Sharing

Today I feel like being nice. So I'm going to share something with you. It's a recipe. A recipe for some ooey-gooey easy-peasy yumminess.


Back story: My oven sucks. Really sucks. Burns things on the bottom, and keeps them raw and doughy on the top. Not a nice combination. And it's getting worse. To the point I hate baking. Me, who LOVES to bake. Not good times.


Anyway on with the rest of the story. Last night was family home evening. We needed a treat. Megan wanted to bake (read - burn) some cookies. I say no, kids are disappointed because there is no treat. So while they are out swimming with Peter(love you!) I decided to find a no bake recipe. And I found one quick as a wink, AND I actually had all the ingredients! Once they were concocted I had my doubts, they looked kinda iffy, but they were really yummy. And the kids were happy and family home evening was saved! Just kidding, it wasn't really wrecked to begin with, just treatless. Anyway without babbling further on, here is the recipe:


No Bake Rocky Road Bars

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 (10-ounce) package large marshmallows
1/4 cup butter
5 cups cocoa flavored crisp rice cereal {I used regular Rice Krispies}
1 cup mini marshmallows
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Frosting
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions:

Grease a 13" x 9" pan, set aside. In large microwave-safe bowl, place 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips. Microwave on 50% power for 1 minute. Remove bowl from microwave and add large marshmallows and butter. Microwave on high for 1 minute, then remove and stir. Continue microwaving for 1 minute intervals, stirring between each interval, until the mixture is melted and smooth.

Stir in the rice krispies until well blended. Then stir in the mini marshmallows and 1 cup milk chocolate chips just until blended. Using greased fingers, spread and press into prepared pan.

In small microwave-safe bowl, combine remaining 1-1/2 cups milk chocolate chips with the peanut butter. Microwave on 50% power for 1 minute; remove and stir until smooth, microwaving for 30 second intervals if necessary. Pour melted chocolate over cereal mixture and spread to cover. Let stand until cool, then cut into bars. Makes 48 bars





I hope you enjoy them as much as I, er, I mean my KIDS do!

100th Blog Entry

Wow. 100. Yesterday it felt like just 99.

Any way I have nothing extraordinary to relate or blog about today. This is to share my newest yummy recipe. We had the missionaries over to dinner last night and I decided to make chicken corn chowder. So yummy and creamy and easy! But I didn't want to just serve it up in my boring china bowls, so I made bread bowls instead!

I found a really easy recipe on http://www.allrecipes.com/ http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Italian-Bread-Bowls/Detail.aspx for Italian Bread Bowls. I was worried the soup would seep through the bread, but it actually held up and was quite sturdy. And did I mention yummy? Oh so yummy.

You basically make up a bread dough recipe and shape it into really large buns. I actually had to make two batches of the dough, and with the first I wanted larger adult size bowls, so I divided the dough into 6, and they were the perfect size. The second batch I divided into 8 and again, that was the right size for the kids. Tip - Let them rise for the full 35 minutes, the bowls are flatter and rounder, not so tall and puffy. That really doesn't make sense unless you try to rush the recipe like I did, but trust me - let them rise the full 35 minutes people. They look much nicer. And when you are done - Voila! Super-Delicious-Easy-to-Make-Yummy Soup in a Bread Bowl! (The empty bowl is the puffier version, the filled bowl is the way it should look!)

And while downloading the pictures of the bowls to my laptop, I came across Megan's birthday pictures. I guess I forgot to get the done and shared earlier. Oops! So here are a few pictures from Megan's 10th Birthday.

And yes, the cake was soooo good!

Merry Christmas - Finally!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We have had a busy and exciting Christmas season indeed! Grandma and Grandpa Coates spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us. Santa managed to find our house just fine and left amazing presents for the kids. And on Boxing Day Peter's younger brother Paul and his wife Annelise and their sweet baby Amelia stayed the night and the next day Dave, Melanie and their kiddo's joined in the fun.

I have a bunch of pictures to share from Christmas Day, unfortunately probably not too many comments, Blogger hates when I add lots of pictures, and the spacing gets all weird. Thankfully most of the pictures are self explanatory.

The kids all got Webkinz in their stockings and were thrilled with them, even Katey, who named her Husky dog Fifi. Megan got a fish(Splash), Hannah a Polar Bear(Snowy), Mary a Seahorse(Squirt) and Ethan a Chipmunk, who he called Chicky, because he insists it's a Chickmunk! I tell you that kid is a funny one. So many times when he would open a present he would run over and engulf me in a huge bear hug and tell me how much he loves me. It was a great Christmas indeed!



New Christmas Jammies. I have no idea why the camera was acting wonky, but it worked fine the next day, thank goodness! And I am so annoyed with myself because we forgot to take the annual picture-in-front-of-the-tree-in-new-jammies. Grr. And the tree is long gone due to it being a fire hazard, so no recreations, pooh.

In case you can't tell what Santa brought for the kids I'll fill you in...Ethan got a long awaited Remote Control Hot wheels car. Mary got a Tini Puppini Dog. Hannah was the recipient of a Karaoke Machine (yeah me) Megan got a CD player and Katey got a pink digital camera.

Ooh, this is a fun picture! Mary got a Cadoo game where you make a funny hat. Katey tried it on and was apparently so taken by the Wii she forgot she was wearing it! Heehee!

And the hit of Christmas had to be the Wii ! I think everybody ached the next day from bowling and boxing and Mario Cart Racing! But it was a good kind of hurt. My mom thought she was going to have to call 911 and have them bring the paddles to res art Katey's heart when it was opened. I swear she didn't stop screaming for like 5 minutes straight! My ears are ringing still. And she smiled like that for the next hour, no joke.

I also got some great gifts, although there will be no picture sharing of me, sorry folks, I'm just too fat. However I will show you what I got...

Yeah me! I finally got an Ipod. And it's PURPLE! Too cool. I also got some uber cute socks, a few snowman knick knacks and some super yummy smelling hand soap from Bath and Body Works (Thanks Amy!).

So as you can see [Blogger managed to mangle my photo spacing] and we had a fantastical Christmas and are looking forward to an amazing New Year in 2009!