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.