Microwave Peanut Butter and Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats

So I sometimes just really get into the mood for rice krispie treats, but of course... the SO doesn't love them, so I have to make a smaller batch, so I thought... why not a microwave recipe? After searching around I found one I sorta liked, and of course I altered it. So here's my new and improved recipe

Makes 8-10 (depending on how big you cut them)
1 tablespoon peanut butter

• 1 tablespoon butter10 large marshmallows (or 1 cup mini-marshmallows)1 1/2 cups Rice Krispies
  1/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. 1
   In a large microwave safe bowl, heat butter, peanut butter, and marshmallows at HIGH for 2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute. Stir until smooth.
2. 2
   Add Rice Krispies cereal. Stir until coated.
3. 3
   Press mixture into 9X5 loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Drizzle melted chocolate chips over the top. Refrigerate and cut into squares when cool.
   
   
   
   
   

S'more Brownies

Say what?! Brownies... with chocolate on top... on graham cracker crumbs... and marshmallows?!
Well... I don't like marshmallows (notice the upper left hand corner of the picture? That's my piece).
My favorite part of this is its super quick and easy.

So the Seattle-Tacoma area is completely covered in frozen snow, sounds redundant but the freezing rain that came after the 4 inches of snow... its insane out there. So my brothers house is out of power so him and his girlfriend are staying here until power is restored. ANYWAY, enough with the family stories, his review was "I could eat this for the rest of my life." Basically the same reviews all around.

Get to the point!

Okay so here's the recipe:

1 box of brownie mix with required ingredients

1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows (I cut big ones into quarters)

6 whole graham crackers (I used 1/2 cup crumbs)

1 cup chocolate chips

Make up brownie batter according to the directions on the box. Bake for 20 minutes. Take out of the oven and sprinkle with graham cracker pieces, mini marshmallows, and chocolate chips. Bake for approximately 10 more minutes. (The marshmallows brown quickly, if they brown too much then tent with foil). A toothpick should come out clean when inserted. Cool completely before cutting.

Bread Machine / Apple Cider

So the saddest thing happened on Friday... The belt on my bread machine is shredded and the company doesn't make them anymore so... Going to have to get a new one, but thats not going to happen for awhile so doing it by hand for awhile. Ugh.

In other news, I made homemade apple cider yesterday, and it is Delicious. I used granny smiths that were getting pretty soft. Here is the recipe:

• 8 -10 apples (I used 12 small granny smiths)
• 1/2-1 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons cinnamon (or 4 cinnamon sticks)
• 4 tablespoons allspice

Directions:

     Quarter your apples (no need to remove peel or seeds). In a large stock pot add your apples and fill with water--just enough to cover the apples. Add your sugar. Wrap your cinnamon and allspice in a doubled up cheese cloth and tie, and add this to the apples and water. 

     Boil on high for one hour (uncovered) checking on it frequently. Turn down heat and let simmer for two hours (covered). Take off the heat after two hours of simmering and let cool. Remove spices and mash up the apples to a pulp like consistency (a potato masher works well for this). 

     Once cool pour into a strainer over a large bowl. (At this point you can either restrain the juice to get out the little bits of pulp that remain with a cheesecloth draped inside the strainer to catch them or just leave it like I do). You can store in an air tight container in your refrigerator for up to a week or you can freeze it for later use if you like.

And in even more news... still can't get my chocolate chip cookie right. Kinda frustrating, I just want a cookie... and idk how many more cookies I can't get Donnie to eat... he's going to explode at some point. lol

Bread Machine Garlic Parmesan Dinner Rolls

So in my house.. everything is better with garlic and parmesan. So I adapted this recipe by adding about 1 1/2 tbls granulated garlic, and about 2 tbls parmesan cheese. Definetly do the melted butter on the top at the end. I also usually only get 12 regular sized rolls out of this recipe, but nine makes them man-sized. BEST rolls I have ever made. They are so light and fluffy, and require so little hands-on time that I can make these even with the baby home.

Christmas Care Packages

So with my grandma now being mostly blind and confined in a wheel chair, I have officially taken over all the baking... EEKS.  So for the care packages we are looking at about 20 different items to put in them, thankfully some are truffles and fudge so they are easily frozen and can be made ahead of time. Yay! Only problem is I won't be getting most of the other ingredients until the 8th or 9th, so it will be an interesting week, because I am pretty sure I am supposed to have it all done by the next weekend.... hmm. Well they get what they get I suppose.

Anyway so far made:
Gingerbread Truffles
Trash Piles
Banana Chocolate truffles
and I had basic brownie truffles... but they all disappeared... hmm wonder where they went. lol

And I am currently on the search for my perfect chocolate chip cookie, and its not going so great. But I just got a scale, so hopefully that means that when I do find it, that it will be easy to replicate.

Apple Sugar cookies with caramel Frosting

 So I really really wanted some caramel apple cookies but... I had no caramel. And it was late and I didn't want to start from scratch so I started with a sugar cookie mix, added about 1 cup peeled chopped apples, 1-2 tsp cinnamon and cooked according to the package.

• Frosting
• 3/4  cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/4  cup margarine or butter, softened
• 1 1/4  cups powdered sugar
• 1/2  teaspoon vanilla
• 1  to 3 tablespoons milk

In small saucepan, combine 3/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup margarine. Cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved, stirring constantly. Cool slightly. Stir in powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and enough milk for desired spreading consistency.* Frost cooled cookies.

My frosting dried kind of hard, not super great, I really should have added another tablespoon of milk. 

Sorry about the break

I moved back to Washington, had to live at my moms for a bit but now we are back in action! Living in our own apartment, still no internet for probably a couple months but... that's alright. Just doing the wi-fi hotspot thing with my phone.

Back on Topic

So right now I am in the process of testing out Cookie recipes to go in my grandmothers Christmas cookie care packages. Usually I make like 10 kinds of cookies, mostly from mixes, but I am trying to do it a little different this year, like... maybe from scratch? Anyway this means lots of cookie testing in the next few weeks. Eeks.

Starting off this week I made some Raspberry White Chocolate cookies. My brother came over and ate one...two... and took five in a tupperware. Then Donnie came home from work... and complained when I told him to leave two for my mom and grandma to taste test this weekend. So I guess these were a hit? lol.

Recipe:

18 cookies

1 pkg. "JIFFY" Raspberry Muffin Mix
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. margarine or butter, melted
1/4 c. Brown Sugar

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease baking sheet.

Blend all ingredients well. Drop by teaspoon on prepared baking sheet. Bake 10-13 minutes. Remove from baking sheet after 1 minute.

Please ignore the apples in the corner, those are for the next cookies! 

Also I got this idea from http://buddingbaketress.blogspot.com/2011/10/white-chocolate-raspberry-cheesecake.html