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What I Did Tonight

As my Lenten promise, I am going to be writing a letter a day. 40 days, 40 letters. I already have one to make up for, as I didn't think of this brilliant plan until I was actually in church during the 7 p.m. service last night. I have also decided that this counts as a letter because I have a decent number of regular readers (like you!) and you deserve to read too.

In fact, this writing process is about reflection. I try to pray as frequently as possible, but I'm not sure I'm really reflecting on myself and my life as much as I need to. My hope is that by writing to others and talking about what is going on in my life, I'll be able to build a better relationship with my friends (you!), family, and God.

Tonight was the most interesting part of my day, so I'll share that in words and pictures (ooo, maybe it'll help remind me to take more pictures too!).

Tonight, I made a goat cheese cheesecake. I have no idea if it is delicious, but it is in fact a cheesecake. The ordeal of putting it together will hopefully not affect the opinion of the partakers tomorrow. To prove that the story does have at least a happy ending, I present, my cheesecake:


Basically, I've never made cheesecake before. I wanted to make something really special, and decided goat cheese cheesecake would be pretty darn special. I started making the crust, decided to ex-nay the ground nuts and didn't remember to decrease the amount of butter. Bad plan.

As I was pre-baking my graham cracker crust (made in the food processor because I'm awesome like that), the excess butter leaked through the springform pan and onto the bottom of the oven. This caused an oven disaster that lasted two hours, three tries at pre-heating (and subsequent coolings so I could scrub the bottom of the oven), and a phone call to Mom.

Once I got that taken care of (actually in the midst of the coolings) I started making the filling. Well, I tried. But even though I had bought tons of cheese (40 ounces), I didn't have enough to double the recipe (the cake needs to feed about 25 people). I asked two neighbors, and no one had any cream cheese. As one pointed out, I could have "just gone to the market." But, this is me and not improvising a solution is like admitting defeat (to whom or what, I may never know).

Instead, I looked up recipes that had different original measurements so I could create a solution that would fill an 11" round (instead of the typical 8-9"), since I'm guessing that size will come out to about 24 slices (fingers crossed for at least one person on a diet). I couldn't find one. So, I combined two recipes. Below is the chart I made for myself:


(Yes, I named it before I decided to write this post because I'm geeky like that.) I'll let you know whether or not any of that is worth using and share more tips after I'm certain it tastes good. For now, it has five more minutes of cooling before it goes in the fridge for the night. I'll serve it with blackberries tomorrow and hope for the best.

After that, I ate dinner and watched a little Ugly Betty. Kate came over to discuss her date (more on this in a later post) and I started sewing. I promised Lorien a LONG time ago (like late January long time ago) that I could fix her coat. The lining in the pockets was completely destroyed and there was a section on the back that was ripped through too. And now, I present ... Lorien's coat!


There's a bit more "bubbling" on this next one, but it was the first one I sewed and I can correct it either after it gets back from the dry cleaners or this summer when Lorien doesn't need it for awhile.


This last bit is the fleece patch I put in the lining (actually finished this part a couple of weeks ago). It does look a little "orphan Annie," but it will be on the inside, and slip stitching into a fabric that pulls and shreds easily once ripped (as this obviously was) can be tricky. Well, it's tricky to me. Thank goodness I'm not a perfectionist about everything.


So my self-reflective lesson of the night is this: having patience and trying new things (making cheesecake, pockets, etc.) is good. Using pre-structured guidelines might make it easier, but certainly not more adventurous. Oh, and I have to write earlier because I'm super sleepy!

Love always, ~Heather

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