Sunday, June 19, 2011

LISA'S VISIT, AND TINA'S SALTED NUT ROLL BARS!!!



Today I am cheating a little bit, because I'm getting ready for this pretty young lady to come and visit, day after tomorrow........


This is my dear girlfriend Lisa, and she lives in the Central California Sierra foothills region. She's riding her bike alllll the way here to New York to see me! Well, not really--she's flying on American Airlines...but still, I'm SO excited for lots of coffee and wine time with her, and to show her our little neck o' the woods. Which, I must admit is breathtakingly pretty 'bout now. Anyways, I'm trying to get a lot of stuff done around here, so that I can just kick back and chill-ax with Lisa, so I haven't been snapping too many photos of fabulous foods, because, well, there haven't been too many fabulous foods around to snap photos of! But you are in such LUCK, because my friend Julia, who has an amazing blog about the disease we share (her blog is called Reasonably Well) has allowed me to steal one of her recipes...and boy oh boy is this a good one! It's got all the necessary ingredients for a super decadent treat--a little sweet, a little salty, a little bit of nuts, and a lot of marshmallows and peanut butter chips. Oh my goodness. If you'd like to check out the rest of her super informative blog, you can do so, HERE. Otherwise, here's the recipe.....thank you so very much, Julia, for making my life a little bit sweeter AND easier.......and the title of her post just slays me!..........



Friday, June 17, 2011

Don't Make This Recipe


I've had this recipe card for almost thirty years. My friend Tina gave me the recipe, and then about fifteen years later, my daughter decided to illustrate it with smiley faces. Awwwww. 

If you're trying to eat healthily by reducing fat and refined sugars in your diet, DO NOT READ THIS POST. 

Don't say I didn't warn you. 

So I offered to bake some cookie bars for my friend Susan's upcoming party. Today was baking day, and I decided to get out one of my favorite really-horribly-bad-for-you recipes: salted nut roll bars. It's basically a very large candy bar in a 9x13 inch pan and mmmmm, mmmmm good. 

You start by mixing a dry yellow cake mix, an egg, and some softened butter together. Pat in a cake pan and bake until lightly browned.


Take the pan out of the oven and cover cake layer with a bag of miniature marshmallows. Return to the oven until the marshmallows are puffed, about five minutes or so. 


Let the cake and marshmallow layer cool. Meanwhile, melt together corn syrup, peanut butter chips, butter, and vanilla in a saucepan. Stir in peanuts and crispy rice cereal. 


Drop by teaspoonfuls over cooled marshmallow layer until evenly covered. Chill. 


Cover pan with foil and run - don't walk - over to your neighbor's house with these cookie bars. Do not attempt to cut into them unless you want to find yourself eating the entire pan. You think I'm kidding? There's a good reason why there is not a picture of a piece of these cookie bars cut and arranged enticingly on a pretty plate in this post. 

Dangerously good. Here's the recipe - but whip up a batch of these at your own risk.

Tina's Salted Nut Roll Bars
  • One box dry yellow cake mix
  • One egg
  • 1/3 cup softened butter
Mix together and pat into a 9x13 inch cake pan. (If you look closely at the picture of Tina's recipe card, she calls for a larger pan, but my family likes them a bit thicker.) Bake at 350 degrees f. for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. 
  • One large bag miniature marshmallows
Sprinkle marshmallows over baked crust. Return to oven and bake until marshmallows are puffed but not browned, about five minutes.
  • 12 oz. peanut butter chips
  • 2/3 cup white corn syrup
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
Melt over low heat until blended. 
  • 2 cups salted peanuts
  • 2 cups crispy rice cereal
Stir cereal and peanuts into peanut butter mixture. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cooled marshmallow layer until surface is evenly covered. Chill. Cut into bite sized pieces. 
 
 

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