cashew + ritz cracker cookies

Ahh yes, I remember those moments, back three days ago, when I could still taste my food. And these cookies! They were a random late-evening attempt at mimicking the potato chip + pecan sandies that I adore, but had not the components for. And I would be so bold as to say that they worked, not so much at mimicking, but at tasting terrific.

Today I am taking a sick day, snuggling up with my honey of a cat and watching the thick-thighed male speed skaters compete in the 500m event in Sochi. More than my love of cookies (which is a briefly-mustered “woot” uttered in my phlegmy sick voice) is my love of the Olympics. Winter sports like ski jumping and snowboard slopestyle? Mad feats of insanity. All of the outfits worn by those various Olympian hotties? Killer style. Emotional recaps of events and athlete fun times featuring soaring overtures with rhythmic new-age pop techno beats? Me in tears, sighing wistfully, every time.

Gearing up for the Games here in northern Maine has been our own little Olympiad. Our television antenna is a chode that doesn’t work, for starters. Secondly, we live in “one of the smallest television markets in the country,” and there is no NBC on network television here, so we’d be out of luck even if we could tune in some sort of imagery. We dallied with the notion of purchasing cable tv just so we could watch the Olympics, but that seemed excessive. And trying to find a live stream online, if you don’t already have a cable subscription, is like navigating the murky backwaters of a piranha-infested river. Why you can’t pay a one-day or one-time fee for online access makes no sense. But lo and behold, we were HOOKED UP this weekend by a generous benefactor, and now, in the words of my excavator operator, we are stylin’ and profilin’. And watching nonstop Olympics.

Slopestyle, biathlon, luge, alpine skiing, moguls, ski jumping, speedskating – it’s been an eventful weekend, for me on the eyes mostly. There have been several spectacular falls. There was that one Daft Punk song perfectly intoned by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs choir. Oh my god, I can’t stop watching it. The one guy in the back with the mustache who stands there grinning and looking somewhere off in space. The other guy in the back who looks like he’s been dead for ten years. Those high notes! The fist pumping! All of it is nothing short of incredible. Aside from pop culture gems, it’s the snowboarding and downhill skiing which I enjoy watching the most, though I’m also feeling a bit of a pull towards skiing+shooting now that we live in this biathlon-centric region. Weird sport, really.

These cookies might sound a bit weird as well, though there’s nothing strange once they reach your mouth. Sweet, salty, nutty, crunchy, buttery, crispy. Great for snacking on while you sit on the couch being lazy watching athletes go for gold.

Cashew + Ritz Cracker Cookies {recipe by myself}

Makes about 15

++Ingredients:++

1/2 c. cashews
3/4 c. flour
Heaping 1/2 c. Ritz crackers, crushed
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted+cooled, or room temp
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. powdered sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla
1 egg yolk

++Directions:++

Chop cashews finely, then toast until fragrant over low medium heat in a heavy-bottomed saute pan. Remove from heat, set aside.

Heat oven to 350 F. In medium bowl, mix together flour, crushed Ritz crackers, salt, and cashews.

In a medium or large bowl, combine butter, sugar, and powdered sugar, and mix well or beat with a mixer until light and fluffy, roughly three minutes. Add vanilla, add egg yolk, and mix to combine. Add flour mixture in two parts, mixing well after each addition.

On a baking stone or a parchment-lined baking sheet, place 1″ balls of cookie dough at least two inches apart. Take a water glass, lightly dip it in flour, and gently flatten each cookie to roughly 1/4″ thickness. Dip glass into flour as needed to keep it from sticking to the dough.

Bake for 10-14 minutes, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking. When edges have turned a light golden brown, remove from oven. Let cool at least five minutes on pan to harden up, before transferring to a cooling rack.

We went ice fishing this weekend. This is what it looks like when all your traps are tangled together. Despite the confusion, the three of us caught two big-ass fish each, including a couple real monsters. I snared one of my fish by jigging the line, after having two consecutive bait fish stolen under my nose. I shouldn’t have gone at all, given my descent into deeper realms of sickness ever since, but it might be the best fishing experience of my life to date.

Just in time for Valentine’s, here is a heart log from me to all of you. I love y’all, thank you for following along.

And here we have what made me sick. We’ve been constructing a scary-steep winter road that I’ve been fretting over since August. There have been many conversations with heated words, frightening future scenarios imagined, and not a little bit of stress. Oh well, the only place to go now is up.

Yesterday I found a pair of Frye boots at Marden’s for 40 smackaroos. Marden’s is a peculiar discount chain store in Maine, where items end up at ridiculous prices. Marden’s is where I recently found corduroy Silver jeans for 10 bucks. It can be quite hit or miss, but when you score, ohhhhhh how you score. And now these boots! I got so excited that I let out more expletives than I’ve ever uttered in public before. They’re a little big, but I don’t mind.

Plus look at my cat.

Finally, we’ve been having quite the yo-yo party lately. Confederate Flag, displayed above. Have you seen what they do with yo-yos these days? HOW DOES IT WORK! My brain hurts just trying to keep up. I want to be great at something like that kid is great at yo-yos.

There’s also this guy. Part performance art, part cartoon, all yo-yo.

kiwi lime blueberry raw cheesecakelets

I told myself I wouldn’t give you another blueberry recipe so soon. But I am on a ball. I am on a roll. And what do you do with a ball that is rolling? You kick it to the moon, duh.

Are you ready for my moon-kicked ball of the week? I, the self-proclaimed patron saint of all things buttery, and sugary, and unhealthy and yummy and preservativey and chemicaly and badforyouy, have managed to churn up a confusing surprise.

Kiwi Lime Blueberry Raw Cheesecakelets!

We have my favorite world scamperer Hannah to thank for the inspiration here. Her whirling dervish of a mind has created two similar delicacies (mango, blackberry), both of which I’ve made and loved. I recently made two varieties of my own, and while these that you see here turned out to be severely kickass, my other creation (tangerine + meyer lemon) left much to be desired. Hence, another blueberry smack in the face for ya. Smack.

You know what else is severely kickass? How easily my truck can churn through huge patches of mud. Things are warming up around here, and now that roads are getting sloppy, I regularly create muddy water tunnels as I drive. Legit walls of water go up and around the back of my truck, occasionally lapping down into the bed. Picture that. Now picture THIS:

Pretty cute, eh? Look at that ruffed grouse, being all ruffed and stuff. They call them partridge around here, which is sort of foolish if you ask me, because partridge are partridge, and grouse are grouse. But what would I know? I’m just from away… [and, uh, from the “top ruffed grouse-producing state in the US”].

The same they that call grouse ‘partridge’ shoot said partridge (grouse) like nobody’s business, so it’s reassuring to me, the ultimate non-hunter that I currently am, to find out that there is a roughed grouse population cycle, that seemingly transpires regardless of hunting pressure. Sometimes I wish I had studied wildlife biology in much more depth than I had time for in college. At the very least, I wish I had interacted with the peculiar grouse people who I lived near for a few weeks as a forestry student. They got up before the sunrise to go sit silently in the woods and wait to hear grouse drumming on logs, i.e. being all courtshipish. Weird? I thought so.

Next up, a nifty little segue. See that piece of wood in the background in the first picture? That’s a piece of birdseye maple, renowned for its gorgeousness and hefty sales tag. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? Hmm, well, check out what I’ve been up to in the past week….

Yep, I’ve been marking birdseye maple logs. At my awesome job site that is filled with awesome wood. It is such an incredible place, and the trees are so very happy to grow there that they even develop heart shapes to show affection for their surroundings. Aww.

Okay, enough silly woods love.

Bring on the raw cheesecakelets!

These have a bit of a kick from the kiwi, so choose the softest kiwi possible if looking to avoid a mouth-puckering experience. I used wild blueberries here; perhaps with storebought ones, less sweetener would be needed.

Kiwi Lime Blueberry Raw Cheesecakelets {inspiration here}

Makes 12

For the crust

1/2 c. cashews
2/3 c. dates, pitted
1/2 c. sunflower seeds
1/4 c. sesame seeds
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp agave nectar or honey

In a food processor, combine all ingredients and process until mixture comes together when pressed. If mixture remains loose, add water 1/2 tsp at a time, until mixture clumps well.

Divide mixture across 12 muffin cups, pressing evenly and well into each cup. Set aside in the freezer.

For the cheesecakealicious topping

Heaping 1/2 c. cashews, soaked overnight, and drained
Fruit of 3 kiwis
2/3 – 3/4 c. blueberries, frozen or fresh
Juice of 1 lime
3 tbsp agave nectar or honey
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp + 1 tsp coconut oil, melted

In a (clean) food processor, pulse cashews for 10 seconds. Add kiwi fruit, blueberries, lime juice, agave nectar or honey, and salt, and blend until smooth. Add coconut oil, and pulse until combined.

Pour/scoop mixture evenly across 12 prepared muffin cups, smoothing the top of each. Freeze until set, at least three hours in a deep freeze, longer in a refrigerator freezer. Thaw for ten minutes before removing from muffin pan – this will make them easier to remove.

Serve cheesecakelets slightly thawed, depending on how long you’re willing to wait; I would recommend 5-10 minutes to take a bit of the cold edge off.

cashew quinoa energy bars

Several moons ago, I began dabbling in the art of the Wayfaring Chocolate ‘raw balls‘ recipes. Never before had I harbored any sort of interest in raw food, let alone things labeled near-vegan or no-bake. But I found myself hooked by these simple recipes, and the endless possibilities out there for combining nuts, dates, and other such tasties.

More recently, I’ve been fascinated by the nutritional research and dietary changes made by my blog pal Sarah and her family. The idea that overconsumption of grains is unhealthy had never occurred to me, perhaps because I love to eat gigantic bowls of pasta every chance I get. But now (although I still eat plenty of grains), I’m trying to work more grain alternatives into my diet, such as quinoa and chia seeds. Thank you, Sarah, for changing my outlook on nutrition.

Most recently, I went for another hike in Baxter State Park. I didn’t bring my camera with me this time, but I brought an idea. The night before hiking, I woke from a dream in which I combined cashews and quinoa into some sort of delicious ‘raw ball’ treat. The idea stuck with me, and I made sure to stock up on dates and cashews so that I could experiment.

These are not raw. I ended up baking them because I wanted to go with a looser ‘dough,’ if you will, one that would benefit from a crisp-up in the oven. That way, they’re kind of like a grainless granola bar. They are crunchy, nutty, and make for a wonderful midday snack. I recommend keeping them in the fridge for extra crispness.

 

So, last weekend’s hike. It was a hot and sunny day, and the bugs were much less bothersome than last time around. Our hike du jour was a 7.3 mile jaunt along the Fowler Brook and Middle Fowler Pond Trails, plus a quick .6 up and down Barrel Ridge, and also a roughly 2-mile triangulated bushwhack up and down the trail-less Bald Mountain, making for a total of nearly ten miles.

It was a 6.5 hour endeavor, and due to the bushwhacking I accumulated 49 scrapes on my arms and legs, and one puncture wound from a perilously large branch. It was all in good fun, although, yes, we ran out of water again. This cycle of abuse needs to stop.

Here are a few photos from last year [although the computer claims they were taken on May 28th, 1956, at 1:36am] on the nearby Traveler loop. The Traveler is much higher in elevation than we were this past weekend, but it is adjacent to where we were hiking – to give you an idea of the scenic beauty near Baxter’s South Branch Pond campground.

On to that energy bar recipe – perfect to bring along on hikes, if you remember to wrap the semi-sticky bars in wax paper beforehand. Also perfect to eat mid-afternoon, after a day spent lazing about in the yard, getting sunburnt.

Cashew Quinoa Energy Bars

A recipe created by my brain during REM sleep

++Ingredients:++

1/2 c. cashews, soaked in water 1 hour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c. quinoa, cooked and cooled
1/2 c. cashews
1/2 c. almonds
1 2/3 c. dates
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla

++Directions:++

Preheat over to 350 F. In a food processor, pulse the softened cashews and salt. Add quinoa, additional cashews, almonds,  dates, honey and vanilla, and pulse until combined.

Butter or spray a loaf pan (I used a 9 x 5″ pan), and press mixture into pan. Bake for 15-22 minutes, until edges are crispy and center of pan appears to be somewhat thickened. Remove from oven. Score lines into the pan; I created 14 rectangles that were each roughly 1 x 2″. Cool, remove from pan, and store covered in the refrigerator.

Variations: Next time I will try not soaking the cashews, and will see if there is enough liquid without doing so to bind with the quinoa and make no-bake balls. I also may add a small amount of almond extract, in place of, or in addition to, the vanilla.