The Food That Made Me

10/14/2025

Kids, believe in yourselves. Doing something for the first time is always scary. So many things can go wrong! Will the dough rise properly? Did I whip it to the correct consistency? Did I heat the pan to the right temperature so that things don’t stick? I call this risk management, and others call this catastrophizing. Let’s see them eating a whole loaf of dense bread.

But, even if you do something a bunch of times, there is still a bit of an anxious factor in there because ingredients always change. Eggs aren’t always the same size. Milk doesn’t always have the same level of fat in it. Tomatoes don’t have the same level of sweetness or acidity. There is so much variance!

So, your grandma and I decided that it was the weekend to try out cheesecake. I do enjoy spending time with her and figuring out new projects together.

Here’s the recipe for the cheesecake. Here are some tips.

1. Use a food processor to blend the graham crackers. It is A LOT more effective.
2. While whipping the cream cheese, you have to check for a similar consistency as the image.
3. Do not overmix the batter.

Result: It turned out pretty good. It wasn’t overdone. The outside was a little harder, and the center was so soft. It wasn’t the outcome that I was planning. I was thinking more of a New York cheesecake that is just smooth and yellow on the top. But maybe next time I’ll find a recipe for that.

So, we will be able to instill more confidence in you. We still have lots of work with Emi. If not, hopefully you’ll believe in mommy and daddy. Maybe someday I’ll be able to do things with less catastrophizing. it is like a marathon, slow and little bits at a time. That’s how daddy runs a marathon. Maybe the next time daddy tries milk bread, he’ll just be able to enjoy the process and maybe laugh a little instead of fixating on how it will turn out.