Giant rat named Bernard

When Andy has his meetings, the kids and I take the dog and go hide upstairs. We take Bernard with us for a few reason, one is that he just LOVES to bark at these people. Why? I have no idea. He never does it when we have other people over, but when this group comes, he will settle then suddenly up and bark his brains out. It's less than cute. The funny thing is that these people love dogs. One person even brings him treats - does that stop the barking? Nope. So we have him up in the bedroom with us. He listens intently - runs all over and worries. He frets. This last meeting he decided to get zoomies which our guests then asked if we had a giant rat upstairs... yes, a giant black one named Bernard. Nothing is save with zoomies, socks, slippers, anything is fair game for him to grab and run with. Goober. While we were chasing the giant rat, our guests were enjoying these Binge Bars - they have all sorts of good things in them. Perfect for a cold winter’s night.

Binge Bars
1 cup salted butter softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 bag (11 ounces) caramels, unwrapped
3 Tablespoons heavy cream
3 Tablespoons salted butter
1 ½ cups milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
Place butter, brown sugar, flour, oats, baking soda and salt in a medium size bowl. Using an electric hand mixer, beat together until combined. Press 3/4 of the cookie dough mixture evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. (It will be a thin layer) Bake or about 15 min or until lightly browned. Do not overbake.
While the crust is baking, melt the 3 Tablespoons butter, heavy cream and caramels over very low heat. Stir constantly and only keep on low heat as this can burn easily. Cook just until just melted and smooth. Pour melted caramel mixture over warm baked crust. Sprinkle milk chocolate chips evenly over caramel.
Crumble remaining cookie dough evenly over chocolate and caramel. Carefully place back in oven for another 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Cool completely before cutting into bars. Serve and enjoy!

Research Purposes

Let's take a brownie and magic 7 layer bars, then make them into a cookie! That's what these are, or at least that's what they seem like to me. This cookie packs a lot of different flavors in it together as one cookie. They don't have much flour so I'm guessing a GF flour would be easy to swap out and you'd have a pretty amazing GF cookie too! These came together quick for a meeting at our house. I will say they were oddly fragile. But hey if bits and pieces fall off, that's more for taste testing... for... research purposes - right?

Magic Brownie Cookies
1 ¼ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips 8 ounces
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
2 large eggs room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Combine 1 ¼ cups chocolate chips and butter in a microwave safe container. Heat on high for 30 seconds, stir. Heat for another 15 seconds and stir again. Let sit for 1-2 minutes and then stir again until smooth.
Stir in the espresso powder. Let chocolate mixture cool for 15-20 minutes.
Beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla together until combined, about 2 minutes.
Turn the mixer to low and slowly add in the cooled chocolate mixture, mixing just until combined.
Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl. Stir in the flour mixture just until combined.
Combine the walnuts, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coconut in a medium bowl Toss with 1 tablespoon of flour. Stir into dough.
Scoop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheet using a cookie dough scoop or a rounded tablespoon.
Bake for 13-15 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Store in an airtight container for up to a week.

All the cheer

These were another set of cookies I made for the Bake Sale - if you are looking for a showstopper cookie - these are it. They can be customized in so many way... the color of the sprinkles, the designs on top, and even the flavors! These cookies were so fun to make, a little tricky to flatten the cookie discs to make sure they baked to each other and didn't separate, but also remained round. I think other more creative people could do some fun piping on top - I did my best. What a fun way to bring some Christmas cheer in or Halloween cheer - heck - Easter cheer! Bring on all the cheer!

Stacked Christmas Sprinkle Cookies Recipe
For the sprinkle sugar cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2½ cups all-purpose flour, spoon and leveled
2 tablespoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
Christmas colored sprinkles 
For the buttercream frosting (optional - to decorate)
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
red and green gel food colorings
more sprinkles for decorating

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Make the sprinkle cookies: In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar. Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a wooden spoon by hand, cream together butter and sugar until smooth.
Add the egg and vanilla, and whisk to combine.
Add your flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. Fold together until you have a streak free cookie dough. The cookie dough should be soft, but shouldn't stick to your hands. If it's too sticky to work with, pop it into the fridge for 30 to 60 minutes or until firmed up enough to handle.
Scoop a 1.5 tablespoon sized portion of dough and roll into a smooth ball. Roll the ball of dough around in your choice of colored sprinkles to completely coat. Place the sprinkle covered ball of dough on your parchment lined baking sheet and flatten into a ¼ inch thick disk.
Take another piece of dough (about half the size of the sprinkle covered dough) and press into a small disk shape that's smaller than the disk of sprinkle dough. Lay the plain disk of dough over the sprinkle covered dough and gently press to stick it on. See above for visual.
Repeat the process of stacking sprinkle covered dough with plain dough. Make sure to leave about 1 inch of space between each cookie on your baking sheet.
Bake the stacked cookies in the center of your preheated 350°F oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until puffed and lightly browned along the bottom edges.
Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then carefully transfer onto a wire rack and set aside to cool completely to room temperature.
Make the buttercream frosting: In a large bowl, combine butter, sugar, and salt. Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a wooden spoon by hand, mix together until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth and lightened in color.
Add vanilla and 1 tablespoon of milk, and whisk together until combined and fluffy. If needed, gradually whisk in more milk until you reach your desired consistency.
To create the designs I made for these cookies, divide the frosting into thirds. Leave ⅓ of the buttercream plain white, and color ⅓ red and ⅓ green.
Decorate the cookie tops with some with your favorite Christmassy designs - I just piped on some snowflakes, Christmas trees, and Santa hats! Before the frosting sets, sprinkle over some white sprinkles on the snowflakes for added sparkle and crunch. Sprinkle some rainbow sprinkles over the trees to resemble Christmas lights. Or you can also leave the cookies plain. Serve and enjoy!

Leave it alone! Don't touch it! That means you Erin!

I will always stand by my saying that I do NOT like being home when I'm cooking in the crockpot. I 100% would rather be somewhere else letting it cook while I'm not there to smell it and wonder if it's cooking or not, should I adjust this or that, or just poke at it. LEAVE IT ALONE. Why am I like this? I happened to be home the day I made this soup - why? One might never know. But did it cook right with my poking, or would it have? Of course it would. Most crockpot dishes need little interference by people like me. I did chop the chicken at the end and add noodles and cream - but still! This was wonderful on a cold blustery day. We did not do the bread crumbs because to be honest, I knew my family wouldn't care for that, and if I'd gone to the effort to do them on the side? Still wouldn't have used them - so, no bread crumbs or even extra mozz cheese for us. The soup was delicious enough without all that.

Crockpot Chicken Parmesan Soup
3 boneless chicken breasts
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 can crushed tomatoes (28 oz can)
1 can Tomato Sauce (15 oz can)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp Italian Seasoning
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup parmesan cheese (freshly shaved)
1 cup heavy whipping cream
8 oz rotini pasta (uncooked)
For the Topping:
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 cup Shredded Mozzarella

Add the chicken breast, minced garlic, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and chicken broth to the crock pot.
Cover crock pot with lid, and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.
Shred the chicken. Stir in the shredded parmesan cheese, heavy whipping cream and rotini pasta. Cover and cook on low for 30 minutes or high for 15 minutes.
While this is cooking, sauté the bread crumbs in the butter in a sauce pan on the stovetop.
Top the individual soup servings with mozzarella cheese and bread crumbs. Enjoy!

Real puppies need not apply...

Puppy Chow is a family favorite - I mean our extended family too, but it feels like such a mess to make and eat. Enter in the hybrid of Puppy Chow and Rice Krispie Treats - the Puppy Chow Bar! Sure you melt all the good things, butter, peanut butter, and chocolate but you add in marshmallows too. Normally with Puppy Chow you have to shake it in a bag with powdered sugar - oh man does that give one anxiety... you have the chance to cover your entire kitchen... in powdered sugar and sticky chocolatey cereal... no thanks. Pat this into a pan and give a heavy dusting of powdered sugar - easy. These bars are not heavy at all - they are light and easy to eat - sure you get powdered sugar all over but still SO good.

Puppy Chow Bars
7 cups Rice Chex cereal, (start with 5 cups and check consistency)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup (258 g) creamy peanut butter
¼ cup (½ stick / 57 g) unsalted butter, can use salted
1 bag (10 ounces) mini marshmallows
¼ cup (31 g) confectioners' sugar
Instructions
In a large mixing bowl, add the Chex cereal and set aside.
In a separate medium microwave-safe bowl, combine the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter. Microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring until melted.
Add in the mini marshmallows, stir to coat and return to the microwave, cooking again in 30-second intervals until the marshmallows start to puff and melt. The mixture should be thick and creamy.
Pour the marshmallow mixture over the Chex cereal and stir to coat. (Make sure to stir as much as you need in order to generously coat all of the cereal.)
Transfer the cereal mixture to a 9×13 inch greased baking pan and press it firmly into the pan. Set in the refrigerator to chill for 10-15 minutes.
Lightly coat the top of the bars with confectioners' sugar. Cut and serve!