My name is Richie Cunningham, and this is my wife, Oprah.

Went to a friend's birthday party last night. It was a lot of fun, but there's nothing quite like standing in a room with friends you haven't seen in a long time, couples that you know, and hearing them introduce each other as, "my fiancé." Your heart kind of does a doubletake and you realize that you're at the point where DANG, people you know are getting married, and suddenly fifth grade, where holding hands was a big deal, seems impossibly far away. It's weird the kind of mini-life-evaluation that goes on in the seconds after you hear a friend is getting married. I'm definitely on the career track right now, not the marriage-babies-house track, and it's weird because there was a time when I thought the situation was opposite. (I rather like my life as it is, however - this entry is extremely light on the self-pity.)

My coping mechanism last night, when I felt like life was moving a little too fast, was to go sit in the corner with a slice of the cheesecake I brought to the party, hunched over in a brilliantly anti-social maneuver.

Chocolate always seems to calm me down.

Chocolate Cheesecake

Adapted from Food Magazine

9 oz. chocolate wafer cookies

6 Tbsp. butter, melted

4 bars of Neufchâtel or light cream cheese (8 0z. each)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

4 eggs

1 cup light sour cream

8 oz. semisweet chocolate

Bourbon Chocolate Ganache (recipe below)

chocolate chips (for garnish)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

]2. Place wafer cookies is a plastic bag and hit them with a frying pan until they are finely ground. (There are other ways to do this, such as the use of a food processor, but I find none so satisfying as the beat-to-a-pulp-with-a-large-metal-object method.) Dump cookie crumbs in a bowl and add melted butter, stirring to moisten.

3. Press cookie crumbs firmly into bottom of a 9 or 10-inch springform pan in an even layer. Bake crust for 10 minutes, then set aside to cool.

4. In a double boiler, melt chocolate, stirring constantly until smooth. Set aside.

5. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugars, and salt with a hand mixer until smooth. Add eggs one at time, beating to incorporate, then add sour cream, then finally melted chocolate, beating to incorporate it all.

6. Pour filling into crust and bake for 1 hour. Turn oven off, then let cheesecake sit an additional hour in the oven. Do not open the oven at any point in the baking process. (This is supposed to prevent the top of the cheesecake from cracking, but I was determined not to open the oven, not even for a peek, and mine cracked like the Grand Canyon anyway. Bollocks.)

7. Cool completely, then refrigerate 6 hours or up to overnight.

8. Prepare chocolate ganache, unmold the cheesecake from the pan, and spread ganache over the top. Rim the edge with chocolate chips if you feel fancy.

Bourbon Chocolate Ganache

1 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips (or 10 oz. finely chopped semisweet chocolate)

2 Tbsp. bourbon whiskey

1. Bring cream to a boil in a medium saucepan.

2. Remove cream from heat, then add chocolate and bourbon. Let stand for 3 minutes, then whisk until smooth.

3. Pour chocolate mixture into a medium bowl and refrigerate until thick and spreadable, 2-3 hours.