One of the most unique desserts you can make at home is a turtle cheesecake. This is a great type of cheesecake that is very scrumptious and sweet. In fact you can even make one of these delicious cheesecakes yourself. It is a truly delicious item and can be made at home with ease. Here is a process you can use to make your very own turtle cheesecake.

Many people enjoy receiving a delicious cheesecake as a special gift.  Consider making two, so that you can freeze one to give for a special occasion or give as a gift next time you’re invited to a dinner pary.

To start with making a turtle cheesecake you will need to get a cup of pecans prepared. The pecans should be chopped up properly to where they will be able to fill up the cup. These pecans will need to be placed in an oven set to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for six minutes. After this is done you will need to melt some unsalted butter. Be sure to use six tablespoons of this butter when preparing your turtle cheesecake.

The next step involves getting vanilla wafers to be ground up. Two cups of these crumbled wafers will be needed. After this is done you can mix the crumbles with your melted butter and put it into the bottom of a nine inch springform pan. You should place the pan over a cookie sheet and heat it for ten minutes. Like with the pecans this should be cooked in an oven at 350 degrees.

For the caramel flavor you will need to gather fourteen ounces of caramel candies and melt them. You will need to melt the caramel candies in five ounces of evaporated milk. For this part you will need five ounces of this milk. When this is finished you can stir the mixture and pour it on top of your newly formed crust. The pecans you handled during the first part of this process will then be added.

The next parts of preparation involve getting cream cheese and chocolate chips prepared. Twenty-four ounces of cream cheese should be added to the recipe. After this you will need to use a half cup of white sugar along with three half teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Two eggs should then be added. The entire mixture should be mixed up to where it is smooth. You will need to melt some chocolate chips next. Be sure to gather enough for half a cup to mix into your recipe.

The last part deals with getting your turtle cheesecake properly baked. The mixture will go into your pan to be cooked for forty minutes at 350 degrees. After you take it out you will need to keep it in a refrigerator overnight.  The next day it is ready to thoroughly enjoy.

Many of us are faced with a time in which some of our close friends and family are enduring tough economic times. We want to help, but we also don’t want to embarass them by extending unwanted charity. Especially in those types of cases, we want to be sure that the presents we select for them for special occasions are put to good use, needed and enjoyed. I have a few suggestions:

A fruit basket is healthy, beautiful, yummy and always enjoyed. If you live near your gift recipient, you can find a lovely basket or other attractive container and fill it with fruit that is in season in your region of the country, obtained at a farmers market, and then fill it out with a few exotic fruits picked up at your neighborhood specialty store. If your loved one is farther away, you can arrange for any of a large range of beautiful fruit gift baskets to be delivered directly to the person’s home. It will help them to reduce their grocery bill that month.

A unique meal is another way to remember a special occasion. One alternative might be to take the friend to a special restaurant. If price is no object to you, be sure to suggest some of the pricier entrees on the menu, so that your guests know that they should not worry about ordering whatever they prefer. For example, you could say something like, “The crab legs are perfect here, but, if you don’t like seafood, try the filet mignon.” If they live too far away for that, you can actually find delicious, gourmet, chef-prepared meals online that arrive frozen and can be heated in almost no time. (I actually keep my freezer stocked with these.) Or you might send a gift certificate to a special place in their town.

You might also consider a tasty dessert. No person should have too many desserts, but on a birthday, anniversary or holiday, everyone deserves an opportunity to indulge a sweet tooth. Bake cookies, if that is a skill of yours, and hand deliver or have them delivered. For something a little more special consider giving them a freshly baked pie or turtle cheesecake. Whether you make it yourself or have others do the work for you doesn’t matter. It will be appreciated and definitely enjoyed either way.

You may observe that all my recommendationinvolve food. Someone who is going through a difficult time may not want to accept charity, but nobody can reject a genuinely special gift. If it reduces the grocery bill by a bit, that’s just a bonus. To make it even most festive, invite yourself to share in the delights with them!

Fighting my way through a crowded store with my arms full of packages is not my cup of tea. My mother loves to shop, but I did not inherit that part of her genetic composition. The part that I despise the most, however, is trying to figure out what gifts everyone would actually appreciate. I used to have this inescapable fear that all of my shopping efforts usually resulted in a rushed trip back to the store or, worse, out to the garbage can. I could never develop any sort of confidence about what to get my Grandma or dear Uncle Arthur. Now, I can enjoy the cute shops and the department stores, especially during the holidays, because I walk through empty handed, unhurried, with all of my shopping finished. I do all my shopping on the Internet, now. Well almost all of it.

While online shopping keeps me from being pushed around in a busy department store or standing in line at a little boutique, it doesn’t keep me from the most dreaded part of any gift giving event; choosing the right gift for a birthday, a holiday, a sick friend or whomever. Then about five years ago, I discovered food.

That wasn’t very honestly phrased, because I discovered food when I was still an infant. But I didn’t discover food as a gift idea until recently. You see, at that time I received a gift basket full of hardly edible sausages, processed cheese spreads (mostly chemicals I think) and crackers that were about as crunchy as a rock. However, the poor quality of what passed as food in that gift turned out to be my inspiration. “What,” I thought, “If I had received genuinely good food?” How different that would have been, and how much I would have enjoyed it.

Since then, I have been busy conducting research (that’s just my word for “sampling”). I have found online vendors who offer genuine quality for about the same price that you can get that synthetic stuff at the mall. (You know the one I mean, but I’m not about to open myself to a libel or slander charge by naming the brand.) Just like the mall kiosks, the online shops handle all the shipping, gift cards, everything. I know that my gifts will be exceptionally pleasant surprises for all of my gift recipients.

These Internet shops offer everything from gourmet fruit baskets to live lobster dinners (well, they won’t be alive when they are actually eaten), from wine gift baskets to cookie bouquets. The array of gift foods is really quite amazing.

For those on my gift list who live nearby, I usually assemble my own gift baskets. Even in those cases, the Internet comes to my rescue with helpful suggestions about how to make my self-assembled gift foods more interesting. The available articles also have great gift ideas for special people who often happen to be especially difficult when it comes to choosing a gift.

So join me in thanking the Internet (maybe Al Gore?) for teaching me how to walk through an aisle of a store, empty handed, with a huge smile. I can do that, now, just to soak up the atmosphere of the season. I’m a tourist when I’m there instead of a harried shopper.