Cheesecake is my favorite dessert. I used to think that you could never have too much of it. Now, I'm not so sure.
Last week, Kim surprised me by coming home from BJ's with a box of The Cheesecake Factory's original cheesecake. The box contained 12 single-serve slices. Of course, for The Cheesecake Factory, a single slice is really two normal-sized slices. So, we had a bit of a challenge in front of us.
That first night, we made it through three slices (Jay hates cheesecake -- I'm not sure how that happened -- and Kim was smart enough to just have a few bites from someone else's plate). That left nine slices. On night two, Hannah and I split a piece. Now, we were down to eight slices.
Night three came and Hannah, Nick, and I were feeling gluttonous. We made it through two more slices between us. That seemed like progress but the reality was that, after three full days, we still had half of the cheesecake to go.
On night four, I told myself to be strong and take on a whole slice. I gave myself two full hours after dinner to get ready. Then, I bravely walked into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, took out the box, opened it up, and put a slice on my plate. I sat down, took a deep breath, and got started. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and, soon enough, I was putting an empty plate in the dishwasher. "Five more to go," I thought to myself.
Last night was night five. As we cleared off the table, I halfheartedly asked if anyone wanted cheesecake. I was surprised to hear Hannah and Nick sign up for the challenge. With them on board, I had to join in. Nick took on a full slice while Hannah and I split one between us. Not surprisingly, Nick couldn't get through the whole thing. Even less surprisingly, I refused to let his cheesecake go to waste and found myself trading plates with him once I'd finished my own half-slice.
That left three slices. It was our last night at home as we were going away for the rest of the week the next day. I looked at Kim and asked "How are we going to get rid of this? Should we bring it with us for your father?" She didn't say anything. Sensing a need to help out, Nick said that, if we left the box at home, he'd try to eat one slice a day for the next three days.
That's when it hit me -- we'd managed to turn eating cheesecake into a chore. Only in America.