My Mom's Rocky Road

I have had lots of rocky road candy but this is the only one I like. And Robocop agrees. He says to me "I don't bother eating anyone else's anymore." There are a few things that make this rocky road the best - a sweet and salty combo-- so I'd follow the recipe to the T the first time.

Growing up Mom made lots of this...some with peanuts, some with cashews, sometimes walnuts.

Ingredients:

12 oz PKG SEMI-SWEET Chocolate Chips

14oz Can Sweetened Condensed Milk

2 TBL BUTTER (real butter - not margarine)

1 JAR Planters dry roasted peanuts (salted) This is roughly 2 cups

10 oz PKG Mini Marshmallows

1. Butter a 13x9 pan. I recommend using real butter not nonstick or margarine.
2. Melt chocolate, condensed milk and butter over low heat in a pan.
3. Stir continuously to avoid scalding.
4. In a large bowl combine marshmallows and peanuts.
5. Pour chocolate mixture over the nuts and marshmallows and mix well with a spoon.
6. Spread in your buttered pan. Lay wax paper on top and mush down.
7. Cover with wax paper and saran wrap
8. Chill 2 hours.

ENJOY! The secret to this is the salted nuts, semi sweet chocolate, and the butter. This gives just the right combo of sweet and salty.

Homemade Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies

This recipe is very easy and inexpensive and mimics those wonderfully yummy Girl Scout Thin Mints.

And I'll apologize now for the photos! They were taken with an iphone!

1 BOX of Ritz Crackers

Chocolate of Choice (2-4 squares (or 2 -4 oz)of Almond Bark or Dove Baking Chocolate)

1/4 TSP Peppermint Oil (NOT peppermint extract)

Decorations (In this post I used candy pearls)

Wax Paper

Baking Sheet

Lay your wax paper on a cookie sheet. Melt chocolate. There are lots of ways to melt chocolate. I use a double boiler for my main dipping "background" chocolate and microwave method for my decorative chocolate. Start with 2 oz at a time and add more if you need it less pepperminty.

Dip half of the Ritz cracker in the melted chocolate and tap excess chocolate off very carefully. I dip the front and usually do not worry about dipping the back. That's my personal preference but if you like more chocolate then by all means dunk the entire thing.

Lay them on your wax paper. After dipping, you'll want to decorate while they are still a little melty. Is that a word? Almond bark sets up very quickly so if you use that you may want to dip a few and decorate those before moving on.

For the decorative white I placed a square of almond bark in a freezer bag, microwaved 30 seconds and mushed the bag to make sure it was melted. Mine was melty and perfect. If yours is not then microwave in 20 second intervals. Cut the very tip of the bag and start piping the white chocolate in quick motions back and forth across the cookie. You can also use a piping bag or melt this in a glass container and then put it in the bag...again, a preference thing.

I like to do dark chocolate, milk and white chocolate and decorate them all differently. It makes such a fun little gift. Here they are:

These are white on white w/ candy pearls placed in the swirliest section.

To set any of these up quickly pop them in the freezer for a few minutes before wrapping.

VOILA! Cute. Easy.

Piping Icing

My friend Karalee made some cupcakes for the potluck and I frosted. I think piping is getting easier and easier and these turned out too cute not to share! And she's a better picture taker than I am so I had her snap these photos. Here are closeups.

To get the raised middle, you pipe a small a small amount in the center first and then pipe around the cupcake starting w/the outside.

These were my favorites. So cute and fun. For these you pipe a star in the middle and then you just do this all around the cupcake. This seemed to be everyone's favorite.

We couldn't find all her piping gear so we used a ziploc bag, cut a small hole on the end and put the tip inside and taped the outside of the tip to the bag. It worked just fine.

When piping frosting I notice you just need to have a steady hand and consistant pressure. I love how these turned out and will probably never "frost" a cupcake again using just a knife.

Rainbow Cupcakes

Okay I thought I had these on my blog and just told someone to go look at them and guess what? They were not there, they were on my facebook page though... so

here they are:

I totally cheated using Betty Crocker's white cake mix and then divided the mix into equal parts and colored the mix with bright food coloring. Then you simply layer them into the cupcake liner. I frosted them using Betty Crocker's Cream Cheese Frosting w/a lot of food coloring in them because I wanted that bright color for my little guys 5th bday. These were fairly easy but they did take a lot of dishes and a lot more time than I thought they would take.

YUM

For frosting I piped it on there with Tupperware's squishy accordion thingy. I don't know what it's called but basically it's to pipe frosting on. It worked okay, although you can tell when it was almost empty on the ones in the back it was hard to get a nice full frosting look. It works much better very full.

Layered Jello Squares

mmmm.....jello.....

Now that I got your attention...

Don't mind the mess on my kitchen island...which is my workstation for all things craft and cooking....so it pretty much looks like this all the time.

Here is the recipe for my layered jello squares. I had two recipes and didn't have the stuff for 1 recipe and the other had mixed reviews so I put them together and made my own. They set up nicely and got rave family reviews.
You'll need:

2 SM PKGS Lime Jello or 1 LG
2 SM PKGS Orange Jello or 1 LG
2 SM PKGS Red Jello or 1 LG
2 Envelopes Knox Unflavored Gelatin or 1 Envelope + 1 SM PKG Lemon Jello
1 CUP Sour Cream (Lite works)
7 CUPS Water

1. Grease 9x13 pan with nonstick. Wipe excess off with a paper towel.


2. Whisk 2 boxes of lime jello with 2 Cup Boiling Water. Place in the 9x13 pan and place pan in the refrigerator. Make sure it's level and let set for 30-45 minutes.


3. While Green Layer is setting, begin making your white layer. It's important to start the next layer as soon as your current layer is setting so that it can cool down in time to be poured on w/out melting the last layer.



4. Whisk 2 Knox unflavored gelatin or 1 Knox and 1 Lemon with 1 Cup boiling water. Then add the sour cream.



5. As soon as the green layer is set, gently pour 1/2 of the white layer on top and let set another 30 minutes. Immediately begin making your orange layer.



6. Whisk 2 Boxes of Orange Jello with 2 Cups boiling water. As soon as the white layer is set and your Orange mix has cooled just enough, pour gently on top of white layer and let set 30-45 minutes.



7. Begin Making your Red Layer. Whisk 2 boxes of Red Jello w/2 Cups Boiling water and let set. Also reheat your white layer for about 20 seconds in the microwave so that you can easily pour it. If it is lumpy it will not pour well and it's difficult to flatten out.



8. Pour the remaining white layer on top of the orange and let set for 30 minutes.



9. Pour the last layer of red down and let set.



10. Once totally set, you can slice into cubes and serve.

Notes:

• I used sugar free jello and lite sour cream.



• Set up times are approximate. You may get away with shortening the time but it's important that it's set up enough between layers so that the layers do not mix. You can test this by touching it lightly. It should just be a little sticky not watery.



• And begin making your next layer as soon as you put the jello back in the fridge to set up.



• You can of course use any color!