"So... cheesecake huh?
History: a couple of guys at work decided to hold the 1st Annual Potluck, the idea being that everyone in the team bring along something amazing that they've made at home in the past to share with everyone. Me being about as much of a cook as Ronald McDonald, I needed some assistance. So I messaged Anna suggesting a cheesecake (there were no desserts on the list at the time) and got the thumbs up.
We bought all of the ingredients today, and I hit the kitchen come 5:30. The first thing I found was the immediate urge to get angry the moment Anna stepped over the invisible line between the dining room and the kitchen; I now totally understand how cooks need their space, although I still don't understand WHY! I had to apologise to Anna a few times because I was bordering on unreasonable.
We replaced digestive biscuits with ginger biscuits for the base, simply because we spent too much time mincing about the supermarket trying to find the biscuit aisle and randomly came across a big bag of gingers. Damn good decision though - YUM! The biscuits were blitzed in The President, butter then added, blitzed again and then poured into the cake tin and pressed down. Anna kept telling me to pack it all down with a bit of force; naturally being a kitchen loser I was being a right wuss and going at it with pinky fingers. After that it goes into the fridge to cool/harden.
Then, two and a half blocks of cream cheese were put into The President, plus three eggs in a bowl and three more egg yolks (separated from the whites - I managed to do this part really bloody well!!) which were then added to the cream cheese. Added some vanilla extract, the fine sugar, a few tablespoons of lemon juice plus some lemon rind, and BAM. That's pretty much a cheesecake right there. The mix was poured onto the cooled base and then into the oven for 50 minutes, in a bain-marie for even cooking.
As was reinforced during this kitchen adventure, I SUCK at kitchen multitasking. Trying to crack eggs whilst cleaning as you go whilst getting/putting away ingredients whilst having a normal conversation... hell, even that sentence sounds too hard. Anna could do all that with her eyes closed.
After that, a tub of sour cream/sugar/vanilla was folded together and poured onto the cheesecake; that's then cooked for a further 15 minutes. Now she (I think it's fair to call a cheesecake a she) is sitting on the oventop cooling down. Can't wait to get into it!! I actually did have a lot of fun making this, despite nothing occurring to me naturally. But it doesn't need to; that's why I have a wife that can cook!"
