Toffee Crunch Cheesecake

This is the best cheesecake ever!

Philadelphia 3- Step Toffee Crunch Cheesecake


Prep: 10 min. Plus refrigerating * Bake: 40 min. Makes 8 servings.

Ingredients:

2 pkg. (8 oz. each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened

½ cup firmly packed brown sugar

½ tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

4 chocolate-covered English toffee bars (1.4 oz. each), chopped (about 1 cup), divided
 
1 Honey Maid Graham Pie Crust (6 oz.)



PREHEAT oven to 350*F. Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs; mix just until blended. Stir in ¾ cup of the chopped toffee bars.

POUR into crust. Sprinkle with remaining chopped toffee bars.

BAKE 35 to 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.


Great Substitute: For extra chocolate flavor, substitute 1 Oreo Pie Crust (6 oz.) for the graham pie crust.


***Use 4 Heath bars instead of toffee.  The chocolate touch of the Heath makes it fantastic.  I've had it both ways and much prefer the Heath bars***

Movie and Restaurant Reviews

We have recently watched a few movies, well I have, not so much J.
 
Hot Tub Time Machine- funny and I loved the 80's throwback!
Bounty Hunter- Not that great, predictable.
She's Out of My League- had some funny parts, predictable, different.

Arriba Mexican Grill  (San Tan Mall-Gilbert) We hit this up on our way to Costco.  It's always busy when we drive by.  We thought it was more of a fast food Mexican restaurant instead it was very much a sit down restaurant.  The meal range per person was $10-$12.  Looks like they are known for their margaritas considering everyone there had one!  I think they have a happy hour where they are .99!  They have huge ones that two people can share.  Our waiter was outstanding!  Our food was good.  They have a brewery there, which is odd since Mexican restaurants never have brewery's.  J decided to try a sample though and said it tasted horrible (our waiter told us that too).  They make and sell their own salsa, it was good as well.  We would probably go back to eat there.

Joe's Real BBQ (Downtown Gilbert) It's Friday night and time to try out a new BBQ place!  Rated the best BBQ in the East Valley.  Based off of other reviews, we decided to wait until after the rush from 6-7:30.  We got there close to 8 and waited in line.  It's a cafeteria style.  You wait in line, grab a tray, utensils, cups, fill up your drink then tell them behind the counter your order, where they yell back your meat choice and they dish up your side choices.  They have some throwback candy like button candy, candy cigs, sugar daddy's, etc.  We saw a little boy buying 4 packs of candy cigs! LOL I had the homemade root beer, pulled pork sandwich, corn and pit beans for my sides.  J had the same except he had potato salad instead of corn. The corn was sweet corn cut off the cob and the beans were a mix of several different kinds of beans.  It was all really good!  Filled up my cup for another refill of root beer for the road.  The place was very busy, but we managed to find a picnic table inside.  There are a lot of big families and parties there.  There is plenty of seating outside too.  We will be going back sometime for sure!                         

                          

Name Change

It's been over a month now since I have officially changed my last name.  Boy, it sure is a lot of work!  You start off by changing your name at the Social Security office then change your Drivers License.  That takes care of the big items then onto the small items...  Changing my name at work (I finally did my badge today!) took a couple of days.  Changing beneficiaries, credit cards, car title, car insurance, bank accounts, vet and doctors office name, passport (this is next!) and I'm sure there's more.  I still don't haven't tackled all of those items, but I'm working on them.     

The one thing that is probably the biggest pain is email address.  I've used the same address for a long long time and I get a ton of stuff!  Slowly changing my email and sorting out what really interests me is how I've decided to tackle it. 

I never really thought much about losing my last name or that it's a big deal to change it.  I just knew that I would do it when I married.  I got asked so many times if I was going to change my last name.  It got annoying and made me think it's sad that is a question in people's minds and that society has brought that to their minds. 

I may have lost my last name that I held for 28 years, but I have gained a new name with a new responsibilities.           

          

Weekend Recap

This last weekend was a laid back one.  Friday night we ate at Flordinos.  We tried the pizza muffins for our first time and we ordered our usual. J gets the all meat calzone and I love their baked spaghetti.  The calzones are huge!  J has yet to finish it in one sitting (surprising!). 

Saturday afternoon we went to the movie theater to see Grown Ups.  It had been a while since we had been to the theater.  Grown Ups was ok, more of a rent than a theater movie.  Afterwards we went to Helzberg to drop off my rings.  I am finally getting them sautered together.  After months of the wedding band spinning around my finger it was time to make them into one .  Clarks was the next stop.  J needed some nice sturdy flip flops.  After wearing nothing but sandals/flip flops for the past 2 years it starts to take a toll on the feet.  Time to stop buying the cheap $2.50 ones (they are cheap for a reason!) and start buying a sandal with support and cushion to save your feet/heels/back.  Later that night we decided to use our gift card to Applebees. 

Sunday we hung around the house, did some pool time and grocery shopping.  The weekend was pretty hot as the temps have been hanging around 110*115* the past couple of weeks.      

         

Today's Temp: 105*

The Drunken Lass

For the Fourth of July J and I headed 2 hours north to Prescott.  My favorite bar was The Drunken Lass.
We visited it 3 times in our 2 days there!  When we were bored with another bar we said, lets go to the Drunken Lass.  They have live bands all day long! Cheap shots, cheap beer and friendly-quality bartending.  Our first time there we had their special shot of AIDS (American Independence Day Shot) and drank $1.75 PBR's on tap.  We met some locals and chatted it up with the bartender Joe.  You know you're a regular when a bartender named Joe says "Welcome back" (we were just a couple of regular Joe's ourselves!).  The bar even comes complete with dog treats for your best friend.  The community of Prescott is very dog friendly.  Nothing like taking your best bud in the bar with you to throw back a few!  The bands were fun and different than your typical honky tonk bands.  Most of the bands there were one man with guitar.  Making up their own songs, drinking beer, taking shots and having a good ol' time.  The Lass was my favorite because it felt like your hometown bar where everyone knows your name (Cheers song...) It was very laid back and had a good "Irish" vibe.  Definitely worth your time!