{in the kitchen with Sam} Anniversary Chex Mix

So yesterday was Chris and I's 4th wedding anniversary. September 23rd marked 6 years of dating! Seems like we've accomplished quite a bit in that relatively short amount of time! In honor of our anniversary, I decided to prepare a yummy dessert. Now, let's be clear, Chris and I have different opinions of "what's yummy". He will house three bowls of cereal for dinner, while I crave home made squash soup. He's simply pleased, I however require a little more complexity. Probably explains our marriage! Since I was preparing a dessert for him, I took into consideration some of his favorite ingredients like cereal and caramel and knew I needed to keep it simple. I found a recipe for a chex mix dessert that I instantly knew, Chris would love. Had it been I was cooking for myself, I would have probably chosen a decadent cupcake of some sort with a delicious raspberry filling. I just want the blog to be clear, in the event I ever forget, what kinds of foods I like. So to keep the blog G rated I changed the name of the dessert. It was originally titled "Better than (rhymes with chex) Chex Mix". I figured since I let Sam help me prepare these foods, that title wouldn't work. I renamed it "Anniversary Chex Mix". I know, super creative title. I am going to go ahead and disappoint all of my faithful readers now by admitting I didn't get the "Sam" of approval yet. Let's just say there was a situation yesterday with a bag, candy wrappers, my carpet and my daughters. Treats weren't on the top of the list for them yesterday!

{The Recipe}
1 box of Chocolate Chex Mix (8 cups)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup of expensive Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, MINI size
1 cup MINIATURE marshmallows
1/2 cup caramel squares
1 Tbsp half and half
1/2 cup MILK chocolate baking chips
1/2 cup WHTIE chocolate baking chips
1 tsp coarse sea salt

I have seen on a lot of cooking blogs these really great pictures, and wanted to do my own version of the "line up all of your ingredients picture". This would be a realistic "my kid won't stop eating the chocolate chips from my lined up ingredients picture".

What will be important for me to remember about this recipe is that if you do not have any of the ingredients, it is a very pricey dessert. BUT, you don't use all of the chocolate chips and Reese's, so I see a yummy trail mix in my future. I started off by heating up the sugar, butter, and corn syrup in the microwave for a minute. Then you mix it up really good, so it's nice and creamy.

Mix in the baking soda and in a separate, larger bowl coat the 8 cups of cereal. I had to microwave in minute increments, for three minutes, and mix the cereal each time so that all the pieces were covered. Worth noting, Cara was home sick from school yesterday and so badly wanted to help, but she couldn't stop coughing long enough to do anything constructive without spreading her germs into my dessert. You can't see her in this picture, but she is standing in the background crying as Sam helps me coat the cereal. I guess I will need to have our own baking session soon, which is totally fine with me!

After it's coated, you spread it out on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and let cool for about ten minutes.

After it has cooled, you sprinkle on the mini mallows and Reese's, which makes it look so incredibly delicious. And at this point, you also need to pop a few mallows and Reese's in your mouth, to make sure they are suitable for the recipe.

Now for the messy, create a lot of dishes part. You have to melt the chocolates and the caramels so that you can drizzle them on. Sure you could do a double broiler thing, but I mean, I know myself and that's a little too much work when the microwave is right there, waiting to be used. The trick though is getting the chocolates melted without burning them. And having melted A LOT of chocolate in my microwave, I have found the perfect time of 47 seconds for white chocolate chips and 1:23 for milk chocolate. The caramel proved easier with the added half and half and also took a little more than a minute to melt. I created three dirty bowls and three dirty spoons in the process...booo. But when you see all of these ingredients come together as one, it's hard to worry about dishes. The last step would have been to sprinkle on the coarse salt, but I chose to take pictures and forget.

Delightful! Not so delightful was my cell phone attempt at a cool food blogger picture. It's blurry and horrible but whatever, no one reads my blog.

I made some romantic parfaits in wine glasses tied with our wedding colors as well...

...and Chris loved it! He ate his entire parfait! I only made it through the first layer, that's how sweet it was. Our anniversary dessert was a success! Happy four years of marriage to us...cheers!

roller coasters and bowling balls

Every now and again we are lucky enough to stumble upon a weekend that is jammed pack with fun things to do. I welcome these kinds of weekends with open arms after long weeks of not a whole lot to do. It's safe to say I could get a job, hobby, life, etc. So this past weekend was so packed we had to forgo some events. And that just makes me sad! I think it only makes sense to stretch the weekend out about two more days and shorten up the boring, snooze fest work week. Who's with me? If I had a lot of readers, I know I'd have an audience in agreement.

Of course now, I must tell you about our weekend. It started with a fun, impromptu trip to Six Flags. See, I never win anything. Or I should say, I never win money. It seems when I do win something, it's of complete randomness. For example, when I was a kid, I won a bike at K-Mart. I was shopping with my mom, and I signed up in some holiday sweepstakes to win a fresh, beautiful poinsettia. (Even at a young age, Christmas decor was important to me). The humor in the story is that I ended up winning the grand prize, which was a bike, and found myself a little disappointed I didn't get the poinsettia. I already had a new bike from the previous year, that was an awesome neon pink WITH an AM/FM radio on it! I ended up giving the bike I won to my older sister. I know, a selfless act. A coerced, selfless act. Fast forward to this year, when I won a year supply of Nestle Pure Life water bottles. Honestly, I can't be clear how I won that contest, but randomness at it's finest. I won water. Woo hoo! But I must say, winning Six Flags tickets through a Facebook contest, although random, was pretty cool. Especially when I researched that Cara's height was suitable for riding some of their roller coasters. So we used the tickets this past weekend, since they were about to expire and had a fabulous time! Courtney joined us, which was awesome since Chris had someone to ride the big roller coasters with (and not peer pressure me).

Chris got on this ride called the Acrophobia that soars to 200 feet in the air and then drops you. With little warning, drops you. Scariest. ride. ever.

Finally, I had to take a picture of one of the roller coasters Cara rode. Most of the rides they have weave in and out of trees so you don't see the true size of them from a distance. The Georgia Scream Machine however stands out plain as day. I have no clue how Chris got her on this thing, but she was all smiles after!

Another thing worth noting from our busy weekend, was Cara's first birthday party through a school friend. We've been to a few birthday parties through our friends and their kids, but this was Cara's first birthday party through a friend from her class. It was at the bowling alley. There was music, food, dancing, bowling, cake and games. Every kids dream come true! Cara was a little shy, but I want to keep encouraging her to be comfortable with the kids from her class. I think it will help with her feeling comfortable at school and not giving me alligator tears every morning. It can't hurt right! Here are a couple blurry pictures with her and her friends Joslyn and Allie.

Lunchtime Fun

Keeping lunchtime fun with banana dogs topped with pb&j.

I'm a mom

I want to remember really quick how I felt today, when I read a story about a family that touched my heart. A little boy who is sick and is going to pass away and his parents who are trying to continue living with their hearts broken in half. I want to always remember how sad I have felt for them, and anyone who loses a child. And I want to remember how incredibly blessed and grateful I am for my two children and being their mom. Some days, those simple facts get lost in the hustle and bustle of life and they shouldn't. I'm a mom. I'm an incredibly fortunate, lucky mom.

To more light hearted topics! I haven't yet posted on Cara's adventures with her class pet Ellie the elephant. We had him over Labor Day weekend, and with not a whole lot planned, we made the most of it. We took her for a ride in Chris' new jeep, went out for frozen yogurt, visited with Christina and Matty and played at Chik Fil A, took a nature walk where we saw a deer, visited with Aunt Stephy at Mimi's house and went to the park, and we even rolled out the slip and slide for some water fun. I think I may have been more excited about having Ellie visit, but Cara seemed to really enjoy the idea. It was like having a weekend guest over! My favorite part being that Ellie didn't make a single mess!

At the end of last week, I treated Cara to an ice cream float after school, just me and her. I don't want her to feel like she's losing time with me, so I'm making it a point to create alone time together. We visited Miss L's Sandwhich Shop and Cara ordered the root beer float with chocolate ice cream. They told us they've never had anyone order it with chocolate ice cream and asked us if it was okay if they named the float after her. So Miss L's Sandwhich Shop now carries the Cara Float although no one but Cara will probably ever order it!

We had a little family craft night this past weekend and made homemade play dough. It was a first for Cara, Sam and I and turned out to be a lot of fun! As a person who works often with flour, oil and water, I was pretty taken aback by how quickly heat turned gloop into a big glump of play dough. We also added kool aid for its pinkish color and strawberry scent and glitter for, well, for glittery glam! The girls thought it was equally as exciting and we have some big plans for some fall play dough recipes. I see pumpkin play dough in our very near future!

{in the kitchen with Sam} Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Remember the movie about Julia Child? Julie and Julia? I personally wasn't all that interested in the plot or actors when it came out, but I remember it getting a lot of attention. So I happen to flip it on this week, during my post root canal laziness, and kind of fell in love with Julia Child! Don't worry, I am not going to cook my way through "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and blog about it. I just loved Julia's passion for food and how she made a name for herself in the world of chefs, starting at the late age of 30! It is very inspiring for a 29 year old woman, who hasn't quite found a passion that sticks. So, between the inspiration of a culinary driven film and wanting to will Fall into the streets of Acworth, I decided to cook up some Pumpkin Snickerdoodles. And I recruited my very best side kick, Sammy. Also keeping in line with Cara's themes at school, which was "shapes", we chose to highlight the circle. When it works, it works.

The Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon


The Sous Chef:

No this is not deja vous...Sam likes to wear the same dress...a lot.

First, we mixed up the dry ingredients. This is the step I feel most confident in my 2 year olds assistance. A nice deeeeep bowl + a very smallll whisk = minimal damage.

One thing you learn as you bake more, is most every recipe involving butter and sugar is going to want you to cream these two things together. One thing you learn as a person with OCD, finding the right amount of time to microwave butter and achieve optimal softness can be a challenge.

Sam added the egg to the butter-sugar mix. This was very exciting for her. What was exciting for me was putting the ingredients in their own special, little bowls. It made me feel like I was on a cooking show. After the egg, we blended in the pumpkin. And let me tell you, Mr. pumpkin puree has been welcomed back with open arms! There's something about the smell of pumpkin!

That tiny hand belongs to Sam. Round of applause for the 2 year old who has overcome her fear of the mixer! Lastly we mixed in the dry ingredients. This is where the fun part came. Recipes always sound so optimistic. Like, just roll them up into 1 1/2 inch balls and cover in a cinnamon-sugar mixture. My version would be: good luck rolling dough that seems to be having a love affair with your palm. Also, have fun measuring 1 1/2 inch balls. How about, get them in the size range of a golf ball and doughnut hole and throw into the cinnamon-sugar mix before they turn into hand moisturizer. At least once they swim in there you can shape them up a bit. Sam watched as I attempted three batches of this (and this was after chilling the dough) in amusement. Her only comments were "your hands are messy" and "you need to wash your hands". We did it though! We made balls!

And those mushy balls became beautiful cinnamon-sugar coated pumpkin filled cookies!

And of course it wouldn't be blog worthy without the "Sam" of approval!

In the words of the great Julia Child, bon appetit!