It's the prettiest day ever..............

It's snowing here.....really snowing!!! Finally, the weathermen got it right, and sure enough at 10am today it starting coming down, and I mean really coming down! We have about 10 inches already, and it doesn't look like it's gonna stop sometime soon.

My hubby couldn't make it home from work today, since he had to go back tonight for his last night at work, and traveling back tonight would have been too dangerous. My hubby will be off for about 12 days for Christmas vacation anyway starting tomorrow...yippee... what a treat, so I think :) So, I've been busy doing all my hubby's chores: feeding the chickens, collecting the eggs, filling the pellet stove, shoveling, but only a bit, since my wonderful neighbor Joe, came over today and snowblowed us out...he came twice....what a great guy! (note to hubby, you owe him big next snow storm). But I would have snowblowed too, but we got this big new snowblower, and I didn't know how to operate it, otherwise I would have done it all...like I usually do when hubby doesn't come home during a snowstorm.

Anyway, seeing all the snow really put me into the Christmas spirit again, I go in and out of it these days. I have been listening to Christmas music all day long, found a great music channel on tv and it's wonderful, (Yulelog move over!) all the old songs, and continuous. I got all my chores done, and squeeze some more baking in too. The kids are outside just loving the snow, giving me some time alone. No, I didn't go out in it. I never said I like to play in the snow, just look at the snow. not play in it.

Tomorrow we are going to my hubby's parents house to celebrate our Christmas with them, and the rest of the family. I baked my "Mom's Cheesecake", which is the most delicious cheesecake in the world! I remembered to take pictures of the process....you all should be very proud of me, and I probably won't be doing this again, took up too much time!

Here's the recipe:

Mom's Cheesecake
3 - 8 oz. cream cheese

1 cup sugar

5 eggs

1/3 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla

All these ingredients must be at room temperture, including the eggs! This is a must!
Mix the cream cheese until really creamy, then add the eggs one at a time, add the sour cream, and vanilla. Scrape the sides down a couple of times, and really beat for about 5 minutes, scraping the side down yet again, until really smooth and creamy.

For the Crust, combine 1 & 1/2 cups graham crackers crumbs, 1 & 1/2 Tbs. sugar, and 1 stick butter already melted.

Mix all the crust ingredients together and put them into a greased 9 inch springform pan. Lined the outside of the pan with foil...pat the crust into the bottom, and up the sides a bit. Bake the crust for 10 minutes in a 350 oven. Cool.

Pour the cream cheese mixture into the springform pan....put into a large baking pan (see below picture). Bring about 3 cups or so of water to a boil, and gently pour the boiling water halfway up the sides of the cheesecake....into that baking dish, without getting any water into the unbaked cheesecake. This will help the cheesecake to cook evenly, and help it not to crack.

Put into a 350 oven for 45 minutes. Then shut off the oven, and let stand in the oven for another 45 minutes. Then take out of the oven and let stand at room temp for another hour. Meanwhile prepare the sour cream topping.

Sour Cream Topping - 1 & 2/3 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 tsp. vanilla. When the cake has sat at room temp, mix the sour cream, sugar and vanilla with a whisk, and pour on top of the cheese cake, and spread with a knife or offset spatual. Preheat oven to 350, and cook again for only 5 minutes. Take out and let sit again for 1 hour at room temp....and then refrigerate.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the finished cheese cake.....it came out really nice, and honestly I'm too tired to get up now, and walk into the kitchen, open the frig, and take it out, uncover it, and take a picture of it. I had a busy day, and this post took me FOREVER to complete, since I've been interupted too many times by my kids (who are in now), Perdie, Pongo, phone calls, making dinner, putting Davey to bed, folding laundry, cleaning up dinner dishes, baking bread for tomorrow, and everything else that goes on in a day in the life of Liz. Make the cheesecake, it looks really difficult, but once you get the hang of it, it's really easy....ENJOY!!!