Crunch Bars...

In a quest for some organization in the kitchen I have spent the last 2 weeks compiling all of the loose recipes I have floating around. It has been a real task considering I have been saving months worth of magazines that had recipes in them that I thought sounded good. I finally went through most of them and pulled out the pages and put them all together in one notebook. It has been so nice to open my cookbook cabinet and not get hit in the head with flying pages!

I'm sure a lot of folks are more hi-tech and use their computers for this type of thing but I prefer having my recipe in hand and to not have to worry about spillage, as I am a very messy cook! With all of my new found organization I ran across an easy recipe that sounded yummy, and for once I actually happened to have all the ingredients in the pantry.

Here is the recipe and directions...

(had some free time and was bored so lots of photos, beware!)

Preheat over to 400F

35 Saltine crackers, spread on foil lined 15x10x1 pan

1 stick of butter, 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

(light or dark, or both whatever you have on hand)

Heat until butter is melted and mixture is blended on med-high heat. Bring to a boil; Boil 3 minutes without stirring.

Spread mixture over crackers, bake for 7 minutes.

Check on the kid, who was having a blast playing in her crib. She loves it when we put all of her stuffed toys in the crib with her, she bounces around on them, piles them up, hides in them and then the best part of all is when she tosses them all out and then calls for us put them all back in! Only to repeat several times, laughing alll the while .It's a very entertaining game for her!

After checking on the kid, chop 1 package Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate.

(lesson learned - use the food processor, much neater, duh!)

Immediately sprinkle with chopped chocolate; let stand 5 minutes.

1 cup Chopped Walnuts

Spread chocolate evenly over mixture.

Sprinkle with walnuts.

Cool Completely, then cut or break into pieces.

The recipe said it makes 16 servings but I think that their idea of a serving and my idea are two completely different things!

Chocolate Molten Goodness and a Random Rainy Day Playdate...

Due to being in a dinner meal plan rut, lately I have done some experimenting with new recipes. Poor hubby has been subjected to several bad meals! I have determined that maybe I should just stick with the same standard meals and just branch out on the desserts! Or at least not try several new dinners in the same week! That being said I was forced to try a new dessert recipe to make up for the bad dinners!

Say hello to my new friend Amazing Peanut Butter - Chocolate Molten Cake!

I know it doesn't look like much but it is decadent!

Once you crack open the top crust ....MMMMMmmmmm!

Topping it with a little Cool Whip didn't hurt either!

The little one agreed as she sampled some of daddy's!
It was super easy to make but a word of warning it is super rich and easy to overindulge!

A little piece goes a long way!

In other news, we woke up this morning to a gross rainy day out. After several nice days of being outside I knew it was going to be tough to entertain the little one inside. Fortunately a friend called in need of someone to watch her little one for the morning. I jumped at the chance because her little boy is such a sweetie but also Evelyn's birthday twin! Which makes him the perfect playmate since they are exactly the same age!

Here they are playing in the kitchen.

Talking on their phones, which made me laugh because they stood staring each other down while chatting on their individual phones! Too cute!

It was great to have a playmate for the morning to entertain the little one, it was a much needed distraction from an otherwise yucky day!

Hope you all are having great day!

The life of a dog...or at least ours anyway...

The little one trying her hardest to instigate some play.

This can be tough considering the dog is 14 years old and going deaf and blind.
Poor dog just yawns because she is ready for her morning siesta.

Play with me now the little one demands!

What about if I give you a hug? Then will you play with me?
Poor dog is exhausted from all of the activity, she's yawning again!



How about a big kiss?
The dog gives in, its hard not to take kisses from someone so cute!


Later I found the dog sitting alone with the ball.
Little one had given up but had evidently left the ball behind for the dog to play with.


Happy Sunday!

O R E O...

Once she discovered it was sweet, it was serious eating!

Telling me how yummy it is!

Mouth full of cookie!

This look I got when I told her they were all gone!

Oops!, A Baking Disaster...

Because the weather has turned bitterly cold, I thought a nice cake would brighten our day. I had intended to make the cake last night for dessert but got lazy and decided to make it this morning. I chose a yummy spice cake mix, thinking the smell would definitely add some warmth to the house. The smell was fabulous but the cake unfortunately did not work out as I had intended!
It was my hope to make a delicious spice cake with a cream cheese frosting. Fortunately I did not make the frosting ahead of time because the cake was not frostable! My fail safe Bundt cake pan murdered the cake!

It was totally stuck in pan! Argh!!!!

Instead of a lovely Bundt cake , I ended up with a mountain of broken pieces!!!

The cake itself is still totally yummy! You can see that my biggest critic had no trouble sampling it as evidenced by the crumb covered lips! But it is always a disappointment when baking does not go your way!

I'm not sure what happened.

I think that maybe my cake pan was telling me I should have made that fudge marble cake instead!!!

Oops! Better luck next time!