Pretzel Bites - Take 2

I can tell it's close to the start of school.

The attitude of my oldest has gotten worse exponentially.  If this is what I'm getting at 7, I hate to see what she's like at 14...and 16...and...yeah, you get the picture.

Needless to say, the days have been rough around here.  I've got my foot planted on her backside and am ready to shove her out the door...I just need those darn school doors to open!

To beat the attitude, I thought, why not cook with the kids.  We could make something to take to their teachers for Back to School night tomorrow night.

I decided to go with an old faithful.  Chocolate Pretzel Bites.  You can't go wrong with chocolate and pretzels, plus this is super-duper easy for the kids to help with.

Last time we made them, I let Maddie pick the Hershey's Kisses and she went with the hugs.  If I had really been thinking (well, thinking of things other than how to get her in school ASAP), I would have stuck with the hugs.  They would have looked like white tiger stripes when melted (the school mascot), but we chose the cookies and cream Kisses instead...they still kind of go with the whole mascot thing.  And with a blue M&M on top and wrapped in cute little treat bags, they look very Caldwell Elementary festive. 

Now, I also decided to grab a bag of the caramel Kisses and some Reese's Pieces.  I absolutely love caramel and chocolate and peanut butter....reminds me of a Take 5.  This is how I had wanted to make them the first time, but I wasn't able to find the caramel Kisses, but today I scored them.

Now you know how when you are really excited about something...and how you picture the end result in your head...and it's perfect and beautiful and awesome and all those fantastic words?  Well, that's where I was as I spread a bazillion pretzels on the cookie sheet to make this batch of pretzel bites.

And then the perfectness all came crashing down.

After 2 minutes, the Kisses were not melted.  After another 2, barely melted.  Another minute and the very tippy top was melted, so I went for one more minute and then pulled the sheet out.  I mean, how can chocolate not be melted after 6 minutes?  Well, when you are a Hershey's Caramel Kiss, I guess this is possible.  I'm not sure what they do to make these things...or what they are even made out of, but the darn things were barely melted, so when I went to press the Reese's Pieces into the tops, the didn't squish down all ooey gooey like they should have...they kind of cracked and flopped and pretty much ended up looking like crap.

I should have known it wasn't going to work out my picture-perfect way....the attitude issues and rough day all around should have been my clue.

But I'm here to tell you, if you ever want to try making pretzel bites, just stay away from the caramel ones...it's really not worth the time. 

Chocolate Caramel Bacon Brownies

So our beach trips with my husband's friends are notorious for being on the pricey side.  Not because of travel costs or too many side trips taken, too many souvenirs bought or an expensive rental house.  Nope.  When it comes down to it, our trip cost is only inflated by one thing....food.

Overbuying tends to be a problem on the trip, although there is one person who takes overbuying to an entirely new level.

Four years ago, we sent him to the store to buy some frozen ravioli for dinner.  Four bags would have been sufficient...he came back with 8...or maybe it was more.  My mind has tried to block out the whole incident....we ate ravioli for way too many meals.

This year we were spared from ravioli....but not from the overbuying.  This year's product of choice: bacon.  An absurd amount of bacon.  I think in one trip alone, a minimum of 5 lbs of bacon was purchased.  Seriously?!

I mean, don't get me wrong...bacon is great, especially when it is baked to extra crispy so it melts in your mouth when you eat it.  But after eating bacon three mornings in a row and knowing there were still unopened packages of bacon in the refrigerator, well, I'm sure you get the picture.

While browsing around on Pinterest one evening, I happened to peruse my "Sweet Eats" board and there, in all it's glory, was my pin for Pecan, Bourbon and Bacon Brownies from Bluebonnets and Brownies.  YES!   A way to use up some of the vast amounts of bacon still left in the fridge while creating something chocolaty good.

I didn't make these exact brownies because I didn't have everything needed to make them.  (Although I WILL make these exact ones someday...I mean bourbon and pecans and brownies?!  What could be better than that?!)  But I figured I could come up with something similar using a simple box mix from the store and doctoring it up a bit.

Most people in the house were skeptical...I mean not many people think of throwing bacon in brownie mix.  But convince them I did, and 30 minutes later the most ooey, gooey, chocolaty brownies came out of the oven with just the tiniest hint of saltiness from the added bacon.  Not much else to say but yummo!

Chocolate Pretzel Bites

Seriously, I couldn't have married into a better situation if I tried again.

We all know keeping up with friends from our past is hard work (although definitely made easier since the invention of Facebook).  And when it comes to keeping up with friends, it's usually the women that have held on to their best buds.  Men, not so much.

So it is just completely amazing to me that after 30+ years, my husband is still tight as can be with the friends he used to run wild through the neighborhood with as a kid.  Not something you normally see.

And what's cooler...they actually converge on OBX, NC once a year for some good old family fun (with geeky board gaming thrown in for good measure, because you can't have a trip and not play board games...it just isn't going to happen.)

This year, after a two year hiatus due to some cash flow issues, we were finally able to rejoin the ranks on THE TRIP, as it has been named.

Now what you need to know about the trip is that when it comes to food, well, let's just say the menu for the week tends to include a lot of sugar with some alcohol and chips thrown in for good measure.  Drumsticks are the mainstay in the freezer and it isn't uncommon to find 2-3 packs of Oreos (or beach cookies, as they were dubbed by my oldest daughter back when she was 3) sitting open on the counter.

So really, I couldn't have been dropped into a better situation this year...the baking bug hit and I had a houseful of people who were more than willing to eat whatever I made, meaning less for me to have to eat...although don't get me wrong, I partook in A LOT of what I made.

I took along my Carcassonne cookies from my previous post.  Those were a HUGE hit...especially with the kids.  I think every kid made sure that they had the chance to eat a cookie of every color...made for a lot of hyperactive kids.

I also took along the rest of the chocolate chip cookies I made...you know, the ones from my famous friend Megan.  And I was right...they are the best cookies ever...they didn't even make it through 24 hours.

But I couldn't just stop there.  No...all my browsing through Pinterest found quite a few yummy things that just had to be tried.  First up....Chocolate Pretzel Bites.

A quick Google search reveals that they are nothing new...seems everyone is making them with all sorts of different color combinations, depending on what holiday is right around the corner.  I wanted to try something a little different, but being stuck on a small island chain where you basically have one store to shop at and it only carries a small variety of any given product left me unable to try what I wanted....so I let Maddie be the picker, and she chose Hershey's Hugs with regular M&Ms.

They didn't turn out half bad, even if they weren't what I originally wanted.  (But that's okay because that just means I can make them at a later date.)  They were even pretty simple to make...and would have been more simple if a certain 7-year old would have helped me unwrap all those darn Hershey's Kisses, but we won't go there.

Anyway, if you are looking for a good sweet/salty treat to take to a get-together...you know, a Bunco night or a meeting of the nerd herd for some serious gaming, you just might want to check this babies out...you won't be let down.

Chocolate Cherry Milkshake

I just love the days leading up to vacation.  The anticipation of fun times to be had, only overshadowed by the hassle of having to do endless loads of laundry so that everyone in the family will be able to take along their most favored outfits.  And then there's the week of the most random dinners as you attempt to "clean out" the fridge so you aren't throwing away spoiled food when you come home.

That's where we are this week.  Between the mounds of laundry and the endless batches of cookies I'm trying to get baked to take with us, I'm pretty much pooped.  Dinner was less than stellar...one of those fend-for-yourself nights that our kids love because they get the Mac & Cheese and hot dogs they'd eat for every meal if we let them.  As I scrounged for what random items would become my dinner, I realized that we still have over half a bag of fresh cherries sitting in the fridge.  Seriously, what am I going to do with these?!  The kids aren't eating through them quick enough and it's just too many cherries for me to eat by myself in 3 days.  Then I happened to see a coupon magnet-ed to the freezer door...for a free Blizzard from DQ.  And it hit me.  I could make a homemade blizzard-y thing and I could throw in cherries...and chocolate, because you can't have a Blizzard and not have chocolate in it.  And so quick as a wink, I whipped up a batch of chocolate cherry milkshakes.  No real recipe, because let's face it, everyone has there preference for how thick a shake/Blizzard/Frosty thing should be.  I just tossed in some vanilla ice cream, a handful of fresh, pitted cherries, some milk and a few good squeezes of chocolate shop.  A few pulses in the Magic Bullet, a sprinkle of mini chocolate chips and BEHOLD....the Chocolate Cherry Milkshake.  The kids woofed it down (oh...not surprised about this at all) and asked for seconds.  (This was no surprise either.)  And then my oldest (the pickiest kid ever) claimed that it was better than a Blizzard from DQ.  Awesome...looks like we can save ourselves a little bit of money and start making our own concoctions here at home.

Cinnamon Chocolate Quesadillas

Seems like everyone has some sort of go-to recipe...you know, the thing you whip up for dinner when you don't have time to think about making something, or that one thing you always seem to take to pot lucks because it's easy to make and everyone raves about it.

I have a go-to recipe, and no surprise, it's a dessert.  It's perfect for those times when you have spent 2 hours of your afternoon buried knee-deep in a mess made by the kids, attempting to get them to persuade them to help clean.  Or those times when dinner is a nightmare because what you've made is "yucky" and results in grumbles and groans and all avoidance tactics, including hanging upside down off the chair.  Or for those times when both things happen in rapid succession.

If you haven't figured it out, last night was one of those nights.  And I was so grateful that this dessert was ever invented and that it could be whipped up in 5 minutes flat.  Best part of it is, most people have all of the ingredients needed just lying around their house waiting to be made into this wonderful dessert.  So what are you waiting for?!  Go get baking!!!

Total Dude Food

About a week ago, one of my friends on FB posted that she was going to be making brownies stuffed with Oreos.  Immediately my mouth started watering and I decided pretty much at that moment that I, too, would be making these yummy treats.  And then life got in the way, and days went by, and I never got around to making them...but that doesn't mean I didn't still think about them.  In fact, I was thinking about them so much that I was even trying to decide what other types of cookies I could try in the middle, and that's when it hit me....Nutter Butters.  I mean, what is better with chocolate than peanut butter?!  And that day I made sure to find a little time to hit the store for some brownie mix and Nutter Butters.  And then you know what happened...the stuff sat on the counter for several more days because I had no eggs and didn't have time to get out and get some.

Today, however, I promised myself that I would not go to bed until they were made.  Well, I just finished whipping up a batch and I must say, they are out-of-this-world fantastic!  They even passed the guy test...the group of geeks sitting around my kitchen table are finishing off the plate of them as I type this entry.  (Don't worry...I did save aside two for the kids...don't want to listen to their whining in the morning when they find none left.)

The recipe is super easy.  All you need is your favorite box of brownie mix (I used Ghirardelli dark chocolate brownie mix) and a package of Nutter Butters.  (If you're willing to eat generic, definitely check out Target...they have their own knock-off that are round so you wont' have to cut them in half to make them fit into the cupcake pan.)

Simply make up the brownie batter, following the directions on the box.  Dip each cookie into the batter and then place it into a heavily greased cupcake pan.  After each cookie has been dipped, cover the cookies with the remaining batter.  (Okay, I do need to say here that if you use the Ghirardelli mix I used, it was slightly difficult because the mix has these ginormous chocolate chips in the batter which made coating the cookies a little more difficult.  And if a chip got stuck to the bottom of the cookie, it wouldn't lay flat in the pan.  While it probably took a little extra time to dip the cookies, I think it was totally worth it because the chocolate chips made the brownies taste AH-MA-ZING!)

Anyway, I was able to make 18 brownies from the box of brownie mix.  Pop them in the oven and bake them at the temperature listed on the box of brownies (it will most likely be either 325 or 350) for about 15 minutes.  When done, remove them from the oven and immediately run a knife around the outside of each brownie to un-stick it from the side of the pan.  Allow to cool....if you can wait that long.  We couldn't. :)