S'Mores Rice Krispie Treats for the Secret Recipe Club

Other than French Fries, Rice Krispy Treats are one of of my guilty pleasures. There's something about biting into crunchy cereal that has a gloriously chewy texture of marshmallow that transports me to my childhood, with great memories. Seriously, I could eat an entire pan of these, if left to my own devices. Fortunately, my son is as crazy about these treats as much as I am. That means they'll be gone before I have a chance to go overboard with eating these. Amen.

It has been years since I've made these. My son was in Middle School, 13 years ago, and I tried my best to play the role of June Cleaver when his friends would hang out at our home. (Little did my son know that a mom's secret weapon is to feed his friends all kinds of treats-- the better to get to know the little monster darlin's, so that I could keep a closer eye on the hormonal-raged tweens.) A couple of weeks ago, my son asked me to make a pan of rice krispie treats. It took all of 5 minutes to do, and my husband thought it was an odd dessert for me to make-- so different from my fancier Apple Brown Butter Tart orRed Velvet Layer Cake.. I mean, melted marshmallows and a cereal? Uh-huh. My husband polished off his fair share of them. I think he understood, at that point. These are very addicting.

I'm fortunate to be a member of the Secret Recipe Club ("Group B"). I say "fortunate", because there is a waiting list to join. Each month, we are assigned a blog, and are to stealthily peruse their recipe index and to choose, make and blog about it. We are given the same reveal date, and it's fun to see who got my own blog, and what they chose. I was super excited to be assigned to Greens And Chocolate.  Taylor is a 20-something young lady who loves to bake. It's fair to say that she's a good cook, because I was drooling over her savory dishes as well. I had a hard time choose just one recipe, but the S'Mores Rice Krispies Treats was my son's resounding selection. My son enthusiastically asked me to make these, so how could I resist?

Let's face it-- S'Mores are so popular in Blogsphere. I've seen S'Mores Cupcakes, Pies, Cookies, Brownies.... who doesn't love melted Hershey's Chocolate, graham crackers with gooey melted marshmallows?

 The prep work is very minimal, other than measuring chocolate chips. I chose to go with milk chocolate, but if you prefer semi-sweet please be my guest. I chopped up one package of graham crackers.

I decided to increase the 4 cups of mini marshmallows to 6 cups, because we love our rice krispie treats to be super gooey. I use the microwave, by adding 3 Tablespoons butter and nuking it for about one minute. Then, I give it a stir.

 I've measured five cups of rice krispy cereal with 1-1/2 cups of coarsely chopped graham crackers.

After nuking the marshmallow-butter mixture for another 30 seconds, it melted and ready to be poured into the bowl of cereal and graham crackers.

I added 1-1/2 cups of the milk chocolate chips and started to fold everything in, mixing it well. Then I poured it into a 9x13 pan, that I had placed a foil "sling" into and sprayed with non-stick spray. I like to butter my well washed hands so that I can easily pat the mixture evenly. I let this set for about 30 minutes.

I measured 1-1/2 cups of milk chocolate chips and microwaved them for about one minute, then stirred vigorously until silky smooth. I will adjust the printable recipe card to be 2 cups of melted chocolate, as I ran out!

 Much better, as I used an off-set spatula to get chocolate into every nook and cranny. Next I added the reserved 1-1/4 cups chopped graham crackers and spread them evenly-- then pressed them into the melted chocolate with a flat spatula. I chilled the dish for 30 minutes.

 The beauty of having a foil "sling" is being able to lift out the entire bar to cut it more easily.

 That's what we're talkin' about!

 My husband was lurking close by, waiting for his taste.

TASTING NOTES: Yesssss! These are sinfully good. I'm so glad that I chose milk chocolate, over semi-sweet, because it has that authentic taste of S'mores. Though I added 2 extra cups of marshmallow, I think I'm going to increase it to at least 7 cups....maybe 8. I'd love just a bit more "goo", which my son concurred-- as he stuffed one eagerly into his mouth.


Taylor, you rock! Thank you for sharing this recipe, because they are easy to make and have cured my longing for S'mores. They are so easy to make, and versatile. Those of you who love dark chocolate can easily switch over to that, and you'll find that it's love at first bite. I'll be back to visit your blog, Taylor. I love your blog!

This fulfills my February Secret Recipe Club challenge. I'm supposed to wait to post this until 9:00am, PST. By then, I'll be long at work, so I won't be able to access my blog to post a linky code. As soon as I can, I will, so please check back so that you can blog hop to see what everyone else is making. If you'd like to become part of this club, click here for information.

 A printable recipe card is at the end of this post

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Beef and Barley Slow Cooker Soup

It looks like Mother Nature has finally stopped playing "spin the bottle" on what season it is. It's finally raining!  Of course, we Californians don't have a true Four Seasons.  Yes, we're spoiled. We also pay hefty taxes, so I guess we're even.

Recipe#3 that I've made from this cookbook.

Did I ever mention that I meant my shy and handsome husband at a golf course? No?

Take note, those of you mature single women who are hoping to meet a single man-- golf courses are ripe for the picking! I figured that out, when I found myself divorced, with a teenage son, 8 years ago.  I hadn't torn up the dance floor since the BeeGee's were all the rage, after Saturday Night Fever was a box office smash.  So, I took golf lessons and started a Singles Golf Club.  True story.  Oh, did I mention that I used Match.com to help recruit members?  Never let is be said that I'm not an enterprising woman.

What does golf have to do with this recipe?  You have to think as I do. Random.  This weekend is the world famous AT&T Golf Tournament at Pebble Beach.  That means that I'm staying home-- far and away from the crowds.  It also means that it's raining today, because the tournament will usually bring out the Rain Gods.   That means soup is a perfect meal. My man loves them--especially anything with barley. 

To make Beef and Barley soup, you begin with.... well, naturally, you would buy beef.  I learned a tip from America's Test Kitchen that has forever changed what kind of beef I use for soups and stews. If you've never heard of chuck eye roast, please ask your butcher about it.  Unliked neat labeled "stew cut", I find that chuck eye roast is very tender.

To begin with the soup, it does start with a skillet. Using a couple tablespoons of vegetable (in my case, I used olive oil), cooked chopped onion, some tomato paste, and thyme (dried or fresh) until the onions are softened and slightly browned.

This takes about 8-10 minutes. In the meantime...I lined my removable slow cooker insert with a plastic liner (easily found at your local grocery store). These make cleanup super easy.

To build more flavor, we add dry red wine, then add the cooked onions to the slow cooker.  Next, we add in crushed tomatoes, beef and chicken broth, chopped carrots...

...soy sauce (I use Tamari sauce), 

...barley and then the cut up meat, that has been seasoned with salt & pepper. At this point, I covered the slow cooker insert, put it into the fridge and went to bed.  Obviously, if you are a homemaker, you can do all of this earlier on the same day you want the soup.   Early in the morning, I turned on the slow cooker to the low setting and came home 11 hours later.  

This is when I don't gripe about having to prep my slow cooker meal, the night before.  It's a nice feeling to come home to smelling your dinner cooking away.  ATK says to remove the meat, and then shred it into bite-sized pieces. I skipped that step, by cutting my pieces into bite-sized chunks in the first place.  Simple details.  I didn't have much fat to skim off the top, either. 

I added some fresh chopped parsley, made a quick green salad and sliced some fresh French Bread.

For the finishing touch, we had a roaring fire going and listened to much needed rainfall outside.  

TASTING NOTES:   This soup has a very rich red color to it, because of the crushed tomatoes and red wine.  The beef is super tender.  I felt a little disappointed in that I didn't go with my gut instinct to increase the amount of barley from 1/4 cup to at least 1/2 cup.  I really appreciate a higher barley to beef ratio, and I could barely detect in the soup.  As for the flavor, I liked it.  I'm a lover of all things flavored tomato, but I felt that the crushed tomato overpowered the flavor of the beef.  However, my son disagreed with me. He loved this soup.  That is not to say that this isn't a good recipe. It is.  I would say that you need to adjust the recipe to have less tomato, if that's your preference.  I would definitely double up on the pearl barley, if not more. Other than that, this is a lovely soup and I would make it again.  In fact, I did!  Only, this time, I made it on the stove with a few changes.  I will share that soup with you, as well, since it's a bit different than this one.

I am glad that I have re-bonded with my slow cooker.  Sure, I spend a half hour prepping dinner the night before. But, it is gives me the next night off from having to prep, cook and clean pots and pans.  I've bookmarked a few more recipes from this cookbook that I hope will be as good as the last three I've posted and shared with you. Let's see who won my giveaway to receive a copy of America's Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Revolution.

COOKBOOK GIVEAWAY WINNER:

Congrats to All Things Yummy!  Please email me at foodiewife (at) gmail.com with your mailing address, so I can get this out to you right away. Thank you for your comments and ideas on future slow cooker recipes.

I'm linking this soup recipe with Deb at Kahakai's Kitchen blog, who hosts Souper Sundays.  Every Sunday she posts a roundup of Soups, Stews, Salads and Sammies.  Come see what's on her roundup today!

I think I'll tune in to our local news to see how Tiger Woods and all the other professional golfers are doing with this weekend's golf tournament.   Did I also mention that I haven't swung a golf club in about four  years?  At least I scored well with my Valentine-- my wonderful husband.  I figure that once we both retire, we'll have plenty of time to hit the putting greens.

A printable recipe card is at the end of this post.

Tequila and Lime Turkey Chili - Slow Cooker Style

I remember when crock pots first became the rage. Some of you might not have been born yet, but I was a young bride who had a very limited repertoire of recipes to make.  At that time, it seemed so cool that I could throw in some chicken and a can of soup and come home to dinner.   Several years ago, I upgraded my crock pot to a programmable slow cooker with a removable ceramic insert.  I like the oval shape and size, so that I can cook larger cuts of meats.  However, my slow cooker spends a lot of time, sitting on my garage "kitchen gadget" shelf.   My reasoning was that I don't have time to prepare a slow cooker meal in the morning, before work.

Then, I had an "aha" moment, that I should prepare the meals the night before, then turn on the crockpot before leaving for work. D'oh!  So, I bought America's Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Revolution Cookbook... and the book ended up sitting on my bookshelf for a few weeks.   I finally made time to read the cookbook, and I have to say that it's well worth the investment. There is a lot of updated information on how to choose a slowcooker, and a lot of valuable tips from America's Test Kitchen.  The first recipe I made, and posted, was Easy Barbequed Ribs, and those turned out to be easy to prepare and very tasty.

I decided to try the Tequila and Lime Turkey Chili.  To be honest, I've made chicken chili, and turkey chili before. I found them to be lackluster in flavor.  However, the fine folks at America's Test Kitchen promised that they had a few tricks up their sleeves that would yield a moist and flavorful turkey chili.  As luck would have it, I had all of the ingredients on hand.  So, the night before, I prepared the chili.  The first step is to make a "panade" of white bread soaked in milk.  This prevents the lean turkey meat from becoming dry. I needed fresh oregano and garlic cloves.

The spices I needed were chili powder and cumin.  A skillet is heated with some vegetable oil over medium-high heat, until shimmering.

Next, I add onions, chili powder, tomato paste, garlic, cumin, oregano and red pepper flakes and cook until vegetables are softened and lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes.
 

Stir in turkey mixture and cook, breaking up any large pieces with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, about 3 minutes. Stir in tomato sauce, scraping up any browned bits; transfer to slow cooker.

Next, I add a can of diced tomatoes, pinto beans...

 ...3 tablespoons tequila, soy sauce, honey, and chipotles* into the slow cooker.  At this point, I put the slow cooker (good thing I have a removable insert) into the refrigerator until 6am.   *Chipotles in adobo sauce are pretty easy to find-- usually in the International Aisle.  They come in a can, and I use about half of what a recipe calls for . Chipotles are smoked jalapenos, and they can pack some heat!  I freeze the remaining chipotles, and simply chop what I need-- it quickly thaws when I add it to a hot recipe. Easy!

At that point, I sleepily plug in the slow cooker, and nestle the insert into it's cozy spot.  I turn it on, at low, for the six hour setting (my slow cooker has a Keep Warm cycle), place the cover on and dinner will be ready when I arrive home.

 I have to admit that this recipe is a little fussier than adding a can of this and a can of that.  However, it is nice to walk into my house and to be greeted by the aroma of something savory.  The final steps are to skim off the fat from the surface with a wide spoon. However, I didn't find that much fat at all!  Next, I add a little honey, a little more tequila, fresh lime zest and lime juice.

Dinner is ready, along with a fresh salad and either corn bread or flour tortillas.

I decided to garnish the turkey chili with avocado and sour cream.

TASTING NOTES:  I decreased the chipotle from 1 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon (I'm whimpy about heat).  The chili has a tangy flavor from the tomatoes, with light notes of citrus from the lime zest and juice.  This is very different than a traditional beef-style chili, but it's a nice change.  It tastes "healthy". I don't know what to say if you have children to feed-- there isn't a lot of tequila, but I'm not going to risk Child Protective Services from paying you a visit.  If you leave out the tequila, I'm sure that the chili will taste fine-- or, you could skip adding more tequila before serving. The first two tablespoons, added at the beginning, would have long cooked out any alcohol. Your choice.
NOTE:  If you don't own a slow cooker, you could simply simmer this chili on low heat for a couple of hours. I'm sure it will be delicious.

This made a lot of chili for the three of us, so I froze half of it for one of those work nights when I am too tired to cook. That's when I'm glad that the microwave was invented!

I've made a few more recipes from this cookbook, with good results.  Would you like a copy of your own?  Just leave a comment at the end of this post, and tell me what your favorite slow cooked meal is. I'm looking for more inspiration.  I will randomly choose a winner this Saturday, at 9am.  One comment entry per person-- or you can early an extra entry by tweeting this, and then coming back to tell me that you've done so.  This offer, I'm sorry to say, only ships to the United States.  Good luck!  SORRY, THE GIVEAWAY DEADLINE HAS PASSED.

A printable recipe card is at the bottom of this post.