Double Decker Candy Bar Rice Krispy Treats

This is a great way to use up leftover Halloween candy and share with friends.

Double Decker Candy Bar Rice Krispy Treats

6 Tbsp. butter
2 (10 oz.) bags mini marshmallows
2 tsp. vanilla
pinch of salt
12 c. rice krispies
2 Tbsp. coconut oil
1 c. chocolate chips
30 pieces mini candy bars (snickers, milky way, twix), cut into pieces

First, you are going to make 2 separate batches of rice krispy treats.  First batch will be bottom layer, covered with chocolate and candy bars and then covered with second batch of rice krispy treats.  It's easier to work in two batches instead of making both at once.

In a saucepan, heat 3 Tbsp. butter until melted.  Add in 1 (10 oz.) bag of marshmallows and stir constantly until melted and smooth.  Once melted, stir in 1 tsp. vanilla and pinch of salt and remove from heat.  Stir in 6 c. rice krispies.  Pour into greased 9x13 pan (with as squared an edge as possible like a cake pan) and press firmly into pan.  (I found using my silpat makes this job the easiest.  You could also try wax paper or parchment paper.)  In a microwave safe bowl, heat chocolate chips and coconut oil for 1 minute.  Stir until smooth.  (This will feel a little more liquid-y than you think is right.)  Spread chocolate over first layer of rice krispy treats.  Sprinkle chopped candy bars over top of melted chocolate.

Prepare next batch of rice krispy treats, using same directions as bolded above.  Spread over candy bars and press firmly into pan.  Allow to cool completely.  Once cool, flip out of pan and cut into squares.

Barbecue Chicken Apple Pizza

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 tsp. unsalted butter

2 ½ c. onions, thinly sliced and halved (1 large onion)

2 large apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (I used granny smith)

1 pre-baked, purchased whole wheat pizza crust (11 inch round)

⅔ c. barbecue sauce

1 c. cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, diced or shredded

¾ c. smoked Gouda cheese, shredded

¾ c. mozzarella cheese, shredded

additional barbecue sauce for drizzling over top, optional

Preheat oven (and pizza stone - I don't have one so I just used a cookie sheet) to 450 degrees.  In a large skillet over medium heat, heat oil and butter.  When they are hot, add onion slices; cover and cook, stirring frequently 10 minutes.  Remove lid, increase heat just slightly, and cook additional 7-10 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions have reduced in size and are soft and slightly golden brown.

Add apples and cook, stirring connately, another 2-4 minutes, until apples are just barely starting to soften.  Remove from skillet and Set aside apples and onions.  (I usually cook my chicken at this point in the same skillet that I cooked the apples and onions.)

Spread barbecue sauce evenly on pizza crust, and top evenly with chicken and Gouda cheese.  Spoon apple-onion mixture evenly over entire pizza, then sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese.  Bake 8 minutes or until the ingredients are hot and cheese is melted.  If desired, drizzle a very small amount of barbecue sauce over top.

Oreo Ice Cream

This past fall, the hospitality committee at church (of which I am a part) hosted an old school Men's cake bake and ice cream social after an evening service.  I've always loved cake bakes, so I was a solid vote for this fun party.  My Granddaddy always made a German chocolate cake for the men's cake bakes at my childhood church.  It was a huge success and I took my go to favorite ice cream of Cake Batter Ice Cream.  But this oreo ice cream was my favorite from the night.  I was so glad to get the recipe to add to my ice cream arsenal.

Oreo Ice Cream

1 c. milk (always whole milk for rich ice creams!)

1 c. sugar

½ tsp. salt

1 ¼ c. half and half

1 tsp. vanilla

3 c. whipping cream

20-25 oreos, crushed

Scald milk until bubbles form around edge.  Remove from heat.  Add sugar and salt.  Stir until dissolved.  Stir in half and half, vanilla and whipping cream.  Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes.  Add crushed oreos to chilled mixture and immediately freeze as directed.

Makes 2 quarts.

Pilgrim Hats

I was originally asked to bring Granny's Cut Out Cookies to our Thanksgiving lunch for the kids, but I took creative liberty and decided to make these little gems instead.  They are super easy to make and definitely something older children could help with.  Here's what you'll need:

Pilgrim Hats

Keebler Fudge Stripe Cookies
Marshmallows
Chocolate chips
tube of yellow decorators icing

Place cookies, stripe side down onto wax paper.  In microwave, carefully melt chocolate.  Use toothpicks to dip marshmallows to coat in chocolate.  Place on top of cookie.  Allow chocolate to set.  Pipe a buckle onto hat.  (My store didn't was out of yellow tube icing, so I just bought some white can icing and colored it myself.  Then I used a ziploc bag to pipe onto hat.)

I was also asked to bring Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding for the adults.  I won't change that up and will definitely be taking that.

Tie Dye Cookies

Well, school is around the corner and all of my first babies (nieces and nephews) are officially school age this year!  Let's put it this way, May 2024 will make for a busy graduation season for us!  (2024, what?!?!  So weird.)  In honor of school starting, I knew I wanted to send everyone something special to wish them a happy school year!  I found these awesome Tie Dye Cookies online.  I used two separate sites to come up with my final product.

I used the cookie dough recipe from here.

I used the cookie rolling method from here.  (I thought this look was cuter than the Baked Bree version.)

Then I used free printables from here to send a note to all of my "Smart Cookies" and wrap the cookies up.  I mailed them off yesterday!  I'm happy to report today that everyone has received them and they were a hit!

Bubble Up Pizza

Mom and My Buddy came for a quick "School's Out!" visit last night.  If there is one thing to know about My Buddy, it is that he loves pizza!  His most favorite, he says, is the Hunt Brother's gas station pizza.  (Doesn't take much to impress him.)  That is until now...this is his new favorite.  And he needed a second piece because he "killed" the first piece.  :)  Again, those were his words.  This is an old Pampered Chef recipe that has been around for a while, so I am probably late getting in on this one.  But boy was it good.  We all "killed" it!  Well, except for The Bun, because he doesn't care for pizza right now.

Bubble Up Pizza

2 (12 oz.) cans layered buttermilk biscuits
1 (14 oz.) jar pizza sauce
2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
preferred toppings (pepperoni, sausage, onions, peppers, etc.)

Preheat oven to 375.  Cut biscuits into quarters.  Toss with pizza sauce and preferred toppings.  Spray 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray.  Pour biscuit mixture into dish.  Cover with cheese.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until biscuits are done.

Bunny Rolls

I saw this on the internet today and thought it was the cutest thing.  I wanted to share it in time for Easter.  Let the kids help!!  Here's what you'll need:  1 can of refrigerated cinnamon rolls.  That's it!!  My rolls weren't rolled in circles like most rolls are so I had a little bit of an extra headach to fix mine.  Here's what to do:  (Don't know why some of these are turned the wrong way.)

Unroll your cinnnamon rolls (or if like me, use a knife to cut them like a rolled cinnamon roll would be...and a knife works best...I tried it different ways including rolling like a snake)  Cut off a tiny piece to form the tail.  Place in U-shape.

Cross one side over the other.

Repeat and cross for a second time.

Roll tail into a ball and place in the spot left for the tail.

Bake according to package directions.  Watch because you could probably bake them less than the given time.  I think I did mine about 10-12 minutes.  Ice while still hot.

Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcake

Today was The Bun's 1st Birthday party and I made these cupcakes to celebrate the day.  They are a recipe used by Magnolia Bakery in NYC.  I thought they turned out pretty tasty.  I also used the same recipe to make his smash cake.

Magnolia Bakery's Vanilla Cupcake

Peeps Sunflower Cake

How cute is this cake? And let me tell y'all, it is SUPER EASY!! Here's the recipe. The picture above is the one I made. I think it is very close to the magazine's version that you can see at the link. The only difference is that my chocolate chips are all the same size. Last year I was gifted the magazine Taste of Home by Super Social Worker. A dear friend of her's that absolutely loved recipes and cooking passed away. I was honored to be the recipient of her remaining magazine subscription. This cake was in there and I have had it on my mind this whole time...anxiously waiting for Easter peep season.

Tater Tot Casserole

Well, we had a great time with The Under 6 Crowd this weekend! They were very good for us and even slept until 8:00 every morning! I told their mama that they could stay here everyday if they would do that. We had to come up with a lot of entertainment, so we did fun things like Jump Zone, movie and popcorn, hiking up our backyard woods, and making homemade goodies in the kitchen. They were very good helpers and wanted to put their aprons on and bake stuff all weekend long. We made homemade chocolate chips cookies (recipe from the back of Nestle chocolate chips), 1-Pan Brownies (my mother in law's recipe) and blueberry muffins (from Martha White!). There was lots of bowl and finger licking!

I made it real fun and let them do all the work. They did all the cookie dropping and I baked them that way.

This dish was a big hit for The Under 6 Crowd. It is a recipe that my friend's mother (the friend that really likes to eat Jiffy corn muffins with me!) made for us one night when we were still in high school and I think the two of us ate the whole thing ourselves. I called her the other night for the recipe. She very willingly shared!

Tater Tot Casserole

1 lb. ground beef

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can whole kernel corn, drained

1 (8 oz.) pkg. shredded cheddar cheese

1 (32 oz.) pkg. frozen tater tots

In a large skillet, brown ground beef and drain. Mix in mushroom soup and drained corn. Put meat mixture in 9x13 baking dish. Top with cheese. Arrange tater tots on top. Bake in oven for 350 or 375 until tater tots are golden. (I did 375 for 30 minutes.)

We ate it as leftovers a couple of times and even put some ketchup on top. Very good with ketchup, too!

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Round 2 is on their way now, so I am off to make Chicken and Biscuit Dumplings. I'll post that one later. I just love lots of company!!

Cheesy Ranch Chex Mix

I had so much leftover chex mix from when I made the White Trash, so I decided to try another easy snack that I could turn into a gift. This one is right off of the back of the box. Cheesy Ranch Chex Mix really can be made however you want. I did half rice chex and half corn chex. The recipe also calls for pretzel twists but I prefer pretzel sticks. As you can see from the picture below, I packaged it up in airtight containers. I don't know how airtight they really are, but these cute things came from the Dollar Tree so this is another economical gift!

I still have a good bit left, so I plan to bag it up for two of the cutest three year olds that I know who will be coming to visit me this weekend. I know My Buddy and May-May like to have these kinds of snacks. Instead of the store bought, they'll have to settle for the homemade variety at Diney's house!

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Isn't that Gingerbread house the cutest?! I won it last night at our office's dirty Santa. When you "ring" the doorbell, the gumdrops light up and "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" plays. I love it!

White Trash

Tomorrow is our Christmas supper club with Sunday school. We will be playing Dirty Santa and I decided to make one of our gifts. This would allow me to also have something to give our hostess and her family. This recipe made so much that I would be able to have those two gifts plus two more that I plan to give to our neighbors. I stuffed a lot in each container, but I could have made even more smaller packages. Y'all try this if you are looking for a yummy gift to give for Christmas this year.

White Trash

2 c. rice chex cereal

2 c. corn chex cereal

2 c. cheerios

2 c. salted peanuts

2 c. plain M&Ms

1-1/2 pkgs. white almond bark

In a large bowl, combine first 5 ingredients. Melt almond bark according to package directions. (I used the double boiler directions this time.) After melting, quickly mix all ingredients with almond bark. Once thoroughly mixed, lay out on wax paper to cool. Break apart to package.

**Note: Not made by white trash! (I think!)

Christmas Ornament Dough

Before

Drying

Ready to Deck the Halls!

Have you ever seen an orange Christmas tree? When we went home last month for the family cookout, we did an early project for Christmas. I can't wait until December, as I originally planned, to share them with you in case you wanted to make them. Mom made Christmas ornament dough and we all decorated ornaments. It was so much fun, and especially for three of us, brought back LOTS of memories of when we were crafty, little girls.

Christmas Ornament Dough

4 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. salt
1-1/2 c. water

Mix together all ingredients and knead for 10 minutes. Roll out dough and cut with cookie cutters. Use a drinking straw to create a hole in top of each ornament for hanging and carefully place cut dough onto cookie streets. Bake at 250 for 1 hour or until ornament is completely dried and hard. Cool completely on baking pan. When ornaments are cool, let kids (or in our case, big kids) paint them. Use lengths of ribbon for hanging.

Paint with acrylic paint and once completely dried, seal with Modge Podge.

**Note: This recipe is only for making decorations, not eating.