O’Henry Bars
Posted on December 16, 2010
Every year, there are some cookies/candy that are a MUST, but I also like to find a couple of new recipes too. This is one of them. A few weeks ago, I was trying to catch up on my way-behind Google Reader (I won’t tell you how many unread items there are because Shannon gives me a hard enough time about it, I don’t need you all to, too 
… I know he’s right when he says, “You oughta just mark them all ‘Read’ and start over!” but instead I say, “No! What if there’s a post or two in there that I FOR SURE don’t want to miss?!”) and anyway, I clicked on The Cutting Edge of Ordinary and Lisa had just posted these bars. I knew right then and there that they had to be on my new-things-to-try-this-Christmas list. And they didn’t disappoint me. They are just as good as they sound and look! And a few people that I gave some to let me know they were a hit at their house, too.
O’Henry Bars
1 cup Karo syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanuts (unsalted, do not chop) I didn’t notice this before I got ingredients and I bought salted peanuts, oops, but they turned out great anyway!
1 cup peanut butter
3 cups rice krispies
12 oz package chocolate chips
12 oz package butterscotch chips
Stir together the syrup and the sugar. Microwave for 2 minutes. Add the peanuts and the peanut butter to the Karo mixture. Microwave again for 1 minute.
Add 3 cups of rice krispies.
Spread into a greased 9×13 pan.
I pressed them into the pan with a buttered plastic bag.
Combine the chips in a bowl and microwave for 2 minutes. Stir until smooth. Spread over the rice krispie mixture and cool in the fridge. Cut into 1 inch squares to serve.
I should’ve taken a picture of them cut in the pan, but I think I cut them 6 across the short way and 10 the long way, so 60 little bars. What they lacked in size, they made up for in taste. 
I think I might make some more of these and try something different… make the bottom part and cool it til it’s firm enough to handle, then shaped them into little logs, chill them, then melt the chips and dip them. Maybe twice. The end result would be like a fun size candy bar!
Filed Under Candy | 3 Comments
Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies
Posted on December 15, 2010
I was trying to picture a festive cookie plate to take to the cookie exchange. For awhile, I was waffling between White Chocolate Craisin Cookies and these. I ended up with these. I kinda got hung up on the white chocolate in the others, wondering if I wanted to ‘waste’ a couple batches of cookies on white chocolate… Shannon, maybe you should try them. (Side note: This might be confusing to some of you because I have 2 Shannons in my life (my husband and one of my friends), both of which I refer to on here hit n miss, but if you know there are 2, you can usually tell which one I mean by the context. ;)) Back to these craisin cookies, I am planning to make a batch, and add the chocolate last, dividing the dough in half and adding white to one half and milk choc to the other.
Wow, I just spent a whole paragraph writing about something that has nothing to do with what this post is about. Good grief.
First, before the recipes, I’ll give amounts: I used 5 cake mixes, which made 9 1/2 dozen filled cookies, so I actually baked 19 dozen individual cookies. Me and baking 19 dozen cookies goes great together, I loved it… if it wouldn’t make me gain 100 pounds, I’d bake every day. On the other hand, Megan (my 6-month old) and baking 19 dozen cookies does NOT go great together. Let’s just say her naptime was blissful. Although, she thought it was bliss sitting back in a corner up on the counter playing with everything within reach (except toys). It’s amazing how far a 6-month-old can reach, I found out! Anyway, I made the frosting recipe 3 times and had about 1 cup left over. So, I’ll break this down for you to save you having to get out the calculator… 2 cake mixes would make approx 46 finished cookies (mine were anywhere from 2″ - 2 1/2″ across) and one batch of frosting would do approx 38 cookies… could become one of those deals where you make more frosting to use up the rest of the cookies, then you have too much, so you make more cookies to use up the rest of the frosting, then you have cookies left, so you make more frosting…… and so on.
Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies
1 red velvet cake mix
2/3 cup shortening
2 eggs
Mix. Shape into balls.
Bake at 375 for 7 minutes.
Meanwhile, this was going on…
Marshmallow Creme Filling
2 sticks (1 cup) butter
1 7oz. jar marshmallow creme
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Beat til creamy. Spread it on however you want, but I put it in a bag and piped it on. Easy and less mess!
Put another cookie on top and you’ve got yourself a yummy little red velvet sandwich cookie!
You know, I was just thinking, we could do all sorts of stuff with this because there are all sorts of cake mixes out there… use a white cake mix and put in green food coloring and have green sandwich cookies, make any kind of cake mix cookies and tint the frosting red or green, roll the assembled cookie in crushed red & white candy canes so it sticks to the frosting, dip half of a red velvet sandwich cookie in chocolate, mix up a white cake mix and a red velvet one and then fold them together til it’s red & white swirled… any other ideas?
Filed Under Cookies and bars, Holiday cooking | 6 Comments
Christmas Cookie Exchange 2010
Posted on December 14, 2010
It’s that time of year when I need to unlock my extra reservoir of willpower. Here is what’s sitting on my table RIGHT NOW…
Seriously, the table these are on is 5′ away. I could stand up, take 3 steps, reach out and grab a handful. Or 2 handfuls (I have 2 hands). They are even all still uncovered from taking the picture. Thing is, I’m not even tempted. Nope. Huh-uh. Not me. Not at all.
I’m not even sure what they’re all called, so I’ll just make up a name for them if I don’t know. Oh, and hey, I’m really curious. What’s your favorite of all those cookies? If they were, say, sitting on a table 5′ away from you and you could only pick one, which one would you pick?
First, we have Monster Cookies made by Carla. Monster cookies are my all-time favorite… I’d better hide them, the others would never know.
Next is Thumbprint Jam Cookies made by Julie. So pretty.
Here are Christmas Cutouts and Candy Cane Cookies made by Janae. Way too cute.
Then, we have Peanut Butter Cookies Dipped in Chocolate made by Linda. These call to me almost as loud as the monster cookies.
Next is Snickerdoodles made by Deb. Shannon will claim this plate.
Here are Cream Wafers made by Renita. So beautifully Christmas-y.
Next is Chocolate Crinkles made by Mary. Ohhhhh, yum!
There are 2 plates left, one cookies and one candy. I made those. Here are Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies.
And this plate is Chocolate-covered Tree-shaped Pretzels, Chocolate-covered Ritz crackers filled with Peanut Butter, and O’Henry bars. The O’Henry bars recipe came from Lisa @ The Cutting Edge of Ordinary. Thanks, Lisa! They are awesome!!!
Oh, and I need to point out my candle and snowflake holder… don’t you just love it? Julie (the one up there who made the jam cookies) gave it to me for my birthday this year. I LOVE it!
Ok, now I know I haven’t been posting on here very much and I don’t want anybody to faint, but I have some recipes to get in before Christmas, so I’m going to post one about every day for awhile. *thud* You fainted, didn’t you?! Here are the planned upcoming posts, not necessarily in this order:
– Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies
– O’Henry bars (I know, you can get the recipe on Lisa’s site, but I want it on mine, too )
– Teacup Chocolates (excited about this one, this one happened only in my head so far, so hopefully they’ll turn out!… I’m making them Thurs for another cookie/candy exchange on Friday)
– Chocolate-covered Ritz Filled with Peanut Butter (I know, you know how to do that already, just by the title, but I want to show you a trick that made the process faster and funner… more fun, whatever)
– Lexi’s 8th birthday cake (it was a snicker bar with a fondant wrapper)
Don’t forget to humor me with what kind of cookie up there you’d like best!
Filed Under Cookies and bars, Holiday cooking | 23 Comments
Turtle Sundae Dessert
Posted on October 29, 2010
Desserts should be:
… attractive
… easy to make
… made without dirtying alot of dishes/utensils/appliances
… able to tell what kind they are by looking at them
… quick to make
… yuuuuuuuuummy
Let’s see how this Turtle Sundae Dessert measures up. (you know where this is going, don’t you?)
Attractive. I’d say it passes, especially with those maraschino cherries on dollops of whipped topping. And drizzled caramel and chocolate are always a nice touch too.
Easy to make. Yep. No recipe needed. And there’s no mixing, baking, cooling, flipping upside down, or rolling out. Just scoop ice cream into a cake pan, drizzle with caramel and chocolate ice cream toppings, sprinkle with pecans, dollop Cool Whip here and there, and put a cherry on top of each Cool Whip. Skill level for this would be about 2 on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is what your 4-yr-old could do and 10 is like Grandma baking brown sugar pies.
Made without dirtying alot of dishes. I used 1 ice cream scoop, a couple of small spoons, and 1 cake pan. Not bad.
Able to tell what kind it is by looking at it. Definitely a 100% score on this one. Not only can you tell what kind it is, you can actually SEE all the ingredients! If you wonder why it’s good to know what kind a dessert is before digging in because, you know, ”all desserts are good”, ask my husband about that one. *ahem* one word: rhubarb. :)
Quick to make. I made this in 15 minutes flat. Actually, I didn’t time it, but it really doesn’t take long to scoop, drizzle, sprinkle, and dollop because nothing is meticulous here, although you could get fancy with the Cool Whip and pipe it on with a flower tip.
Yuuuuuuuummy. This is, of course, a matter of opinion, but it passes with flying colors in my book. You know what, though, I think next time, I’ll bake brownies in the pan and THEN put this turtle combo on top. Extra yummy and that would also make it more of a complete dessert, too.
One more good point and then one bad point about this:
Good point: This is a great way to make turtle sundaes for a crowd, like if you don’t have enough fancy little pedestal dessert cups for everyone. It would be perfect to whip out of the freezer while you’re clearing away the main course. Another reason it would be great for a crowd is because if it’s individual servings, ‘Sally’ might force the last of hers down while ‘Joe’ is wishing for another one. This way, they can take however much they want.
Bad point: While this works great for a crowd at your house, it doesn’t works for all crowds. I took this exact dessert pictured here to a carry-in/potluck/whatever you call it. Well, at that type of meal, the people in charge of food set ALL the food out and people file through the line filling their plates. So, it was sitting out there for quite awhile and pure ice cream with nothing else mixed in does not take long at all to melt! Let’s just say Lesson learned. When I went thro the line, about 3/4ths of the people had already gone through and there was a bottom-cover of melted ice cream and about 5 or 6 very very soft scoops swimming in it. From now on, I’ll just make this for occasions when the dessert can be gotten out when it’s time for dessert to be served.
And yeah, I want to try it with the brownies underneath too.
Filed Under Desserts | 4 Comments
Introducing… Our Newest Little Cupcake
Posted on August 19, 2010
Her name is:
She’s not sugar-free… she’s full and overflowing with sweetness.
Here she is…
She’s a bundle of pudge and coos and smiles and wiggles… well, ok, and some crying and blowouts too.
Lexi & Tiffany adore her. Here they are when she was brand new…
And here they are just recently…
Megan’s middle name is Lydia. Megan Lydia. One reason we wanted to use it is for a namesake of a dear grandmother… Shannon’s grandma’s name was Lydia. Another reason we wanted to use it is because on the day we found out that we were expecting Megan, we also got the news of Grandma passing away. It was a life and a death notice all in one day. Bittersweet.
Speaking of Grandma Lydia, the ABC blanket under these cupcakes was hand-quilted by her for Lexi (who is now 7). Someday, I’ll probably have trouble deciding whether to pass it on to Lexi who it was made for or Megan who is her namesake.
Sleeping… she goes 5-hour stretches at night and a few times has slept ALL night! Not bad for 2 1/2 months! I’m quite proud of her!
I wish somehow I could put a cyber-squish on here so you could hold her for a minute, especially for my mom who lives miles away and hasn’t gotten to cuddle her for awhile.
She weighed 7 lbs 12 oz at birth and tipped the scales to 13 1/2 lbs at her 2-month check-up… no wonder she grew out of some of those adorable little clothes before I got to wear them on her enough!
And that’s our Little Cupcake. A Little Cupcake that is to blame for my blog suffering over the last year. A Little Cupcake that’s pretty much the boss around here, but we’re fine with that because we think she’s the darlingest thing around.
Speaking of cupcakes, here are the real ones up close… decorated with fondant and frosting. My little Cooks in Training helped make the stuff on top. We sat down and had what Lexi called a “girl’s meeting” to discuss what to put on top of the 12 cupcakes and the name and these 7 things is what we came up with. As we were making the things, Tiffany (4) kept calling the fondant Play-doh. And when she wasn’t calling the fondant Play-doh, she was asking if she could eat some more frosting.
Hopefully, you can tell what they all are, but just in case you can’t, they are: a bib, a blanket, a bottle, baby feet, baby face with a pacifier, rattle, and baby blocks.
Filed Under Birthday cakes, Tidbits | 19 Comments
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 therapeutic 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 (9) and Tiffany (5), who are young cooks in training. And I should mention Megan (born in June 2010), altho' she's not in training yet. She's more in charge of inside-the-cupboards demolition when she's in the kitchen. 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 kay@kitchenscrapbook.com