Chocolate-Heath Cheesecake in a Jar and The Bachelorette

Blogging in the wee small hours of the morning, while the whole wide world is fast asleep...Or if you are me, 7:30 in the morning and since it's summer vacation the kids are still asleep. Except one. There's always that one kid who doesn't sleep in which means you don't sleep in. I'm talking about you, Jeremiah! Usually it's Liv that gives me morning grief, but she is sleeping happily. I guess it's good. As much as I enjoy being lazy in the morning (I swear I get the best sleep from four in the morning until I wake up) I also enjoy getting up early and savoring the quiet. During school days I have to wake up around 6:30am just to get everyone ready on time. That's with my husband helping a lot. If I want time to myself before the mayhem, it would have to be 5:30am. That doesn't happen that much. Okay, at all. However, during summer break the kids will usually sleep until 7:00am, which means I could get up at 6:00am and have a blissful hour all to myself and my husband. I think I shall set the alarm tomorrow and start that. There is something so tranquil about quiet mornings, something so sweet. I think what makes them sweet is the knowledge that at any moment it could get busted up by a precious but busy and loud four year old boy, a cute, feisty and loud 2 year old girl, and about 30 minutes to an hour after that, an energetic and loud nine year old girl. I love my little kidlin's and I want to see them every morning. Just not before I have gotten the chance to wake up myself. Did you get the pattern above? Did you notice I described them all as loud? I can't do loud until I have been up for an hour. Even now as I write this, I am being distracted by an annoying Dora The Explorer toy. It keeps shouting "Press the button! Apresad un boton!" Shut it, Dora. I'm going to set my alarm for tomorrow morning now.

Let's talk about more exciting things, shall we? It's Monday which means "The Bachelorette" will be on tonight. Yes, I just said that. I used to watch "The Bachelor" back in it's heyday, but then I felt it got a little trashier and I stopped. My friends would watch and I'd hear little tidbits, but then one day out of nowhere I got totally sucked in again with a vengeance. It was Brad Womack's season (the second one) and I made the mistake of watching the first episode. That was all it took. So now, here I am. I can't believe the power this show has over people. This particular season of Bachelorette has been weird, and I still watch. I don't even really like any of the guys, well, sometimes I do...then I don't, I'm lukewarm to say the least and yet, I still watch. I even will go so far as to say I hate Ashley, the actual bachelorette, and I still watch. It's bizarre. It's like a bad car wreck, you try to look away and you can't because it just keeps drawing you in. That being said, some of my girlfriends and I get together to watch the show sometimes. Dessert is usually involved and it just so happens that my friend brought these chocolate-heath cheesecakes in a jar the last time we were together. I'm not crazy about cheesecake normally so I wasn't thinking much, but the packaging in the jar is just too darn cute to pass up. This was downright delicious. It was a very mild and creamy chocolate flavor with a classic graham cracker crust, bites of heath bar on top and creamy whipped cream to finish it all off. This was made with a graham cracker crust and it was perfect in my opinion, but the maker of this dessert said it could also be made with an Oreo cookie crust for a bumped up chocolate flavor. I want to be clear about one thing. This is a no bake dessert. The crust is just pushed into the bottom and the filling goes right on top and straight into the refrigerator. Simple and good. The filling is creamy not unlike pudding, which I love, love, love. All the different textures (soft buttery crust, cold smooth filling, crunchy butterscotch heath bites and creamy whipped cream) mixed together make for an amazing dessert you won't soon forget. I can't make "The Bachelorette" any better, but I can help with your viewing pleasure if you eat this dessert while tuning in. I recommend you make this dessert tonight since Bentley is coming back and you might need something sweet to counteract all the drama that will surely go on. Unless of course, ABC just teased Bentley's return for tonight's episode again, but won't really show it like they did last week. Either way, you are going to need dessert.

*I apologize to those of you who don't watch the show and don't know what I'm talking about. Stay strong.

Chocolate-Heath Cheesecake in a Jar

adapted from I am Baker (www.iammommy.typepad.com)

makes about 4 cheesecakes in a jar

1 package cream cheese, room temperature

1 can (14.oz) sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup Hershey's chocolate syrup

juice of 1/4 an orange

12 graham crackers

2 tablespoons sugar

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 Heath bars, crushed

small, squatty glass jars with lids

For the crust: Crush the graham crackers with the sugar until you have coarse crumbs. Press desired amount of the crumbs into the bottom of the jars. The amount you put in your jars depends on their size. Put in enough to make a slightly generous quarter inch base, and push down and up the sides lightly with your fingers.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, orange juice and Hershey's syrup. Mix until smooth and divide batter among jars.

Top each cheesecake with Heath bar pieces and pop the lids back on. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours. Just before serving Whip your cream and sweeten it according to your taste with powdered sugar. Top each cheesecake with whipped cream and serve.

Please note I described the crust as "buttery" up above but in all reality the crust has no butter in it! If you added butter to this crust like you would a traditional pie and didn't bake, it would weigh it down and make the bottom wet instead of crackery, which is not what you want for this recipe. I would eat this the day it is made for best results. If they sit for too long the crust might get too mushy, which you may or may not like.

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