Recipes

I can’t bear to waste food. And I absolutely refused to throw away the unopened tube of Smucker’s Seedless Strawberry Jam I had bought months ago with the Skippy Peanut Butter, all in the spirit of making hypothetical PB&J sandwiches for work. However, the May expiration date was fast approaching. With my Google cap on, I foraged the internet for recipes and finally found what I was looking for on the Smucker’s website. I baked the Strawberry Cheesecake Brownies as a 23rd birthday present for a very special friend.

Ingredients:

Non-Stick Cooking Spray
1 package Fudge Brownie mix
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
1/4 cup water
4 large eggs, divided
2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
1 (14 oz.) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup Seedless Strawberry Jam

Instructions:

1) Heat oven to 350°F. Spray a 13×9-inch baking pan with no-stick cooking spray. Combine brownie mix, oil, water and 2 eggs in large bowl; stir 50 strokes with spoon. Spread into prepared pan. Bake 20 minutes.

2) Beat cream cheese until fluffy in large bowl. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk. Mix in remaining 2 eggs, lemon juice and vanilla until smooth. Pour evenly over warm brownie.

3) Stir jam until smooth. Drop by teaspoonfuls over surface of filling. With a knife, swirl jam gently through filling to create marble effect. Bake additional 35 to 40 minutes or until top is lightly browned. Cool 1 hour. Loosely cover and chill in refrigerator for 2 hours or more. Cut into bars. Serve with strawberries.

Look at that pretty strawberry swirl =)

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It’s hard being such a sensory driven person sometimes. It results in little things triggering memories that tug gently at the heart, activating those lingering feelings you sometimes cherish, sometimes wish you could just forget.

This particular memory was one I cherished. The harsh 90 degree weather in NYC had let go for just a few blessed hours, and the crisp fall-like weather brought back memories of Florence as I took my customary 20 minute walk to work. Pinpointing the exact cause of those feelings was near impossible. You just know and feel sometimes without reason, and the memories rushed back – my morning waits at the bus stop by the David, cramming into the tight buses during rush hour amongst young high schoolers chattering away in Italian, driving up the hill and eventually pressing the stop button at NYU’s Florence campus, taking that “walk of death” across the valley covered with swaying olive trees to get to the school buildings.

Enough time has passed that sometimes Europe feels like a dream lived by someone else, a dream I had been fortunate enough to briefly glimpse as it passed by me.

In the spirit of Europe and enjoying the rest of a decadent summer, here is an original recipe for the Nestle Toll House’s famous fudge. Nestle is the largest nutrition and foods company in the world, founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. Satisfy your sweet tooth by making some fudge, but make sure you have friends to share with! (Pictures date back to last summer when Ji, Sondra, and myself made fudge for the first time).

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup Nestle Carnation Evaporated Milk
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 1/2 cups Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

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