Epic 9 Day Traffic Jam

Here is the link to the article: China's 9 Day Traffic Jam

Yeah, so i just read about this on yahoo news...and wow I thought the traffic got bad here sometimes...

It says in the article that the Jam stretches 100km which is approx 62 miles, and that " the jam between Beijing and Jining city had given birth to a mini-economy with local merchants capitalizing on the stranded drivers' predicament by selling them water and food at inflated prices."

The whole thing is a nightmare. I feel so bad for the poor people trapped on that stretch of highway. I feel even worse for the ones that had little to no money on them, because they are stranded out there with no food or water. No to mention them not being able to get to their jobs to earn money, have a bed to sleep in, or a place to use the bathroom. They said that the reason for the jam was because of massive amounts of goods and people passing through the area combined with road construction....Um yeah, that is just poor planning and not a very good excuse. I can just imagine the public outrage if this was occurring here in the U.S.

From now on when ever I find myself stuck in traffic I will think of this and I will just take a deep breath and think to myself that things could be worse.

Homemade Cheesecake

One of our favorite desserts is cheesecake. Usually when the craving hits us we head to the place in Baton Rouge that has the best cheesecake you can buy, Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro. If we are looking to have more than once slice each then we will get a cheesecake from Whole Foods since they have the second best cheesecake in the city. This weekend we both wanted cheesecake but we decided that we wanted to give making one a shot. So we made a homemade cheesecake with fruit topping and it turned out wonderful, It was better than Cheesecake Bistro! We definitely will be making our own in the future especially since its much cheaper than buying it ($5.99 per slice at the bistro and $30.00 per cake at whole foods) and it tastes better than either place.

Here is a picture of our beautiful cheesecake:

Mmmmm...makes you hungry doesn't it? I Wouldn't show you that picture without including the recipe (that would just be mean) so here are the directions on how to make your own homemade cheesecake.

Ingredients:
Crust:
2 cups finely ground honey graham crackers
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 stick butter, melted

Cake:
2 - 8oz blocks softened cream cheese
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
8oz sour cream
dash of vanilla

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Crust:
In a mixing bowl combine crust ingredients with a fork until evenly moistened. Lightly coat the bottom and sides of an 8in springform pan with nonstick cooking spray. Here is a pic of the pan in case you don't know what kind of pan to use.











You can buy a pan at Sears, Target, Walmart, etc.

Pour the Crumb mixture into the pan and using the bottom of a measuring cup, press the crumbs into the base and 1-inch up the sides. Refrigerate for 5 min.

Cake:
In Bowl beat softened cream cheese with electric mixer on low speed for approx 1 min until smooth and free of lumps. Add the eggs 1 at a time (mixing between each egg) continue to beat slowly until combined. Gradually add sugar and beat until creamy 1-2 min. Add sour cream and Vanilla and mix, the batter should be well mixed but not over beaten. Pour the filling into the crust lined pan and smooth the top with a spatula.

Set the cheesecake pan on a large piece of aluminum foil and fold up the sides around it. Place the cake in a large roasting pan. pour hot water into the pan until water is 1/4-1/2 the way up the sides of the pan. (the foil keeps the water from seeping into the cheesecake) Bake for 1hour -1hour 30 min You want the cheese cake to still jiggle just a little but not be liquidy. Let cool in pan 30 min then place in refrigerator. Chill in fridge, loosely covered, for at least 6 hrs, but preferably overnight.remove from pan and top with topping of your choice.

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For our first cheesecake we went simple and just used different fruits for the topping. The fruits we used for our toppings were peaches, bananas, strawberrys, and grapes drizzled with a little bit of honey. All of the fruits were delicious on top of the cheesecake, however my favorite of the fruits was the banana. Next time we make the cheesecake we are going to try and do a banana foster topping. I will update pictures and recipes here as we try making different toppings.