Given the current state of the economy, why not trade overly expensive dessert at a restaurant for a romantic post-meal snack at home? Over the summer, my boyfriend and I discovered the New York Times’ No-Bake Cheesecake recipe, which I’ve tweaked a bit. To give you a sense of how user-friendly this recipe is, let me just say that even boiling ready-made soup is an accomplishment for me.

The cheesecake takes about 20 minutes to assemble, and an additional hour to cool, so it's perfect for you and your date to start making after dinner when you're still full.

To start off with, take eight full graham crackers and crush them in a bowl. I prefer chocolate graham crackers because they taste better. To crush the crackers, pretend you’re angry at someone and mush them with your hands.

Next, the recipe calls for three tablespoons of melted butter. My preferred method of doing this is taking butter and putting it in a bowl in the microwave for about 45 seconds until it melts. The number three is a lie, though — it is not nearly enough. While I can’t give you an exact number, I can recommend that you keep melting the butter and mixing it with the graham cracker crumbs until they all form a sticky mix. Then line an eight or nine-inch pan until the crumbs are a 1/4 of an inch high, and then put the bowl in the fridge.

Then, in a separate bowl, add an eight-ounce container of cream cheese and one cup of ricotta cheese. The first time I went to buy ricotta cheese, I had no idea what type of cheese it was: solid, sliced, grated? I couldn’t ask for help because they’d just point me to the cheese aisle. Finally, I realized that it is liquidish and sold near the cream cheese.

So add the two cheeses to a bowl and also add two tablespoons of honey, a “pinch” of salt and lemon rinds. What are lemon rinds, you may ask? The sports editor to my right knew what they were, so maybe I’m just inept, but I had to look them up online the second time I made this recipe (the first time, I didn’t have lemons, and the cheesecake didn’t taste cheesecakey). Lemon rinds, for those of you who were wondering, are what results when you grate lemon skins.

So grate the skin of an entire lemon over the bowl, and then use a mixer on the cheeses until they become smooth. Once this is done, spread the cheese mixture evenly over the graham cracker crust. The recipe calls for adding blueberries over the cake, but for a Valentine’s Day twist, strawberries will set the mood.

It’s a good idea to leave the cake in the fridge for an hour or so to cool and harden, but then it will be ready to eat. So grab a forkful and feed it to your Valentine’s Day date!

Jazzy Cheesecake

Adapted from the New York Times’ No-Bake Blueberry Cheesecake Bars:

8 whole graham cracker squares

3+ tbsp melted butter

1 8 oz. package cream cheese

1 cup ricotta cheese

2 tbsp honey

Rind of a lemon, freshly grated

Pinch of salt

~1 1/2 cups blueberries or strawberries

1. Combine crushed graham crackers and melted butter. Press into bottom of an 8- or 9-inch square pan to form a crust about 1/4-inch thick. Put in refrigerator until ready to use.

3. Spread cheese mixture carefully and evenly over crust, using a spatula or butter knife to smooth top. Cover with fresh fruit and chill for at least an hour, or until set. Cut and serve.