Brownie Mallow Bars –Stacy Connor Recipe

            Anyone who knows me knows that I always need to have a plan, an activity, or a project to be working on.  The last few days in Danforth have been all clouds and rainy, and my 1500 piece puzzle is just not cutting it.  That is when this new idea hit me. Last year I watched Julie and Julia.  For those of you who have not seen this film, it chronicles the stories of Julia cooking her way through Julie Child’s cookbook.  It is a cute chick-flick film with a feel-good ending.  Anyway, after spending a few days this past week with Grams, I decided that our project together for the summer would be to cook our way through the Ahlden/Storm cookbook this summer.  I shared my idea with my dad, who realistically reminded me that there are many more recipes than I realize in that book, and making them all this summer would be nearly impossible.  In true dad style, he was right.  I modified my project to “bake our way through the Ahlden cookbook.”  This seemed like a better idea anyways since most everyone knows that my idea of cooking is a lunch meat sandwich or a bowl of cereal.  My plan was to bake all of the dessert recipes during my next month and a half of summer vacation.  While drinking a glass of wine last night, I counted the desserts, pies, cakes, and cookies section of the cookbook, and shockingly discovered that there are 40 recipes for sweets!  This would mean that Grams and I would have to make something every day for the remainder of July and August.  I downed my glass of wine and realized that was clearly impossible!  So finally, I settled on a more realistic project.  Grams and I will bake our way through the Ahlden cookbook at our own pace.  And so with my scale and my waist line telling me this is a horrid idea, but my heart reminding me that Grams will love this time together, we preheat the oven to 350.

           This is the first day of me and Grams challenge, but it is the fourth or fifth time we have baked together this summer.  Already I have discovered a pattern that I am sure will continue through the entire project.  I call her and ask her if she wants to come over to bake.  She excitedly replies “Yes.”  I tell her that we are going to make                            today, and that I will pick her up and we will go to the store to buy the ingredients.  She says “Okay”, and I head over to her house.  Each time I arrive, I walk into her kitchen with her outdated eggs and more bags of flour that one woman could ever use.  I remind her again that we aren’t making sugar cookies, and we don’t need the sugar cookie recipe.  After we get to my house and she can read the recipe, it seems to click that we are making brownies.  It works out great.  I read the recipe, measure, and pour, while Grams stirs.  Although my kitchen knowledge is pretty much limited to things that can be made out of a box, I do know some things about baking and cooking.  Sometimes though, I ask Grams easy questions that I already know the answers to.  I asked her today if we should spray the pan with Pam before we put the batter in.  She tells me ‘Yah,’ and then I get to hear a story about how when she was first married with her own kitchen, they didn’t have Pam.  She tells me about how she would rub butter all over the cookie sheet so that they wouldn’t stick.  I think that Grams likes knowing the answers to these questions, and I like that it usually leads into some sort of story about her as a child, wife, or mother. 

            The brownies turned out great.  Just looking at them seems like a 30 lb sin.  Grandma and I both love marshmallows, so this was a perfect first recipe.  I think we might have eaten a few too many marshmallows that were supposed to go into the brownie recipe though.  I’m glad we chose Stacy’s Brownie Mallow Bar recipe as our first dessert since this project would not be possible had Stacy not put together Our Family Cookbook.  So, thank you Stacy, for bringing together all of our recipes and memories.

            So today, Grams and I began our journey through the Ahlden desserts.  Coincidently, today, July 1^st is also the anniversary of Grandpa Ahlden’s death.  Like most of you reading this, I never knew him, and since my mom was just a baby when he passed, she doesn’t have many stories to share with me of Grandpa either.  This baking time will not only bring me closer to

Grams, but it will also give me the chance to get to know her as a woman and a wife to Grandpa Ahlden.  My hope is that as I blog these stories on to you, we can all get to know Grams and Grandpa Ahlden in a way that we were never able to. 

I’m off to eat another Brownie Mallow Bar.

Brownie Mallow  Bars – Stacy (Ahlden) Connor

1 pkg fudge brownie mix (9x13 pan)

1 pkg mini marshmallows

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup peanut butter

1 T. Butter or margarine

1 ½ cups crisp rice cereal

Bake brownies at 350 degrees for 28-30 minutes. 

Top with marshmallows and bake an additional 3 minutes.

The marshmallows may not be melted. Cool.

In a saucepan, combine the chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter.

Cook and stir over low heat until smooth.

Remove from heat and stir in cereal.

Spread over marshmallows.  Refrigerate 1-2 hours until firm.