Terrific Tuesday. . .Digging in the Recipe Box

As part of embracing my 2025 Word of the Year--INSPIRE, I am trying each week to INSPIRE my baking skills to a higher level or at least revive some of my baking skills.

Cooking came naturally to me, you do not have to be precise and I watched my grandmother open the refrigerator door and make meals fit for a king. . .(my Italian grandmother, my Irish grandmother preferred reservations). I learned to season as I cooked--my seasonings are very simple that are in my cabinet--Sea Salt, Fresh Pepper, Maple Pepper and Cajun Trinity by Rex. By keeping it simple, you learn the seasonings and how taste with vegetables, chicken, fish or beef.

Now I could go on and on but this is about baking. . .one of the first things I learned to bake and bake well, 30 years ago, was a cheesecake recipe that was in Better Homes and Gardens. We were newly married, both had corporate careers, so little time for much else. The first Christmas we hosted at our 1700's farm in Basking Ridge, NJ featured this dessert. Now back then around the holidays I would make the cookies I had written down as a teenager on index cards--thumbprint cookies, almond crescents and pizzelles--and have tins of cookies for the holidays. Over time this dwindled as did my baking skills, so 2025 is time to Inspire and Revive those skills!!! (I know Ron will be happy)

The cheesecake recipe is from Philadelphia Cream Cheese and appeared in the Holiday Issue of Better Homes and Gardens, 1994! As you can see the recipe has been around awhile and I have always used this page from the magazine as my recipe card. It was a huge hit back then and now. Ron still loves it, asks for it at holidays and this recipe has never failed me. I do not top it with cherries but serve them on the side if at all. The prepared crust insures a great cheesecake as well--3 steps to success!

So if you are not the best baker in the world, or want something easy. . .try it! Enjoy it as we have for over 30 years.

PS Think it is time to put it in a sheet protector!