So I’ve really gotten nothing work-wise done this weekend, which bothers me more than it should. Usually I get Saturday mornings Katherine and John-free to think and do scary things with chemicals, flames, fabric and glue (not simultaneously, usually). This weekend we rolled into at high-speed and never really recovered from. When this happens, I never really get a chance to have that bit of time, which I normally guard quite jealously. Hopefully we’ll be able to make it up during the week.
Friday night was cheesecake preparation night. After supper, I planned two cheesecakes (Apple Streusel and Chocolate Turtle Cheesecakes – recipes at the bottom of this post), stalked and killed their respective ingredients and we made them after the rugrat went to bed. Had we started before she slept, we never would have gotten her down for the night.

Finished up at 2am.

At 5:30, someone howled. I blamed dog #3 and remonstrated with him suitably. Found out later on Saturday that it was actually Katherine, howling in her sleep over the baby monitor.

Was planning on waking at 7:30, figuring that an extra half-hour on a Saturday was a reasonable expectation, given that we’d been up until 2 baking and were going to spend the day toting boxes and lifting bails for my sister and her husband, who were moving house.

Woke up with a jolt at 7:26 to the phone ringing and my mother quizzing me on rope and blankets for the move.

Woke Katherine up. Got breakfast together. Dressed everyone. Got stuff together. Got out the door. Arrived at the old apartment just before 9am, right on schedule. Had forgotten that they lived on the third floor of a house with slippery, steep, stairs. Treacherous stairs. Narrow stairs.

Dealt with Katherine having “Toddler Deviation From Routine Syndrome”. She and I went to Chapters and played trains for a few minutes mid-day.

Filled the too-small moving van with fewer than the expected number of injuries and helpers. Some All of my sister and brother-in-law’s friends failed to appear until the very end, partially due to the fact that my sister UNPLUGGED THE PHONE so that the friends didn’t know where we were. Sigh.

Anyway, dumped a load of stuff, comprising 90% of the apartment’s contents, at the new place and begged off on load two, as a couple of friends did indeed show and we had a cheesecake party to get to.

Drove from Kildbride to Torbay, changed, cleaned up, gave Katherine a bit of down-time and assembled stuff to bring. Collapsed for five minutes and were in mortal danger of never getting up again.

Went to cheesecake party and had a great time. John won best name for the Apple Streusel cake with “An Apple Spice Cake from the Court of Apple-peel, in which you get your just desserts.” Urg. I tied for runner up with Bob (I think) for the Best in Show with Turtle Concoction below (Bob’s was an amazing orange-chocolate with Kaluhua and Grand Marnier. His wife may have access to the secret recipe). The party was fabulous, but Katherine was really running on empty. Managed to get her home with only a Stage 4 Melt-Down [there are five stages, ranging from Stage 1 (the I-doan-wannas) to Stage 5 (windows get smashed and injuries inflicted)].

Poured a slithering, screaming wreck of a child into bed and collapsed again. Couldn’t get up and so elected not to go back to the party to retrieve the digital camera that had been left there. Picked it up in the morning.

Hot bath. Bed. Sleep. No howling.

Today was left free-form and that proved to be a good thing. Katherine got herself back into her groove and was tolerable. I got rid of my headache (don’t you hate waking up with a headache? I didn’t even have anything to drink the nigh before…). Went out, bumped around Signal Hill. Basically had a good time.

Right. Now for the reason you read this far.

Cheesecake recipes.

Apple Streusel Cheesecake

Crust:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 cup cold butter

Filling:

• 3 pkg (750g total) cream cheese
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 eggs

Topping:

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3 apples, peeled, cored and sliced

1. Combine crust ingredients in food processor until clumpy. Take out. Mush together with hands. Pat into a 10-inch springform pan, covering bottom and sides fairly evenly. Stick in fridge for an hour. Take out, prick with fork, bake in preheated oven at 350F for 20min or so. Take out to cool while making step 2….
2. In bowl (or counter-top mixer, if you have one), beat cream cheese with sugar until fluffy. Add in sour cream and vanilla. Beat well. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat well. Beat really well. Pour into cooled crust. Bake at 300F for about an hour. Sides should be set, centre still jiggly, but not liquid. Take out. Put on rack to cool. Leave oven on!
3. Mix together all topping ingredients but for apples and 1.5 tbsp butter. Crumble it up well! Set aside.
4. Melt butter in a large skillet. Cook apples until soft and lightly browned.
5. Arrange apples on top of cake. Drizzle juices on too. Cover with crumbly stuff. Bake again at 350F for 10-15 min, until golden.
6. Let cool to room temperature before refridgerating. Refridgerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Recipe courtesy of Canadian Living

Turtle Cheesecake

– to be completed on another day! There are two hours left in my evening and I plan to get something done, now that the headache has finally dissipated.