This is the story of the Holiday Cheesecake.

Lynn and I had plans to meet our friend, Leenie, for an evening to take in the holiday light parade in downtown Buckeye. The Glow on Monroe (Avenue) is the typical local holiday parade of lighted vehicles that draws quite a large number of viewers who bring their lawn chairs and line the parade route. All went well until it was time for the after-parade dessert. Here’s the story.

We had dinner before the parade at a local restaurant, then we headed downtown and arrived in plenty of time for the parade. We were even surprised at our good fortune that we quickly entered a traffic queue at a 4-way stop where cars were lined up for blocks as they headed downtown to find a parking space.

We were fortunate in finding a parking space only about a block and a half from the parade route and it would also be good, we discovered, for a quick exit when the parade was over. We decided that a fitting end to the parade would be pie and coffee, and we’d figured we’d stop at a local restaurant. It was then things started to go a bit sideways.

I suggested that instead of going to a restaurant to enjoy our dessert, we could call and order a whole pie and we would bring it to our house to enjoy without concern for the many possible other parade attendees who might have the same notion of stopping for dessert. As we were driving toward our home, I asked Lynn to call the restaurant and ask if they sold whole pies. What I thought would be a short call turned out to be a lot longer than I thought as Leenie and I listened to one side of the phone conversation.

Yes, they sell whole pies, (though there was some confusion about that), and they have pecan and pumpkin pies available. After surveying the occupants of the car, Lynn ordered a pecan pie. We couldn’t understand why it would take the 20 minutes we were told before the pie would be ready, but no matter. I dropped Lynn and Leenie off at the house and off I went to pick up the pecan pie… or so I thought.

At the restaurant, I soon discovered that they were out of both pumpkin and pecan pies. They did, however, have cheesecake with either strawberry or chocolate topping and they had apple crisp. I made the executive decision to select the cheesecake with fresh strawberries. I confirmed that we wanted the entire cheesecake, not just individual servings. A few moments later, I was leaving the store with a plastic bag containing a covered aluminum pan of strawberries and a box that contained the cheesecake.

I got home, surprised Lynn and Leenie with the change in expected dessert, and Lynn opened the box containing a whole cheesecake. We put three slices on plates to serve and I set them on the table. It was then that it occurred to us that the pie might still be frozen. It was, after all, in a factory-sealed box.

Sure enough, I stuck my fork into the cheesecake about a half-inch from the pointy end, and when I pushed down, the tip of the cheesecake flew off the plate and hit the wall behind the table with a thunk. It was hard as a rock.

I decided to try to thaw out a slice in the microwave using a lower power setting. That minute at 30 percent power wasn’t enough, but Leenie came to the rescue and showed me how to use the defrost button on the microwave. A minute and twenty seconds for each slice turned out to be the best setting and we sat down to enjoy our cheesecake and coffee. We had a good laugh over the cheesecake hitting the wall, the change in menu, and the unusual conversation with the person on the phone that led us to this holiday moment that, no doubt, we will remember and relate for some time.

About the photo: What’s left of that cheesecake is now in our refrigerator, all thawed out and ready for us to enjoy again, so I pulled it out this morning and used my Samsung S20U to take a quick snapshot to share with this story.

Merry Christmas and season’s greetings to all.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment.

John Steiner