YUM!

The lemon cheesecake I made for D's birthday was YUMMY!!!! I did a great job, if I do say so myself! I never make things like this so I was very proud of myself! LOL Thanks for the tip Kristin! I did go ahead and use a real lemon. I didn't want to take a chance on screwing anything up so I did it just like the recipe said. I actually felt pretty cool finally using a real lemon to cook with...I've always seen the cooks on the food network roll the lemon the counter first to get it all juicy before they cut and squeeze it. I finally got to try that trick! And I even got to try out the tip I've heard where you put half the squeezed lemon into your garbage disposal for a minute to freshen it up. It really does work!! Anyway, here's the recipe in case anyone wants to try it.

Prep Time:
20 min

Total Time:
5 hr

Makes:
16 servings, one piece each

2 cups HONEY MAID Graham Cracker Crumbs

1-1/4 cups sugar, divided

6 Tbsp. butter, melted

4 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream

Grated peel and juice from 1 lemon

4 eggs

PREHEAT oven to 325°F. Mix crumbs, 1/4 cup of the sugar and the butter. Reserve 1/4 cup of the crumb mixture; press remaining crumb mixture firmly onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking pan. Set aside.

BEAT cream cheese and remaining 1 cup sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Stir in lemon peel and juice. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust; sprinkle with reserved 1/4 cup crumb mixture.

BAKE 40 min. or until center is almost set. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight. Store leftovers in refrigerator.