This recipe is a modification of my husband’s great aunt’s recipe.
Aunt Rosie, may she rest in peace, was a wonderful cook.
She made Fried Chicken that could make a dirty mouthed sailor cry.
mmmm….
She lived an hour and a half away, so I only had the pleasure of having it a few times.
One time she made this recipe as dessert.
And I loved it.
She, however, used pecans for the crust. Uh… if you are a faithful reader, you know how I feel about nuts.
I didn’t hate them in this recipe though. I was convinced the crust was pretzels.
It was not.
And I know this.
However, in my mind, it has always, always been pretzels.
My mind… it’s a confusing place. I suggest you don’t visit.
When it came time to make this recipe, I had pretzels.
Not pecans.
Fail?
Nah, I made due.
So, this recipe, which, in the scary dark corners of my mind has always been made with pretzels, IS now made with pretzels.
Yesterday was my birthday.
Yes, 25… exactly. 25, how did you know?
The fact that my child just started High School last week has no bearing on this fact.
25, yes… yes, 25.
My friend took me out for lunch (thanks, Lori!), and then we headed to, a certain store, that when lit up at night, it’s sign reads: AL*MAT.
I’ll let you decode that one on your own.
I decided to buy myself this lil gadget
The Bean was just excited because of the name.
Ninja.
Boys.
They are lame.
Anyhoo… back to the recipe… I used my new Ninja to mix up the 1/2 cup pretzels, 1 1/2 sticks metled butter/margarine, 1 1/2 cups flour (I just typed ‘flower’, man, I need to blog more), and 2 Tablespoons brown sugar.
Scrape out, and place in a pan. Now, this is up to you. I used a 9x13 pan for a thin dessert. If you want thick, you can use a 9x9 or 8x8. I would halve the crust recipe though.
Bake @ 350 for 18-20 minutes.
Yes, I have a few whole pretzels in there… shhh.. we do not speak of it!
Meanwhile, mix together an 8 oz brick of softened cream cheese (I used the 1/3 less fat, and you know, that makes ALL the difference in the caloric/fat content of this recipe… shyeah.), 1 cup sugar, 1/2 a container of thawed cool whip.
I may or may not have eaten a spoon full of this. Or three.
Spread this over cooled crust.
Next, you can do one of two things. You can buy the strawberry glaze at the store in the squeezy packages.
This is the easy way. I recommend the easy way.
I didn’t DO the easy way, however.
Hubby looves, loooves, looooves his Grammy’s strawberry pie glaze.
I decided to make it for this.
It’s a very simple recipe. However, when I try to combine a blog post recipe and make supper at the same time: imminent disaster.
Boiling over… spilling into the water I was boiling for macaroni, spattering the burner, smelling up the house.
Burnt sugar smells…uh….Mmmhmm…
No smoke alarm going off though, so that was a bonus.
But seriously, it’s an easy recipe, if you are paying attention.
You use 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, 3 Tablespoons cornstarch, 3 Tablespoons strawberry jello powered mix.
You can use this same recipe for making strawberry pie. All you need besides that is a pie crust and strawberries!
Stir together in saucepan, cook on medium until thick. Cool completely.
Next step: arrange a layer of strawberries on top of the cream cheese mixture.
Once cool, pour the glaze over top.
Or, if you are smart, and go the store bought route, just pour it over. No need to wait.
Either spread a layer of cool whip over the entire dessert, or plop it on as you serve it.
Chill the whole dessert at least an hour.
Cut into squares and serve!
This goes without saying, I hope, but refrigerate leftovers.
If you want to do this Aunt Rosie’s way- substitute the 1/2 cup pretzels for 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans. You can also use graham crackers in place of either!
Either way… enjoy.
Tina
Are you all canners out there in cyber land? Or is this a bygone era kinda thing?
