Don’t bite off more than you can chew

Being way past deadline (as usual) for this week’s column, I was frustrated as not only was I late, I couldn’t come up with a topic to write about. Total writer’s block. And as hard as it is to come up with ideas for my column, it’s even harder to correlate them to the recipe, as you have probably noticed in the past, or you will certainly notice this week.

So last night, while sitting at my computer, which by the way is from the Dark Ages, or so my kids tell me, I was close to calling my editor and admitting defeat, when while eating the fifth snack in the span of 20 minutes, I started to choke. Seems the almond I swallowed had different plans than the norm. Being home alone, I panicked a bit, but all ended well.

I was a little shaken, but I had an idea for this week’s column.

Let me take you back to 1992. I was pregnant with my youngest child and a group of my friends decided to take a CPR course. We all met at my friend, Janet Grosser’s home. Being that I was pregnant and many of us had toddlers, we added an infant course as well.

The instructor explained that when dealing with an infant or child that doesn’t speak or understand yet, there had to be a way to determine if the child could hear us or if she had fainted. She taught us to flick our fingers on the back or shoulders of the child and scream, “Baby, baby, can you hear me?” over and over. The baby would respond to being jarred by hearing the loud voice and feeling the fingers against their skin, if she was conscious. All of us excelled when asked to perform that task on the plastic baby.

A few weeks later, I was at Janet’s home waiting for our other girlfriends to arrive as we were going to play Mahjongg. All of a sudden Ira started to choke, and the color drained from his face. Janet and I sprung into action doing the only thing we remembered from the course. We ran over to him and kept flicking our fingers on his back, and shouting “Ira, Ira can you hear me?” over and over again. Just as he was turning blue he managed to do the Heimlich maneuver on himself and dislodged the piece of food stuck in his airway.

Once he was able to speak again, Ira turned toward us and said, “Are you two kidding me? Did you not just take the CPR course for adults as well as kids three weeks ago? How is it possible that all you remember is flicking me and shouting on the top of your lungs if I hear you? Of course I heard you, I was standing up and pointing to my throat!”

Fast forward 21 years later on a Friday night. I made these beautiful double cut veal chops and my husband Jerry, not having eaten all day, was starving. All of a sudden he stands up and looks strange. He points to his throat and I scream, “Oh my G-d, are you choking?” I ran over and starting flicking him “Can you hear me Jerry?” I shouted over and over. Thankfully, Jerry knew the Heimlich maneuver and didn’t have to count on us.

Once he was ok, we were able to joke about it. My son asked, “Why in the world would you ask him if he was choking? Was it not obvious to you? If he wasn’t choking he would be talking, and talking and talking…”

It’s definitely time for a refresher course.

How in the world can I relate choking to this week’s recipe? Simple: ”Choke”olate covered marshmallows.

Chocolate Dipped Marshmallows

Covered in Pearls

Ingredients:

1 12 ounce bag of white Wilton Candy Melts (vanilla flavor)

1 10 ounce bag of Marshmallows

1 11.5 ounce container of Lieber’s White Pearls (can be found at Gourmet Glatt , and kudos to Yaakov Lipshitz, whom I called and did me the favor of running over to the toppings aisle to find the exact name of the pearls. Place pearls in a very small bowl.

White lollipop sticks

White tulle ribbon or ribbon of your choice

Cookie sheets or half sheet pans covered in parchment or waxed paper.

Directions:

Melt the Candy Melts in the microwave or double boiler being careful not to overheat, as the chocolate will become burnt in certain parts and you will have to throw the whole batch out.

I usually heat in the microwave for 75 seconds per 12 ounces, remove and stir, then replace and heat at 15 second intervals.

Dip each marshmallow in melted chocolate covering all sides except for bottom. I hold the marshmallow by pinching it in the middle and dipping it in.

Immediately place marshmallow in dish with pearls to cover and then place “naked” side down on waxed paper. When all marshmallows are done, dip a lollipop stick in chocolate to cover about half inch on the bottom and stick it into top of marshmallow.

Tie a ribbon around the stick near the marshmallow.

Once dry the stick will remain in place when marshmallows are removed from waxed paper. Store lying them down in air tight container till served.

This recipe be made up to a month in advance.