So many of you are celebrating valentines day this weekend and, accordingly, I just wanted to share what we did for valentines day in our house this year. First and foremost, I baked. Yes. I have grown an affinity for baking cheesecake this year, and so far I’ve had a ton of success with it (meaning, nothing caught on fire) and I decided to bake Jare a cheesecake for valentines day.
It all started with this book. For Christmas, Jare bought me my new little friend. Anyone Can Bake. And I found out, it’s the truth. If you follow the instructions, you can bake. It’s so simple and yet so awesome.
I actually sort of made up the recipe for the cheesecake I made on v-day, but this will give you the general idea. I encourage you to make up some little spin on traditional recipes(within reason)! I decided to make Strawberry Cheesecake Bars with Graham Cracker Crust:
Graham Cracker Crust: Mix 1/3 cup butter with 1 1/2 to 2 cups finely crushed graham crackers and line the pan with them. The end!
Cheesecake bar: mix 2 8oz packs of cream cheese with 1 cup sugar and 5 egg whites. This is the part I made up: I added about 2 cups of fresh strawberries, the majority of them were mushed up into juice, and some were freshly cut. Take the strawberrry mixtury thing and beat it in with the cream cheese/sugar/egg combo. Put in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes, and bam! You’re done. You’re a professional cheesecake baker.
Topping: I took the remaining strawberries (about a half cup, maybe more), pinch of sugar, and oooooh about 1/3 cup of orange juice, put them in a skillet and let them simmer for about 20 minutes (until the cheesecake is done) and added it to the top of my delicious master piece.
And I know you want proof that I did this. So here, photographic evidence of my master chef status:
Mmmmmm. You like how I added the little heart to be super duper sweet and romantic for V-Day? I know, I’m good. I paired this yummy little guy with a bottle of Pink! champagne. YUUUU-UUUUM.
So, I challenge you to go forth and make delicious cheesecakes and all sorts of goodies for your man (or lady!). Flowers only go so far, people. Jared said it best when I questioned him getting me chocolates instead of flowers for valentines day, “you’re going to be glad later when you’re scarfing down those little chocolate turtle things out of a heart shaped box. You can’t eat flowers, Shan”. To which I thought, hmmm.. you should have gotten me both. 
Happy valentines day, lovers !
