Lemon-Lime Cheesecake Bars

I don't really like the first Sunday of the month because we have to make food for potluck and for our small group meeting Sunday evening. It just seems a bit excessive most of the time--our church definitely fits the stereotype of liking to eat--we were once reading Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline in our small group and we still had food for the meeting in which we talked about fasting--gobs of food! Anyway, this Sunday we were assigned to bring dessert to our small group meeting, which was going to involve a barbecue. Clearly, we needed something springy. As in, appropriate for Spring, not bouncy. We had some cream cheese in the refrigerator that I'd been wanted to use up (Western Family 1/3 less fat cream cheese is not a good substitute for other brands of such cream cheese--it has a teeny bit of the fat free cream cheese taste. However, it's fine for baking or cooking), so we decided that I would make this recipe (doubled since our "small" group sometimes has 17 people there), except we called them lemon-lime cheesecake bars since we didn't have enough lemons to get 1/2 cup of lemon juice (okay, so we had part of one lemon), but we do have frozen lime juice. Hence, I used the lime juice and lemon peel. Also, I wanted a graham cracker crust instead of a Nilla wafer crust (I've never been a fan of Nilla wafers). The graham cracker crust required melted butter, so in what I consider my most recent moment of brilliance in the kitchen, I put the butter in the glass mixing bowl in the oven as it preheated. Hence, the butter quietly melted away while I crushed the graham crackers. Yes, the bowl got hot, too, but since I barely had to touch it in order to mix the sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and melted butter, my sleeves sufficed for hand protection, and it was cool enough by the time I had to dump the crust into the baking pan that I could touch it directly. There were no butter splatters on the microwave ceiling and no extra pan to clean. It was marvelous. So were the cheesecake bars with defrosted three berry mix (from Costco) on top. There were only 12 people at small group, so we have at least 1/3 of the pan left...come visit us and help us finish it! Oh, and we're discussing The Dangerous Act of Worship in our small group, which is an excellent book if we do say so ourselves (we actually had one of our suggestions for a book accepted!).

Apple Chips

We purchased some Nature Valley apple chips at Albertsons the other day when they were $1 for a box of five bags (way overpackaged!) and have enjoyed them. Then we got our Kraft Food and Family magazine with directions on how to make dried apple slices in the oven. I decided that if we sliced very thinly, we could make apple chips instead of apple slices. So I sliced two apples thinly, dipped them in a mixture of lemon juice and water as suggested by the magazine (and that's really all it said--the magazine that is generally overprescriptive in recipes merely said "a mixture of lemon juice and water" with no attempt at giving amounts. Therefore, I make no attempt to give an amount either.), sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar, placed them on a baking stone, and put them in a 200 degree oven for 4 hours (the directions for apple slices were 4 to 12 hours--quite the range!). They turned out quite well and we've gobbled them up. I may not be able to take them in my lunch this week since they may not exist any longer.

Cookbooks lie.

We have some apples that are getting old, so I decided to make applesauce. Most of my decision was based on the fact that the big red Betty Crocker cookbook says that it is "Fast." 5 minutes preparation, 20 minutes cooking, stir occasionally. So I could study while making it and not take a ton of time; therefore, I would have a lot of time left to study. I dutifully peeled the apples and cut them into fourths as directed by the recipe. Then I put them in the pan with 1/2 cup water, as directed, and brought it to a boil. I emptied the dishwasher during the 5 minutes that the apples and water were supposed to simmer, stirring occasionally to break the apples up. At the end of 5 minutes, the apples were still happily in fourths and had made no progress toward "tender." So I did the dishes while they continued to simmer for the next 5 minutes (the recipe did say 5-10 minutes of simmering). Then I stood over the stove for the next hour and fourteen minutes stirring occasionally and reading Contemporary Abstract Algebra. Finally, I gave up, added the nutmeg, cinnamon, and brown sugar, let simmer for one more minute, and ate chunky applesauce (in which some of the chunks were still not tender). Not fast. Not at all.

Fun with Strawberries

A while ago some friends had a plethora of strawberries leftover from a funeral reception and we shared the burden and took a large basked full home. We used them while they were still good on granola and yogurt, waffles, and just plain then chopped bagged and froze the rest. I didn't have a clue what we would do with pounds of frozen strawberries until our friends called and said they had made some excellent strawberry lemonade. So we have been making it ever since.

• Make lemonade (fresh or from a can).


• Add frozen strawberry chunks generously.


• Let stand refrigerated.


• Drink on a hot day.

It is amusing to watch how the color changes from a orangeish pink to a mild strawberry red as you get down to the bottom of the jug and the berry chunks have bleed out their juiciness.