Coming To America- Recipe For Cheesecake

Since coming to America, I think that I have integrated fairly well with the culture.
I initially felt quite homesick and was advised by my mum to bring a little bit of New Zealand back with me every time I returned after visiting.
I brought back the usual knick knacks and that helped a lot.
My new friends were interested in our culture and our cuisine.
One thing that I definitely had trouble getting used to was the American way of putting ketchup on everything.
It is almost like a separate food group and although it doesn't show up much in recipes, it sure features a lot at a lot of the tables I have eaten at.
I count it as a vegetable now.
I would share my recipes with my friends and they are quite happy to try different meals.
We eat the same kinds of foods. There is little difference there.
A lot of times, I will take a recipe and just change it a little to try something different.
The only problem with that being, when people would ask for an encore, I often don't remember the variations of herbs and spices that I added.
Lately, I have been tampering with a basic recipe for Cheesecakes.
It is so easy to make and I end up with four.
They are easily frozen and thaw out quite nicely and they make excellent gifts or just when you want a special dessert that people will ooh and ahh over and think that it took you quite a while when in actuality, it only takes about 15 minutes from start to finish.

The trick is to thaw out the cream cheese, not to the point of it being runny but so that it is soft enough to work with, your cheese cake will look better without lumps in it.

I use three bars of cream cheese
three cans of condensed milk
the small container of whipping cream
2 sachets of gelatin
4 graham cracker bases

That is the whole thing.

Use an electric beater and beat the cream cheese till there are no lumps, adding the condensed milk as you go.
Then add the container of whipping cream and mix it all in until it is thoroughly mixed.

The next thing you can add is your flavouring.

I have tried adding half a cup of lemon juice and grating the rind of a lemon and that is quite refreshing on a hot day.

My new one is to add half a container of caramel, like the kind that you use on icecream.
Now that is yummy!
Save the other half of the container because after you have poured the mixture into the bases, just swirl a little on the top to act as a decoration.
These cheesecakes have had rave reviews.

After your flavouring is added, you are going to put a quarter of a cup of boiling water in a cup with the 2 sachets of gelatin and mix it until there are no lumps then add it to your cheesecake mix until it is thoroughly mixed.
Then it is ready to pour.

Your flavours are only limited by your imagination.
You can use the base recipe and then put just about anything in, pureed or whole fruit, I have even melted chocolate and used that.
The extensions to this recipe is limitless.

Then place them in the fridge or the freezer depending on whether you are going to use them straight away.
Refridgerate for an hour, hour and a half and you are ready to go.

Enjoy.