Rice Crispy Bars for July 4
I’m going to an out-of-town birthday party for the day, but before I leave, I just wanted to let you know that I’m making a few things for July 4th posts in red, white, and blue. Here is one and I’ll write more when I get back home this afternoon/evening. 
Have a good day!
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Ok, back from the birthday party.
Speaking of the birthday party…
Yeah, Katrina, I did use the USA shape last year. It was with finger jello, pictured here and here, and recipe featured here. This year is rice crispy bars. I’m going to try to use it for something different every year. My options are a bit limited because it is plastic, so I can’t bake anything in it. I may end up asking for ideas one of these years.
To make the rice crispy bars, I greased the mold and lightly pressed the rice crispy mixture in, then turned it out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Then, I took a bag of mini M&Ms and picked out the blue and red and filled the states with them, then put the rice crispy shape back in and pressed it down harder so the M&Ms would stick, then turned it out onto the serving plate.
So, now I have a bunch of little M&Ms left without red and blue. I just might make these Peanut Butter Dream Bars with them. 
Everytime I think of mini M&Ms, I always think of these bars… kinda like every time you think of 4th of July, you think of fireworks.
I had some rice crispy mixture left over, so I flattened it out, then melted vanilla chips and colored half of it red and half of it blue and drizzled it over the rest of the bars. I forgot to take a picture of that part, but you can see a few of the squares at the bottom of this picture:
I’m going to make something else red, white, and blue tomorrow, so check back!
Easter snack - Cooks in Training #6
Ideally, I’d plan ahead and make Easter food to feature BEFORE Easter, huh? Well, sigh, that didn’t really happen this time.
I forget where I saw these little rolls… it was online last year sometime. The reason these are called an Easter snack is because they’re meant to symbolize the empty tomb. It’s pretty neat how it works. You wrap a marshmallow inside a crescent roll and while it bakes, the marshmallow melts and lines the inside of the crescent roll, leaving it empty inside!
I don’t have an actual recipe, but my little cooks will show you how it’s done…
Unroll refrigerated crescent rolls and separate into triangles. Butter the trianges.
Put a marshmallow on each crescent roll and sprinkle with cinnamon.
Fold the dough over and around till the marshmallow is all enclosed. Pinch seams to seal.
Bake at 375 for 12 minutes. And this is how they look! A couple of them were open, not sure if it was supposed to be like that or if the seams weren’t pinched shut well enough.
I hope you all had a happy Easter. We did. It started with an outdoor sunrise service at church. It was a perfect Easter morning… clear skies and a beautiful sunrise. The coffee, hot chocolate, donuts, and campfires were a nice addition too.
He is risen! Hallelujah!
Valentine Cookies for Grandma - Cooks in Training #5
Lexi (6) was all into Valentines all week. So often I heard “Hey, we should try making that into a heart shape because, you know, it IS Valentines!” And setting foot inside a store created alot of inhales and exclaiming from her (the V-tine displays were always right inside the door). And she has a stack of Valentines ready to go with her to church tomorrow for her little friends.
We had a bit of fun earlier this week. We took regular cookie recipes and made Valentine cookies out of them. We used the Smiling Sugar Cookie recipe featured here, only they cut heart shapes out of rolled out dough instead of forming balls and putting popsicle sticks in them. We also used my good ol’ chocolate chip cookie recipe (which I don’t think I ever featured) and left the chocolate chips out, then they put chocolate decor on top of the cookies.
First up is the sugar cookies…
And then the chocolate chip cookies, with a bit of variation…
First, I melted chocolate and spread it out to harden, then they cut hearts out of it for on top of some of the cookies.
Then, they cut the rest of the cookies into heart shapes and decorated them with melted chocolate…
Now the cookies are all ready. We separated them out, one batch for each Grandma. Lexi scrapbooked cards for each one and we packed them in a box and UPSed them.
P.S. I did help some with these cookies so the process wouldn’t drag on and on.
And now, we wish you a Happy Valentines Day, with our Valentines gifts from Husband/Dad.
How to Make Chocolate Roses
Valentines Day… Chocolate. Roses. What a perfect time to merge the two and make Chocolate Roses! Actually, it isn’t just a Valentines treat, it’s timeless decor for any table or dessert year-round.
I’ve been wanting to try these for awhile. But they always looked so complicated. But they still intrigued me. So, I finally made some…
This is all you do:
Take about 2/3 cup of chocolate chips and melt them. Add about 3 Tbsp. light corn syrup.
Stir until mixture starts pulling away from the sides of the bowl and starts balling up. It’ll be kinda like taffy. Dump it out onto a piece of plastic wrap and flatten. Cover with more plasic wrap and refrigerate for a half hour or so.
Get it out and pull a chunk off, about a tsp., and roll it around with your fingers till it’s a smooth ball, then flatten it into a petal. Make 6 -10 petals, depending on how big you want your rose.
Take one of the petals and roll it up loosely. Use your finger to bend the top back just slightly.
Take the next petal and start it just behind where the first petal ended.
Continue like that until all the petals are used up, bending the tops back slightly as you go. When your rose is done, cut off the stem (which will have gotten quite chunky) so the rose can sit flat. Or, go ahead and try making it thin and having a long-stemmed rose! I might try that next time.
I tried a rosebud by using only 2 petals. After making 2 roses and 1 rosebud and the leaves, I had some chocolate left yet, so I just made a heart with it. So, what you see on this plate is how much 2/3 cup chocolate chips makes.
Now what I need is a nice dessert to put them on. But, I don’t have one, so I’m just gonna keep them in the freezer and whip ‘em out sometime when I need some quick dessert decor!
So, what do you think? You gonna try them?
Some Valentines Day ideas…
Ok, enough of the chili soup and fry bread! And it IS warming up outside too! Yesterday felt like Spring! Yay!
We’ll have a Valentines ‘Cooks in Training’ post later this week with a couple Valentine ideas that Lexi and Tiffany are working on (and that I’m being the damage control person on) and another Valentines post or two, but for now, I’ll just pull up some ideas from previous posts from other years.
Conversation hearts (featured here) out of angel food cake and glaze and frosting…
My family has an annual Valentines supper… Mom started making heart-shaped food for Valentines supper fun when we were little kids and she faithfully did it every year, then when we got older, we got more involved and now it’s become a tradition. Over the last few years, the menu has changed every year, but this year is planning to be the Valentines meal menu we grew up with, complete with little heart shapes of bologna in the lettuce salad. :)
Here are samples of the last couple years:
… and the links to the posts (2007) (2008)
Simple easy decor… a little basket, a napkin, and candy.
Lasagna
Cheesecakes to share. They’re about 4″ wide. We put them on the table right away and used them as place markers.
Decorate the kids.
Heart-shaped pizzas staying warm by the fire till serving time.
Fruit pizza. Yum, this picture makes me hungry for some. This recipe is actually featured here.
Any Valentine decor or food ideas from you? We’d love to hear them! ;)
About Me
Hi! Welcome to my kitchen! My name is Kay. I'm from central Ohio. I love cooking and baking. Especially baking. It's thereapeudic for me. I'm not a professional or gourmet cook by any means. I'm a Christian homemaker who happens to take pictures of some of the food I make. I have 2 little 'helpers'... Lexi (7) and Tiffany (3), who are young cooks in training. I don't do anything on the grill... that's where my husband Shannon comes in! He grills quite a bit, especially in the summer. So, sit back and enjoy browsing thro' the recipes. If you try some of them, I'd love to hear feedback on how you liked them! If you want to contact me, my email address is kaylouann@gmail.com
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