good. Keep those feed room doors closed people!