Rice Krispie Treats...a Childhood Favorite

It seems like these weeks are busier and busier. I'm not sure if I can say they actually go by faster, but I guess it seems that way since I am never bored. With taking 18 hours, I have had to get strategic with making homework fun, since it's all I ever seem to do. I now bake and have an excuse and call it homework. Yesterday I even went to Gloria's for happy hour and used it for my observational research project.

I wish I could say I was joking. My teacher told us to go somewhere and do observational research and gain some insights. Well, Gloria's ended up working out and I just HAD to have a strawberry margarita so I would fit in with everyone else and not look so suspicious as I wrote notes down about each table and what they were wearing and what they ordered. I even kept my super tacky sunglasses on (which I usually only wear in the car) so that I wouldn't look so creepy staring at people for so long. An hour was as long as I could stay for though because every time the waitress came over she would stare longer and longer at my notes that I was taking about all her other tables.

After the margarita, it was time to think about how I would be spending the rest of my night. Homework didn't sound very appealing. Plus, the Britney Spears episode of Glee was on. I really wanted to just make it an entire tv night and just lay on the couch but my conscious was being a pest so I decided it would be my baking night. Lindsey was craving Rice Krispie Treats which worked for me because it's quick and easy to make. Plus, combining two childhood favorites (Rice Krispie treats AND Britney Spears) was just awesome.

I wish there was a lot to say on the actually baking process but it was over so fast. The dishes literally took longer than the actual baking. You pour the Rice Kripsies, melt the butter and marsh mellows and then combine them together. For being so easy though, they were so delicious. I even made an improvement from high school and actually let them set into bars. Usually my friends and I would just use spoons and eat them out of the bowl we stirred them in. Yep, I know...super classy.

They ended up being so delicious and paired with the "Hit Me Baby One More Time" dance, I was a very happy camper. Plus, with having something so gooey and yummy like Rice Krispie treats, I was in less of a bad mood when it came time for me to actually do my homework. AND, I now have half a box of cereal to eat for breakfast. That's what I can a win win situation.

Sand Art Brownies

This weekend was my Dad's birthday so I drove the long way home to Plano to spend the weekend with my family. It's pretty easy to persuade me to go home when there is free food and potential shopping with the mom involved.

My family is pretty big believes in birthday weekends rather than a birth-day so Friday night my parents and I went out to eat at a small, cozy italian food restaurant for dinner. They have one of my dads favorite italian dishes, baked ziti. His favorite dessert, however, is at a restaurant called Red's where they have the best coconut cream pie. So after dinner, we drove to Red's to pick up dessert and head home. The rest of the night was spent in our pajamas watching multiple episodes of Grey's Anatomy. I got my Mom into the show this summer and we managed to get through 5 seasons and she is still trying to catch up so she can watch the current season. Whenever my brother is not around, my mom and I usually get our way and get to watch Grey's. My dad probably won't admit the amount he likes it, but never complains when we watch it...that is, until my brother comes over and then he will say the occasional "turn that crap off".

Saturday was a day filled with errands (and shopping!!) which ended with the grocery store. I had decided that I was going to make sand art brownies, another one of my dad's favorite desserts. They are easy to make and sounded good with steaks and baked potatoes. It was lucky that I had the ingredients memorized from making the brownies so many times.

When I got home, I put on the iPod, my mom poured us each a glass of wine and she got cooking and I got baking. I have been making this recipe since I was probably in 8th grade so it is pretty hard to screw up. What is cool about this recipe is that I initially got it from one of the students in my mom's class. One year, at Christmas, she brought home a glass jar that had a bunch of different colorful layers of ingredients. It consisted of all the dry ingredients for Sand Art Brownies so all you had to do was add eggs, vanilla and vegetable oil to make the brownies.

After a delicious dinner, we had the brownies (that were still warm) with some ice cream. What a perfect combination. My grandparents, brother, Callie (his girlfriend), and parents all ate while we watched my dad open up his birthday gifts.

I'm happy to say the brownies turned out MUCH better than my caramel apples turned out last week. Sadly, my roommates weren't there to try them so I will still get another week of grief about the stupid caramel apples until I bake something else here.

Caramel Apple Disaster

Well, I successfully made something that didn't involve chocolate. The bad news was that it turned out horribly. As in, uneatable.

I had never had any kind of candy apple but they were highly talked about by my roomies, so I decided to make them. I found what seemed like a good recipe and had fun at the store picking out different toppings for the apples like nuts, sprinkles and coconut.

Lindsey and I did our usual ritual of her starting to prepare dinner and I started adding all the ingredients to the sauce pan. The recipe called for all the ingredients to boil on medium-high heat for 40 minutes which I thought was way too much. Being worried about them turning out right, I typically follow directions religiously. However, the caramel seemed to be getting worse, and I still had 15 minutes left. I decided to go ahead and turn the burner off and start covering the apples.

It was a super stressful process. I had Lindsey put all the toppings in bowls and I tried to cover the apples with the caramel while stirring the caramel constantly so it wouldn't burn to the pot. The caramel was being stubborn and not sticking, and when I finally would get the caramel on the sprinkles were caramel resistant. The coconut and nuts were a little more cooperative but it was all way too stressful. The caramel dried way too quickly. The caramel ended up burning so I only ended up making 4 apples instead of 8.

Lindsey and I ate our dinner, and I definitely enjoyed a glass of wine from all the stress the baking was causing. The whole point of me baking is to relax, and enjoy the smells coming from the kitchen. Not this week.

We go check the caramel apples after dinner and they were rock hard. As in, impossible to take a bite out of. We tried to cut the apples and the caramel and toppings completely fell off the apples. Complete failure.

The worst part was that after the completely horrible disaster, the pan from the caramel cooking was the most horrible thing I have ever dried to clean. EVER. I had it soak for hours and some of the caramel came off. I ended up having to do this hot water soaking and scrubbing process for days. Literally, for days.

Basically, I do not ever suggest trying to make your own caramel apples. Leave it to the state fair, guys. Not only will you be sad to waste time and money but the process and clean up is stressful and annoying.

Maybe I should go back to my chocolate recipes. I was definitely more successful with those. This recipe will definitely not be going in my cookbook. Maybe next week I should go back to my cookbook where I just need 4 ingredients, that was working pretty well for me.

At least the pictures of the candy apples turned out well!

Chocolate Banana Bread

While writing this I'm noticing a trend of a lot of chocolate. I am quite a big fan of chocolate...but this blog isn't about baking chocolate but baking in general. Hopefully next week I will find a chocolate-less (GASP!) recipe.

This past Wednesday was a very rainy day. I think very rainy is actually an understatement. It was more like, this past Wednesday was a hurricane day. Although it was a long day filled with 6 classes, I tried to remain positive. The rain stopped and the sun came out and I was still in my hot obnoxious rain boots. Once I got home, I immediately flung my rain boots across my bedroom and laid down on the couch. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I had made it. My school day was over and ahead of me now was a relaxing night of making dinner and dessert.

I had called Lindsey on my way home from school and told her to find something for me to bake. When I got home, she set her computer in front of me and showed me a picture of a delicious loaf of chocolate banana bread. I immediately needed a glass of milk just from the picture. I loved this recipe because I already had overly ripe bananas and all we needed from the store was chocolate cocoa and chocolate chips. It was a pretty pain free trip to the store and Lindsey and I even splurged and bought a zucchini to add to our stir fry veggies.

We went through the now routine pre-baking events of cleaning the kitchen (it's so silly that we clean before we make it dirty), and making dinner. Our newest tradition was also adding a glass of wine to the cooking dinner process. I never knew why my mom was so much nicer when cooking dinner after a long day at work when she had a glass of red wine, but now I totally understand.

The meal was delicious, as always. Our sweet chili chicken, rice and veggies is now becoming a weekly meal which is totally fine with me. Lindsey cooked while I baked and by the time dinner was ready the banana bread was going in to oven to bake for an hour.

After doing the dishes, time passed slow as the bread baked. Kendall came home from night class and we all played cards on the floor trying to get our minds off the deliciousness in the oven.

The timer went off but I feared the bread was still too gooey. I always hate taking things out too early because the outside of it looks ready but the inside isn't. But I equally hate baking things until the inside is ready only to burn the outside. I found a middle ground and the bread turned out great.

The chocolate in it was a great combo with the banana and the warm bread paired great with the rain. Lindsey picked out a great recipe that was simple and made all the roomies happy.

I've really grown to love this blog. It's an excuse to spend a night relaxing and cooking and baking and it's still counted as homework.

Chocolate Raspberry Tart

Maybe I started off this week being too cocky of a baker. I totally kicked that Chocolate Gooey Pudding's butt. I mean, I don't want to brag but I could totally give Betty Crocker a run for her money. However, the baking spirits paid me back for my pride by sending me on an emotional roller coaster, over a freaking tart.

I decided on the tart since it was in the same cookbook which had so far treated me well. Lindsey and I decided that since the whole cooking AND baking that had gone so well last week, we should definitely do it again. This week we made chicken with an asian sweet chili sauce along with some rice and stir fry vegetables. I'm not going to even try to explain how good it was...all I'm going to say is that it was good last night that we are making it again tonight.

We were so proud of ourselves and the delicious dinner that we made. Well, to be honest, Lindsey really made the dinner while I was focusing on our dessert. Everything was going great. The tart was in the oven and we were relaxing and mentally preparing for another amazing dessert. I had told Lindsey to tell her sister about having some and also Kendall's boyfriend. And seriously, the baking spirits were totally having a good time messing with me and talking to each other saying "Oh, haha, that Becca, wanting to be nice and share her dessert. Let's mess it up so she will be totally embarrassed and everyone will think she's a crappy baker. That will teach her for making a baking blog".

The buzzer on the oven went off and I was hesitant to take the tart out. It just didn't look like it had...settled. It was too liquidy. I kept adding three minutes and then three more and then more and more. Eventually, I got worried and just decided to take it out and hope that once it had cooled, it might settle.

However, my lack of patience kicked in and I grabbed a knife and cut into the tart dying to know if it had turned out okay. Once the knife hit, I knew the answer. It was if it was chocolate soup with raspberry pieces. The filling tasted good, but it wasn't pretty, and not what it was supposed to be like. Of course my roommates tried to cheer me up by saying it still tasted good. But still. I sat on the couch and my roommates tried to get my mind off the matter by watching an episode of Grey's Anatomy but I constantly got up to check to see if the tart had magically settled. It hadn't.

After thinking about crying due to failing at my blog subject, I decided to try and put it in the fridge. When making chocolate cream pies out of chocolate Jello pudding, I had always put them in the fridge to help them become solid. After a few hours, I checked back and TA DA! The tart had settled! No longer was it a chocolate ocean with raspberry fish. It was a tart! A TART!

My mood changed instantly. No longer was I a failure. That stupid tart had made me doubt all of my self worth. How pathetic is that?

Kendall had saved her piece until after it had been in the fridge. As she sat and ate it, I tried to not gain too much confidence about my baking skills again. But I had a little when she said, "this is the best dessert I have ever had". I'm sure she was just trying to prevent me from crying and laying in a ball on the floor with my stuffed animal whining about being single, and lame, and a crappy baker. But her compliments still worked.

Although the tart didn't turn out to be my prettiest dessert, it was still a delicious one. Hopefully the baking spirits will take it easy on me next week.