Hubby and I are in the midst of some major life changes right now. In the past few weeks, we’ve watched all of our household goods be packed up and taken away, driven across two state lines, unpacked a jumble of clothes and random items at my parents’ house, and then divided our time between job searching, interviews, and trying to do things around the house to make our stay a little less stressful for my parents. And taking our dogs on high-speed laps around the backyard with the help of my parents’ golf cart. They’re bred to run and I don’t think I’ve seen them look quite so happy in a while.
Anyway, after two weeks, we moved our home base 90 miles east to my brother’s house because of job interviews and house searches, and now we’re trying to keep pace with him and his wife as they chase after their adorable baby.
Thus, no blogging for a while. But because we had thrown away our ancient, malfunctioning router just before the move, we’ve purchased one for our new place and have it temporarily set up at my brother’s. Yay wifi! So now I’m back.
While at Mom and Dad’s, I did do a lot of cooking (my self-imposed rent was putting dinner on the table every night). Pretty much everything I made was something I’d already mastered, but I did try one new thing while I was there: Rice Krispie treats.
I’m not talking about the marshmallow-infused ones that you remember from your school cafeteria. I’m talking a peanut-butter chocolate version that is simply better.
It’s worth mentioning that it wasn’t until discussing this treat with my family that I learned the reason that Mom always made these: she doesn’t like marshmallows. I thought I was the only weirdo on the planet that doesn’t like them. I don’t mind them too much if they’re melted, like in s’mores, but solid ones are just icky (luckily, the Easter bunny seemed to know that and rarely brought me Peeps). Turns out, you don’t need marshmallows for Rice Krispie treats if you have something better.
My writing is so disjointed. I suppose my brain is lethargic after a few weeks of not writing anything.
The pictures I’ve taken of the process were taken on my Android phone, since my camera’s battery died and with everything going on, I really had no idea where my spare was (I think I got a few shots with my camera first, but who knows where THAT is at the moment). Luckily Mom was able to finish up with some good shots when we were ready to eat.
First, I combined sugar and light corn syrup in a saucepan and kept it moving just until it boiled. Use your imagination for that part. It never did lose its cloudiness, as I expected it to when the sugar melted, but I guess that’s because of the syrup. Next, I pulled the mixture off the burner and mixed in some creamy peanut butter. It melted quickly and was easy to mix in. Once it was combined, I poured it into a large bowl of Rice Krispies.
Om nom nom. The few pieces of Rice Krispies that escaped to the floor served as a nice surprise treat for the puppy. She sure likes when I make messes.
Once everything’s mixed, smoosh it into a greased pan.
Finally, melt chocolate chips to smear on top. I ended up doubling the amount in Mom’s recipe, as I couldn’t quite stretch the original amount over the whole pan.
And that’s it! I refrigerated it for a while so that it would solidify and stiffen up, but I did remove it from the fridge a few hours before it was served.
Here it is!
In retrospect, I should have tried to pry the whole thing out of the pan so that I could attack it with a big knife on the cutting board, as it was really hard to cut into with a normal knife in the pan. But it turned out okay, as hubby was pretty motivated to try this since he knew it had both chocolate and peanut butter.
The first thing he said after biting into his piece was, “Why haven’t you made this before?”
Good question. I had no answer. I guess it never occurred to me. But seriously, what was I thinking? I must have forgotten how damn good these are.
I’ll have to make some more soon. They really are delicious.
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