Breaking and entering … leading to chocolate-covered cookie balls

Have you ever been locked out of your car or home?

In the past, it rarely happened, as I tended to leave my front door open. I figured no one was going to try to break into the front door (actually, they could have just walked in). Yes, I know, it wasn’t very smart. There were times as well, when inadvertently, I, or my daughter Jordana, would forget to lock our cars.

One night last summer, my husband Jerry arrived home late, and after giving him dinner I went up to bed. He said he’d be right up, he was just going to check out how the Yankee top minor league prospects were doing. In hindsight, he could have just gone to bed, the Yankees obviously didn’t have much of a farm system, as was revealed this season.

Jerry fell asleep at the computer and woke up 2 a.m., at which point, he realized that he left his cell phone in his car. After retrieving it, he noticed someone stepping out of my car.

At a quick glance, it looked like my daughter’s boyfriend Dan. He wondered what Dan would be doing in my car. Turns out, Jerry was wrong. Jerry asked if that was his car and he said, ”Yes, I just misplaced my keys.”

Jerry wished him good luck in retrieving them and slowly walked into the house as he watched the boy leave the car and head down the block. Jerry then quickly called the police and was outside with two squad cars and half a dozen police officers with flashlights searching up and down the block. When Jordana returned home and saw the scene, she panicked and asked, “What’s going on?” Jerry, in complete defiance of reality (A Life Is Beautiful movie moment) attempted to reassure her and claimed that everything was perfectly fine. This only intensified her fears, and she ran inside to make sure I was ok.

I dressed quickly and ran downstairs. Jerry explained what had happened, and I asked, “You did what???” You just let him walk down the street with Jordana’s wallet? Jerry replied that he didn’t want to confront the teen.

Now, let me explain something about my husband. He works out a few times a week, is very strong and is in amazing shape. He doesn’t do it because he cares what he looks like. He does it because being a child of Holocaust survivors, he said he wants to be as strong as he can be, so G-d forbid anyone comes to round up the Jews again, he was going to stand up to them. I tried to explain that he would have only one shot and even that might be a stretch. He said, “I’ll go down fighting then!” I guess that strong macho talk was reserved for Nazi’s only.

A few days later, the detective called and said they might have caught the kid, and wanted Jerry to see if he could pick him out of six different photos. To say he was nervous was an understatement. “What if I pick out the wrong kid? I could ruin someone’s life. Imagine if I think it’s him but it’s really not. It was dark, I didn’t really get a good look.”

So there we were in the precinct with Jerry pouring over the photos. The first looked like him, but then no, the second did, too. The third seemed to look closer to the kid than the first two and the fifth and sixth photo had some resemblances. He told the detective he couldn’t in good faith pick any of the five that he thought it might be, as he wasn’t sure enough.The detective laughed and said it was just as well as the one they caught was the only one Jerry didn’t even consider.

After the night my car was broken into, I realized that the house and all cars had to be locked at all times. Of course there was a time or two when I locked my key in my trunk, or couldn’t find my key, but Chaverim, a wonderful organization run by religious Jews, just for the sake of helping out a person in need and receiving a mitzvah at the same time, came to my rescue.

Just this past week after arriving home with eight bags of groceries and ready to cook for Shabbat, I realized, I didn’t have my key. I called Chaverim and sheepishly asked if they broke into homes as well as cars. “All the time,” Sherry Waldman replied. She calmed me down and then called me back less than five minutes later to tell me she had someone on the way.

Minutes later, Natan Friedman and Eli Goldstone arrived. They were on a mission. They were not leaving my house till they found a way to get me inside. Lucky for me they were able to figure out a way to break into my house. …

And on that note, why not take a BREAK from your oven with these delicious rich cookie chocolate balls, that are easy to prepare and no baking involved. And should you find yourself locked out of your car or home, call Sherry at Chaverim 718-337-1800. Tell her Judy sent you.

No bake chocolate covered cookie balls

Ingredients:

n 1 lb. of your favorite vanilla cookies or graham crackers

n 1 cup of Nutella

n 1 cup of peanut butter, almond butter or praline paste.

n 12 ounces of semi sweet chocolate or chips. If you like you can use white chocolate (without nuts)

Directions:

Crush the crackers or cookies and add them to a mixing bowl along with the Nutella and peanut butter. Spray your hands with Pam and mix well.

Rinse and dry your hands, then form the mixture into balls (any size you like is fine) and place on waxed paper.

Chill in the refrigerator until firm, about 15 minutes.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or the microwave. Dip each ball into the chocolate and shake off the extra chocolate, then place on waxed parchment paper. Before chocolate starts to harden, sprinkle on your favorite topping, You can use a few different toppings and have an assortment. Some good choices are; toasted coconut, sprinkles, crushed nuts or cocoa

Once balls are dry and firm place in an airtight container and serve within two days or freeze.

Judy Joszef is a pastry and personal chef as well as a party planner. She spent 18 years as a pastry chef at Abigael’s, The Cedar Club, Centro and T42 in the Five Towns, before launching her current business, Soiree. She can be reached at judy.soiree@gmail.com