It was a dark and stormy day...

And night too, the past few nights I've either fallen asleep to open windows (for that lovely fresh air) and rain falling or woken up with a start at 4am to thunder and sudden downpours. And now I feel cozy, even at work, in my office, because its such a gray, chilly, foggy, stormy, raindroppy sort of day. And I love that. It's moody weather and I'm a moody girl so we go well together. And I love the fact that it's June and I'm wearing tights and a sweater.

So this is really a Recipe of the Week post because I finally made the promised cheesecake that turned out so beautiful (and I don't even really like cheesecake) and so scrumdiddlyumptious that I amazed myself. I have the Barefoot Contessa to thank, since I used her recipe, with a few alterations and it was a HIT. It was creamy and not too dense - the only change I would make next time is to increase the crust ingredients so that it's thicker and just MORE of it. It's the best part in my opinion! I freaked out slightly when I added the filling to the pan - it came all the way to the top and then it kept rising and rising in the oven like a souffle but I kept going and as it cooled, it deflated, so at least now I know how the cheesecake chemistry works.

For the Crust
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (10 crackers)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 stick salted butter, melted

For the Filling
2 1/2 pounds cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 whole extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Crust
To make the crust, combine the graham crackers, sugar, and melted butter until moistened. Pour into a 9-inch springform pan. With your hands, press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan and about 1 inch up the sides. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

Filling
Raise the oven temperature to 450 degrees.

To make the filling, cream the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Reduce the speed of the mixer to medium and add the eggs and egg yolks, 2 at a time, mixing well. Scrape down the bowl and beater, as necessary. With the mixer on low, add the sour cream, lemon zest, and vanilla. Mix thoroughly and pour into the cooled crust.

Bake for 15 minutes. Turn the oven temperature to 225 degrees and bake for another 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn the oven off and open the door wide. The cake will not be completely set in the center. Allow the cake to sit in the oven with the door open for 30 minutes. Take the cake out of the oven and allow it to sit at room temperature for another 2 to 3 hours, until completely cooled. Wrap and refrigerate overnight.

For the topping, I took two containers of strawberries (I guess they were 16 oz each), quartered them into a bowl, added 1/4 cup of sugar and let them macerate for 20 minutes or so. Drain out some of the liquid, put about 2/3 of them into a saucepan with a little more sugar if you want it sweeter and stir in some cornstarch (or you could just use confectioner's sugar) and let it come to a boil, then stir stir stir at a medium heat until it all starts to break down. After it's cool, you can add it to the fresh berries or wait until serving so that the fresh berries don't get gloopy. I kept the topping in a separate container so that people could spoon it on top of their slices as they so desired - more or less, however much they wanted or if they wanted a plain slice.