The Try, Try Again Dessert

Sorry for the delayed post. Last week I got inspired remembering my grandmother who would have been 94 years old last Friday. She was famous for making this Jell-o Cheesecake dessert and up until I was in my teens it was the only thing I knew as cheesecake. I know what you are thinking, I was so deprived but back then I didn't know any different and remember her fondly making this dessert. She was a lady who didn't believe in following recipes but solely in the "feel and look" of the ingredients. Her kitchen always smelled fantastic and the food tasted great.

In memory of my grandmother, I decided I would give it a try even without her "recipe" and directions. The one person who I knew may have an idea of how to make this dessert was my mom so I called her up. My mom knew the basic ingredients but not all the steps and tricks. I say "tricks" because as I found out and you see as you keep reading. I also did some research on the internet. I found a couple of similar recipes so I gathered my ingredients and off I began. I said to myself that it can't be that hard.

The dessert itself is a layered dessert: the bottom is graham cracker crumb crust, the middle is a cream cheese and Dream Whip dessert topping mixture, and the top is flavored Jell-o. Easy right? Well not exactly.

I made my crust just like the other recipes I found on the internet. As it was cooling, I made my Jell-0 and put it in the fridge to cool. I knew that I had to watch the Jell-o because I didn't want it to set up because I needed to pour it onto the top of the dessert. The second last step is to make my cream cheese and Dream Whip layer. I started to assemble my cheesecake dessert and that is where everything went wrong....

I even tried to make the dessert a second time and the same thing happened. I am determined to get it on the third try.

Stayed tuned for the continuation of cheesecake story and for the final recipe.

Our Landscape Plans

When we moved into our house, our yard was completely landscaped and that was part of the reason we fell in love with this house. That being said having a fully landscaped yard, no green thumb, and a 2 year old makes for a challenging up-keeping task. Five years of living with this yard and we still don't know what certain plants are or how they should be taken care of. This month we have decided to eliminate certain parts and replace other parts with low maintenance plants. Also, the garden is quite time consuming with hours almost every weekend spent weeding. But to be honest, part of our problem is that we don't spend hours weeding every weekend so we need to reduce weed production. We want to enjoy our yard not dread going outside because it reminds us of how much work we have to do.

Since the snow has just melted, we are in the planning stage. So I thought I would share some of our
inspiration. Disclaimer: Some these pictures are purely inspirational because we have a small budget for this transformation. Lots of wood and natural stone = $$$.

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Stay tuned to see how we transform our yard.

Does your yard overwhelm you?