Our first celebration of the month was for Blair's birthday. Since he had scheduled an ASE test on his birthday, we decided to celebrate the day after. He had a gift card to a steak house, so we decided to use that for dinner and I asked what kind of cake and he said, "I want one of those New York style, thick, dense, really tasty cheesecakes." Okay, I thought, I've never attempted a baked cheesecake, but I'm sure it's no big deal. Well, I poured over recipes and tried to determine which one looked the easiest and the tastiest. I picked a Lion House version, (it should be good right? It's the Lion House for heaven's sake!) and it called for a spring form pan. Well, the only spring form pan I own is a heart shape. But, who cares, right? I mean, I do LOVE Blair, so I though it would be just great. I was a little frightened when I read the ingredients and realized just how much cream cheese and sour cream (for the topping) was required. My internal caloric calculator was thinking "overload! overload!" I thought, "I'm sure I can slim this down and no one will ever notice." So, I opted for the lowest fat cream cheese and fat free sour cream. I mixed it up and put it in the oven. However, I accidentally hit the clear button on the timer after it had been in there a while and I had no idea how much time was left, so I just sort of guestimated. Surprisingly, the cheesecake did not turn out as planned! There must be a reason you use full fat ingredients and cook it for a specified time. Oops. Well, when I tried to remove it from the pan, the two heart shaped humps fell right off and there was a big crack down the middle. Since Blair had invited the Elder's Quorum president and his wife over to have some cake and celebrate with us, I panicked. I tried to cut off the top and bottom to make it look like a square cheesecake, but since it was under cooked, it ended up looking like I had eaten all the edges. Oh dear. Well, the pictures speak for themselves. Lesson learned: Just ignore the caloric calculator and follow the recipe!
The elegant cheesecake, beautifully displayed on a platter.
The pieces I cut off in an attempt to make it a little more symmetrical.
MOTHER'S DAY
I am embarrassed to even put these pics on the blog for all to see, but I did have such a great breakfast prepared for me on Mother's Day by two sweet boys. This is my best "just rolled out of bed smile."
This is the card I got from Will and the earrings are from Blair. How nice!
Up close view of the knight and dragon.
Up close view of some real fun guys.
I take my chalk art very seriously.
Marilyn...of course she had to be included.
And our favorite entry-Super Will!
