Mother Culture? Or Just an Excuse to Indulge?

Our year-end meeting always includes dessert.

I suppose it's a way to ease the pain of not being able to sign out any books from our library collection of several thousand volumes, and it does distract me from that, but a living book is a lot easier on the hips than the delicious goodies that were served up last night. Thanks to everyone who contributed with a special dessert for our meeting last night. After hearing so many people asking for recipes, we decided that this would be a great forum for sharing the ones that were brought, so, if you brought something special to the meeting last night, email me (talsma@cyg.net) and I'll make sure your recipe gets included in an upcoming post. Scroll down for the first recipe.

Strawberry No-Bake Cheesecake

2 cups graham crumbs
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 packages (250g each) light brick cream cheese, softened
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. sugar, divided
1/2 cup strawberry jam
16 fresh strawberries, chopped
3 cups thawed light Cool Whip

Mix graham crumbs and margarine; press onto bottom of 13x9-inch pan. Refrigerate while preparing filling.

Beat cream cheese spread and 1 cup of the sugar in large bowl with electric mixer until well blendd. Add jam; mix well. Place strawberries and remaining 2 Tbsp. sugar in small bowl; mash with fork. Stir strawberry mixture and whipped topping into cream cheese mixture. Spoon over crust; cover.

Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm. Store in refrigerator. Makes 20 servings.

(This recipe came from the Summer 2008 Kraft "What's Cooking" publication.)