Remembering Kathy

It's been a little over a year since my friend Kathy passed away, but this post is not about the loss, this post is about celebration. I met Kathy 24 years ago at work. A petite woman with blonde hair and a wicked laugh. Kathy was all about celebrating, she was married to a great guy from Italian heritage and Kathy had learned the secret to great meatballs and sauce. Kathy would make hundreds...I mean hundreds of meatballs and homemade sauce and bring them in to feed her co-workers. She loved that we loved them. I remember that I made a cake for one of these occassions (which weren't any real occasion at at all), it was called the better than ...(I'll let you fill in the blank) cake. In the version that I made, you poked holes in a chocolate cake (after baking) and poured in marichino cherry juice, topped the cake with a layer of chocolate pudding and then a layer of real whipped cream with sprinkled chopped marichino cherries on top. That's when I found out how much Kathy loved chocolate covered cherries...she loved that cake.

A few weeks ago, right before Kathy's birthday, another co-worker and I made 300 meatballs. We never did get her recipe, but we knew the basics, we made some sauce and I made the cake.

We printed up photos that we had of Kathy and chatted with everyone that joined in our luncheon about the "good old days".

I don't have a "real" recipe for that cake, but we did bring in another dessert that I'd like to share with you. It's a lighter version of a cheesecake, not less calories, just fluffier.



Frozen Cheese Torte

Crust
24 squares, crushed, cinnamon grahams
1 stick of butter melted
3 spoonfuls of powdered sugar (rounded tablespoon would work)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Melt the butter, add the rest, mix it up and line the bottom and sides of a spring form or 13x9 cake pan.

Filling Part 1
16 oz mini marshmallows
3/4 c milk (not soy)
Melt together over low heat, stirring constantly

Filling Part 2
1 pint (2 cups) whipping cream, whipped. You can use storebought from the freezer section. If you choose this method, buy the 16 oz tub and thaw it out.

Filling Part 3
16 oz cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
Using electric mixer, cream together until smooth.

Add Filling Part 1 to Filling Part 3 and then fold in Filling Part 2.

Pour the whole lot into the graham cracker crusted pan and freeze overnight (or at least 6 hours). Thaw before serving (4 hours if left on the counter.

Keep refrigerated when thawed.

You can refreeze the leftovers (as if).

You can also cut the recipe in half and use a round cake pan (8 or 9") or pie plate.

~mpr