Valentine's Day (with much laziness involved)

I was really looking forward to Valentine's Day this year. My husband didn't have to work on Valentine's Day for the first time in 3 years. Last year I brought ramen to him while we was at work and we had a poor man's Valentine's Day. This year, I was determined to make it extra special.

I was going to cook this elaborate ham dinner complete with cheesecake for dessert all by myself, and we were going to eat off of my china and perfectly starched tablecloth. Well, my crazy, hectic work schedule got in the way and I had to have Ben's help on the dinner. Then I got too tired the night before to get the cheesecake done, so I had to combine three different recipes to make a new cheesecake recipe to accommodate my laziness.

But you know what? It was still the best Valentine's Day ever. I got a beautiful heart-shaped necklace from Ben. I convinced him to watch Return to Me with David Duchovny and Minnie Driver (and he actually liked it). And to top it all off I got to cook with him, which is something I absolutely love to do since I can't multitask. We didn't use the china or fancy tablecloth, but we did have a great time together.

I thought I would share my lazy man's cheesecake recipe so others can accommodate their laziness (or lack of time) too. Here goes. I took some pictures of the process with my non-professional camera.

Easy Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cheesecake

(This is a combination of three recipes. The cheesecake is from here, the crust is from here, and the sauce is from a family recipe. The original inspiration came from here.)

Ingredients:
Graham Cracker Crust (you could also buy a crust, but making it is more fun)

• 1-1/2 cups crushed graham cracker crumbs (24 squares)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

Cheese Cake

• 2 pkg. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs

Fudge Sauce Topping (you could buy a jar of topping, but I was to lazy to stop at the store for this)

• 2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup cocoa
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 cups water
• 3 tbsp. butter or margarine
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Peanut Butter Topping

• 1/4 cup peanut butter (or however much you want)
• 6 crushed peanut butter cups, optional (I didn't do this because it was already rich enough)

Directions:
Graham Cracker Crust

• In a small bowl, combine the crumbs and sugar; add butter and blend well. Press onto the bottom and up the sides of an ungreased 9-in. pie plate.
• Refrigerate for 30 minutes before filling, or bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes or until crust is lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack before filling.

 Cheese Cake 

• Heat oven to 325°F.
• Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with mixer until blended. Add eggs; beat just until blended.
• Pour into crust.
• Bake 40 min. or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours. 

Topping

• Combine sugar, cocoa, flour, and salt in a saucepan. Stir well to blend.
• Add the water and butter to the saucepan.
• Heat to boiling; reduce heat; cook and stir for 8 minutes.
• Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
• Drizzle over set cheese cake.
• Store leftovers in glass jar in the refrigerator. (I had a ton of sauce leftover for future indulgence.)
• Melt peanut butter in glass bowl in microwave.
• Drizzle over set cheese cake.
• Sprinkle crushed peanut butter cups on top, if desired.

 Remember, this can be made even simpler by replacing the fudge sauce recipe with fudge ice cream topping and the graham cracker crust with a store-bought crust. Enjoy!