Favorite Cheesecake

We love Sam Stern's cookbooks at our house.  

Here's a recipe based on his recipe for cheesecake from his first book, 

Sam Stern's Cooking up a Storm:  the teen survival cookbook  

-- Special Request #2 for a daughter living in Hawaii.  
I can't wait to see the mango-passion fruit version!

Favorite Cheesecake

14 graham crackers, give or take (or as Distant Daughter does, any taste-appropriate cookies i.e. gingersnaps, windmills, chocolate wafers)

6 tablespoons butter
3 cups cream cheese
3/4 cups sugar
3 egg
a few drops vanilla extract
1 lemon
fruit for topping

1. Preheat over to 300F. Use extra butter to grease 9-inch springform pan.
2. Rolling pin or food processor to crackers until they're fine crumbs.
3. Melt butter in small saucepan.  Add crumbs.  Stir to mix.  Press evenly to cover bottom of pan and put in fridge to firm up.
4. Zest the lemon.  Add zest to cream cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and a good squeeze of lemon juice.  Beat with wooden spoon.
5. Pour filling into cake pan over the crumb crust.  Bake 35 to 40 minutes  Turn off oven and leave in there to cool and firm up, then chill for at least 2 hours.
6. Decorate with fruit. Or cream and fruit. Or what have you . . .  :)

Normal Beans

Because the purpose of this Table in the Wilderness is to feed distant loved ones 

as well as those close by, here is Special Request #1 for a faraway daughter.  

(With lots of hugs and kisses!!)

Normal Beans

Soak 2 cups dry beans in 8 cups water (or 1/2 cup beans in 2 cups water -- all that matters is the proportion 1 part beans to 4 parts water).  

Though I must say, I have lately NOT soaked beans 

but just popped them right in the crock pot that morning 

and they cook up fine.  

Supposedly you get more nutrients that way.  

You may also get more gas.  

You choose.

When you're ready to put everything into crockpot, put in:

4x as much water as the amount of beans (fresh water if you've soaked)
some chopped jalapeno
some chopped onion
some sprigs of cilantro

Let everything bubble away for hours and hours until beans are soft and delicious.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Sometimes I add smoked paprika or other interesting herbs.  But keeping it simple seems to be the key to success.