Filling:
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons flour
Beat the eggs and then mix in the remaining ingredients. Pour evenly over the warm crust. Bake at 350 degrees for another 20 minutes or until filling sets and is lightly browned. Remove from oven, and cool. Sift powdered sugar over the top, if desired.
During Mom's later years, a new family moved into the house on the other corner and same side of the one-block street. The young mother, Louise and her two sons got in the habit of cutting across the backyard of the property that separated her house from my mother's place. Mom did the same when invited over to Louise's house. Walking through a neighbor's backyard is accepted behavior in small towns, unless the middle-house occupants get cranky about it or the trespassers abuse the privilege.
The little boys were about two and four when the family first moved in, so Mom could once again enjoy the sounds of small children running through her house. The boys liked to take turns sitting in the old wicker child's chair and playing with the collection of toys that had been accumulating since my brothers and I were young. Louise was a stay-at-home mom at that time, and she and my mother became good friends, despite their two-generation age separation.
Her parents came quite frequently from southern California to visit, and Mom got well acquainted with them too. As often happened with her, the conversation gravitated to the topic of food, and this cheesecake recipe is one result of that exchange.
Virginia Gilmore's California Cheese Cake
Graham Cracker Crust:
1 1/4 cup crushed graham crackers
3 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Lightly butter 9-inch pie plate; combine ingredients and press onto bottom and sides. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until browned and crisp.
Filling:
One 8-ounce and one 3-ounce package of cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Put cream cheese in a bowl and add sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat 5 minutes until very smooth. Pour into cooled graham cracker crust. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Chill
Topping:
1/2 pint sour cream
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Beat ingredients together and spoon evenly over top of cheesecake. Return to refrigerator until ready to serve.
On warm summer nights, Mom liked to sit outside on what she called "the patio," really just a wide space at the end of the driveway between the house and garage. She kept several antiquated lawn chairs and a picnic table there, and one of her favorite summertime pleasures was to eat outside. She never failed to comment, "Food tastes so much better outdoors." She was right about that though I don't know exactly why.
I felt comforted that Louise lived so close by. I knew she'd sometimes come over to sit with Mom on the patio in the waning light. She was alert to my mother's activities, the state of her health, and wouldn't bring the boys over when they had colds. Older people who live alone need that kind of friendship, nonintrusive but ever watchful. Louise, another of Mom's younger friends, provided that kind of understated care.
Recipes are from the collection of Anna May Cullison.
©2011 Margaret Cullison for SeniorWomen.com
More Articles
- Encore: Kitchen Stigmata and There Are Many Ways to Identify a Good Cook by Julia Sneden
- Adrienne G. Cannon Writes: Those Lonely Days
- In the We Couldn't Resist Category: Just Icing on the Cake, Part One, by Roberta McReynolds
- First Flight: Wheels left the ground, that first gentle lift into the air, and a magic I didn't understand moved us skyward"
- 4.7 Million Uninsured People Nationally Could Get a No-Premium Bronze Plan in the ACA Marketplace, Though Deductibles Would be High
- Elaine Soloway's Hometown Rookie: Synchronized Flopping, Guest Towels And Friends - Floors, Doors or Blocks Away
- My Mother’s Cookbook; More Cookies: Frosted Chocolate, Orange Slice, and Sugar Cookies, Coconut Macaroons
- Rose Mula Writes: If You Can't Stand the Heat ... How About a Subscription to One of the Popular Meal Preparation Kit Services; What an Inspired Idea!
- My Mother’s Cookbook Frosted Cakes: Seven-Minute Frosting, 1234 Cake, Pound Cake Torte and Carrot Cake
- Cities, States Resist — and Assist — Senate Hearing on Immigration Crackdown in New Ways and Reunification of Migrant Families