Brrrr - Our Chilly Weekend

The weather finally turned chilly after a fairly warm end of the summer. Eric arrived home Friday evening. He is changing airplanes which requires about a month of training in Minneapolis. I have a fall mini-break in a couple of weeks, so I'm planning to head up to Minneapolis to spend time with David, Kelsey, and Stooey! In addition, my parents will be there during that time as well. I'm really looking forward to heading up there.
Yesterday, Eric did a lot of studying of his new airplane while I dozed on and off watching college football. I did manage to finally wake up and watch #17 Oklahoma State beat #3 Missouri. One of my former students is the quarterback at Oklahoma State so it was a fun game to watch. He did a great job.
This afternoon I drove Eric to the airport and then stopped at a rec center to swim on the way back home. I haven't gone swimming in a while, but enjoyed the exercise. I'm currently avoiding grading quizzes, but I should get to work.

Friday-night tired, but happy Eric is home:

Eric enjoying one of his favorites- cheesecake (recipe at the end of this post):

Eric heading back to Minneapolis:

The new sculpture at DIA is a huge blue mustang. It has bright red light bulb eyes and actually killed the artist when it fell on top of him while it was being created. I have dubbed it, "El Diablo":


Petite Cheesecakes:

Found this recipe in an add in Martha Stewart magazine:

Petite Cheesecakes
Ingredients:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 Tbsp. sugar
4 Tbsp. butter, melted
3 pkgs. (8-oz. each) cream cheese, softened
(I used the less-fat cream cheese)
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. vanilla
1 (21-oz.) can Comstock® or Wilderness® More Fruit Cherry, Blueberry, Peach or Strawberry Fruit Filling

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Line large cupcake pan with paper liners or use 4-inch cheesecake pans.
(I used a regular-sized cupcake pan with 12 spots. I probably had enough cheesecake mixture to make 6-12 more, but I had used up all of the graham cracker crumb mixture. Next time, I'll try to divide up the crumb mixture into more spots.)
3. In a mixing bowl, combine the crumbs, sugar and butter. Divide crumb mixture equally among the pans and press the crumbs to form an even layer. Bake for 3 to 5 minutes. Cool completely. Reduce the heat to 325°F.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat cream cheese on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and continue to beat until smooth. Scrape the inside surface of the bowl. Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs, lemon juice and vanilla and mix just to incorporate.
5. Fill liners 2/3 full with cheese mixture. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely.
6. Top each with fruit filling. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Makes 4-6 servings
Prep time: 20 minutes
Bake time: 20-25 minutes

http://www.piefilling.com/