Chocolate Caramelicious Made With Snickers
I did it! I found a way to include Scoop in My Cheesecake Year!
Scoop, a Cancer, turned 5 yesterday.
While he is right on the cusp of being a Leo, he definitely has more Cancer energy. He’s a real homebody. Deeply intuitive and emotional, sensitive, nurturing and compassionate. Yep, that’s my boy Scoop. He’s a rescue but he has a birthday because I let him choose a birthday using a foolproof method I learned on TikTok. I wrote all the months of the year on scraps of paper and threw them in front of his face and chose the one he “picked” with his nose. Then I did the same with days of the month and he picked July 22. That was his choice. I think he picked well. It’s not too close to my birthday, not too close to any major holidays. And it’s in the summer which means he gets to do fun summer things like go to the dog beach! Which is what we did.
I dressed him in his little bandanna, made him do a photo shoot, and then got him in the car to go pick up Daddy (Mark). He was so excited to be going somewhere just the two of us, after spending a lot of time as part of a dog gang with Karen’s dogs. I wanted him to feel special on his special day and I’m sorry but Punky couldn’t handle all the other dogs at the dog beach and Rooney gets carsick and already puked in my car twice.
I pulled up to Mark’s house and that’s when I had the brilliant idea to use my TikTok method again and let Scoop pick my next cheesecake for me. I have my best ideas in the mornings.
We did our little bit where I pretend to be an Uber driver and Mark is my passenger and we drove to Yeastie Boys for some beach breakfast. I tried to order a side of bacon and the cashier asked me if it was for my dog. I said “yes, it’s his birthday” because I’m a proud mom. And she said oh well then and she sent out the owner of the truck and he sat on the stoop and fed Scoop bacon out of his hands and SANG Happy Birthday to him. I recorded some of it.
This is the point in the day that I decided we were in flow. I felt so giddy from this interaction (especially when he said to Scoop ‘my fingers are like bacon’) and so proud of Scoop for being the best boy. And we were in flow for the rest of the day. Not a coffee review but we got Intelligentsia and they offer pistachio milk now!! It was only okay.
We drove an hour to the beach and got the perfect parking spot because FLOW. It was Basset Hound Meetup Day at the dog beach. I have to be honest and say that basset hounds are…I don’t understand the appeal. They’re in the same category as spaniels to me. I saw a spaniel once with really gross eyes and some basset hounds (NOT ALL) have gross eyes where you can see blood at the bottom because they’re so droopy. I can’t.
We set up our chairs and Scoop lay down in between us and napped. That’s all he wanted to do the whole 45 minutes we were there. The birthday boy was zonked. We also left early because the beach was loud with all the basset hounds and there was a guy with a flat head who kept letting his leashed dog come right up to us and sniff our food and then I also saw him flip his little dog in the air in a startling way I didn’t like. But we got a cute pic!
His eyes are closed because he was tired and he might have had sand in them too.
I kept telling Scoop that we were going to go to the pet store and that he could pick out anything he wanted and Daddy would get it for him. Mark loved that joke, right Mark? We left and drove to Urban Pet and I found a dog cake mix and an ice cream cone squeaky toy and Mark let Scoop pick out one little bone. We took him to Mark’s place and he ate the bone and squeaked the toy until he was too tired.
So sleepy dog. I didn’t even set him up like that! That’s how he fell asleep!! But he didn’t get to sleep for long because I needed him to get to work and pick my next cheesecake flavor. Mark wrote down all the remaining flavors I haven’t tried yet and we asked Scoop to make a decision.
I was surprised by his choice because dogs famously can’t eat chocolate. Plus Scoop knows that I don’t love the chocolate cheesecakes so far very much. But it did seem festive and I didn’t want to argue or make him do it again because that wouldn’t be fair or honest and you know, I’m trying not to influence any of my guests and I have a lot of sway over this tiny guest in particular.
I ordered the slice on DoorDash to be delivered and it was free! I don’t know why but when I log into DoorDash I often have credits I wasn’t aware of. So I paid NOTHING for one single slice of cheesecake to be delivered to my door. Karen’s door actually. She’s in Taiwan and I’m holding down the fort. I reorganized her closet.
I drove us home and started baking the dog cake so it would be ready in time for the human cheesecake arrival. This was all part of the flow we were in. It was a carob cake in a bone shaped dish with white icing and a candle. The dogs LOVED IT. They wolfed it down so fast. I don’t think they could give a fair review if they wanted to, they weren’t trying to savor it at all.
Here they are! The two cakes. Chocolate Caramelicious Made With Snickers and Dog. Now you know your cheesecake girl was skeptical about this flavor. I am not jazzed about any of these over the top chocolate slices and that’s what this sounded like. I ate a few bites and actually I inhaled them, like the dogs. It went down real smooth. I was…liking it?? The crust is brownie and there are Snickers pieces in the cheesecake and then there’s a thicc layer of chocolate on top and it’s covered in peanuts. Now that part I liked! Gave it some crunch!! That was a good crunch. And it wasn’t too sweet and I ate most of it in one sitting, a good sign. Even Scoop wanted in on it.
No no Scoop, it’s poison.
Then I went to a party, ate some mushroom chocolates, came home and finished the rest of the cheesecake while watching RHONJ. Yes, I’m back into it. It’s because I’m reading Not All Diamonds and Rose by one of the Housewives producers. I’ve been distracted by New York and Beverly Hills but it’s good to be back and be able to really see and understand what makes the Jersey wives so special.
The hostess of the party I went to has a dog and she sent me home with a boxful of bowties and neckties for dogs. BECAUSE I’M IN FLOW. And so I got the gang to celebrate Scoop once again.
How cool are they?? Proud mom alert!!
Also I went to the party with my neighbor and colleague, therapist friend Natasha. She’s super cute and funny and she’s a reader! I was really glad to go with her to this thing because I wouldn’t have gone alone or I would have and it would have felt weird, I just know it. Maybe some day I’ll write a post about Natasha? If she would ever want to get cheesecake with me, I don’t even know. I never thought anyone would want to do this with me and look at us now! I also never thought I’d be an AMC A-Lister. I never thought I could be one of those people standing in the Premium concessions line and connecting to the AMC Wifi. But being in love is expansive, it helps you to dream big.
Some more words about Scoop! He is perfect. He has an expressive face because he has little brown pips above his eyes. His name was Monty on Petfinder which is my last name, not that it helped me get him or anything. I only got to meet him because the family who was scheduled to meet him had a medical emergency and, as the lady at the shelter said to me on the phone, “you snooze you lose”. When I first got Scoop, he would fall dead asleep on the wood floor in my studio, even though I had cushions for him. He’s very soft, everyone comments on how soft he is. He also has a very big penis for his size. It really stands out. He loves to burrow under blankets. He’s great to take camping because he gets all the way to the bottom of the blankets and keeps you so so warm. He likes to wear clothes, he’s very compliant. The vet always comments on how sweet he is and when he had to get his anal glands expressed, he stood perfectly still and didn’t make a noise. Just looked at me with his little pips up, like the teary eyed anime emoji. He can run really really fast. One of his New Year’s resolutions this year is to run in a race. I helped him make it. He is extremely food motivated. He loves to brush his teeth (eat a Greenie) and he knows how to Shake, Circle, and play Hide and Seek. He howls at fire alarms and makes a perfect O shape with his little mouth. He wants to be on my lap always. The vet said he needs to have more of a waistline so I’m trying to feed him less but not shame him. To me, he’s perfect. When he licks me too much I say “thank you for the kisses”. Sometimes I say it in Spanish because he’s from Mexico. His ears are so soft. My favorite of his ear positions is when he first wakes up and they’re all the way forward. It’s called “I’m not ready to listen yet” ears and it’s the ear position I got tattooed onto my body. He loves carrots so I eat them every day I can so I can give him the ends. His breath stinks. He got to meet my stepdad before he died and Scoop was so drawn to him and D loved him too and asked for him a lot that month we were there. He is pure love. He smells warm. He deserves to be celebrated every day.
Chocolate Caramelicious Made With Snickers: 4 out of 5
Lemon Meringue
Mango Key Lime
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle
The Original
Classic Basque
Chocolate Caramelicious Made With Snickers
Cinnabon Cinnamon Swirl
Very Cherry Ghirardelli Chocolate
Fresh Banana Cream
Godiva Chocolate
Reese’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake
Toasted Marshmallow S’Mores Galore
Tiramisu
Celebration
Salted Caramel
I still shake my head that White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle is number 4. I guess I really liked it! There are still some good sounding flavors left to try. And TCF is STILL, for some reason, having an ‘any slice, half price’ offer on July 31 and August 1 which is fast approaching. I announced this loudly while walking by a TCF patio full of diners but only because I happened to legit be talking about it at the time. What have I become.