No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

Recipe:

1 pre-made graham cracker crust

1 block of cream cheese, softened (8oz)

½ cup sugar

8oz cool whip

1 package of strawberries

I walk into the kitchen to make my favorite dessert. We don’t make it often because we always want to eat too much of it! I remember when I learned about this recipe…It was 2 or so years ago at a spring cookout we had at work. I saw it sitting with the other desserts, but it stuck out among the rest. Seeing the fresh strawberries on top made me want to try some. I am sure glad I did. It is now a family favorite and delicious also!

I start to gather my ingredients to make this delicious cheesecake. I walk over to the refrigerator and open the door. I grab the block of cream cheese, the container of cool whip and the package of strawberries. I feel how cold they are in my hands. I sit these items on the kitchen counter and hear a light thud as they land.

I turn around to grab the sugar container off of our kitchen counter. I open our kitchen cabinet and get out our cutting board to use it for the strawberries. I sit the cutting board on the counter and hear the thudding as the two connect. I turn on the faucet and begin to rinse off the strawberries so they will be clean. I smell the fruity smell that I love as I feel the water run between my fingers, rinsing off the dirt and germs from the strawberries.

I pull off all of the green leaves from the strawberries and throw them into the trash. I hear a ripping sound while doing this. I start to chop the strawberries on the cutting board and hear a rhythmical chopping sound. The rhythm is calming to me as I hear it over and over. Chop, chop, chop, chop. I take the knife and slide all of the strawberries into a small bowl so they are ready to be used.

I measure out the sugar and pour it into a mixing bowl. I pour the cream cheese and cool whip into the bowl also. I hear an indescribable noise as the cream cheese and cool whip lands in the bowl. It makes a funny sound, and makes me smile. I mix it all those ingredients and get them ready for the cheesecake.

I take the crust and pour in the mix that I just made. I make sure it is approximately the same amount throughout. I take strawberries and drop them onto the cheesecake and attempt to make it look pretty. I can smell the sugar and cream cheese, as well as a hint of fruit. Once I finish putting on the strawberries, I cover it and put it in the refrigerator to solidify some before eating.

I begin to clean up all of the utensils and bowls that I used to make the recipe, and begin to count down in my head how long before we can eat it. Delicious, strawberry goodness.

Final Blog Entry

I don’t really know how to do this final blog post, but I will give it my best. I can honestly say that I am glad that this assignment is over. When Lesson 4 first started and I learned that we had to do 25 blog posts over a significant period of time, I thought it would be an enjoyable assignment. I thought I would have interesting things to write about and that the assignment wouldn’t be that bad. The first few blogs that I did took a long time to write initially. It was hard for me to get the words out and even get to the word count requirement. After the first few days, however, it became easier and easier to complete each blog. I am not sure how my blogs will fare in regards to others, but considering that this is was a freewriting assignment, it shouldn’t matter.

The biggest challenge that I had from this assignment was not having any feedback from our instructor. Throughout this assignment it would have been nice to have at least one piece of feedback to know how I was doing with my writing, and what things I could work on to improve. Since I have no proof if my blogs have even been read by my instructor, and no feedback from her, I have no idea if I have grown as a writer or if any improvement has been seen. If I would have received feedback, it would have let me know if I was growing or making any improvement with my writing.

Another challenge that I had was the inability to see other student’s blogs from this semester. There are other blogs posted from previous classes on Ms. A’s website, but I wanted to be see my fellow student’s blogs. When this assignment started a few classmates, as well as me, kept asking when our blogs would be posted on her website for us to see, and they were never posted. As I am typing this now on the day of the final post deadline, they still haven’t been posted. I wanted to see how the other students in my class were doing and what they were writing about. Due to a fellow student posting her blog link on Blackboard, and other students following her lead, I was able to see a few student blogs from this semester. If my fellow classmate wouldn’t have started that thread on Blackboard, I wouldn’t have had any access at all.

The only thing that I discovered during this assignment is that I can essentially type out a journal entry once a day. The assignment felt only like a daily journal entry since we didn’t have a whole lot of direction or feedback. I also discovered that my typing speed has improved since I have been typing these throughout the last month.

I initially liked this assignment because I thought it would help me become a better writer and learn more, but I soon realized it was a totally different situation, and that I hated this assignment. I don’t understand the point of an assignment where we are just writing, writing, and writing, with no feedback or help along the way. The only way this type of assignment would help us get better is with feedback and better instruction of the assignment.

Due to no feedback and very little direction on this assignment, I don’t feel like I have changed as a writer. If the assignment would have been laid out better and better instruction from our teacher, I believe I would have changed as a writer and actually learned something. For now, I am just glad that this meaningless assignment is over.

Word Count: 620 words