K and I are not wealthy in any sense of the word. We are about as average as you can get. We have made sacrifices so that I can be a SAHM. That means we pretty much live paycheck to paycheck. And that is OK with us. It isn't like our family has to go without, we just go without the *extras* when it comes to certain things. Since Little C has been on Nutramigen, things have gotten a bit more tight in the finances department. She goes through 3 of those big cans of powder every 2 weeks. At 33 bucks a can plus tax, it is a little over $100.00 every 2 weeks just for her formula. K gets paid twice a month. So things get to be a little tight right around payday. So planning a dinner out, or movies or anything like that was out until Friday.
I take birthdays very seriously. I mean come on, it is a celebration of the day you were born. I know how excited I was when my babies were born. Those were the best days of my life! So I have to do something on the actual day. It just so happens that K prefers pie over cake. So I thought about making him one of his favorite pies. Then I remembered I used up all but a smattering of the flour when I baked bread last week. Darn. I thought about running out and picking some up, but I had an emergency dental appointment looming that afternoon to fix a chipped tooth. Darn again.
I looked around the kitchen. Rummaged through the pantry and grabbed the graham cracker crumbs. Hmm. The only think K likes as much as pie is cheesecake. Checked the fridge and there was still cream cheese left from the 6 pack I bought a few weeks ago when I made carrot cream cheese muffins & marble brownies. Score! I moved things around looking for it but it was just the one package. Darn...a third time. Well...I could half the recipe and everything would be OK. It would be a small cheesecake, but a cheesecake nonetheless!
Happily, I made my crust and then I realized the smallest pan I had was an 8.5" springform. You have to be kidding me. I could have sworn I had a smaller one. Well crap. My dental appointment time was creeping up on me. So I decided in the words of Tim Gunn on Project Runway to "Make it work." I baked my crust, threw in my filling, popped it in the oven and ran to get ready for my appointment. Twenty-five minutes later I pulled it out. It looked beautiful! I was so excited because it didn't even crack! Tossing it in the fridge I raced out the door to the car and zoomed off to get this chipped tooth fixed.
After getting home from the dentist, I found K feeding Big C dinner. I hugged & kissed him, wished him a happy birthday for the 3rd time and ran back to get Little C a bottle and feed her. It is almost time to put the kids to bed so I head out to the kitchen to get K's cake, sing happy birthday and give cards/gifts. Big C is sitting with my dad in the living room and I yell out to him, "Come on Dad, it's time to sing 'Happy Birthday'." To which he answers, "Singing it to who?" Uh, how long have K & I been married? You'd think my dad would know his birthday by now. J gets the fridge door for me and I whip out the cheesecake. TA DA!!! K smiles broadly. After setting it in front of him I flip the spring on the pan and take off the sides and look in horror.
J looks at me and says, "What the heck happened to the cheesecake?" I almost burst into tears. Even though the cake was fine, because I didn't have a pan that was smaller in diameter than the 8.5" spring form, my cheese cake looked more like a cookie. With my lip quivering slightly, I recounted my earlier adventure trying to get everything together to make something. J laughed. K laughed. I felt bad for a few minutes. Then I laughed too. Seriously, it was hilarious. It looked so funny. However it tasted fabulous!
 |
| Not the sharpest picture, but you can see, clearly a Giant. Cheesecake. Cookie. |
Later, when K & I climbed into bed, we fell asleep laughing. Between my dad asking who we were singing to & the cookie that was really a cheesecake, he told me it would be a birthday he would never forget. Mission accomplished!
