The Way to My Man's Heart - Cheesecake

Tim is coming home tonight! I was planning on trying my hand at homemade noodles this weekend, and thought I'd make them today for a special "welcome home/ early Valentine" dinner.

On the menu: homemade lasagna, garlic bread, and cheesecake. He has been eating like a king this weekend (the boss is paying), perhaps he will post about his $35 dinner entree later this week, but I know my man, and the way to his heart is homemade, especially homemade cheesecake!

I love lasagna, but do not make it very often. I usually make it from scratch, except the noodles. Today will be my first attempt at noodles. The kids want to help. This should be interesting! I will be posting more about that over at Stop the Ride!. I am waiting for an opportune time (read Nolan 's nap) to venture into noodle making, but I have started a few other things.

The garlic bread is in the machine. This is a recipe from Electric Bread, that I've made many times. There is garlic, spices and Parmesan baked into the bread. It already smells so good and it is just rising!

About a week ago, Michelle at Scribbit, posted a recipe for White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. Since then, I have had cheesecake on the brain. Tim and I both love cheesecake. I thought about trying Michelle's recipe, but Tim is a purist. He prefers plain cheesecake, so I decided to stick to our favorite recipe. I made it last night before all the craziness started.

This is a recipe we received the first few years we were married. It was part of a solicitation to subscribe to McCall's Cooking School recipe club. It is so good. I only make it a few times a year, for special occasions. It is a large recipe. I haven't tried cutting it down, but I am sure you could.

I was going to put the recipe here for you, but I just did a Google search, and found it posted several places already. So, I will just point you to iChef for the Ultimate Cheesecake Recipe, and give you a few tips about cheesecake I have learned over the years. I usually do not make the raspberry and peach sauce included in this recipe. They are good though, if you want to make them. Tim likes it plain. Sometimes, I will make strawberry sauce or something else too.

Some hints about cheesecake:

1. Make sure the cream cheese is room temperature.
2. Beat the cream cheese well. You want it light and fluffy, before you add ingredients. I usually beat the cream cheese alone, scraping the bowl often, then start adding ingredients. This recipe does not instruct you to do it this way.
3. Do beat in one egg at a time. It really makes a big difference.
4. Cool in the oven. I slightly under bake the cheesecake, turn the oven off, and prop the door open about 1/2 an inch with a wooden spoon handle. Leave it in there until it is room temperature.
5. Put a thin layer of sour cream on top after the cheesecake has cooled. This adds some flavor, but most importantly it hides the cracks. If you choose to top it with sauces or fruit, the sour cream gives you a nice surface for the sauce and looks pretty too! Of course, if you are making a flavored cheesecake, like Michelle's, the sour cream flavor may not be complimentary.

We've made many cheesecakes (yes, we, Tim cooks too) over the years, and always come back to this one. It is that good! Kellen just got off the phone with Tim. He told him we had a surprise for dinner. Hmm, I wonder if he suspects what it is?