Day 12: Monday, the great cold day.

Two big recipes today: stew, and cheesecake.

Colin loves cheesecake. He loves fruit cheesecake. I have an extra day, I'm going to make Colin a cheesecake.

The recipe from Martha Stewart.

The crust is crushed gram cracker.

 The crust is the first step. Gram cracker crumbs, melted butter, sugar applied with pressure in a  9" spring-form cake pan whose bottom is wrapped with foil and bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Next: Whip the room-temperature cream cheese, room-temperature eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla.

Pour into cake pan. Swirl with fruit compote.

The swirl is pureed fruit and sugar: strained.

 After swirling, place pan inside a large roasting pan, carefully pour boiling-hot water in the roasting pan to half-way up the cake pan.

Bake at 325 for ~65 minutes.

All baked. Next: The Fridge

After baking, let it cool completely to room temperature, refrigerate for 6 hours to up to overnight.

I'll update you after it gets de-panned. I'm hopeful but nervous.

The other part of the day: Stew.

It's so cold. It's good to have soup when it's cold. So we present: stew. Lots of vegetables to cut and get ready. Lots of garlic. Some salt. Lots of pepper. Lots of meat. Lots of tomatoes. Beef broth.

The slow-cooker, ready to go.

After several hours (~4 on high) the stew gets corn starch water mixed in to thicken it. Then dinner:

Tasty, but could've been more tasty.

Colin and I both prefer thicker stews with more taste, like with wine in it. I don't recommend the recipe.