My Battle With Cheesecake

I love cheesecake. LOVE it. I'm talking about having to suppress the urge to eat the entire bowl of filling before I even pour it in to the pan every time I bake a cheesecake. It's just so creamy and delicious and...creamy.

I decided to make this brownie mosaic cheesecake from SmittenKitchen again, the first time having been for a going away/IU basketball game viewing party. When I made it the first time, despite cooking it longer than directed, it was still underdone in the center. This definitely didn't hinder the crew from devouring the cake, but I was a little irked that the cake wasn't cooked all the way.

This go round, I baked the cake even longer, and the middle still was under cooked. I thoroughly blame this on the crappy oven in my apartment-cooking times always seem to be off. I should just suck it up and by an oven thermometer (maybe this one from Amazon.com) and call it a day. Again, despite its underdone-ness, the cheesecake was a hit, especially with Katie, the birthday girl.

Should I choose to make this cheesecake again(or any other for that matter) , and am still in the same apartment, I think I may try using a water bath to evenly bake the cake. This, however, terrifies me. I'm so afraid the water will seep in to my springform pan and completely ruin the cake.

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Obligatory First Post

I blame this on Ravelry. With it's pretty pictures, enormous pattern database, friendly users, endless supply of new blogs to read, and crack-like addiction, it was only a matter of time before I got sucked in to a blog too.

Since my current job (one of two slaves to the staff of the UCF Biology Department) affords me quite a bit of downtime between the hours of 8 and 4:30, I tend to peruse the internets looking for fun things (e.g. blogs) to become obsessed with. When I want to drool, I visit SmittenKitchen; for my daily dose of fiber and humor I read the Yarnharlot and Mason Dixon Knitting; and to stalk my newly wedded friends who live on the other side of this damn country, I read Shannon's blog.

Other than my internet-ly obsessions, I suppose you want to know a little something about who this ashleyknits person is. I currently live in what I consider the armpit of the country. I love to knit, bake, and drink good beer. I recently got engaged to, as cheesy as it sounds, the love of my life and yes, this means you get to laugh at me while I stress over locations, wedding dresses, cake flavors, and everything else that is the insanity of planning (and paying for) our wedding.

I also love to ski. I'm not very good at it, but it's hella fun, even when you wipe out. Case in point: on the very last day of my first real ski trip, my now fiance, Josh, convinced me to try out one of the more advanced green runs (translation: one of the longer-but-still-super-easy-runs). You see, After 3 days of skiing, I still hadn't really mastered how to slow down other than to fall on my ass. I still went for it. About 30 seconds into the run, I bit it. BIG time. We're talking ohmygodwhatwasithinkingishouldhavestucktothebunnyslopesithinki'mdying-
aremylegsevenattached? Yeah, there was no way I was skiing the rest of the way down. Luckily, there are these cool people with the giant words SNOW PATROL emblazoned across their chests who will strap you onto a toboggan thing and tow your ass down the mountain should you need it. Talk about awesome! Turns out I only dislocated my knee (which, for anyone who knows me, is a pretty regular occurrence). I was fine, and, while waiting for Jason and Amy to finish up their runs, I had a mini photo shoot.




I'm sure you're bored to death already, so i'll call it a day.