A Recipe is Just an Idea

  Son has always proclaimed "Mom, you have never found a recipe that you cannot change."  I am not sure that is a good thing.  Maybe?  He would further explain that I altered just about every recipe known to man.  These might be subtle changes like the amount of salt or massive changes such as leaving out ingredients, adding ingredients and totally changing the amounts of everything involved in creating the dish.  In other words, a recipe is, more or less, an idea that I play by.  No rules, no exact measurements, no recipes are sacred!  I will bend them all to suit my needs.

  This afternoon after all of the chores were done, Son mentioned that all of the Christmas and New Year's goodies were depleted.  Not one treat remained.  So, we baked.  First we took inventory of what remained in the baking supply cabinet and refrigerator.  We still had lots of cream cheese, too much cocoa and a bunch of caramel squares.  A chocolate/caramel cheesecake won out!  Did we need a recipe?  Nope, lets just wing it!

  A homemade brownie base was the beginning then a cream cheese layer topped with a good helping of melted caramel sauce!  Yep, this was beginning to sound like a grand idea!  "How do you know what goes into brownies or the cheese cake layer?" he queried.  "Whatever sounds good!" was the answer.  And it was good!  The pan was filled with just the right amount of everything to suit our taste.  He and I both agreed that this recipe should be written for future reference but, first, we really need to make it again so we can use that elusive measuring cup and the sets of measuring spoons.  I know we have these somewhere in this kitchen!