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| New York Style Cheesecake |
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If you’ve been a regular reader of my blog, you know that cheesecake is my idea of the ultimate non-pasta comfort food.
These are the times that try women’s souls and that call for cheesecake.
Well, there are cheesecakes, and then there are cheesecakes.
Some are rich and thick and loaded with calories.
But there are cheesecake recipes that are more diet-friendly.
And many are easy to make.
Really. I don’t want to make life harder for you.
Some cheesecakes were a regular treat for Winnipeggers to have when they were shopping in Eaton’s or Woolworth.
Well, Eaton’s and Woolworth aren’t in business anymore.
But we can still enjoy their cheesecakes.
The Eaton’s cheesecake is super easy.
The Woolworth Icebox Cheesecake is a delicate lemony dessert.
Neither recipe requires using an oven.
Eaton’s Cheesecake
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2021/01/eatons-cheesecake-crumb-crust-recipe.html
Woolworth Icebox Cheesecake & Strawberry Cream Cheese Icebox Cake
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2020/07/woolworth-icebox-cheesecake-strawberry.html
Looking for something for the kiddies to do? These recipes could be fun projects.
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| CO-OP Refrigerator Cheesecake |
Some cheesecake recipes even were a part of Winnipeg's history.
About a month ago Katherine Dow, CTV News Winnipeg Anchor/Editorial Producer, interviewed me for her article about the Winnipeg icon, the 1960s CO-OP Refrigerator Cheesecake.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/winnipeg/article/the-winnipeg-icon-that-it-is-famed-cheesecake-recipe-a-slice-of-manitoba-history/
it is really good.
1960s CO-OP Refrigerator Cheesecake
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2010/02/1960s-co-op-refrigerator-cheesecake.html
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| Carmela's Cheesecake |
Carmela Soprano may have had an extra reason to make her cheesecake.
Carmela Soprano's Ricotta - Pineapple Pie (Cheesecake)
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2013/02/carmela-sopranos-ricotta-pineapple-pie.html
Here’s another New York favourite recipe:
Lindy's Cheesecake with Red Cherry Glaze, New York Style Cheesecake
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2011/02/lindys-cheesecake.html
Back in the 1960s I was still living in New York and found this recipe in the New York Daily News:
Place the oven rack in the middle of the oven.
Butter the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.
For the crust:
Combine in a small bowl
1 3/4 Cups graham wafer crumbs
1/4 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup margarine
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Press the mixture over the bottom and sides of the prepared pan.
For the filling:
Combine in a large mixer bowl
3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 Cups sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
Beat at medium speed until fluffy.
Preheat the oven to 350º F
Add, one at a time
4 large eggs
Mix well after each egg is added.
Beat in
1 teaspoon vanilla
Beat at low speed until smooth.
Pour into the prepared pan.
Bake for 55 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to sit 15 minutes while preparing the topping.
Raise oven temperature to 450º F
For the topping:
Place in a medium bowl
1 Cup sour cream
1/4 Cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Beat just until smooth. Do not over beat.
Spread the topping over the baked cheesecake.
Return cheesecake to oven.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to cool 45 minutes.
Spread over the topping
1 can cherry pie filling (optional)
Allow to cool at room temperature another 2 hours.
I have to include one of Ma’s recipes:
Anna Sultana’s Ricotta Cheesecake
Generously grease a 9-inch springform pan with butter.
Melt
1/2 Cup butter
Place in medium bowl and crush
18 graham crackers
Stir in the melted butter.
Firmly press the graham cracker mixture into the bottom and along the sides of the springform pan, then set aside.
Sift together into a small bowl
1/3 Cup flour
1 Cup sugar
Place in a medium bowl
4 Cups ricotta cheese
1/2 teaspoons orange extract
Stir together, then slowly fold in the flour mixture until well blended and smooth.
Preheat oven to 325º F
Add, one at a time
6 large eggs
Continuing to blend after each addition.
Stir in
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pour cheese mixture into the graham crust and gently smooth top with a spatula.
Bake 60 to 70 minutes, until cake is firm throughout the centre.
Remove pan from oven and let sit on counter 2 hours.
Refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.
Run a knife around to loosen the cake before removing the outer part of pan.
Generously dust the cheesecake with sifted confectioners’ sugar.
Store leftovers in refrigerator.
Some excellent cheesecake recipes have been on food packages.
They usually can be trusted because, well, they want you to buy more.
Cheesecake with Strawberry Glaze from the 1960’s Argo® Cornstarch Box
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2018/04/cheesecake-with-strawberry-glaze-from.html
Kraft’s Peaches 'N Cream No-Bake Cheesecake
For the crust:
Combine in a small bowl
2 Cups graham wafer crumbs
6 Tablespoons margarine, melted
Press the mixture over the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan.
Refrigerate while preparing filling.
For the filling:
Place in a large mixer bowl
4 packages (250 g each) Philadelphia Light Brick Cream Cheese Spread, softened
3/4 Cup sugar
Beat at medium speed until well blended.
Add
1 package (4-serving size) Jell-O Peach or Strawberry Jelly Powder
Stir in
2 fresh peaches or 2 Cups strawberries, chopped
3 Cups thawed Cool Whip Light Whipped Topping
Spoon over crust.
Refrigerate 4 hours.
~~~
In 2006 I wrote this for the CKUW radio show ‘2000 & Counting - Older & Wiser’.
We were talking about our gardens.
My gardening has gotten better over the years.
Really.
Oh, the rhubarb plants we bought in 1989 are still producing...
I'm trying to be a good Manitoban, but 20 centimetres of snow is not my idea of Spring. In the movie 'Camelot' they did not have snowball fights while singing 'The Lusty Month of May'. Who knew we could get travel advisories in the middle of May? What the heck was that?
Ok, enough venting. The snow melted. It is Spring. We have passed the Victoria Day Weekend. It is time to get serious about gardening right here in River City. Gardening in Manitoba is like being a Senior. It ain't for wimps.
My husband Paul and I are from New York. People do garden there. But it isn't as exciting as here. Ok, New Yorkers get a hurricane or two, but for the most part it's just muggy in the summer. Hydrangeas love it.
Tyndall Park was once a dairy farm. Paul and I have tried to make our 35 by 100 foot piece of former farmland beautiful. Our home was only four years old when we bought it in 1988. We'd heard about its first owners. After they'd installed a lawn, the wife planted a small tree, the husband yanked it out and then they filed for divorce.
We fought the Karma. After a priest blessed our home, we went to the nursery and picked up three cotoneasters, six evergreens, a grapevine, three lilacs and three michaelmas daisies. We also got trees: two chokecherries and two Swedish aspens. They were the cutest little things - Paul was taller than the aspens. How big could they get? Yeah…
We also bought five rhubarbs, something for homemade desserts while our son was in the hollow leg stage. The clerk assured me that they, the rhubarbs, only lived about ten years. Perfect. That's all we'd need.
I read books. According to a best seller - 'The Postage Stamp Garden Book' - I could become Lady Bountiful dripping with fresh produce. My garden would look like a miniature rain forest. I could grow it all in very little space by intensive gardening techniques.
Translation: ignore the cute little stickers and cram everything together.
I bought 24 tomato plants, baby onions and zucchini, carrot, green bean and lettuce seeds. I intercropped - that's planting seeds among the plants. When the seeds sprouted, they looked about as hopeful as the folks in steerage on the Titanic. They survived about as well. The tomatoes didn't do much better. My garden looked more like compost than a rain forest. I tossed the book.
People on gardening shows are so happy digging and planting. We need someone who'll say, "You idiot! Stop doing that."
One of our first gardening purchases was a hose reel. It had a short hose to attach the faucet to the hose. We thought there was a safety reason for that. Paul nailed the reel to the fence near the faucet which was nowhere near the garden. For 14 years we shlepped around half the perimeter of our house lugging 150 feet of hose every time we had to water the garden. With all that hose around it looked like we were fighting a four alarmer.
Two years ago the fence board keeled over. Finally, it hit me. We're talking water. Why can't the reel be near the garden? We could use a longer hose to attach the faucet to the hose. Why isn't there someone to help the gardening impaired? Don't they know some of us are clueless?
When we became empty nesters I got buggy and bought a butterfly starter kit. I believed: if I plant it, they will come. I also picked up some lovely pastel pansies. Well, the butterflies did come. They pigged out on the liatris, echinacea, sedum and rudbeckia. My pansies disappeared. From a CBC radio gardening segment I learned that butterflies lay their eggs in pansies. Basically I had created a butterfly cheap motel - they came, got drunk on the flowers, then had unsafe sex in my pansies which their rotten kids then devoured. Of all the nerve.
Last year I got another gardening book. The author had been on a Canadian show. He promised we could have beautiful CANADIAN gardens with no work at all. Yeah, that sounded like jumbo shrimp. But he was serious. All we had to do was plant perennials. They'd come back every year. Isn't that nice?
So I got one of every perennial available. I was so pleased. The cerastiums, asters, pearly everlastings, blackeyed-susans, mallows and yarrows just took over the place. The dozen creeping jennies filled in all the bare spots. Our two dogs, Popcorn and Bobo, couldn't kill a single plant. I'd gone to garden heaven. Then a neighbor dropped by. I poured coffee. She got down to suburban business.
"Eh, Marg, when are you going to get rid of the weeds?"
Weeds? Ok, our lawn had an occasional dandelion, but let she without a single dandelion cast the first stone. I was miffed. I pulled out the little stickers that had come with my perennials. See, I'd actually paid good (Ok, Canadian) money for my perennials.
My neighbor pulled out a dog eared 'Golden Guide for Weeds'. There, along with a page on dandelions, was a page for each of my perennials. My beloved pearly everlasting, with the oh so proper Latin name 'gnaphalium margaritacea', was a cudweed. I felt like John Cleese in the Monty Python dead parrot sketch. I was stuck with a yard full of dead parrots. Beautiful plumage my Aunt ZuZu.
I had to face facts. One may be closer to God in a garden than anywhere else on earth, but the guy at the nursery just wants to make a buck. How else does one explain catering to 'zone denial'? They're selling plants that belong in zone ten, not our own zone three. They're selling magnolias. Did Scarlet O'Hara just come waltzing in? Of course they won't guarantee the magnolia's health beyond this summer. It's a miracle the plant survived crossing the border. Those rhubarbs which were supposed to live ten years are now old enough for learners' permits. The clerk would've said whatever I wanted to hear.
Ok. The garden gloves came off. I got a copy of the weed guide. Time for me to apply some Yankee ingenuity to my garden. It has been a while since cows roamed my yard so I wasn't worried about yarrows tainting anybody's milk. The yarrows, along with his buddies, are staying. If I can name it, it can stay.
Since I didn't need pedigreed plants for a garden show I decided I'd help myself to nature's hardy perennials. Along the roads where I walk our dogs the fields are alive with perennials. Armed with spade and bucket I got perennials that are as hard as nails.
I now have a herb garden of mustard, winter cress and anise. There's chicory for coffee and chamomile for tea. Who needs basil for pesto? Daisies, English, fleabane, field and shasta, thrive where I once struggled with fussier plants.
One man's weeds is another's cash crop or freebie. This summer I plan to read Harlequin romances in a little corner where I've sown my love lies bleeding, also known as pigweeds and I've sown my wildoats.
Life is good.
