Lemon Cheesecake

Matthew Martinez

Whenever my family gets together, we usually have a lot of food. All of the women typically have their dishes that they consider as their specialties, and they are in charge of making them every time we get together. When their dishes are all brought together at the dinner table, it turns out to be a really good variety of food.

My favorite "specialty" food is a lemon cheesecake that my grandmother made. The first time I tried it, I actually wasn't a huge fan of it because I felt it was too lemony, but after I asked nicely if she could take some of the lemon flavor out of it, grandma happily obliged.

With just the right amount of lemon kick to it, it easily became my favorite dessert. She made it every time we had a family gathering and on the occasional trip to her house, when I asked nicely enough. That usually wasn't a problem because she seemed to enjoy making it, partly because I think she knew how much I enjoyed it.

She eventually taught my mom how to make it, and now she makes it at all of our big family dinners. I was actually glad when we were assigned to write this because I knew it would be an opportunity to have the cheesecake, seeing as I had not had it in a while and I had a good excuse for her to make it. Mom made it over break and it was just as good as ever.

Now I'm just looking forward to the next family gathering so I can have it again. Of course no one can make it like grandma, but Mom's version is definitely a very close second.