Naked Lemons: Starring in Cheesecake!

My favorite time to bake is right before I clean the house so I can make a complete disaster of the  kitchen.

I'm so good at making messes that one time I was grounded from eating in the living room...when I was in high school. My mom had one too many pillows turn red from spaghetti sauce, salsa, SpaghettiOs...

Yes, Peter. That's exactly what my mom thought too.

My other favorite time to bake is when we are having company. Have you read The Five Love Languages ? I'm a huge fan. Except Mr. Gary forgot to add baking as a love language.

Growing up, my Grandma Heins had a huuuuuuuge garden. Huge as in Donald Trump "huge." We frequently received more zucchinis than we could make zucchini bread. Truth be told, there were times we were frustrated. HOW can we possibly eat any more tomato, tomato, tomato sandwiches?! We don't need (want) more potatoes.

And then my cousin came to the realization that gifting food was my grandma's love language. It made her happy to make our fridges bountiful.

And one of the ways to love those we love, is to allow them to love us.

One of the traits I received from my Grandma Heins is the love to bake for those I love. (Along with never following a recipe...)

And when your Grandma Loeber is celebrating her 81st birthday - there is no better reason to bake!

Disclaimer: Your legs will likely turn this chunky if you make the following recipe.

I can always count on my friend Sally for some thigh-chunking-recipes.

But if you need to cut in cold butter, you'll burn all the calories.

Or at the very least you'll need a forearm massage.

I started with this Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake. I have just a teensy bit of Type A in me. So I started with this beautiful swirl of blueberries. Evenly spaced. Blueberries in the windows of the cheesecake. You could have measured that distance with a .1% error.

And then I had way too many blueberries left. So I started to add more, and my beautiful picture became a hodge podge of blueberries.

I actually consider digging out the blueberries to keep my pretty picture. Lie. I actually did dig out some blueberries. And then it looked even worse, so I just smooshed more in that cheesecake.

Despite it coming out like cheesecake mush, it was delicious.

Did I mention my favorite time to bake new recipes is for company? Then, if it doesn't turn out at least you have stomachs to eat it up.

Really though, my biggest critique of this recipe was shaming the lemons.

I feel so ashamed having naked lemons. Poor guys. They just look so pitiful.

My favorite memory of this recipe was getting to share it with my grandma for her birthday.

And that's what I love about food and recipes: It brings people together. It creates memories and traditions.

And it's a way to love others.

What are you baking for those you love today?