Category Archives: Recipes

Easy Chicken & Dumplings

Posted on December 16, 2009 by Veronica

This recipe’s every ingredient is a shortcut, which makes the prep super simple and it turns out one heck of a delicious meal. Perfect for the holiday season when you’re too busy shopping, signing Christmas cards, and working 12 hour shifts at the post office (or is that just me?) to fret over dinner.

Easy Chicken & Dumplings

1 purchased rotisserie chicken*
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can full of milk
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
1 container of 5 biscuits

Shred the chicken and stir up with the soup, milk & vegetables in a large pot. Heat through until piping hot, then tear the biscuits into chunks and place on top. Cover and cook 15 minutes or until biscuits are cooked. Keep your heat on medium to keep the bottom from scorching since you won’t be able to stir it once the biscuits are on top.

*You can, of course, cook your own chicken (2 lbs. will do) if you have the time.

2 Comments

Posted in Main Dishes and tagged chicken, dumplings, easy. Bookmark the permalink.

Chipotle Honey Roasted Peanuts

Posted on December 6, 2009 by Veronica

These sweet, salty, spicy & smoky nuts are a personal favorite of mine. I have made them many times for parties and as gifts and they are always a huge hit. I’m currently making batches to include in Christmas gift baskets because there are so many cookies & sweets being given this time of year, and something with savory notes can be a relief from the monotony.

And I should add that a friend I shared this recipe with insists that it must be tried with almonds and walnuts as well. She says, “they are just amazing!”

Chipotle Honey Roasted Peanuts

from allrecipes.com

1/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons chipotle chile powder
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon kosher salt (I used table salt)
1 pound skinless peanuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Stir together the sugar, chipotle powder, chili powder, and garlic powder in a small bowl; set aside.

Stir together the butter, honey, and kosher salt in a large saucepan over medium heat until the butter has melted, and the mixture is bubbly. Stir in the peanuts until well coated, then pour out into a 9×13 inch baking dish.

Bake in preheated oven until the nuts are golden brown, about 30 minutes. Stir the mixture 2 or 3 times to ensure even cooking. Once done, scrape the peanuts into a large metal bowl, and sprinkle with the spice mixture. Toss the peanuts to evenly coat with the spice mixture. Allow the peanuts to cool to room temperature, tossing every few minutes so the nuts do not stick together.

*Veronica’s notes: I use unsalted roasted peanuts, which initially caused me a bit of worry as I thought they’d be over-roasted after baking for 30 minutes, but nope, they were just perfect. I have also used salted, roasted nuts and omitted the salt from the recipe. If you’re giving them as a gift, here’s an idea on how to package it–just buy a jar or plastic container of nuts, save it, and put the nuts back in when they’re done (wait till they cool). The coating bulks their size so you’ll have plenty left over for yourself. :) Then just rip off the old label and make your own custom label. A cellophanE bag with a festive bow would make an attractive presentation as well, and you could get 2-3 bags out of each recipe, depending on the size of your bag.

7 Comments

Posted in My Favorites, Snacks & Appetizers and tagged chipotle, honey roasted, peanuts. Bookmark the permalink.

Soft Caramels

Posted on December 4, 2009 by Veronica

Something has come over me. For the past two days, I haven’t been able to sleep until two in the morning and during the day, I’ve been so tired that it literally feels like my eyes are going to fall out of their sockets.

The reason? Caramels. Cararmels have turned me into a zombie woman. They’ve completely taken over my life and I can get no rest!

Two days ago I got the brilliant idea to finally give homemade caramels a go. I was pleasantly surprised at how simple they were to prepare. They weren’t, however, easy to remove from the pan, and so I stayed up until two in the morning scraping each square from the pan and wrapping them in waxed paper. And eating every other one.

I have to say, store-bought caramels can’t hold a candle to homemade. Homemade is soft, gooey, buttery, caramelly deliciousness. They are so delicious that I couldn’t resist making another batch the following day. After all, I made the first batch for gifts and now I needed more for an upcoming Christmas party. (Not for myself…of course not.) And besides, I needed to figure out a way to keep the caramels from sticking to the pan and what better way than trial and error?

So I made a second batch, lining the pan with waxed paper and spraying it with oil. And I stayed up until two in the morning the second day in a row, scraping each piece off the waxed paper, then dipping them in chocolate (because party caramels should be pretty and irresistable).

And they were. Irresistable. I ate every other one. Again.

Obviously I also encountered a problem with photography as well. I absolutely could not stop shooting photos of these beautiful things. After shooting picture after picture, I eventually ran to the garage and got out Christmas decorations (I’ve been too busy making caramels to decorate with them yet) to use for props. All told, I took well over 100 pictures of them. I’m not even kidding. Then it took me almost an hour to narrow down the ones I wanted to keep to the myriad I’m posting here.

And now it’s nearly one in the morning, and what am I doing? Staying up so I can tell everyone about these fabulous things. Like I said, they’ve taken over my life. And I suppose I’ve happily relinquished control!

As for the problem with the caramel sticking to the pan, I now know you have to very generous with the butter. I should have consulted my friend, Teri, before I made the caramels, since I knew she makes them every year at this time. Ah well, now I have an excuse to make another batch. You know, just to see if it works.

Soft Caramels

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 pound brown sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 (14-oz) can sweetened condensed milk

Put all the ingredients in a large saucepan (my 3-quart was the perfect size–don’t go any smaller) and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and continue to boil, stirring constantly, for ten minutes. Set the timer as soon as it begins to bubble and take the pan off as soon as it goes off. Pour caramel into a buttered 9×13 pan and let cool completely before cutting & wrapping in squares of waxed paper.

Tips for success

*If you have a candy thermometer, it wouldn’t hurt to attach it to the pan to make sure the caramel is at 245 degrees F when you remove it from the heat. My first batch was actually at 240 when I removed it and it still turned out fine, but my second batch reached 245 in nine minutes so I removed it early and it was the same texture as the first batch.

*You can stir in a teaspoon of vanilla after you remove the pan from the heat. I did this the second time but didn’t notice an improvement in flavor. It seemed just as good without the vanilla, so I didn’t include it in the ingredient list.

*When you pour the caramel into the buttered pan, there will be some that clings to the bottom and sides. Don’t scrape this out on top of the pan of caramel like I did on my first batch. Have a small buttered bowl on hand and scrape it into that. This caramel will be harder than the other caramel, because it remained in contact with the heat longer. If you scrape it out, you will have a hard piece among the soft and when you try to cut it, the softer caramel will squish out and it won’t be pretty and perfect. This caramel is totally edible, just a little more chewy, so you can snack on it while rolling your evenly-textured caramels into waxed paper.

*On both batches, I put salted, roasted peanuts on half of the pan. The salty/sweet combo is yummy and kind of reminds me of a PayDay. And when you dip the pieces in chocolate, it’s kind of like a Snickers. Except it’s way better than either because it’s homemade! If you want to add nuts to the whole batch, you can stir them in after removing the pan from the heat. If you only want half the batch with nuts or want two or more types of nuts, dump the caramel into the pan and then sprinkle the nuts over the top. The first batch I tried putting the nuts on half of the bottom and pouring the caramel over, but the nuts got all pushed around and then tons of air bubbles kept rising up and I had to keep popping them so that the surface didn’t look all funkalicious.

*If you’d like to dip the caramels in chocolate, you can either melt chocolate almond bark, an equal amount of chocolate chips with almond bark (this makes the color darker & it tastes better while still setting up nicely) or you can melt chocolate with some shaved paraffin wax. (This makes the chocolate shiny & makes it set up really nicely. You can find it on the baking aisle.) I melted 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips (I think milk chocolate would be even better!) with 1/8 of a block of finely shaved paraffin in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until everything was melted and smooth and shiny. Dip the caramels with a fork, tap off the excess and slide them onto a sheet of waxed paper to set. I ground a bit of sea salt over the plain caramels while the chocolate was still wet because I like salted caramels and it did have a nice flavor. For a prettier presentation, I would use flaky sea salt (also on the baking aisle).

*I encourage you to dip at least half the caramels in chocolate. I didn’t think caramel could get any better after I made it from scratch. And then I dipped it. And dipped some more!

63 Comments

Posted in Candy, My Favorites and tagged candy, caramels, christmas, easy, food gifts, holidays, soft. Bookmark the permalink.

LAURA DON’T READ THIS BLOG!

Posted on December 2, 2009 by Veronica

When my friend, Laura, an Oreo-cookie fanatic, saw my picture of these Oreo truffles, she told me, “Please, please don’t give me the recipe. They’d be my new Rolo crack.”

Rolo Turtles (aka “Rolo crack” among certain circles) is so delicious that it is absolutely irresistable and has caused weight gain in those who were foolish enough to make it, including Laura herself (the one who gave us the big idea in the first place)!

Hence the blog title. Yes, I’m well aware that it will most likely not deter her, but I can’t be held responsible–I did my best. After all, I couldn’t deprive my other friends of this recipe for her benefit. (Sorry, Laura!)
Now, onto the truffles!

The middles of these truffles are black, soft, and taste just like an Oreo cookie. If you have a food processor, they’re a snap to prepare. In fact, they’re the easiest truffles I’ve ever dipped in chocolate, because I didn’t have to refrigerate them first (they don’t melt when dipped in warm chocolate), which means the chocolate cooled much slower and I didn’t have to keep zapping it in the microwave. None of the filling melted off into the chocolate when I dunked them, and the chocolate slid off the truffles effortlessly, making a perfect, smooth, thin coating. I really deplore dipping truffles and usually just roll them in cocoa, but if I must dip, I would love it if the job were this easy every time.

Whip up a batch and take them to your next party or package them up as a gift–I guarantee they’ll be a hit!

Oreo Truffles

1 package (1 lb. 2 oz) Oreo cookies
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
6 squares chocolate almond bark
1 square white almond bark (optional)

*It is OK to eat several of the cookies before you crush them. If you use the whole package, you will be left with over a cup of extra crushed cookies once you’re done making the truffles.

Put the cookies in the bowl of your food processor and process until very finely crushed. Measure out 3 cups of the crumbs and put them in a mixing bowl. Set the remaining crumbs aside for later. Add the cream cheese and mush it all up with your hands until it is a soft dough and is uniform in texture.

Form the mixture into balls, rolling until smooth, and place on a plate. Set a long piece of wax paper on a work surface, such as your counter.

Melt the chocolate almond bark according to package directions and dip each truffle in the chocolate with a fork. Tap the excess chocolate off and use a second fork to push the coated truffle onto the waxed paper. Sprinkle cookie crumbs onto the chocolate while it is still wet. Continue until all the truffles are coated, leaving half uncovered if you wish.

If you choose, you can melt the white almond bark and, using a fork or pastry bag, drizzle it over the truffles without crumbs on top.

Mine were OK at room temp for several days, but to be safe, I’d recommend storing them in the fridge if you aren’t going to serve them within 24 hours.

17 Comments

Posted in Candy and tagged oreo, truffles. Bookmark the permalink.

Emerald Soup

Posted on December 2, 2009 by Veronica

*Updated 1/16/13: since I’m no longer in touch with the lady that gave me this recipe, I can be totally honest and tell you this was awful and please don’t make it! LOL! I blogged this on MySpace before I cared about the quality of recipes I shared (for the record, I only blog the best ones now) and transferred it here when I started my blog. I can’t bear to delete it so I just want to warn you that you shouldn’t make it!*

With both Thanksgiving dinners (we have one for each side of our family) and all the leftovers out of the way, I’m a little tired of heavy foods and was craving something light and healthy. Since Dennis is out of town for the week, I can cook whatever I want (“whee” for that but “boo” to him being gone) and I immediately thought of this soup, whose title and ingredients had caught my attention when my friend, Rhonda, first posted it on her MySpace blog.

It is creamy & flavorful and I love the delightful color. And the best part is that it’s so healthy that I felt totally justified in pairing it with a light & airy sweet dinner roll (or three)….slathered with butter. :)

Emerald Soup

1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
2 TBSP. butter
1 TBSP. olive oil
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth*
2 cups packed fresh spinach leaves or half of a 10 oz pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed
2 medium potatoes. peeled and chopped (2 cups)
2 cups broccoli florets or one 10 oz. pkg. frozen cut broccoli, thawed and well-drained
1 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1 tsp. dry mustard
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
Dash of bottled hot pepper sauce (optional)
1 & 1/2 cups milk (I used 3/4 cup)

*Chicken broth will work but I stuck with vegetable to keep this dish vegetarian.

In a saucepan, cook onion and garlic in hot butter and olive oil over medium-high heat 4 to 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Stir in broth, spinach, potatoes, broccoli, oregano, mustard, salt, nutmeg and hot pepper sauce. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover; simmer 15 minutes or until vegetables are very tender. Cool slightly.

Use an immersion blender to blend the soup, or transfer it to a blender or food-processor bowl. Cover; blend or process until smooth. (Warning: leave the middle part out of the blender so steam can escape, otherwise the lid will explode off once you start blending and boiling hot soup will go everywhere!) Return to pan. Stir in milk. Heat through. Serve with croutons, if desired.

Makes 4 side dish servings (or you could double up to make it a meal in itself).

Recipe courtesy of Rhonda C.

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Posted in Lighter Fare, Soups & Stews, Vegetarian & Vegan and tagged brocolli, emerald soup, spinach. Bookmark the permalink.

Triple Chocolate Caramel Corn

Posted on December 2, 2009 by Veronica

In the middle of packing Dennis up to go on a business trip this last Saturday, I realized I’d forgotten a friend’s birthday and had to come up with something quick to give her when I saw her at church the next day.

This is what I made, and between me and Dennis shoving handfuls in our mouths while it cooled, she’s darn lucky she got any of it!

Triple Chocolate Caramel Corn

Slightly Adapted from Red’s Ultimate Chocolate Caramel Popcorn

½ cup popcorn kernels, popped (I use an air popper)
1 (12-oz) container salted mixed nuts
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup (3 oz) dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup (3 oz) milk chocolate chips
½ cup (3 oz) white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Divide the popcorn between two very large bowls and pour half the mixed nuts over each bowl of popcorn.

Stirring constantly, bring butter, brown sugar, salt & corn syrup to a boil over medium heat. As soon as it starts to bubble around the edges, set the timer for five minutes and continue stirring while it boils. After five minutes, remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Mixture will get foamy.

Pour half over each bowl of popcorn and stir it all up, working quickly before the caramel starts to harden. If you have someone to stir the second bowl, that helps but is not necessary. Stir well to get the popcorn and nuts evenly coated.

Place in large roaster pan and stir again, then and bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

While it is baking, cover two cookie sheets with waxed paper. Once the popcorn is done, remove from oven, give it another stir, and spread in an even layer over the cookie sheets.

Melt the chocolates in three separate bowls by microwaving for 30 seconds, stirring, and continuing in intervals until it is smooth. Be careful not to overheat the chocolate or it will seize and be ruined. Drizzle each variety of chocolate evenly over the popcorn with a spoon or by pouring it in a thin stream from the bowl.

Place the cookie sheets in the fridge and Allow the chocolate to set before breaking into pieces and packaging in airtight container(s).

3 Comments

Posted in Candy and tagged caramel corn, triple chocolate. Bookmark the permalink.

Baked Pasta with Spinach & Sausage

Posted on November 24, 2009 by Veronica

So much for meatless Mondays! I was so excited about trying this recipe that I totally forgot that Monday is supposed to be our meatless day. I wonder how hard it will be to convince Dennis that this means two meatless days next week to make up for it?

We both really enjoyed this and it’s fairly simple. I liked it so much, in fact, I’m thinking about trying it with mushrooms in place of the meat next Monday!

Baked Pasta with Chicken Sausage

from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium red onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes
1 (14.5 oz.) can crushed tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 pound rigatoni (I used whole wheat rotini)
10 ounces frozen baby spinach, thawed and drained well (I used a pound)
12 ounces precooked smoked chicken (or turkey) sausage, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/4 inch thick (I used 3 links of spicy Italian sausage, cooked on the grill)
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, 4 ounces cut into 1/2-inch cubes and 4 ounces shredded
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion; cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Stir in garlic. Cook for another minute.

Stir in tomatoes, oregano and basil; simmer for 8-10 minutes. Add cream; cook until warmed through, about 5 minutes. Season sauce with salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook pasta in the boiling water until al dente, according to package instructions. (If using fresh spinach, add it to the pot of boiling pasta right at the end and cook until wilted.) Drain, and return contents to pot.

Add tomato sauce, sausage, spinach and cubed mozzarella to the pot; toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Scoop pasta into lightly greased 9X13-inch pan (or divide evenly between two 8X8-inch pans). Top with grated mozzarella and Parmesan. Bake until browned and edges are crisp, 20 to 30 minutes.

*Freezable Meal: Prepare recipe right up until the baking step and then cover with a double layer of aluminum foil. Freeze. Thaw in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 days. To bake, increase baking time to 1 to 1 1/4 hours. If baking from frozen, bake covered for 1 hour and 15 minutes, uncover and bake 30 minutes longer. Makes a heaping full 9X13 pan.

2 Comments

Posted in Italian, Pasta and tagged baked pasta, sausage, spinach. Bookmark the permalink.

Easy Apple Cider Doughnuts

Posted on November 23, 2009 by Veronica

Am I the only one who thinks things like apple cider & pumpkin pie are fall treats and aren’t meant to be enjoyed after Thanksgiving? Kind of like wearing white after labor day, it shouldn’t be done? I’m sort of hoping I am the only one who thinks this way, because otherwise this wonderful recipe won’t be tried in time and will be long forgotten when fall rolls around next year.

If you have the ingredients on hand, I urge you to make these before the official fall eating season has turned to Christmas eating (for me, that means the apple cider and pumpkin are replaced by egg nog and chocolate…lots of chocolate). They are simple so you could even serve them on Thanksgiving morning without over-taxing yourself. And the sugar buzz will get your long day of cooking off to a nice start.

Easy Apple Cider Doughnuts

recipe courtesy of Marina C.

1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmet
1 cup apple cider
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
2 cups baking mix (such as Bisquick–I used some generic stuff)

Preheat oil in deep fryer to 375 degrees F. (I just filled a skillet half full of oil and heated it. Be sure to check the temperature with a candy thermometer.)

Beat egg, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cider and vanilla together. Add flour and baking mix.

On floured surface, knead dough several times and roll to 1/2-inch thick. Cut with donut cutter (I used a large & tiny biscuit cutter, or you could use a glass & a pop cap or use the handle of a wooden spoon to poke a hole). Drop into hot oil & cook until golden brown, turn, and cook the other side until golden brown. Keep the candy thermometer in the oil and adjust the heat on the burner as necessary to keep the temperature steady. You don’t want to let the oil get too hot or it will burn the doughnuts before they have a chance to cook in the middle. Don’t forget to cook those donut holes as well! Waste not…)

Drain on paper towels. Frost or roll in a cinnamon-sugar mixture. I mixed 1 cup sugar with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon for the coating.

Serves 18-24

5 Comments

Posted in Breakfast and tagged apple cider, doughnuts, easy. Bookmark the permalink.

Cinnabon Caramel Corn

Posted on November 21, 2009 by Veronica

I suppose I could get in trouble for putting a trademarked name into the title of this popcorn, but the truth is I’m just way too unimportant for Cinnabon to care what I do with their name. And if they tasted this popcorn, they’d probably consider it a compliment that their name had been ascribed to this tasty treat.

Does it taste like a Cinnabon? I have no idea. I think it does, but I’ve only had 1/4 of a single Cinnabon in my entire life, and that was four years ago and as far as I recall, it did not have pecans in it. I do know, however, that it reminds me of a cinnamon roll and it is crazy delicious and I just really like calling it Cinnabon Caramel Corn (versus the official name: “Cinnamon Caramel Corn with Pecans and White Chocolate”–way too many syllables to pronounce when I could be stuffing my face with popcorn exactly eight syllables earlier.).

This would make a great food gift this holiday season and stays fresh in an airtight container for at least a week (based on reports from recievers of portions that were mailed). Ours did not survive more than an hour after it had cooled.

OK, fine. We ate half of it warm.

Cinnabon Caramel Corn
Recipe by Our Best Bites
(My notes are in parentheses. (I like parentheses.))

12 C popped popcorn (about 1/2 C kernels)*
1 C roughly chopped pecans
1 C brown sugar
3/4 t cinnamon
1/4 C Karo syrup (or honey makes a good substitution)
1 stick real butter (1/2 C)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
3 squares almond bark

*You can use air popped or microwave popcorn. If using microwave, anything works, but I prefer a “natural” flavor that’s low in butter and salt.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Place popcorn and chopped pecans in a large bowl and set aside. (I personally divided the popcorn & nuts between two ginormous bowls, which I would recommend so you have room for lots of stirring.)

Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a 2 liter capacity microwave safe bowl. Mix well. Chop butter into chunks and place on top of sugar mixture. Pour corn syrup over the top of everything. Microwave on high for 30 seconds and then stir to combine. Return to microwave and heat for 2 minutes. Remove and stir and then microwave for 2 minutes more.

Remove from microwave and add in vanilla and baking soda. Stir to combine. Mixture will foam and rise. Pour caramel mixture over popcorn and pecans and stir very well so everything is well coated.

Spread popcorn mixture onto a foil-lined jelly roll pan. (I had to use a jelly roll pan & a 9×13 pan–I think 2 jelly roll pans would be best.) Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. (I thought the popcorn wasn’t quite crisp enough after it cooled and will try baking it 10-20 minutes longer next time. I usually bake caramel corn for an hour and found it odd this one only called for half the time.)

Remove from oven and spread out on a large piece of parchment, waxed paper, or foil.

Melt almond bark according to package instructions. Drizzle over popcorn mixture. (I dipped a fork in it and swirled it all over.) When almond bark is hardened and popcorn is cool, break into chunks and enjoy!

5 Comments

Posted in Candy, My Favorites, Sweets and tagged caramel corn, cinnabon, cinnamon, pecans, popcorn, white chocolate. Bookmark the permalink.

Salted Brown Butter Crispy Treats

Posted on November 20, 2009 by Veronica

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

THESE ARE SO GOOD!

Everyone likes Rice Krispies Treats, but browning the butter before making them really kicks these up a notch. I go through about 3 lbs of butter a week, so that probably counts as an obsession, but what I’m really obsessed with is browning it. I just LOVE the flavor of browned butter. I love the smell of it as it’s cooking. I love the look of it, with the dark brown specks (which also fleck these treats). I just love everything about it. So, naturally, I love these.

I made a double batch, and I’m glad I did b/c my husband and I ate half the recipe immediately, which left just enough to package up to ship out for gifts.

These are very simple, the only difference between it and the original recipe being that you add salt and brown the butter first, which just tacks on about 5 minutes to the prep time. (OK fine, that and the fact that there’s a LOT more butter in it…but I can’t complain about that!) These would be great for Christmas, all-occasion gifts, bake sales, potlucks, after-school snacks, after dinner treats, afternoon snacks, after-breakfast snacks, midnight snacks, “I just ate a tomato so I need to eat something unhealthy to balance out my diet” snacks….I think you get the picture.

I don’t, however, recommend doubling the recipe unless you have a lot of people to feed because, if you’re anything like me, you won’t be able to stop eating them until they’re gone.

Salted Brown Butter Crispy Treats
From Smitten Kitchen, with slightly modified instructions

1 stick unsalted butter, plus extra for the pan
1 10-ounce bag marshmallows
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
6 cups Rice Krispies cereal (about half a 12-ounce box)

Butter (or coat with non-stick spray) an 8-inch square cake pan with 2-inch sides.

In a large pot, melt butter over medium-low heat. It will melt, then foam, then turn clear golden and finally start to turn brown and smell nutty. Stir frequently, scraping up any bits from the bottom as you do.

When the butter takes on a nutty color and the solids have turned a chocolate-brown, stir in the salt & marshmallows. Turn off the heat once the marshmallows are melted and the mixture is smooth.

Remove the pot from the stove and stir in the cereal. Quickly spread into prepared pan. I liked to use a piece of waxed or parchment paper that I’ve sprayed with oil to press it firmly and evenly into the edges and corners, though a silicon spatula works almost as well.

Let cool, cut into squares and get ready to make new friends.

Veronica’s Notes: If you use salted butter, omit the salt from the recipe. If you use table salt, use a scant 1/4 teaspoon.