Let's get into the sweet potato cheesecake. It was something of a mess, but everyone said it tasted delicious.

The biggest problem was that it was lumpy, and that was because I am not much experienced in the baking of cheesecakes. And it's possible that the editors of the mag are even less.

The recipe:

Crust

2 c. graham cracker crumbs, crushed
1/4 c. cup pecans, finely chopped
1/2 c. melted butter

Combine and press into 10" springform pan

Filling

3 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 c. sugar
4 large eggs
3 egg yolks
3 tbs. flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1 c. whipping cream
1-1/2 c. mashed sweet potatoes

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Beat cream cheese, sugar and eggs until smooth; beat in the flour, cinnamon and ginger. Beat cream and well-mashed sweet potatoes on med. speed of hand-held mixer just until well-combined. Add to cream-cheese mixture. Pour batter into the prepared crust. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then lower heat to 275 degrees and bake one hour longer. Turn heat off and leave in the oven to cool for several hours, or cool on a wire rack. Top with whipped cream or caramel sauce.

So there it is. I checked other recipes for ingredients, but not technique. I added a more than generous teaspoon of vanilla and a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg.

Subsequent reading do say, beat that cream cheese until creamy smooth by itself, then add the sugar until thoroughly combined, then add those eggs one at a time until the whole mass is smooth. That's how you avoid lumps.

Lumpy still? Spin the batter through a food processor or blender until it smooths out.

I also thought the center wasn't set as well as could be. Do you cheesecake bakers have a solution for that?

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

It's been quiet around here. Nothing to write home about. We'll be having dinner today so Lyman's younger son and his lady friend can be back on the road to Georgia tomorrow. She'll be working on Black Friday.

I did enjoy Wolf Hall, and am looking forward to the sequel.

Yesterday, I tried a sweet potato cheesecake recipe from a small magazine we receive from an electrical utility in Alabama. We'll let you know.

Frozen strawberries in syrup were packaged in a waxed box with metal ends in the early sixties.

I remember sitting on the linoleum floor in front of the console TV set with the nearly round screen, eating thawed strawberries from the box, and watching Soupy Sales on a Saturday morning.

RIP, Mr. Sales.

UPDATE: There were Roadrunner cartoons after, then American Bandstand, then the event worth waiting for -- ABC's Wide World of Sports.

Birds.

Lucy has decided that she prefers my left hand to step up. She's also left-footed now.

She's doing great in the new cage. I need to power up the the Panasonic to give you pictures.

The little Vivitar doesn't do the job for her.

Dinner party!

Charles (the brother) has a 65th birthday coming up, and the lovely Liza, Michael's lady friend, is coming into her mid-thirties soon. Marsha, Charles' friend, turned 60 last month. Time for dinner.

The menu:

Oysters Rockefeller from this book

Salad from Antoine's cookbook, with mixed greens, blanched asparagus, hearts of palm, avocado, marinated artichokes, tomato and vinaigrette

Boeuf en daube -- served on mashed potatoes

Cherry pie

There is a pretty woman under there.

Quite the getup, eh? And she was still cold.

My sister, the Harley girl. She rode in a troupe with other couples from Dallas to Oklahoma this weekend.

My trip was on a Kawasaki. Which I did once. Which was enough.