Tomatoes!! and Lemon Cheesecake Bars!

I know I make a lot of sweets, but other than that I try to make most our meals healthy so we can splurge on desserts :) We have a couple of roma tomatoes plants in our garden (or what's left of it..) and they are producing like crazy! The other day I picked 33 of them! I'm pretty amazed at all these tomatoes. Soo I made some tomato sauce! We'll be eating it for the next few days..good thing it turned out good. I know, a little off topic but I just wanted to share that real quick, to show that we do in fact eat real food :) Also, notice I added an index.. it was a lot of work but I know flipping through tons of posts to find something is a lot of work!

Now, Matt says he's not into lemon, or lime things, such as lemon bars, so I don't really ever make that kind of stuff. So I made these cheesecake lemon bars for his club at school. I thought they were reallly good! Matt even liked them! I think maybe what happens with him is he tries things when he was little and hasn't had them since because he remembers he doesn't like them..now suddenly he's trying them again like 10 yrs. later and his taste is different. Because he's told me he doesn't like a lot of things but when I feed it to him he actually does like it (and no, he's not just saying that!) It's not a strong, noticeable cheesecake flavor, but just adds a little creamy goodness to the bars.
Lemon Cheesecake Bars

wives with knives

Lemon Cheesecake Bars
Crust:
1 stick butter, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
Cream Cheese Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
Lemon Curd:
4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon corn starch
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 tablespoons butter

Directions:
To make crust: Cream butter and sugar in medium sized bowl. Add flour and vanilla and mix until well blended.
Press dough evenly onto the bottom of an 8"x8" baking pan. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.
Prick shortbread crust with a fork and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until pastry turns a golden brown.
Cool on rack to room temperature.
To make filling: Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add egg and lemon zest and beat until light and smooth. Cover and refrigerate.
To make lemon curd: Blend egg yolks with the cornstarch and sugar in a medium saucepan. Place over low heat and slowly whisk in water and lemon juice. Increase heat to medium, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and add lemon zest and butter. Cool for 10 minutes.
To assemble: Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over crust. Spread lemon curd over cream cheese filling.
Bake for approximately 30 minutes at 350 degrees or until edges begin to turn a golden brown. Cool to room temperature on a rack and then refrigerate for a hour before cutting. Dust top with powdered sugar if desired.