Cheescake Pie
Cookbooks are beautiful. I have two stacks on top of my refrigerator of current cookbooks, but I never open them.
One book I received today was -- at first blush -- way too cute. COOK UP A COOKBOOK: CREATE YOUR OWN RECIPE BOOK FROM SCRATCH. Open the front of the book -- which is more like a box with an old-fashioned ribbon -- and you see instructions on how to create your own chef's hat. Um, skipping that. But when I burrowed through the labels and chef's tip cards, and found a little book -- and discovered the brilliant idea of interviewing loved ones about their special recipes. Oh, now that convinced me to maybe go for it, create my own cookbook! Or at least collect a few recipes.
I only have two that I love. One comes from my stepfather's family. I'm a little loose on details -- hence the desire to interview -- although really only the recipe survives. It's a list of ingredients for lasagna that I have made every Christmas since I moved away from my parents' home, and it is killer. It's all in the sauce. Or saw-us, as I grew up saying it. A list of ingredients typed on my mother's old Remington, splattered with decades of tomato paste. When the holidays draw near, certain neighbors come round, asking for a plate of lasagna. A plate of happiness...? You bet!
It's family tradition -- a big pot of sauce simmering on the stove -- a long wooden spoon resting nearby. Each of us furtively slipping the spoon into the sauce, tasting, adding oregano or garlic salt or red pepper to our taste, a collaborative effort -- as secret as everything else in our house. But oh so incredibly tasty!
It took hours to cook, typical, but in this case, not an issue. Mom was an amazing cook, but we rarely ate before midnight. She would begin with a recipe like Beef Stroganoff or Veal Parmigianna early afternoon, the ingredients laying about on cutting boards, her trail easy to trace of food-stained spoons, plates, measuring cups. My stepfather following after her, swearing up a storm at the mess. Mom, cooking while on the phone, refilling her wine glass until the new liter of Gallo wine would grow empty. We kids would circle, asking when dinner would be done, resorting to pulling little half-cooked bites out of the simmering food. And finally giving up, and going to bed. Many nights we would hear the sound of breaking glass. In the morning the mess would still be there in the kitchen, evidence something amazing had happened in that room.
But there is some sweetness -- a Cheesecake Pie -- that I frequently bake. It too is a favorite -- and there's just over a half-cup of sugar in it. The recipe is written in my mother's handwriting on a yellowed, battered notecard.
I will share it, and you'll have to forgive me for not getting the recipe format perfectly right -- there's info on that in the COOK UP A COOKBOOK book. Right now, I just want to make my midnight deadline:
Ingredients for the pie:
1 graham cracker crust
1 8 ounce pkg of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbl lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
dash salt
2 eggs
Ingredients for topping:
1 cup sour cream
2 tbl sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Directions:
For pie filling:
Beat cream cheese until fluffy, gradually blending in 1/2 cup sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and salt. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.
Pour filling into crust. Bake in slow 325-degree oven, 25 to 30 minutes or until set
Topping:
Combine sour cream, sugar, vanilla. Spoon over top of pie. Bake ten minutes longer. Cool. Chill.
Enjoy the cool sweetness! My gift to you.
One book I received today was -- at first blush -- way too cute. COOK UP A COOKBOOK: CREATE YOUR OWN RECIPE BOOK FROM SCRATCH. Open the front of the book -- which is more like a box with an old-fashioned ribbon -- and you see instructions on how to create your own chef's hat. Um, skipping that. But when I burrowed through the labels and chef's tip cards, and found a little book -- and discovered the brilliant idea of interviewing loved ones about their special recipes. Oh, now that convinced me to maybe go for it, create my own cookbook! Or at least collect a few recipes.
I only have two that I love. One comes from my stepfather's family. I'm a little loose on details -- hence the desire to interview -- although really only the recipe survives. It's a list of ingredients for lasagna that I have made every Christmas since I moved away from my parents' home, and it is killer. It's all in the sauce. Or saw-us, as I grew up saying it. A list of ingredients typed on my mother's old Remington, splattered with decades of tomato paste. When the holidays draw near, certain neighbors come round, asking for a plate of lasagna. A plate of happiness...? You bet!
It's family tradition -- a big pot of sauce simmering on the stove -- a long wooden spoon resting nearby. Each of us furtively slipping the spoon into the sauce, tasting, adding oregano or garlic salt or red pepper to our taste, a collaborative effort -- as secret as everything else in our house. But oh so incredibly tasty!
It took hours to cook, typical, but in this case, not an issue. Mom was an amazing cook, but we rarely ate before midnight. She would begin with a recipe like Beef Stroganoff or Veal Parmigianna early afternoon, the ingredients laying about on cutting boards, her trail easy to trace of food-stained spoons, plates, measuring cups. My stepfather following after her, swearing up a storm at the mess. Mom, cooking while on the phone, refilling her wine glass until the new liter of Gallo wine would grow empty. We kids would circle, asking when dinner would be done, resorting to pulling little half-cooked bites out of the simmering food. And finally giving up, and going to bed. Many nights we would hear the sound of breaking glass. In the morning the mess would still be there in the kitchen, evidence something amazing had happened in that room.
But there is some sweetness -- a Cheesecake Pie -- that I frequently bake. It too is a favorite -- and there's just over a half-cup of sugar in it. The recipe is written in my mother's handwriting on a yellowed, battered notecard.
I will share it, and you'll have to forgive me for not getting the recipe format perfectly right -- there's info on that in the COOK UP A COOKBOOK book. Right now, I just want to make my midnight deadline:
Ingredients for the pie:
1 graham cracker crust
1 8 ounce pkg of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbl lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
dash salt
2 eggs
Ingredients for topping:
1 cup sour cream
2 tbl sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Directions:
For pie filling:
Beat cream cheese until fluffy, gradually blending in 1/2 cup sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and salt. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.
Pour filling into crust. Bake in slow 325-degree oven, 25 to 30 minutes or until set
Topping:
Combine sour cream, sugar, vanilla. Spoon over top of pie. Bake ten minutes longer. Cool. Chill.
Enjoy the cool sweetness! My gift to you.
Labels: books, Cheesecake Pie, COOK UP A COOKBOOK, cookbook, lasagna, mothers, stepfather
posted by Diana Page Jordan @ 10:51 PM
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