Month: February 2023

Back to the Eighties Cherry Cheesecake

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Cherry Cheesecake is a classic Valentine’s Day dessert.  It’s red so it fits the color theme of the day. It’s rich and decadent. And lastly, you can justify the calories as it’s Valentine’s Day which only comes once a year.

I know that fancy flavored cheesecakes like salted caramel chocolate-pecan or pumpkin spice are more popular now, but you can buy those ready-made or order them in a restaurant if you want to try a piece. For real cheesecake I prefer the no-bake variety, from a recipe I inherited from my mother in the eighties – it’s quick, easy and delicious, not to mention rich and creamy. I find many baked cheesecakes tend to be on the dry side. I think the recipe originated on the side of the Philadelphia cream cheese box. My mother often made this as an Easter dessert but one year she bought the onion-flavored cream cheese by mistake, and my SIL took the first bite and said, well this certainly tastes different! Needless to say, the rest of it went in the garbage. For a crowd, she would double the ingredients and make it in a long 9X13 glass pan, so it was quite a waste.

So, let’s travel back to the decade when hair was big, shoulder pads were bigger, music was loud and cholesterol didn’t exist. You can throw this cheesecake together in five minutes, because as an Eighties Chick you have more important things to do, like listen to rock and roll! (Musical interlude – insert your 80’s song of choice here)

The ingredients:

One 6oz. round ready-made graham cracker pie crust (unless you prefer to make your own and/or have a heart shaped pan).

1 can (14 oz – 420ml) sweetened condensed milk   (Do not confuse with evaporated milk – Canadian cans are 300ml so I had to buy two cans and waste half)

1  package (8 oz – 250g) Philadelphia cream cheese (softened at room temperature)

1/3 cup lemon juice – bottled or fresh  (or to taste. When I googled this old recipe there were some complaints about 1/3 cup being too much and making it too runny, some people used 1/4 cup (60ml) or even less, so I started at 30ml and adjusted to taste using about 60ml total, but I think I could have used the 80ml. My lemon juice was a mixture of water, lemon juice and lemon oil. You have to add some lemon juice to cut the sweetness.)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1 can (21 oz – 540ml ) cherry pie filling  (I like E.D. Smith brand, the Regular one not the or Light and Fruity which has 1/3 less sugar and calories but a tarter taste. I wouldn’t want to calculate the overall calorie count and saturated fat percentage for this dessert as in the 80’s we didn’t worry about those things. A night of dancing would wear that off in no time.)

 The Directions:

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy.

Beat in sweetened condensed milk.

Add lemon juice and vanilla and stir until well mixed.

Here I am chillin in the fridge surrounded by all the healthy stuff like oranges, yogurt and blueberries.

Pour filling into crust and chill for 2-3 hours – it will be softer than a baked cheesecake.

Top with cherry pie filling.  I often don’t do this until a few hours before serving, to make sure the mixture has set properly.  Really the whole thing is better made the day before to allow the flavours to blend.  

Rich and creamy.
These plates were a thrift store find.

I made this for a Harvest Tea several years ago pre-pandemic and the Group of Six art ladies really enjoyed it.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

#Winter Fun – Wordless Wednesday

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This post was inspired by a small exhibit my mother had at the library a few years ago titled Winter Fun. My mother often paints her memories, but many of our favorite winter activities have been popular forever.
You can never build too many snowmen….
Real or…..
….on canvas.
Outdoor skating party – 1902 – photo courtesy of the county archives. In an area blessed with lakes and rivers skating has always been popular, although it must have been difficult to skate in a long skirt and coat. I remember my dad saying he had saved up $5 to buy a pair of skates towards the end of the Depression. He was thirteen. My mother recalls a boy she liked asking her to go skating with him but she didn’t have any skates so she stayed home. Later that afternoon he went with another friend and drowned in the river. No wonder arenas are so popular here, especially now that the river never freezes over. The city used to have an outdoor rink but any dad will tell you how much work they are to maintain, especially during a mild winter.
Skating on Lake Chipican – a small inlet off Lake Huron – photo 1961.
The same lake today – but not quite as busy. Sometimes you see games of pick-up hockey, but often it isn’t cold enough to freeze other than a small patch near the shore. (My photo – 2022)
Hockey on the Pond (2015) – with the family dogs. When I was a kid we used to skate on the pond behind the barn with my cousins. The boys would play hockey and we would pretend to be figure skaters.
Me at age 6 – and are those corduroy pants? I remember being upset that I had to wear black boy’s skates, but by the time the arena opened in town I had white ones. The nicest thing about skating in the arena was listening to the music – all those great 60’s hits blaring over the loudspeaker. Note the wide open fields – once we skated all the way to the bush at the back of the farm when a layer of freezing rain/ice had formed on top of the snow.
Another version of Skating Behind the Barn (2016)
The Barn in Winter (2005) – behind the house was a large yard, where we would play fox and goose in the snow (google the rules) and build snow forts. I only remember the bus being cancelled once for a snow day….it must have been an exceptionally bad storm as we were off school for 3 days.
Tobogganing was another popular (and sometimes dangerous) sport if there was a steep enough hill nearby. When I was a teenager I broke my tailbone on the slats of the toboggan when my neighbour who was pulling us with his skidoo went too fast and we hit a bump. After I had almost passed out from the pain, I ended up on the couch and missed a whole week of school.
Winter Fun (2017) I remember an after-school tobogganing party in grade 8 in a gully with trees – it horrifies me now to even think about it.
A small man-made hill in a nearby park (with a gentle slope and no trees in sight) still attracts a few kids.
Including this little one with the neon-pink-glow-in-the-dark sled. Not sure who was having more fun, the kid or her parents!
Horsing Around (2014) – On the day my mother and her family moved to their new farm in the country, it was snowing and bitterly cold. Looking out the window, she saw my dad and his brother coming up the lane with a team of horses to see if they needed any help setting up the wood stove. (The year was 1944, and tractors were not common yet, nor furnaces.) They were both 18 and eventually got married. I guess you could say she married the boy next door!
On The Way to Gramma’s House (2014) – After a day spent outdoors there’s nothing like a cookie and a warm welcome at gramma’s house.
How many more days until Spring Thaw (2005)?