S'more Cookie Bars

As the hubby and I are getting closer to the big move -- there are certain things I want to check off my Texas bucket list. One of the top things on this to do list was to go to the Houston Livestock and Rodeo one more time. This was a special event for me for a few reasons. First, I LOVE PITBULL...not just a little but a lot. I have been wanting to see Pitbull for awhile and could never find anyone to go with me. But I have one friend who shares my love of Mr. International and when I asked him if he wanted to go, he said "Dale" like only a true Pitbull fan would say.

I was a bit disappointed because Mr. International gave a shout out to each ethnic group -- White, Black, Hispanic...and then....NOTHING! Ummm...last time I checked there were also Asians...as in Indians and Sri Lankans...as in MEEEEEEE....the freakishly obsessed fan in section 634. ::waving:: How are you going to be Mr. International....Pitbull who sang with Priyanka Chopra and then forget to give a shout out to your Desi girls ::shock face:: Shame on you Pitbull! But I still love you!

The hubby came too, but not so much for Pitbull but for the fooooood. Which brings me to my second reason; the amazingly delicious, cholesterol filled, fat gaining food. And this year had some of the best Rodeo food finds everrrrrr. Let's start with Fried Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese frosting....yup, you read right and let me tell you OMG x infinity. But that was not it, they also had fried Nutella....again, yup...imagine a corn dog except with pound cake and stuffed with straight Nutella. I was in such a wonderful food coma.

The last but most important was spending it with the hubby. 6 years ago in March of 2009, a few weeks after dating the hubby, he took me to the Rodeo -- my first ever rodeo. It was so fun and we were so young. It is crazy how much time just flew by. To think that 6 years later he would be my sweet hubby, the love of my life and the only reason I would still be in Texas 6 years later...I would never have guessed! Plus, our good friend joined us and it was a fun get together and some good laughs.

In the trend of clogging your arteries, I had to share a recipe for another sweet tooth favorite -- S'mores :) Enjoy these fairly easy to whip up s'more bars. I made these for Deacon and his owner's farewell party (I know ::tear::) and it was a big hit. But who doesn't love s'mores, right?!? That would be the hubby..FAIL.

S'MORE COOKIE BARS

Slightly adapted from The Gunny Sack

INGREDIENTS

Preheat Oven to 350F Degrees

FOR THE COOKIE
1/2 tsp. water
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. shortening
1/3 c. brown sugar, packed
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 egg, room temperature
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs (5 sheets)

FOR THE TOPPING
1 c. mini Hershey's Kisses, divided
1 c. mini marshmallows 

DIRECTIONS

For the cookie:
In a small bowl, combine water and baking soda. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream together shortening and sugars until light and fluffy. Add in vanilla, egg and water-baking soda mixture. In a separate medium bowl sift together flour and graham crackers. Slowly mix into wet mixture until well incorporated, but do not over mix. Fold in 1/2 of the mini Hershey kisses.  Line a 8x8 baking dish with aluminum foil and grease lining. Spread batter in lined dish and bake for 18-20 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

For the toppings:
Remove from oven and sprinkle mini marshmallows over the bars. Place under broiler for a few seconds until toasted (watch carefully as this happens quickly). Turn off oven and remove baking dish. Sprinkle remaining Hershey kisses over bars and return to oven for 2-3 minutes until Hershey kisses soften.

Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars. I suggest refrigerating for clean and easy cutting.

Enjoy,

S'more Brownies

These past few days in Texas have been gloomy and rainy. Which, I do not mind so much, because it is always nice to get a break from the heat and there is something so cozy about rain when your inside your home (I can't stand the rain if I am outside). But when it rained it POURED. Fences came down, branches broke off trees...I mean it rained! With the rain, this past weekend, we had some pretty bad thunder and lightening.

Ninja usually sleeps with us on the bed, but some nights he falls asleep on the couch or in the guest bedroom and is too lazy to get up and join us when we go to bed. Well this weekend was one of those nights, but when it began thundering -- we woke up to Ninja sleeping on our faces. He likes us to hold him when it thunders because he's scared. What a cutie, right? He's also become stir crazy being cooped in the apartment for days since we haven't taken him to the dog park (too muddy). Yesterday I just gave in, took him to the dog park, let him get muddy and hosed him off because I could not deal with cooky Ninja :)

What has also helped -- is that I have begun bringing Ninja on my morning or evening walks. It's about a 3.5 mile loop. In the summer it was pretty hot, so Ninja would get lazy and (1) roll in the grass because he thought it was hilarious and (2) just stop walking to where the hubby had to pick him up in the car and take him home #spoiledrotten. This morning, it was really nice, because the hubby woke up early to join me on my walk. We took Ninja along since its cooler and now...Ninja is fast asleep :) Loving the quiet time!

Well, I think I have made my love for s'mores obvious. I love them. Every ooey, gooey, chocolate, graham crackery morsel. And I have discovered that there are so many twists to the classic s'more that I would love to try. In fact, so many, it has it's own board on my Pinterest. I know my priorities ;) One thing I also learned about the hubby is that he does not have the same love for s'mores as I do! WHAT?!? How can you not love s'mores!?! This coupled with his belief that one can have too much chocolate -- he is just too silly! This recipe is super easy to make, especially if you choose to use a boxed brownie mix and not make it from scratch. And it's amazingly delicious!

S'MORE BROWNIES

Adapted from Eat.Drink.Love

Brownie adapted from Cully's Kitchen

INGREDIENTS

Preheat Oven to 350F and 325F Degrees

FOR THE GRAHAM CRACKER LAYER
2 1/2 c. of graham cracker crumbs
1/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 stick of butter, melted

FOR THE BROWNIE LAYER*
1 c. flour
2/3 c. cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/4 c. vegetable oil
2 1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
4 large eggs

Large campfire marshmallows (can use other sizes as a substitute)

*Can use boxed brownie mix if desired (for quicker, easier preparation)

DIRECTIONS

For the Graham Cracker Layer:
First, line a 9x13 baking dish with aluminum foil. Grease aluminum foil with butter, shortening or cooking spray. This will help when removing bars from baking dish, allow for cooling, and easier, cleaner cutting into squares.

In a medium bowl combine, by hand (using a spatula), graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter. Continue mixing until a sand-like texture is reached. Transfer graham cracker crumble to the prepped baking dish and pack it down firmly using the bottom of a flat drinking glass. Make sure it is packed firmly, otherwise when you cut the bars, the crust will crumble and create a mess. Bake 10-12 minutes until set.

Reduce heat to 325F Degrees. 

For the Brownie Layer:
If using a boxed brownie mix -- follow package directions. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. Sift contents to remove any lumps. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, combine vegetable oil, sugar, vanilla and eggs. Cream together until well blended. Slowly pour in dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Pour batter over graham cracker crust UNTIL it is completely covered. You probably will not need to use all the brownie batter. Leave at least 1 inch of "rising room" for the batter, so it does not over flow. Bake at 325F Degrees for 25-30 minutes until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly. 

Marshmallow Topping:
I used campfire marshmallows because the size of them perfectly covered one s'more brownie square. If using campfire marshmallows, cut each marshmallow in thirds. Use only the two outer pieces with the smooth, non-sticky edge. If using jumbo or large marshmallows, cut each piece in half. Line marshmallows on top of brownie layer and completely cover (do this while brownies are still warm-so marshmallows can melt). The smooth, non-sticky side of the marshmallows should be facing up.

Turn oven to broiler setting. Place S'more brownie back in oven and WATCH CLOSELY. Bake until Marshmallows turn golden brown on top. This will happen quickly, like in 30-45 seconds. Be careful not to burn. Allow bars to completely cool before cutting. Wet knife with warm water for easiest cutting (that way the melty marshmallows will not stick to the knife).

Enjoy,
Chika

No Bake Peanut Butter S'more Bars

So I am about a day late, dollar short with blogging this semester. And I believe I have whined about the busy schedule that I have had this semester about a zillion times. I mean down right exhausting!  Though, I have just loved this semester--as crazy as that sounds. I LOVED teaching this semester, my class was sooo sweet and fun to work with, and I LOVE my placement- and each day reminds me just how much I love working with kids. Well- on the plus side of dropping off from blogging- I have so much to share with you all! :) I will break it up in the different posts- to spread out the fun ;)

Last Saturday, I had a wonderful Crawfish Boil get together with my friends at the dog park, which always makes for a fun time! The hubby was a bit bummed, because he does not like Crawfish, so he had miscellaneous snack foods to munch on, which I was not too bad. I probably ate, definitely ate way more than I should have, but what can I say?! I just love crawfish! I had crawfish, corn, mushrooms, chips and dip, and a lot of different desserts. There are a few of us, that like to bake at my dog park, so the host asked the three of us to bake a dessert. He wanted to make a competition out of it, which mortified me. I am probably the least competitive person out there-- I mean I work with little children. When you work with kids, you better be ready to "lose" (on purpose) very graciously ;) And so competitions never work for me, because I just want the other person to win. And it was pretty funny, because I think the three of us, were all extremely non-competitive.

For the crawfish boil I decided to make these Peanut Butter S'more Bars that I saw on Pinterest. Lately I have noticed that I really enjoy the combination of peanut butter and chocolate. Plus, I always love trying different twists to a classic favorite (S'mores). Ninja was really excited that I chose to make this, because I ended up emptying out the peanut butter jar which meant he got to lick the jar clean :) before it got thrown out. He loves those lucky days when he actually gets something out of the kitchen! And boy does he recognize the scent of peanut butter! :) Gotta love that Ninja face!

Anywhoo, I decided to make these, which in hindsight probably was not the best decision. You see, the recipe calls for using marshmallow fluff, which is fine, when refrigerated  Sadly, I made these for a Crawfish boil where the food needed to be left out so that people could grab and enjoy. And its April in College Station, Texas- which makes for some pretty warm weather. #dessert fail. Do not get me wrong, these bars came out delicious. It could be that I am a sucker for both S'mores and the peanut butter-chocolate combination, but regardless they were yum! The fail was that after about 30 minutes they fluff began to melt. :( Which was still yummy but made for some messy eating). Bottom line- make these when they can be refrigerated or stuffed in your mouth immediately (which is not hard because they are awesome) but not for a potluck :)

NO BAKE PEANUT BUTTER S'MORE BARS

Adapted from Little Kitchen, Big Bites

INGREDIENTS 

FOR THE CRUST

1 c. butter, melted

3 1/4 c. graham cracker crumbs

2 c. powdered sugar

1 1/4 c. creamy peanut butter

FOR THE TOPPINGS

1 large jar of marshmallow fluff 

1 (12.5 oz) bag of chocolate chips

2 tbsp. shortening

1 bag of mini Reese's Mini Peanut Butter cups

DIRECTIONS

First line a 9x13 baking dish with aluminum foil. Grease aluminum foil with butter, shortening or cooking spray. This will help when removing bars from baking dish, to allow for cooking and easier-cleaner cutting into squares. Set aside. 

For the Crust:

In a microwave safe bowl  melt butter on high for about 45 seconds. Then in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine butter, graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar, and peanut butter. Add more peanut butter if graham cracker crust needs more moisture. 

Transfer graham cracker crumble to the prepped baking dish and pack it down firmly using the bottom of a flat drinking glass. Make sure it is packed firmly, otherwise when you cut the bars, the graham cracker will crumble and create a mess. 

For the topping:

For the marshmallow fluff layer: This set up will help. Have a cup with warm water set next to your crust. First dip a spatula in the warm water. Use the spatula to scoop out the marshmallow fluff and evenly distribute the scoops over the graham cracker crust. Then, wet your finger tips with warm water. Using your finger tips, evenly spread the scoops of marshmallow fluff over the graham cracker crust. Wetting your finger tips will prevent the marshmallow fluff from sticking to your fingers and prevent a mess. 

For the chocolate layer: In a saucepan over medium-low heat, bring together chocolate chips and shortening. Continue stirring until the chocolate chips are completely melted. Pour over the marshmallow fluff layer and use a spatula to gently, evenly distribute the chocolate. The chocolate may begin to sink below the fluff- this is okay :)

For Reese's crumble layer: Unwrap all the Reese's mini peanut butter cups. Chop the mini peanut butter cups [the easiest way to do this is to refrigerate them. So it is easier to chop up]. Sprinkle them on top of the melted chocolate. Immediately refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Or place in freezer for quicker cooling. Once cooled, wet a knife with warm water for easiest cutting (that way the marshmallow fluff will not stick to the knife). 

Enjoy,

Chika

S'Mookie Bars

Today is match day! And although I did not apply for internship this year- it is always a pretty tense time to find out if the program you belong too had a good match rate, because I think that reflects a lot on your program. Thankfully- we had a 100% match! All three students that applied for internship matched! How exciting! I think that when it does become my turn-- I will be terrified yet excited to see where the next step in life takes me. Though, I do hope that the next stage in my life takes me back to California. I would really like to move closer to my family. Let's keep our fingers crossed! And maybe my mom, can better train me in the culinary skills of cooking Sri Lankan and Indian food- and I can share those recipes with you all!

I came home today, exhausted and with a huge sinus headache. I am not sure about you all- but when the weather changes drastically from day to day- I get these awful sinus headaches. I suffer from sinus problems in general (only since I have moved from College Station) but it gets so much worse with weather changes. Well, Texas apparently cannot make up its mind about what the weather should be and so it has gone from hot to cold to warm to freezing! And so my head has been a bouncy ball of pain! Blah! So of course I want to come home, nap and enjoy a yummy treat. What treat did I enjoy this week? S'Mookie Bars :)

I think I had withdrawals after finishing up my S'Moreos so fast! There is just something so addicting about S'Mores and I just cannot seems to get enough of them! I had already planned on making this recipe because I had some left over marshmallows from the S'Moreos plus I always have chocolate chips lying around--so I just had to pick up a few more ingredients. Well- I am glad I decided to make this sooner than later because--just like the S'Moreos-- I could not get enough of them! I decided to take a page from the hubby's book and give it a hybrid name- hence--S'Mookie Bars-- it is a S'More Cookie cut into bar shapes. 

S'MOOKIE BARS

Adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything

INGREDIENTS

Preheat Oven to 375F Degrees

12 tbsp. butter, softened (1 1/2 sticks of butter)

1 c. brown sugar, packed

1/2 c. granulated sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature 

2 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 c. chocolate chips

1 1/2 c. mini mashmallows

3 king size Hershey bars, broken into the small rectangular pieces

2-3 graham cracker packages

DIRECTIONS

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with paddle attachment- cream together butter and sugars- for approximately 6-8 minutes. Then add eggs, one at a time until mixed well, followed by vanilla.In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients- flour and baking soda. Add dry ingredients to to wet ingredients, on low speed until just well incorporated. Lastly, add chocolate chips and mini marshmallows-mix briefly- just enough to thoroughly incorporate.

Line graham crackers either in baking dish or, as I did, on a large cookie sheet. I used my large, mega-air bake sheet. Line with 13 graham cracker sheets (total of 26 graham cracker squares). You do have to be careful, if using a cooking sheet, because the graham crackers will easily slide off. Using a cookie scoop (that is what I used) or large spoon, place a tablespoon of dough on graham crackers, one inch apart. Make sure the entire sheet is fully covered with dough scoops that are pretty close together, as you want to dough to spread into each other and completely cover the graham crackers. Press dough down slightly. 

Bake for 5 minutes--remove sheet from oven and press Hershey's bar pieces on to the top of each cookie dough scoop. You can always place more pieces or less, depending on how much chocolate flavor you want--obviously I choose more ;) Bake an additional 5-7 minutes until cookies completely spread, become thicker (puffs up) and edges begin to slightly brown. Remove and allow to completely cool. Then cut into bar shapes with a sharp knife.

Enjoy,

Chika

S'Moreos

Okay, so I am a little late to the party is posting on Valentine's Day :) Though in all fairness I did remember to post an actual Valentine's Day recipe early this week...oh the slow progress I make ;) Well- I may have passed out from a yummy food and chocolate related coma and now woken up at the freakish time of 1am and cannot go back to sleep :/ But to turn lemon into lemon cupcakes ;) I decided I could take this time to post before attempting to head back to bed and sleep. 

I had an absolutely wonderful Valentine's Day :) One thing to know about the hubby and I-- is that we are not fancy dinner people. In fact, I think overly fancy restaurants are pretentious and rarely live up to their food hype. I would rather go to a mom and pop hole-in-the-wall. We always try instead, to do something **low key** at home. And since we became official four years ago on February 8th, we usually celebrate our Anniversary (or we did since now we have a wedding anniversary) along with Valentine's Day.

This Valentine's Day: First I got beautiful flowers and a sweet, sweet card from the hubby. Then we had a fun dinner of Chipotle (which I asked for because I love Chipotle but try very hard not to eat out more than once a week- which I usually save for my foodie adventures with the hubby, Justin and Luke). For the hubby, I got him Cajun food from a mom and pop hole-in-the-wall that I was recommended called Hebert's Cajun (it was delicious). We finished the evening with sparkling juice, lemon cupcakes (which I got for the hubby), and cake balls (from Cake Junkie)--which I had been eager to try! And although we did not get to it, because we were both so full-- the hubby bought a little chocolate fondue pot, chocolate and strawberries to dip and enjoy! Hope you all had a wonderful day, filled with lots of love!

Any Valentine related post must include some chocolate deliciousness, unless your weird like the hubby and prefer lemon or coconut ;)! And this past weekend I made these S'more bars but instead of using graham crackers I used Oreos, and these bars included caramel. Beyond amazing! This is definitely going on my favorites list. I ate the whole 8x8 baking dish in two days, by myself! For me to eat anything I bake, is pretty rare-- much less, eating the whole darn thing. But it was an awesome guilty pleasure :)

The hubby being the much more creative "punner" than I- decided to call them S'Moreos...get it?.....and since I loved the name so much- that is what I am going with. This is a simple dessert, pretty quick to make and absolutely fantastic!

S'MOREOS

Slightly adapted from Averie Cooks

INGREDIENTS

Preheat Oven to 350F Degrees

FOR THE CRUST
6 tbsp. butter, melted (3/4 stick)
32 Oreo, finely crushed (use food processor)

FOR THE TOPPING
2 c. mini marshmallows
17 caramels, unwrapped and quartered (i.e., cut each caramel square into fourths)
1/8 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips (or more if desired. I chose more :)

*The caramels are quite chewy. If you do not like chewy you could try melting the caramel with a bit of heavy cream so they stay melted. 

DIRECTIONS

First, line a 8x8 baking dish with aluminum foil. Grease aluminum foil with butter, shortening, or cooking spray. This will help when removing bars from baking dish, to allow for cooling and easier-cleaner cutting into squares.

For the crust: In a microwave safe small bowl, melt butter on high for about 45 seconds. In a large bowl combine, by hand (using a spatula) finely crushed Oreos and melted butter. Transfer Oreo crumble to the prepped baking dish and pack it down firmly using the bottom of a flat drinking glass or spice bottle. Make sure its packed firmly, otherwise when you cut the bar, the Oreo will crumble and create a mess. Bake 10-12 minutes, until set.

For topping: after removing crust from oven, immediately sprinkle marshmallows evenly over the crust (the heat will help the marshmallows stick). Then, evenly sprinkle caramels over marshmallows. Averie noted to sprinkle in just that order--and that is what you want to do. The caramels sink below the marshmallows but do not get absorbed into the Oreo crust for this nice chewy layer. So remember, marshmallows THEN caramels. Bake for an additional 5-8 minutes, just until marshmallows begin to brown and caramels begin to melt (my bars were ready right at 6 minutes).

Finally, immediately after removing baking dish from oven, evenly sprinkle the chocolate chips, pressing down very slightly with a spatula to make it stick to the marshmallows (the heat will melt the chocolate into this amazing gooey-ness). Allow bars to set and cool slightly, about 15-20 minutes. Then grabbing the ends of the aluminum foil, lift the S'Moreo out of the baking dish and place on cooling rack. Allow bars to cool for at least two hours before cutting (this will help in clean cut bars). Wet knife with warm water for easiest cutting (that way the melty marshmallows will not stick to the knife).

Enjoy and try to not to eat it in one day (but, hey, I won't judge ;),
Chika

S'more Muffins

T-Minus 5 days till my birthday! For the hubby's breakfast this week, I wanted to make some s'more muffins. One item on my wishlist was a muffin tray. Okay- so I admit it- I peeked- BUT only in the big box. I just knew my sister got it for me...flash forward a few seconds...fail! It was not in there and now I feel guilty for peeking. Since I am a blabber- when the hubby came home from a quick run to his work- I confessed that I peeked.

He let me know--after I put the muffins in the oven- that they did get me a muffin pan! He also told me that all the boxes from what he and my sister got me have not come yet! Now- not only am I excited about my muffin tray but to know there is more! I have officially turned 5 again :)

About these muffins: I love s'mores! In anyway I can eat them- traditional over a campfire, cookies, pies, cupcakes, bars....and now MUFFINS! When I searched for a s'more muffin recipe- there was only one good recipe I found. I was so surprised at how little s'more muffin recipes there were out there. But now I know why! These muffins are messy! Not so much to prepare and bake but the aftermath! Marshmallow fluff and stickiness everywhere :)  

When I read the reviews of the original recipe- some people said that it did not taste like s'mores per say and that the muffins were a bit dry. I compensated by adding more graham crackers and some heavy cream for moistness- but I may have overcompensated on the moistness. As for the taste- the hubby said that it did taste like s'more but you could not taste the graham cracker as much as he would have preferred. The recipe reflects how I would bake them next time. 

S'MORE MUFFINS

Adapted from Taste of Home

INGREDIENTS

Preheat oven to 400F Degrees

4 tbsp. of butter, softened

1/4 c. packed brown sugar

4 tsp. sugar

1 egg

1/3 c. sour cream

5-6 tbsp. heavy cream*

2/3 c. all purpose flour

2/3 c. graham cracker crumbs

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. cinnamon 

1/2 c. of chocolate chips

6 tbsp. marshmallow creme

*Add 5 tbsp. at first- if the batter appears too dense, add remaining heavy cream

**optional: 1/3 c. mini marshmallows 

DIRECTIONS

In the bowl of a stand-mixer fitted with paddle attachment, creme together butter and sugars on medium high speed. Add egg, sour cream, and heavy cream and mix on medium-high heat until well incorporated. 

In a separate bowl- whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and cinnamon. Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients- and mix until just incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips and, if you choose, mini marshmallows.

Fill each muffin tray- 1/4 of the way full with batter. Then place one tbsp. of marshmallow creme on top. Then top with remaining batter. Bake for 14-16 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Should make 6 large muffins. 

Enjoy,

Chika