Perhaps it was the large, illuminated “Let It Snow” sign I hung on my garage and forgot to turn off for three days that caused all the snow to start falling in Minnesota.  While my significant other and I had planned on going to Madison for Christmas, last night after the news referred to the impending driving conditions as “hazardous to impossible,” we decided not to travel.  So, at about 7pm we decided while dining out to have people over to our place for Christmas Eve dinner; nice idea.  Then we realized we didn’t have any food in the house, any recipes with us, or enough ceramic dishes and, of course, the house hadn’t been cleaned since, well, it’s been awhile.  We dashed around town, braving the grocery store the day before Christmas Eve.  I did my best to remember how to make pasta fagioli and lasagna – two things I hadn’t cooked in years.  The bakery section was bare, so we needed to make dessert too.  Next stop; get a baking pan and then on to get dishes.  The “snowball” effect of having a few people over for dinner was tiring.  After a couple hours of running these necessary errands we were home.

While I am a good cook, I couldn’t find any of my recipes.  I typed them out years ago on a computer, probably long ago donated.  I know I backed them up; but on which external hard drive or jump drive, I’m not sure.  I made a mental note that someday when I find them I should upload them. 

In my kitchen, I reviewed a few online recipes and then did my best to remember how to make lasagna.  I browned a pound and half of lean meat and then added in tomato sauce.  I mixed up the ricotta with two eggs, some parsley and basil, which were both surprising difficult to chop, threw in a few spices, black and red pepper, a dash of rosemary and almost forget the nutmeg, but it made into the cheese as well.  I greased the pan and started layering my lasagna; meat sauce first, then noodles, then a layer of the ricotta mixture, then more meat sauce and a hefty sprinkling cheeses; shredded parmesan, mozzarella, provolone and little asiago.  I repeated this until I used up all the meat sauce and ricotta mixture and finished with a nice layer of all the shredded cheeses on top. 

Next I turned my attention to making the cheesecake; couldn’t recall the last time I made a cheesecake.  I found a new-in-box electric mixer in a cabinet, guess it has been a long time since I did any major cooking.  I don’t even remember buying the new mixer.  I mixed up the three, softened cream cheeses, and then I added in four eggs, one cup sugar, three tablespoons flour, one teaspoon vanilla extract and a dash of lemon juice; it mixed up nicely.  On to tackle my age-old nemesis, making a graham cracker crust; I was never good at working with graham crackers.  I mixed up the melted butter with the graham crackers crumbs and then worked the crumb mixture around the edge of the spring form pan.  I ran out of mixture and had to make a second batch to cover the bottom of the pan.  I then realized since I was using a spring form pan, I could have left off doing the rim of the pan.  Oh well, too late.  I baked the crust for a few minutes then poured in the cheesecake mixture and put it back in the oven to continue baking.  I wasn’t sure how long to bake it, so I watched it closely and it looked done after about forty minutes; so I took it out to let it cool off. 

I got to bed way past my bedtime, but the food is ready to be cooked on Christmas Eve.  If cooking is something I will be doing more of, I will definitely need to look at redoing my kitchen.  I would like a glass cook-top and a dishwasher that consistently washes would be nice too.  Perhaps in the New Year I will invest in a updating my kitchen; I will watch for sales and financing offers. 

After work today I will head home, driving over the river and through the woods to get to a hopefully cleaned house.  I look forward to eating the meal we unexpectedly threw together last night.  Ah, what would Christmas be without a few unforeseen challenges? 

This holiday shopping season, a portion of the proceeds from certain products will benefit the @15 Fund.  If you go to any Best Buy store, or at BestBuy.com, and purchase items with the @15 gift icon, the @15 Fund gets a portion of the sale.  This helps enable teens to direct $1 million to charities on the funds website, at15.com.

The @15 Fund allows for teens to pick which organizations are awarded and how much each organization gets.  It is a great way for teens to support the organizations that have made a difference in their lives.

A full list of the participating products can be found here.  This is valid for purchases of these items made between November 1^st, 2009 and January 15^th, 2010.  Happy Giving!