Easy Cheesecake

For Nick's last night in town, we were dog-sitting for a friend, which meant dinner in. We (read: I) decided we would be cooking. Josh has slightly high cholesterol, which means I do not usually do meat at home, but that rule goes out the window when there are guests for dinner. So, as a meat-a-holic, I capitalized on Nick's presence and demanded we would be making flank steak, potato salad and corn on the cob, i.e., my favorite of my parents' traditional summer meals.

'How does this fit into the recipe book,' you ask? Well, it doesn't, as not surprisingly none of those recipes are in the 'bread' section. However, as you know, I decided a while back that when strapped for time (and in an effort to prevent a sudden and massive case of diabetes should we work exclusively through the baked goods sections), I am allowed to break protocol to dabble into the cookies or desserts. So, it was with this clearance that I set off to make my mother-in-law's recipe for Easy Cheesecake. This decision may have been aided by the fact that I love cheesecake.

The best part about making this is that I was doing it while Nick and I were making the potato salad AND Nick was making his killer margaritas (oh blue agave nectar. yes yes yes.), which I nearly ruined when slopping boiled potatoes too zealously into the colander. But that's another story. So, in between all the potato boiling, veggie chopping, and lime squeezing, we were also trying to mix up cheesecake. I will say it is fun to do this with Nick because he is very involved, and oddly, like Josh, knows a hell of a lot more about cooking than I do. Which means that whenever I gave him a task he quickly took over and then started explaining to me how I should do it. Which means I got to stand back and wreak more havoc elsewhere as he delicately coaxed the graham cracker crust into doing as it was supposed to.

Ultimately this cheesecake came out fine, but not blow-my-head-off amazing. We thought it could probably use more zing, which Nick imagined could come in the form of lemon zest. However, it must be said that this cheesecake is meant to have either a fruit or fruit sauce topping, and that, I believe, would provide the zing we are looking for. In my case, we had some raspberries left that I chose to use, but there weren't enough. That and I think the fruit sauce would just be better. So there. Now I've said it. The cheesecake is good, just make sure you use a fruit sauce on the top.

Say 'cheese'

Easy Cheesecake

Crust
12 (double) graham crackers
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sifted confectioners sugar

Crumble crackers into blender and blend into crumbs. Have Nick mix butter and sugar into crumbs, and explain that you should really be using the food processor instead of the blender. Have Nick pat into pie pan (bottom and sides, too), gently like he is crafting a fragile sculpture. (If you have no fruit to put on top, save a few crumbs [and nuts] and sprinkle on top before baking).

Cheesecake filling

12 oz cream cheese (lite or low fat is ok)
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 tsp almond or vanilla flavoring

Have Nick beat room temperature cream cheese until it is smooth. Realize you'd refrigerated it, so put in the microwave first, as you learned from your appetizers section. Have Nick beat in sugar. Have Nick beat in eggs one at a time. And flavoring.

Have Nick watch as you pour into crust - spread carefully.

Realize at this point there are no more instructions as to whether you should bake it? Refrigerate it? For how long? Call in mother-in-law for reinforcements, who proclaims 350 for at least a half hour (until it cracks on top). Discover as you type this that it actually says 'Heat oven to 375' and you'd missed it.

Decide with Nick that you should let the cheesecake cool a bit before you refrigerate it. Have Nick decide it is cool enough when you can touch the bottom without burning your hand off, as I obviously like to do. Put in refrigerator. Load up with raspberries haphazardly, which Nick then lays out nicely. Eat.

Ginny note: for cherry topping - put 3 cups cherries on top of baked cheesecake and pour over 1/3 cup heated and melted jelly. Or just cut up fresh fruit on top.