July 31st, 2020

Yesterday was National Cheesecake Day. How sweet is that?

I actually was unaware of that fact until I got an email from Tim about it.  Yes, Tim still works from home.  And yes I was also home.  And we are both here in the same house.  I have no idea why he emailed me from one side of the house to the other instead of just face to face telling me.  Maybe just to be funny?  He's a funny guy :)

Anyway, I think my initial response was just "cool" or perhaps the marginally snarky, "good to know".  It was followed by another email from Tim which consisted of a link to The Cheesecake Factory Restaurant.  It seems that in honour of National Cheesecake Day, The Cheesecake Factory was donating $1 of every purchase to Feed America, a worthy organization.

Not only can I take a hint, but this additional information allowed me to rationalize that the charitable contribution angle made is okay to go ahead and indulge in cheesecake.    I do love a good rationalization.

So naturally my response was, "I'm in!"

Whenever we have gone to Cheesecake Factory, the intent, even if we eat an actual meal first, is solely to have cheesecake.  We do love that stuff.  The vast majority of the time we get the cheesecake as a take-away.  In fact I'd go so far as to say that 99% of the time we haven't bothered to have the meal at all.  Nope, we cut out the middle entirely and  just how up at the counter to  ordered dessert to-go.

We order it as take out for several reasons.  The first and most important being that while I love dairy, I am lactose intolerant in a big sort of way.   If I eat cheesecake, which does in fact have creamed cheese in it which is a dairy product, I am not going anywhere for awhile.  I will be sticking pretty close to home.  But also because I cannot eat an entire slice at one time.  It's just too rich, too much, too good, too too.   Every slice of cheesecake for me is at least two meals, often three.  And it's not because of the calories involved.  I wish that were true but it's not.  It's just overwhelming. And way too yummy (and expensive) to throw away what I don't finish!

Currently during the whole virus thing, we have been ordering take out about once a week. Usually from local places that we already know and love.  Occasionally we will get brave and try some place new.  Most restaurants have been focused on take out for about what, 5-6 months now?  So they have figured it out.  Cheesecake Factory definitely had it down.  Tim ordered and paid on line before we ever left the house.  They pinged his phone when it was ready.  He acknowledged their ping. They emailed back instructions on where to wait and asked what sort of car we were in.  Tim responded and in mere seconds, a nice masked lady came out bearing the bag of cheesecake wonderfulness and we went on our merry way.

Over the years, I have made a number of cheesecakes myself.  They weren't as fancy as Cheesecake Factory, but they were good.  The problem with home made cheesecakes is that once made, we now have an entire dang cheesecake in the house.  And if I make it, we will eat it.  Nobody needs to eat an entire cheesecake. Nobody.  So mostly, on the rare occasion that we have cheesecake, it's ordered one slice at a time at a restaurant.  Saves me from myself.  And my lack of self discipline.

I'm not sure when was the last time that we had cheesecake.  I know it was quite some time ago.  Perhaps it was last National Cheesecake Day?   It doesn't really matter.  The important part was that I had Salted Caramel Cheesecake (merciful heavens!) for dinner last night and then again for breakfast this morning.

AND it was good :)