Eric's Birthday!

The remains of Eric's party:

Eric claims to want to ignore his birthday (I don't buy it), so I have to be pretty sneaky about it if I want to celebrate, even though I am so over surprise birthday parties.

I planned to have some friends come over after church, and I didn't tell him, but I didn't go way out of my way to hide the fact that something was going on. One might say I was overtly sneaky, so it's no surprise that Eric experienced a few very suspicious and paranoid days this weekend.

We were in Columbia visiting Spencer and Liz on Saturday, and it wasn't until we got back at midnight that I had time to clean and prepare for the party. In addition to the Maple Bourbon Pecan Pie that Spencer, Liz and I made while Eric was in class, I decided to make Martha's Mini Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes for the party. I waited until Eric fell asleep, then snuck to Kroger in the middle of the night. I grabbed some cream cheese and oreos, and stocked up on frozen pizzas...which Eric and I eat shamefully often.

Back at home, Eric confronted me in the kitchen while I was trying to quietly rearrange the freezer so it would hold the pizzas. He woke up while I was gone and wandered around the house in a sleepy daze, looking for me. It's funny today, but at the time he was mad because I scared him. He looked off the porch in case I fell, wondered if he should call the police, texted me several times (whoops.) He said he even tried to remember if I was real, like if there was something bad that had happened that he'd forgotten. So sad!

ANYWAY, I sheepishly went to bed with him, and got up early to make the cheesecakes. They were EXTREMELY easy: just place an oreo in the bottom of a cupcake papers in a muffin pan, preheat oven to 275, and use an electric mixer to combine

2 lbs cream cheese

1 cup sour cream

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 t vanilla,

then fold in 12 coarsely chopped oreo cookies.

Fill the cupcake papers and cook for 20-25 min, rotating halfway through, allow to cool, and refrigerate at least 4 hours to set. Divine!

The recipe makes about 30 cheesecakes. I halved it this time, and it turned out great, even though I forgot I was halving it when I added the eggs. I think the extra eggs meant I had to cook my cakes longer, and the texture was probly a little custardy. But everyone loved them anyway!