Non-Rice Krispy Cereal Treats

I don't know why I stopped eating cereal, but I've had a half-empty box of Cheerios for about a year, and an unopened box of Franken Berry since Halloween.

What's a girl to do with old cereal? Add marshmallows!

But Andrea! Doesn't Franken Berry already have marshmallows?

Yes. I fail to see the problem here.

I'm sold! How do I make these delightful confections?

The same way you make Rice Krispies Treats.

1. Melt half a stick a butter in a big pot.
2. Dump a whole bag of mini marshmallows into the pot.
3. Stir until all marshmallows have melted into a blob of fluff-like goodness.
4. Stir in cereal until desired cereal-to-marshmallow ratio is reached.  I prefer my treats on the goopier side.
5. Pour into a greased pan and let cool.

While cooling, lick the remaining fluff from the pot and spoon.  Your treats should be ready just as you're about to come down from that sugar high, praise be to General Mills.

Boo!

I'm tempted to go out and buy the most not-fun cereal I can find and make marshmallow treats with it. Let's be honest, it'd be the only way to get me to eat bran flakes voluntarily.

Christmas Cookies and Memories

Taken at Easter, not Christmas, but similar setup.

When I was a kid, my mom baked cookies every Christmas. She'd go all out, baking dozens of cookies for friends, family, coworkers, teachers, you name it. It was quite the undertaking. Each batch went in a holiday-themed tin, which I suspect she bought on clearance after the holidays. Frugal, she was. I would "help," but as I was but a young reluctant domestic, I probably just got in the way. She didn't mind.

My brother and I spent Christmas 2011 apart, but thought the same thing at the same time a few days before: We should bake Mom's cookies this year. Perhaps because it was the tenth anniversary of our last Christmas with Mom.

So, we took to the internets to find recipes.  The AKA's are what we called the cookies as kids.

Peanut Butter Chips and Jelly Bars (AKA "PBJ Cookies")

From Hershey's

• Fair warning: The dough will be dry and crumbly when you prepare it. It's OK, I promise! The jelly moistens it up.
• Not a grape jelly fan? Use whatever flavor you like. I prefer raspberry.

Magic Cookie Bars (AKA "Coconut Chocolate Bars")

From Eagle

• The Eagle Company is smart to create a recipe which requires 14 ounces of sweetened condensed milk. Know why? Because Eagle is the only company that makes 14 ounce cans of sweetened condensed milk. The other brands at the supermarket came in 12 ounce cans. Would the cookies have missed those extra 2 ounces? I didn't want to take that risk. Eagle don't play.
• It's way cheaper to buy graham crackers than graham cracker crumbs. Besides, crushing graham crackers by hand is a great way to release pent up aggression. Not that I have any.
• I do not recall Mom including nuts in her bars, but I used chopped almonds and thought they were a nice addition.

Those are the only two recipes I attempted. They are both incredibly easy to make, incredibly hard to screw up, and incredibly delicious. No pictures, because I eated them (I shared!). 

Other cookies recalled from (mostly my brother's) memory include:

• "Spiral cookies with sugary glaze"
• "Something with saltines, chocolate, or caramel, or maybe both"
• "Cornflakes covered in chocolate"
• "Chocolate balls (heh)"

I'll give myself more time and try more recipes next year.  Maybe someday I'll make them with my kid.

If you remember additional cookies made by Mom, leave a comment and let me know! Even a vague description will probably jog my memory. Dad actually unearthed her recipes, so I will be making copies next time I visit.

A Very Reluctant Thanksgiving, Part 3: Dessert

The best part of Thanksgiving, other than stuffing, is dessert. I went a little crazy and made four desserts for three people. What can I say? Some people have a sweet tooth, I have a sweet mouth. Sorry, I can't think of any way to make that sound less dirty.

Apple Pie with Salted Caramel Sauce

Starbucks was kind enough to inspire this dish, thanks to their (sadly) seasonal salted caramel mocha lattes.

I scoured the interwebs for a proper recipe, settling on one from the Cooking Channel. However, upon reading it more closely, I got scared. Laziness and fear of failure got the best of me, so I made some changes.

1. I had never heard of a mandoline and didn't want to buy one. I gave up on the idea of thinly sliced apples and bought a corer instead.
2. Making caramel sounds stressful, with high risk of burning. I bought premade caramel sauce in the produce section. Near the apples. Coincidence?
3. I didn't pour the caramel sauce on the pie filling for fear of burning while it baked.
4. I don't make pie crust. That's what Pillsbury (or store brand) is for.

Basically, I made a regular old apple pie and poured caramel sauce on top. Tomato, tomahto.

If you're going the premade crust route, spend the extra 50 cents and buy Pillsbury. If you look hard enough, you can find online coupons to offset the difference. The store brand crusts were dry and a real bitch to unroll.  It made my pie ugly.

Look how ugly I am!

I nuked the caramel sauce in the microwave in 30 second intervals, adding a little sea salt in between until it tasted good, then poured over the pie. I'm not an ice cream-on-pie girl, but I bought vanilla for my dad and brother.

The pie is long gone, but I have a ton of caramel sauce left. What should I do with it? Does caramel go bad?

Chocolate Truffle Pie

Thanksgivings past traditionally included chocolate cream pie, which I love, but I wanted to try something new. This recipe was incredibly easy, and so rich and delicious. I just finished the last piece yesterday.

The only hiccup was beating the heavy cream into whipped cream. I had never done it before, so I'd set the mixer to a low speed for fear of "overbeating."  Is that even possible? After the longest 10 minutes of my life, I cranked that shit up to 11 and got my whipped cream.

After combining the melted chocolate with the whipped cream.

The finished product.  You'd better believe I licked the bowl.

And the beaters.

And the spoon.

Pumpkin-Caramel Cannolis

I have a love-hate relationship with pumpkin. I love pumpkin bread and pumpkin seeds. But I hate, and I mean hate, pumpkin pie. When I tell people this, they think I'm crazy. I try it every year, thinking... no, hoping... it will be the year. No dice.  

But what is Thanksgiving without pumpkin? Betty Crocker offers a nice compromise. My local supermarket is fantastic, but it was like pulling teeth to get the premade shells. They sell prepackaged cannoli cream in handy pastry bags, but no handy packages of shells. When I asked for the shells at the bakery, they looked at me like I had three heads. Then, they wanted to charge me per shell what they would charge for a whole cannoli. That's like $2 a shell, for 12 cannolis. No way was I paying that! Such an ordeal.

Anyway, cannolis. The cream was super easy to make and super easy to pipe into the shells, thanks to Mr. Ziplock Bag. Garnish with mini chocolate chips, toffee bits, or chopped pecans, and voila. So good. Pumpkiny without being too pumpkiny. I have tons of ingredients leftover, so I'll be making them again for an upcoming Christmas party. Hopefully it'll be easier to get the shells next time.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Follow the recipe on the back of the Nestle Toll House chocolate chips bag. Crazy, I know.

The best part?

I took care of most of the dessert prep the day before Thanksgiving! The only things I had to do the day of were fill the cannolis and warm up the apple pie/caramel sauce.

To the future!

As I will certainly be making these recipes again, I am going to try and make them a little healthier next time. I have a cute magnet from Chobani which lists ways to substitute plain Greek yogurt for butter, heavy cream, and other stuff. I'm sure there are plenty of other ways to cut down on calories. Post your favorite low-cal tricks in the comments!

A Very Reluctant Thanksgiving, Part 1

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday.  I have many fond memories of my grandmother and aunt serving up delicious food amid lively conversation with family and friends.  Over time, each Thanksgiving dinner grew smaller as my family members grew up, moved out, started families, or passed away.  Sad, but that's how life goes.

This Thanksgiving, I hosted my father and brother.  I have never hosted Thanksgiving by myself.  I still haven't, but this is the closest I've come.  

My dad was in charge of the turkey, and I took care of everything else.  I have newfound respect for my grandmother, aunt, and other Thanksgiving-hosts-of-the-past and the countless hours they spent preparing feasts to feed at least a dozen hungry adults and kids.  It took me an entire exhausting day to prepare for just three!

The Menu

Turkey

Stuffing

Sweet potato casserole

Roasted winter root vegetables

Cranberry sauce

Rolls

Chocolate truffle pie

Apple pie with salted caramel sauce

Pumpkin cannolis

Chocolate chip cookies

Did I mention there were three of us?  I think I over-prepared.  A lot.  But leftovers are the best part of Thanksgiving, right?  I believe it now, but since neither my dad nor brother took a lot of leftovers home with them, I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune in a few days.

Recipes and commentary coming soon!

St. Patrick's Day: Corned beef & veggie-o-rama

St. Patrick’s Day may mean green beer for some, but I’m all about the corned beef! I would eat it all year-round, and sometimes I do :P My dear husband has always prepared it for us, but I wanted to give it a try. I’ve been told it’s nearly impossible to screw up, so why not?

We wanted leftovers for the rest of the week, so I had to buy a cut big enough to last a few days. I settled on a 4-pounder. I also bought little red and gold potatoes, carrots and cabbage.

Supermarket shenanigans were still in full effect. I was able to find everything I needed this time, but the checkout area was completely different. A red velvet rope separated the customers from the registers, guarded by an employee who *ushered* me to a cashier’s lane. What? Thankfully, the weirdness got canceled out by the fact that everyone who works there was so gosh darn nice. I just moved here from Long Island, I'm not used to friendly people!

How to prepared corned beef and vegetables
(according to package)

1. Trim fat from corned beef.
   You’re kidding, right? Corned beef by nature is half fat. I hacked off the obvious hunks until I had a baseball-sized pile of fat. That grossed me out enough to stop.
   

   
   

2. Place corned beef in large pot and cover with water. Add spice packet and bring to a boil.
   Ever wonder what’s in those spice packets? Check out the ingredients if you’re curious.
   

3. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 2 hours.
   
   
   
4. Add carrots and potatoes, cook for 10 minutes.
   
   
   
5. Add cabbage, cook for 20 minutes.
   
   
   
6. Drain, cut and serve!
   
   Those are my husband’s hands, by the way. Just in case you thought I had man hands.
   
   

   

The meat was delicious! It practically melted in my mouth. The carrots and potatoes were the perfect consistency. Cooked, but not soggy. The cabbage could have cooked longer; some pieces were almost raw. Next time, I’ll buy less vegetables. I still have half a bag each of the potatoes, and one head of cabbage was just way too much.

I bought these two humongous whoopie pies for dessert. Fun fact: Whoopie pies are also known as BFOs, or Big Fat Oreos. I of course automatically assumed the F stood for something else. Whoopie pies are basically two soft chocolate cookies with a creamy filling. This particular filling was cake frosting, and it was waaaaay too sweet for me.