Sometimes you just gotta have it....
Over the last few years, I find that I have had both the funds and the equipment to raise my culinary skills somewhere a tad past the Hamburger Helper stage. I have to say that learning these new things and creating meals that induce orgasmic eye rollings and having conversations with my husband that go something like, "Do you like it?" and him saying, "Can't talk--eating...", punctuated by often toe-curling smooches--all of this has been very satisfying.
I have introduced things to my palate that I never ate in my life. I watch Food Network obsessively. I have learned what a chiffonade is, as well as a chinois. I know how to make my own herbes de province. I know why it's important to toast your nuts. I can tell the difference between a regular tomato and a San Marzano tomato by taste.
It's been a lot of fun, getting all chef-y.
But I have to say that, over the last couple of months, there has been a blast from the past, straight from the trashier side of my mother's kitchen, that has possessed my brain, and I have not been able to let it go. I have valiantly resisted the call....
...up till now.
So today, I made
Cocoa Krispies Peanut Butter Treats
1/2 stick butter
1 10 oz bag mini marshmallows
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla (I used REAL vanilla, in deference to my newly acquired tastes, but the fake stuff would be more authentic in this 60's mom's processed food kitchen)
6 cups Cocoa Krispies cereal
Melt butter over low heat in a large pot, then add marshmallows, stirring until they are almost melted. Add vanilla and peanut butter. This will make a glob of peanut buttery, marshmallowy gunk in the bottom of the pot, and you will think, no way am I going to be able to incorporate six cups of cereal into this mess, but trust me, you will. Take it off the heat and dump the cereal in and mix furiously with a wooden spoon until the cereal is coated.
Line a 9 X 12 pan with tin foil, leaving the ends sticking out on either end, and then spray the foil with non-stick spray. Pour the contents of the pot into the pan and press it out with your hands until the whole pan is full and the mixture is firmly packed. Cool and cut into squares.
You can actually put all kinds of things into these--chocolate chips, mini M & M's, peanuts--but this is the base recipe and this is the real deal--the same ones your mom made for you for after school with a glass of milk, back when she had a kitchen full of avocado colored appliances and Velveeta was a food group.
Mine are downstairs cooling.
I haven't had one of these in almost 40 years.
I can hardly contain myself.
I have introduced things to my palate that I never ate in my life. I watch Food Network obsessively. I have learned what a chiffonade is, as well as a chinois. I know how to make my own herbes de province. I know why it's important to toast your nuts. I can tell the difference between a regular tomato and a San Marzano tomato by taste.
It's been a lot of fun, getting all chef-y.
But I have to say that, over the last couple of months, there has been a blast from the past, straight from the trashier side of my mother's kitchen, that has possessed my brain, and I have not been able to let it go. I have valiantly resisted the call....
...up till now.
So today, I made
Cocoa Krispies Peanut Butter Treats
1/2 stick butter
1 10 oz bag mini marshmallows
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla (I used REAL vanilla, in deference to my newly acquired tastes, but the fake stuff would be more authentic in this 60's mom's processed food kitchen)
6 cups Cocoa Krispies cereal
Melt butter over low heat in a large pot, then add marshmallows, stirring until they are almost melted. Add vanilla and peanut butter. This will make a glob of peanut buttery, marshmallowy gunk in the bottom of the pot, and you will think, no way am I going to be able to incorporate six cups of cereal into this mess, but trust me, you will. Take it off the heat and dump the cereal in and mix furiously with a wooden spoon until the cereal is coated.
Line a 9 X 12 pan with tin foil, leaving the ends sticking out on either end, and then spray the foil with non-stick spray. Pour the contents of the pot into the pan and press it out with your hands until the whole pan is full and the mixture is firmly packed. Cool and cut into squares.
You can actually put all kinds of things into these--chocolate chips, mini M & M's, peanuts--but this is the base recipe and this is the real deal--the same ones your mom made for you for after school with a glass of milk, back when she had a kitchen full of avocado colored appliances and Velveeta was a food group.
Mine are downstairs cooling.
I haven't had one of these in almost 40 years.
I can hardly contain myself.