Birthday Cheesecake

Yesterday was Peter’s 27th birthday. He doesn’t like his birthdays. He hates anyone knowing about them and just doesn’t care. But as I always LOVE my birthdays, I tried to make somewhat of an effort for him. I made his is favourite dish that I can make: New York Cheesecake. He always requests it for his birthday and he says that it is better than any cheesecake he has ever tasted. I don’t know if he is just saying this, but it makes me feel so special. Here is a picture of my cheesecake from yesterday and the recipe follows if anyone wants to give it a shot.

NEW YORK CHEESECAKE

Ingredients

• 20 graham crackers, crushed
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Directions

1. Please take out all cold ingredients a couple hours beforehand and make sure they are at room temperature before starting to make this cheesecake!
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 inch springform pan and cover the outside of the pan with tin foil.
3. In a medium bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs with melted butter. Press onto bottom of springform pan.
4. In a large bowl, mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Do not over mix.
5. Blend in milk and then mix in the eggs, one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate.
6. Mix in sour cream, vanilla and flour until smooth. Pour filling into prepared crust.
7. Boil 5 cups of water and pour into a large baking tray on the middle rack of the oven. This is called a water bath and it will help cook the cheesecake in a gentler manner.
8. Put the springform pan directly into the water bath (as long as the water does not go over the sides of the springform pan). This is not necessary however. You can have the water bath on the bottom rack of the oven and the springform pan on the rack directly above it.
9. Bake the cheesecake in preheated oven for 1 hour. After an hour, turn the oven off and forget the cake. Do not take it out of the oven. At this point the cheesecake will still be jiggly in the middle. That is okay. Let cake cool in the oven with the door closed for 5 to 6 hours; this will help prevent cracking. Chill in refrigerator until serving.

As I stated above, the cheesecake turned out perfectly with no cracks and a great consistency. Be careful though, it is delicious and easy to eat the whole cake! Share with your friends and your hips will thank you

The recipe I use is from all recipes and it’s called Chantal’s New York Cheesecake and it has never failed me.

In other news I had my first self “weigh in” this week, after I made my decision to get back on the wagon, and I am proud to say that I have lost 1.5lbs this week. I watched what I ate a whole lot more and I exercised 3 times this week. Let’s hope I keep it up

All Booked Up

I have finally started booking our trip to Florida in November. As much as Peter does not want to go, I am dragging him there. I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to go to Disney World!! The Disney Parks are some of the most magical places on Earth. I would choose Disney over any all-inclusive vacation or cruise any time. I am just a big kid at heart.

So initially we were planning to spend a week in Cape Coral, Florida at my in-laws vacation rental house and then another week up in Orlando visiting the Disney parks. Well, usually after a week of being away from home, Peter is itching to get home. A week is a long enough vacation for him. He gets bored. It finally dawned on me that spending a week basically doing nothing in Cape Coral and then trying to make him go go go for a week in Orlando would not be a good idea. So we cancelled the first part of the trip to Cape Coral and have only decided to go to Disney World for 9 days. Again, 9 days is pushing it, but I think he will live. Two of the days can be considered travel days anyway.

I bought the flights with my airmiles. I have been collecting like mad for the past 2 years to try and buy for a trip. This was only the second time I have ever redeemed my airmiles and it was the first time I spent them on airfare. I still had to pay the taxes for the flights, but $450 is better than $1500!! I have to admit that it was a little unnerving seeing my airmiles balance go from 7000 miles to 500. Eeek. Took so long to collect and gone in a flash. However, I feel good about it. The best part is that they are direct flights and so there are no layovers and no more than necessary take offs and landings. Phew. I really hate flying.

I will be booking the hotel this week. I am thinking we are going to stay at the same Super 8 that my mom and I stayed at on our last Disney World trip. There isn’t anything special about it, but it was clean and cheap. It also had a continental breakfast so we didn’t have to worry about where to eat in the morning. There was a grocery store right next door, so that will be perfect to get groceries. We will be renting a car and so we don’t really have to worry about getting around. The bus stop is right outside of our hotel and we will take that to the parks each day. It’s cheaper than having to pay for parking.

I believe my parents are giving Peter and I passes for the parks for our birthdays. A 7 day pass for the Disney Parks and a 2 day pass for Universal Orlando. After all, we are traveling all that way, we have to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter too!!! Peter is a HP fan and so I think he would enjoy seeing Hogsmeade and having some Butterbeer. Who wouldn’t love the place?!

It is going to be a great trip. I hope. It will really depend on Peter and his mood. He hates rides and so he thinks he will loathe Disney World. Well I hate rides too. You will never catch me going on an upside down roller coaster or drop of fear or the like. Honestly, I don’t really consider most of the rides at Disney World “rides.” They are more like mini-adventures. They have stories attached to them. You feel like you are in another land while you are on them. The rides that I go on aren’t scary. I won’t go on the Tower of Terror or the more scarier rides. I like to stick to the nice ones like Pirates of the Caribbean and the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. They are fun, not scary.

As more things get booked and the date comes closer, I know I will get more and more excited.