Winners and Crack Recipes

Who knew that Rice Krispy treats were so popular? For inquiring minds like JD, I make mine on the stove top. I've never tried the microwave, although I am intrigued. For those of you who have never made them, they are incredibly easy. In fact, I have been known to make them in the morning at 7:00 while I was packing Ross' lunch when I realized that I needed something for his lunch.

Here's my TOP SECRET recipe, or not so secret. I got it off the side of a Rice Krispy box. This is how pathetic my recipe organization is: I literally tore it off the box and used to pull out the box piece when I made them. Now I have it memorized.

Crack Bars
1/4 cup of butter
4 cups of miniature marshmallows
5 cups of Rice Krispies or Cocoa Crispies

Melt butter, add marshmallows until melted. Add crispies-- stir. Pour into greased 9x13 pan and pat with spoon. I also take a piece of wax paper and pat it down to make it more even. You can either leave at room temperature to cool or place in the freezer or fridge for a fast cool down. Cut into squares (you pick the size, sometimes mine get kind of large: see below) and enjoy! Before I discovered the Cocoa Crispy idea, I sometimes would add chocolate chips or M&M's after I added the cereal.

Those of you who told me that you had never made these before, make a batch and report back to me. Let me know how easy it actually was!

On to a winner. But wait, I'm feeling really generous so how about TWO winners?

***********************************************

Here are your random numbers:

16
35

Timestamp: 2009-02-20 04:16:05 UTC

***********************************************

Commenter #16 :
Kim from Hannah's Family Fun
Kim says she'll use her new mug to drink a cup of tea.

And Commenter #35 :
April at Party of Seven*
April has been sick with a nasty case of bronchitis so a cup of tea will come in handy.


Congrats!!! I have more mugs and honestly I was kind of surprised I had that many people want one, so I'll definitely be doing this again!



*For those who might go back and count, April is commenter #36 however, Brandy commented twice so I threw her second comment out of the counting. Clear as mud?

Everything In Moderation, Including Giveaways

My Chocolate Rice Krispy treats are quite the hit but for The Purists in the family I made plain Rice Krispy treats.

This is the pan.

After lunch today, this was the chocolate pan. That won't do! What about my poor little children's lunches? So I made a whole new pan. And of course, I had to try some out. To make sure they tasted all right for my poor little children.

By this time, it was the babies nap time and all most time for Ross to come home from school. Practically the minute he walks in, I have the DVR queued up so we can watch an episode of House together. We often drink tea together while we watch. Perfect beverage to go with a Chocolate Rice Krispy treat.

I could use this cup but I save it strictly for my homemade non-fat, no whip mochas.

Ah, there we go. A cup of Tazo Passion tea. But wait... what is on the side of that mug?

Well, how did that get there??? Yes, I had some mugs made with my blog logo.

So Ross is home and I have my tea. I also have my Chocolate Rice Krispy treat. I've decided that all I really need is a little moderation, to set some limits so I don't go crazy eating those crack bars.

So I decided I could only have one this afternoon while I watched House.

I said I could only have one, but I never told myself how big it could be.

Okay, now that I'm all sugared up and bloated, I've decided to share with my readers. Not my Chocolate Rice Krispy treats! Go make your own! No, I'm going to give away one of my new mugs along with several tea bags of my favorite teas. All you have to do is leave me a comment telling me that you need a door stop, spare coin holder, or any other use you can come up with for one of my mugs. I'll take comments until 10:00 Thursday night CST.

****************************************

Check out my review of Skin MD Natural shielding lotion at my review blog Denise's Reviews.

Addictions

A funny thing happened writing my blog-- I've discovered that it's like therapy, but even better, it's free. As one would hope with any good therapy session, I've learned a few things about myself. One of these discoveries is that I have an addictive personality. The bad news is that as I've discovered these truths about myself, so has everyone else.

The big question is: what do I do with this new found knowledge? (Knowledge is power, yada, yada, yada.) I'd ask my therapist but apparently it's Blogger Dashboard, and I don't think it's answering. That's what you get for free. Of course, if it is answering, it's time to get a new therapist.

My children take their lunch to school and while I don't like to send a lot of sweets in their lunch, one thing I will send is Rice Krispie treats. If you know nothing else about me know that I love Starbucks, am addicted to Diet Coke, have to watch Lost within 12 hours of its airing, love cheesecake am a Chocoholic. So to me plain Rice Krispie treats are a total waste of calories. There's no chocolate. To remedy this, I often throw in chocolate chips. This divides my children into two camps. The Purists feel that adding chocolate chips to Rice Krispie treats is like defacing the Statue of Liberty. The Chocolatays (sorry, my inner Dora the Explorer is bustin' out) think that a chocolate accessory is just what Lady Liberty needs.

Okay, I can hear you! You're saying What is your point? Obviously, reading my blog is your therapy and you have just learned you are impatient. Congratulations! Too bad Blogger Dashboard can't help you either. In case you haven't heard, it doesn't have a real therapy degree.

After our Winter Break Weekend, it was back to school for Ross and I had nothing to put in his lunch for dessert. This morning the babies, Jenna and I went to the store to get groceries and Rice Krispies were on my list. As we got to the cereal aisle, I checked out the mega size bags of generic cereal because I'm trying to be more frugal. That's okay, I'll wait until you stop laughing. Better now? Let's continue. They didn't have generic Rice Krispies but they did have generic Cocoa Crispies.

It was then that the heavens parted and the angels sang "Ahhhhhhh....." They haven't done that since I got my Starbucks Gold Card. That had to mean something.

So the rusty wheels began turning and churning in my head and I thought "Hmm... I could use Cocoa Crispies instead of Rice Krispies...." And so began the birth of my newest addiction, right there at the Super Target cereal aisle. Is no place sacred anymore?

We checked out and paid for our purchases, all while wrestling Emma. Ever wonder who's taking Steve Erwin's place as the Crocodile Hunter? Yeah, I could do it. I've got plenty of practice now. I don't want to, but I could. Just sayin'.

Every so often it's good to assess one's life skills.

Emma was a nightmare at the end of our shopping excursion. Between the chasing her down aisles, the listening to her scream when she couldn't get out of the cart and the previously mentioned wrestling at the checkout lane, I was a bit battle scarred when we got home. As I unpacked the groceries with Emma crying at my feet and Ryan whining over some unknown atrocity, I pulled out the mega size bag of generic Cocoa Crispies.

The heaven's parted and the angels sang. Again. That is so cool when they do that.

So it was while I was pondering about how early was too early to start drinking, that the generic Cocoa Crispies made their grand reappearance and my mind was made up. I was making a batch of generic Cocoa Crispy marshmallow treats right NOW!

{Yes, it is important to include the word generic before the words Cocoa Crispies. I can not stress my frugalness enough.}

As the butter melted into liquid gold, I continued to unpack the groceries. I was putting grocery items away as I added the marshmallows and watched as they melted into a white, fluffy goo. Then finally, the chocolate rice puffs were added, stirred and then gently, lovingly patted into a 9x13" glass pan.

Chocolate Rice Krispie treats, as I prefer to call them, are exactly like heroin. One bite and your as good as gone. Of course, I have no previous experience with heroin, that's just what I've heard on the street. But I can confirm that Chocolate Rice Krispie treats are extremely addictive. Trust me on this.

Now, it's obvious that I'm not the only person in this house. So the fact that the pan is 2/3rds empty, a mere 9 hours after the Chocolate Rice Krispie treats birth, cannot be completely attributed to me. However, as honest as I usually am here, I am pleading the fifth as to how much I have eaten.

But before you leave me, let me give you a stock tip, a legal one, in this time of economic woe. Now would be a really good time to buy stock in Lane Bryant.