In honor of National Cheesecake Day, what better thing to talk about than Cheesecake! Raise your hand if you love to eat cheesecake! Now, raise your hand if you love to BAKE cheesecake. Yeah, that’s what I thought. (Incidentally, my hand didn’t go up either).
I know firsthand how it feels to watch your beautiful, flawless masterpiece of cheesy YumOliciousness turn into an unappealing cracked mess. Well my friends, with a few tips and techniques and ALOT of patience, you will not only be able to CREATE your masterpiece, you will be able to SHOW OFF your FLAWLESS masterpiece! Imagine hearing all of the “oohs” and “ahhs” when you present your masterpiece to your family and/or guests! 
TIP #1 – Mix your cheesecake batter well, eliminating all possible lumps of cream cheese BEFORE adding the eggs. Simple, right?
TIP #2 – Bake the cheesecake in a water bath to keep the moisture high and the heat gentle.
TIP #3 -DO NOT overbake the cheesecake! When perfectly done, there will be a 2″-3″ soft spot in the middle of the cheesecake that will smooth out as it cools.
TIP #4 – Cheesecakes shrink as they cool. If you generously grease the baking pan before baking, it will allow the cheesecake to pull away from the PAN as it shrinks instead of pulling from the middle. 
And most importantly, cook slowly and gently and BE PATIENT! 
Below is a recipe for my all-time favorite dessert done Cheesecake Style.
Love and best dishes from my nest to yours. See y’all next time!

TIRAMISU CHEESECAKE
2 (8 oz) pkgs cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 tbs brandy
12 ladyfingers, split
1/2 cup strong black coffee
1 cup cool whip, thawed
1 square semi-sweet chocolate, shaved
mix cream cheese, sugar and vanilla at medium speed with electric mixer until well blended. add eggs; mix until blended. blend in brandy. arrange ladyfingers on bottom and sides of a 9″ pie plate; drizzle with coffee.
pour cream cheese mixture into prepared pie plate.
bake at 350° for 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. cool. refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. garnish with cool whip (pipe it on if you can) and shaved chocolate just before serving. (I also sprinkle a little bit of cocoa powder on it too).
8 servings

WHAT YOU NEED:
Ice
Kosher salt
Quart OR pint-sized Ziploc bags
Gallon-sized Ziploc bag
A few plastic grocery store bags
A towel to hold the very cold bag as you shake the ice cream
ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS:
1. Make & chill the ice cream base. Make sure your ice cream mix is well-chilled, preferably overnight.
2. Bag up ice cream mix, plus ice and salt. Put no more than 2 cups of the ice cream mix in a quart-sized baggie and seal securely. Fill a gallon-sized baggie halfway up with ice, then pour in about 1/2 cup kosher salt. Mix it around, then put the quart-sized baggie into the gallon-sized baggie. Make sure the smaller baggie is covered with ice.
3. Shake, shake, shake! Seal the larger bag securely and place it in a couple layers of plastic grocery store bags. Shake or rotate the bag for at least 5 minutes, preferably 10.
4. Open and check. Open carefully to avoid getting salt in the inner bag. The ice cream should be a soft mass by now. If not, close up again, add some ice and shake some more.
TIP: Turn the little bag inside out into a large bowl, carefully, to get all the ice cream out.

Honestly, is there ANYTHING that does not have it’s own day? Today is National Ice Cream Sandwich Day. Of course, I could think of alot worse foods to have their own days than Ice Cream Sandwiches! For example, Escargot, or Sweetbreads, or, God forbid, Mountain Oysters. Imagine this scenario:

Hubby (kisses Wifey on the cheek as he’s walking out the door): “Hey Honey, how about a nice, cozy, intimate, romantic dinner at home tonight? Just you & me. And, oh yeah, I’ll pick up the main portion of the meal and you can make some sides. Whatever you want is fine with me! What’s that? Oh no! I want it (the main portion) to be a surprise! I promise you will love it! Bye Honey! Love you!” (blows kiss).

(I know, Ladies. What man does that?)
Anyway…Wifey dumps (oops! I mean ‘drops off’) the kiddos at the in-laws for a sleepover, gets a mani & pedi, gets all sexified at the spa, buys a bottle of bubbly, goes home, prepares a nice salad, a starchy side like, let’s say risotto and makes a sexy dessert. She lights the candles, puts on “mood” music, sets the table for two, and waits…

She hears the garage door open, then close, and then…in walks her perfect prince. “Wait till you see what I got us for our romantic dinner! I’m so excited! Close your eyes…”
He hands her a butcher paper-wrapped package. She eagerly tears it open, looks at the odd-looking pieces of protein and says timidly, “What, might I ask, IS this?”

Hubby, bursting with pride says, “Rocky Mountain Oysters, Honey! You know, Bulls’ Balls!”
I’d suffice to say that the evening did not quite go as Hubby had hoped it would go.

Wow! Did I get off track! Back to the subject…

Who doesn’t love ice cream sandwiches?!? Nice creamy, velvety goodness nestled between two caky (or cookie) hunks of YumOliciousness! Yum! Yum! Yum! What’s your favorite kind? My fave is the original – vanilla ice cream sandwiched in between two chocolate caky thingies. Running a close second is chocolate chip ice cream sandwiched between two chocolate chip cookies. Yum!

How do you like to eat your ice cream sandwiches? I absolutely MUST squish them down till the two caky thingies are touching and the entire thing is flat. Of course, I’m licking the ice cream as it’s oozing out!

Here is a very simple recipe using ice cream sandwiches as the main ingredient. I love, love, LOVE this!

ICE CREAM SANDWICH CAKE
2 boxes ice cream sandwiches (24 total – you will have a few left over)
2 (8 oz) containers cool whip, thawed
1 small box instant chocolate pudding mix
in a bowl, mix one container of cool whip with the chocolate pudding mix. (you do not have to make the pudding). beat well. this is for the topping. set aside.
in a 9″x13″ pan, make a layer of ice cream sandwiches, a layer of cool whip, another layer of ice cream sandwiches, and the topping.

There ya’ have it. Easy peasy! Enjoy!

Until next time, love and best dishes from my nest to yours!
Robyn