Cheesecake makes for a great birthday cake

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birthday, cakes, cheesecake, postaday2014

My sister hosted my mother’s birthday party yesterday at her house, she lives in Westchester, New York. The four of us drove to my sister’s house, a roundtrip ride and I brought the birthday cake; my mother’s favorite dessert of all time cheesecake!.

I remember, during my teenage years, making cheesecake very often for my mother; constantly experimenting with different recipes, eternally looking for the perfect cheesecake. It only took practically 3 decades and it actually was my husband who found the perfect recipe: here it is
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/new-york-style-sour-cream-topped-cheesecake-10000001677932/

What I have found over time is to heed the cooking times; when I inadvertently left it in longer, the cheesecake wasn’t as creamy as when I adhered to the time specified n the recipe.

We had such a lovely time celebrating my mother’s birthday. My sister had a great menu, Vietnamese themed, we had summer rolls and the Vietnamese sandwich Banh Mi. That was fun because my sister had set up a buffet and we all got to make our own rolls; my niece and nephew are huge fans of the summer roll. My poor nephew was feeling under the weather, but even sick, he is very entertaining. My niece was out and about roller-blading, but she came in when necessary, at food time. The Vietnamese sandwiches were easy to make and quite tasty; my sister and I assembled them together. She had two long baguettes warmed up in the oven and we split them in half, took out the insides to leave room for the filling, brushed the insides with a dressing of oil, fish sauce and soy sauce, then we spread a French pate, added a layer of rotisserie chicken, a slaw of daikon and carrots, sliced onion, and lettuce, my sister cut the baguettes into 4 inch sandwiches and we dug in, they were excellent sandwiches.

Dessert time came and we had the cheesecake, my mother was very happy, I left the rest of the cheesecake and I am sure that my mother made it a point to bring some home with her so that she could have cheesecake for breakfast. Cheesecake for breakfast is a very good idea; you have the eggs, cream cheese and sour cream, what isn’t good for you in that mix?

Actually, when my sister offered to wrap up some cheesecake for us to take home, I sheepishly admitted that when I made the one for our mother, I had made another one for us and it was waiting for us back home in our refrigerator. I did it for the kids and my husband, they are huge fans of the cheesecake.

I highly recommend trying the cheesecake recipe, it hasn’t let me down, not once.

You can never celebrate a birthday too much

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birthday celebration, cheesecake, dinner, postaday2013

Since my hubby and I have been on the road so much lately, we haven’t had the opportunity to correctly celebrate the baby boy’s birthday on his special day which was Wednesday so I thought that making him his favorite dessert would be a nice thing to do as well as make him one of his favorite meals, rack of lamb and mashed potatoes. The cheesecake is an awfully good dessert, the cream cheese mixture slides down the throat in such a comforting way, very soothing in nature. I make it using the recipe that my hubby found and it has made many taste buds very happy. I am looking forward to having a piece later on this evening when it comes out of the refrigerator. It needs to rest for several hours in the fridge to properly set up, it is almost four hours in the cold box so any minute now. I will wait for the baby boy to get home but every time I open the refrigerator, the tempting smell of cheesecake is hard to resist.

It is so nice to bake and cook for the people you love.

New York City here I am!

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cheesecake, dogs, Mother's day, New York, parks, postaday2013, wisteria

The babies, my hubby, Jack and I hopped in the car and we all descended on to New York City to see my mother and sister and her family. I traveled with the cheesecake in the front seat, it traveled well as did Jack, he was in the front seat with me as well.lol The only tough thing about being in the city with Jack is the whole going to the bathroom thing. He’s a country dog and there isn’t enough country in New York to meet his requirements, not to mention the intense distractions all around, it makes his bathroom experience a little stressful. This won’t put a damper on our visit, I will just have to walk him long enough and far enough where he won’t have a choice but to go to the bathroom, it will be far from the indications of earlier today. Good exercise for both of us, that’s the bright side that I need to keep in mind.

Happy news on the baking front, my mother broke down and asked me to cut her a sliver of cheesecake tonight and she loved it. She couldn’t wait until Sunday, hee, hee. That made me happy, just knowing that someone really enjoys what I have made them makes my day. It fills me with much happiness. Hooray for me.:)

Tomorrow is an open book, we have the whole city as our oyster. We can visit uptown, downtown, Eastside or Westside or a mixture of each.

My stomach is so full from all the sushi we had this evening at a new Japanese restaurant not far from my mother’s house. The occasion was to celebrate the coming end of baby boy’s college education and sushi is his favorite. I have one big belly, it will gradually go down tonight. It’s only fish and rice, all good going down and so good for you on top of it.

I hope that Jack gets used to New York, it will make his life easier and mine too. He does get the “aw he’s so cute” looks everywhere we go and he has had fun chasing the fat squirrels in the park. I don’t worry for the squirrels, they are extremely savvy and no country dog on a leash will ever catch one. Jack sure does like trying.

Our quest for cheesecake and other goodies

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cheesecake, eclairs, google maps, New York City, patisserie, postaday2013, walking

After the baby girl and I left the Museum we crossed Central Park on foot which isn’t very far, it was just a matter of getting from the Westside to the Eastside. Once we were on the Eastside at 79th Street, the baby girl remarked that we were walking on easy street. The Upper Eastside of Manhattan is certainly the place where the wealthy congregate and establish their pieds a terre. We walked up and down a few avenues such as Lexington Avenue where we stopped at a French Bistro for lunch, it was called Bistro Magnifique. We had an excellent lunch, the baby girl had a croque madame, a grilled ham and Swiss cheese with a béchamel sauce served with two eggs sunny side up on top of the sandwich, it came with French fries and I had musels mariniere also served with French fries. Those French fries were out of this world, they were match stick thin, crispy and well salted with sea salt and sprinkled with fresh parsley. They were impossible to ignore and to stop eating, on top of that I made a glutton of myself with the French bread and the leftover broth that my mussels came in, it was shockingly decadent on my part but I didn’t care. It was finger licking good and it isn’t everyday that you can get excellent mussels.

Once we left the Bistro, the baby girl and I kept roaming the streets looking for the elusive French Patisserie Francois Payard. My baby girl after several blocks of going back and forth, stopped and asked Siri who directed us to the Plaza Hotel at 58th and Fifth avenue. What I wasn’t aware of is that there is a wonderful Food Court in the lower level of the Plaza Hotel and there is where we found the patisserie Payard. I picked out a lovely assortment of small cakes for my mother, my sister, my brother-in-law and myself. For the younger desert connoisseurs, my baby girl, my niece and my nephew, I picked out a mini cheesecake, a red velvet cupcake and a chocolate cupcake. I also got 5 pieces of macarons delicate cookies, each a different flavor as a small surprise for the birthday celebration. I also took my baby girl to Teuscher’s Chocolatier so that the baby girl could pick out four pieces of chocolates for herself as a special treat.

Once we were laden with all of this bounty, we returned to my mother’s house and then we piled into her car to go to my sister’s house where she ordered pizza and then we sang Happy Birthday to the baby girl and devoured all of the cakes. Today was a really nice day even if it was a long day filled with a lot of walking, we had a lot of fun.