(Please do not make me bake a cheesecake)

Last night I received Community Update #50 from the Emergency Operations Center in town.

Fifty days of quarantine.

It feels like a lifetime.

I have experienced the grief of our collective loss of innocence and former ways of living to the selfish joy that I can practice yoga daily without the interruption of going to work.

Quarantine has gone on so long that I no longer feel the pang of sadness when I see the bakery closed.

Quarantine has gone on so long that I’ve settled into my own microbe, germ-filled space of clutter after a thorough cleaning and decluttering at the beginning. I’ve even caught myself washing my hands a few seconds less. I’ve become a menace to society.

It seems I’ve slipped into some bad, almost Rodney Dangerfield-esque, humor. Of course the virus is no joking matter for those impacted by it.

Though we must find humor in what cannot be controlled.

A friend requested an easy and reliable cheesecake recipe. Being the people-pleaser that I am, I wanted to comply immediately. However I found myself resisting.

I realized that I would not be able to make it, though making things has been my quest these last 50 days.

I never thought I would say this…

PLEASE do not make me bake a cheesecake.

I think we’ve all put on a few pounds. How could we not? We are no longer running from place to place or too distracted to forget to eat. We are operating out of our kitchens and filling the ice box to the brim in order to avoid a trip to the grocery store.

Though it’s not the weight I am so concerned about… what’s a few pounds but a visible way of showing off how the body can change form? “Look,” we exclaim, “my body can grow vertically AND horizontally.”

This change neither decreases our worthiness nor makes us lesser people.

Perhaps the jeans in the back of the drawer start to feel like the better option. The tighter waist band of the formerly fitting pants, no longer the comfortable choice. This is one of the reasons I am proclaiming COVID19 Quarantine to be the season of the overall. Bring them back, I say, and give the overall its fashion moment.

My problem is my sensitive stomach. It’s like a whiney child. You try to ignore it, but it persists until you finally give in. In this case a break from eating is in order.

So you will need to trust me, without photographic evidence (though a helpful drawing has been included above), that this cheesecake beats all cheesecakes in texture, flavor, and ease.

Thank you to Eileen for sharing this recipe with me years ago.

Oven @ 350 degrees 9″ spring form pan, greased, with circle of parchment on the bottom also greased.

Crust

• 8 graham crackers (Buy the Honey Maid graham crackers in the red box because they will be less sweet and taste better.)
• 1 Tbs. sugar
• 5 Tbs. butter (melted)

Combine crackers and sugar in a food processor and pulse to crush and combine. Then add melted butter and briefly pulse to bring together. Press into the bottom of the pan, not too firmly, and then bake for about 10 minutes. When pan in cool, add foil around the bottom.

Filling

• 2 lbs. cream cheese (room temperature)
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 Tbs. lemon uice
• 2 tsp. vanilla

Clean out the bowl of the food processor and add the above ingredients. Pulse until throughly combined and then pour into the pan on top of the graham cracker mixture. Place the spring form pan inside a 11″x16″x2″ pan. Place the pans in the oven, add some warm water to the 11″x16″x2″ pan, about a quarter to half way up the side of the springform pan and bake for 50-55 minutes.

Topping

• 2 c. sour cream
• 1/4 c. sugar

Take the cheesecake out of the oven and let rest for 15 minutes on the counter. You can take it out of the water bath. Mix the topping ingredients. Add topping and then bake another 5 minutes. Cool on the counter and then refridgerate for at least a few hours, an overnight stay in the fridge is best.

Enjoy!