Happy Birthday Collin!

Well, my baby boy turns 15 today. What always amazes me is how young kids look when they are 15. Brian was 15 when I met him, and he's never looked that young to me.

This is what Collin will always look like to his momma!

He was my little Thanksgiving baby! He was a planned C-section and the date chosen was November 24, seeing that Thanksgiving was November 25 that year. We were in South Bend and the last thing I wanted to do was host a Thanksgiving dinner, or drive into Chicago to go to one when I was a week away from my due date, which was the 29th. (I think) So I planned it that I would be in the hospital for Thanksgiving. One of the best decisions I ever made!

I remember Brian and I getting on the elevator when we got to the hospital, it was early like 6 a.m. and a woman comes in and says, "You two must want a girl!" And then we said, "What makes you say that?", and she says, "You both have pink shirts on." It was the early 90's Brian had a pink polo on I'm sure, it was that whole "Real Men Wear Pink" fad! *g* I had whatever pink top fit over a huge tummy. It didn't matter to us, girl or boy, we really did just want a healthy baby.

Collin's middle name is Johnston. We wanted a family name from Brian's side, didn't care for Norman (Brian's dad) or George (Brians grandpa), so Brian's dads middle name was Johnston, he was named after the Dr. that delivered him, so that's what we went with. If I could change anything about his name, I would of spelled it Colin. But Colin Powell was big in '93 and everyone pronounced his name like part of ones poo anatomy, so I put the extra "L" in so people would say Collin not colon. The bad thing was, all those trips to Disney World, you could never find "Collin" on things, it was always "Colin", I always felt so bad for him.

Okay, so I asked Collin what cake he wanted for his birthday, his choice, it wasn't chocolate with chocolate, it was...

White Chocolate Cheesecake

Heat over to 300.

Make any sort of crumb crust you would like for the bottom. Sometimes I use Oreo, sometimes chocolate graham crackers, Nilla wafers, today I used cinnamon sugar graham crackers. Just maybe 2 cups of crumbs and 2-3 tbl. melted butter. 1 tsp. vanilla depending on what you chose to make crumbs with. Press into bottom of springform pan.

Mix:
3- 8oz. room temp. cream cheese
1-14oz. can Sweetened condenced milk
3-large eggs
2-tsp. vanilla
1-tbl. corn starch

mix till smooth and then slowly add 1 bag MELTED white chocolate chips.

(just heat in micro at 50% power, first for a minute, stir, then another minute stir, and then do it at 30 second intervals, just always cook at 50% power and you shouldnt get clumpy chocolate)

Mix till smooth, pour into springform pan with your crumb crust.

Bake at 300 for 90 minutes, yeppers an hour and half! Then leave the cake in there and turn off oven, and let cake sit in hot oven for 45 minutes.

Also... I put a 9x13 pan filled halfway with water in the pan in the oven also while the cake is baking. This prevents the cheesecake from cracking on top.

Cool. Refridgerate.

That's it! It's WONDERFUL! Especially with a little bit of Hershey syrup drizzled on each piece. I got this recipe back in 1998 from a net friend named Rie. She made it up from scratch, I think of her everytime I make it. Wherever you are Rie... spanks!

My favorite Collin picture...


And to Collin, you are everything a mother is grateful for in a son, I give thanks every year on this date that you are mine!
M

(So Im in Target and I'm thinking, I think I posted this recipe before, the last time I made it. *g* I should of posted the pumpkin cake with brown butter glaze. God thats good!)