Travel Along With Me

This afternoon we received a wonderful gift from our friends Peter and Sara - two Cherry Trees!

For 2 or 3 summers now they have allowed me the pleasure of picking the sour cherries that grow on the trees in their front yard. It is such a wonderful, simple pleasure to climb up in the trees, pick the cherries and put them in a bucket (and eat some as I go). The kids enjoy helping me as well - I think they like the climbing in the tree part the best.

I use the cherries to make pies, cobblers or to have as a snack. I share them and I freeze some to use throughout the year.

Anyway, with a lot of joy we brought two small Cherry Trees home today (they are sort of intertwined - Peter said it represented Tilak and I) to plant in our back yard. Immediately when we returned home the kids and I found the place that we wanted to plant the trees. They made a deal with me that they would dig the hole to plant the trees if I would do their chore of “poop scooping” the back yard. I agreed.

The kids worked very diligently to make a perfect hole. Once we finished getting the hole just right we put some of our compost material in it and we put the tree down in the hole made with love. Kali was talking to the tree saying “I hope that you will be happy here in our yard”. Texil said he would “take good care of it”. We had a lot of fun with the planting of our new trees. When we were finished Kali placed a heart-shaped rock that she had found on our hike today at the base of the trees.

Oh, the simple pleasures in life! There is nothing like it!

Texil and Kali decided to perform in this year’s Talent/Variety Show at their school. Kali participated last year and wanted to do it again this year. Texil decided if Kali can do it so could he! They have two totally different personalities when it comes to performing in front of people. Kali has a lot less fear and seems to really enjoy herself. Texil has a lot of fear about performing in front of a lot of people especially ones he does not know well.

This year Kali sang a High School Musical song entitled “I Gotta Go My Own Way”. Texil decided to play a song on his wooden Indian Flute (he made it up). I was busting with pride watching the two of them on stage! For Texil, I was thrilled that it all went well for him (i.e. he did not get too nervous and freeze up or play wrong notes which would send him into a panic). Look at his face at the end of the attached performance. You can see his relief and pride of a job well done! I was front and center in the audience and he threw his hat to his adoring fan (me!). With Kali’s performance attached you can see her go out on the stage with confidence. She has not quite learned to get the audience involved with her performance yet but she LOVES to be on center stage. At the end of her performance she throws her scarf she was wearing into the crowd. This was her idea. Very cute. The video unfortunately did not capture this.

It was a fun night. I hope you enjoy watching their show!!!

Hello! I am excited because I learned a new recipe that turned out well. My husband is a huge cheesecake fanatic and I found this recipe in a magazine (one of Martina McBride’s favorites). It is Lemon-Ginger Cheesecake.

For Crust:
2 cups of finely ground gingersnap cookies (I mixed half graham crackers and half cookies)
2 tablespoons of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/2 stick of unsalted butter (melted)

For Filling:
4 8oz packages of cream cheese (room temperature)
1 1/4 cups of sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup of whipping cream
1/2 cup of finely chop crystallized ginger (I did not use this - I grated some ginger root-about 1/2tsp)
2 tablespoons of peeled fresh ginger
2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
4 teaspoons of fresh lemon peel
several lemon slices to garnish

For Crust:
Preheat oven to 325.
Generously butter a 10-inch springform pan with 2 3/4-inch high sides.
Double wrap the outside of the pan with aluminum foil.
Blend ground cookies, sugar and ginger in processor. Add melted butter and process until moist crumbs form.
Press mixture onto the bottom and 1/2 inch up side of pan.
Bake until crust sets, about 10 minutes.
Cool and maintain oven temperature.

For Filling:
Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in sugar, scraping bowl occasionally. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Beat in sour cream and whipping cream. Then put in crystallized ginger, fresh ginger, lemon juice and lemon peel. Poor filling into crust. Place springform pan in a roasting pan. Pour boiling water in roasting pan to come up 1 inch in pan. Bake cheesecake until filling is set and golden brown on top (cake may rise above edge of pan), about 1 hour and 25 minutes. Turn off oven and prop open oven door. Let cake set in oven for one hour. Cake will fall. Remove spring form pan from water and remove foil. Cool cheesecake completely on rack. Cover and regridgerate overnight. Release pan sides from cheesecake. Transfer cake to platter. Garnish with lemon slices and serve.

Enjoy!!