+1, -1 with Lis's work holiday party

[xiphias]

I hand't posted about this earlier, because I was kind of hoping that we'd solve the -1. . .

So, the Friday before Christmas, that is, the 21st, was Lis's work's Festivus party. (See, they decided that "holiday party" was a lame term, because you need to be celebrating A holiday, not just the CONCEPT of "holiday", but they didn't want to do a Christmas party, because of all the non-Christians, and a "Christmas/Hannukah/Yule/Kwanza/Saturnalia/Whatever Party" is just too confusing. So they did a Festivus party instead. I don't think they did the Feats of Strength or the Airing of Grievances, but they DID set up mini-golf throughout the entire office, and have a Yankee Swap. They also had a potluck.

As you may expect, it is usually my job to prepare things for Lis to bring to work potlucks. Oh, if I don't want to do it, she is perfectly capable of making very yummy things on her own (she makes a mean Kahlua fudge, and she's been known to make baklava), but it's normally my job. Naturally, I want to make sure that Lis looks good when I make potluck treats for her. If I'm short on time, I can make my Chocolate Dream Pie, which is really good, and very easy, but if I've got the time, I'd much rather make a cheesecake. Because I make an AMAZING cheesecake.

A couple years back, Lis bought me a truly top-of-the-line springform pan for cheesecake-baking. It has a glass base with a metal rim which is carefully machined to fit exactly into the springform sides, which are made of some sort of high-tech material, and coated with Teflon. It's a really good springform pan -- doesn't leak at all, releases easily, and easy to wash.

I sent Lis off to work with the cheesecake, on the base of the springform pan, since that's the point of springform pan bases -- you serve the item on them.

The cheesecake was a huge hit. None of it was left.

Neither was the base of the pan. Someone must have thrown it out. How someone throws out a heavy tempered glass disk, I don't know. I mean, it doesn't LOOK like trash. But it's gone.

So I'm going to have to replace my best springform pan.

The thing is -- as annoyed as I am about the loss of the pan, that's overshadowed by my happiness that Lis's co-workers loved the cheesecake so much.

Comments

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

It might be worth putting up a note -=- "If you took it home to wash it . . . "

Can you please share your cheesecake recipe????

[cheshyre]

I did put up a wanted poster over the buffet table location (in a workplace hallway) Friday afternoon when I discovered it was missing.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Can you please share your cheesecake recipe????

Um, not easily. It's the New York Cheesecake from the April 2002 issue of Cook's Illustrated, pages 22 through 24.

I don't know what the status of copyright on that would be, and it would be pretty long to type out. It's actually easy to DO, but it's a lot of steps.

It's got cream cheese, sour cream, vanilla, lemon juice, lots of eggs, and also extra egg yolks, sugar, and I think that's about it for the ingredients of the cake. The crust is just graham crackers, a little bit of sugar, and butter.

The recipe really requires a standing mixer, because it's a LOT of mixing -- and also scraping down the bowl dozens of times to mix all the bits that get thrown to the outside on in. It's baked at 500 degrees (260 centigrade) for ten minutes, then at 200 degrees (93 C) for another hour and a half, I think.

Does your library carry Cook's Illustrated? Some of the Cook's Illustrated cookbooks have recipes for cheesecake, but that's not the right recipe. This is the New York style, with 2 and a half pounds of cream cheese and six eggs, not the ones with two pounds of cream cheese. I don't actually know if they ever collected this one into one of their cookbooks, but it's much better than the simpler ones they have in those books.

[cellio]

Here's hoping it accidentally went home with someone else who will realize the error.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

As a fellow maker of cheesecake with my own treasured springform pan, I sympathize. I hope the base comes home.

[richardf8]

Perhaps it will turn up in a Breakroom Sink?

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I am really sorry they tossed the base to your springform pan. I've seen that pan, and it is a mighty and glorious pan.

Back when I was in college a good friend on my hall had a pan not as spiffy as yours, but spiffy enough, and made all of us a cheesecake. I went to the hall kitchen a couple days later and found the base of his pan (heavy waffle-textured metal) in the trash where the very sweet girl with no common sense who was currently eating the last piece of cheesecake had put it. She then boggled at me when I proceeded to fish it out and wash it off. Ah, people.