Fudgy S'More Bars

If you like s'mores, you'll like this treat bar. This is the September recipe from my calendar.

Fudgy S'More Bars

Crust:
1 c graham cracker crumbs
1/2 c flour
3/4 c packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 c butter, softened

Topping:
4 c miniature marshmallows
3/4 c candy-coated chocolate pieces
1/4 c hot fudge topping, heated

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13x9-inch pan with shortening or cooking spray. In large bowl, beat crust ingredients with electric mixer on low speed until coarse crumbs form, scraping bowl occasionally. Press mixture evenly in bottom of pan.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Sprinkle marshmallows evenly over crust; bake 1-2 minutes longer or until marshmallows begin to puff.

Sprinkle chocolate pieces evenly over marshmallows; drizzle warm topping over top. Cool Completely, about 1 hour. Cut into squares.

This is fast to make if you want to have a quick treat for your kids. You can even have your kids help out, it's simple enough. I recommend eating it the same day you make it. It's okay on the second and third day, but the puffyness of the marshmallows goes down. The crust is very sweet with the brown sugar, so you may possibly reduce the amount of sugar used. To drizzle the hot fudge, I spooned the amount needed into a plastic bag to get an even drizzle over the top.

Lewiston, ID

Mike and I went on a road trip to Lewiston, ID. The purpose of the trip was to see Dennis DeYoung from the Styx and Rick Springfield in concert. Both were good concerts. However, I don't care for the drinking, smoking and rudeness of some of the drunken people. Minus that, it was a good concert with good music.

The Saturday we were there, we went to Hells Gate State Park and found a hike to go on.

A long time ago (hundreds of thousands of years) lava crept up to the earths surface and made some unique basalt rock formations. I saw a picture similar to the one below on a brochure and asked a ranger how to get to the place. The ranger pulled out an "unofficial" map of the hiking trails and showed us which direction to go. He said to stay along the Snake River and the path may be a little weedy. That didn't seem to be a problem for us.


The hike was nice and peaceful till we got to the trail where we started seeing the cliff side as you can see below. It felt like the rocks could fall any moment. We tried to convince ourselves that any rocks that had fallen along the trail were from a long time ago. However, you could clearly see that the rocks were freshly broken off. I started to get creeped out. I felt like any sudden movement or loud noise could start a rock slide.


We slowly made our way through this area and found the weedy path that the ranger was talking about. After making it through one section, Mike and I noticed that there were spider webs on either side of us with huge spiders. Some of the webs had caught their prey and others had spiders patiently waiting. That creepy feeling was getting worse and made us feel like we were in a scene that belonged in Indiana Jones.

I finally started to see our destination. The basalt rock formations I saw from the brochure.


It was beautiful! I'd never seen anything like it before and was well worth the creepyness. After we took pictures, Mike took a couple more steps down the trail and almost stepped on a rattle snake. Coiling and rattling, Mike stepped back as the snake decided to retreat off the trail and into the thicker part of the brush. That was our sign for us to leave as well.


We safely made it back to the clear trail along the river. I pulled out my map that the ranger gave us and found that the trail we had been on was a closed and no longer used trail. Hmm...do you think the ranger should have told us? Well, at least we were provided with an excellent adventure. To end it, we had one last snake slither away from us.

August 21, 2010

Doritos?! Mike and I went up for a picnic in American Fork canyon. While eating our lunch I ate my bag of Doritos and found a blue pouch inside. Shocked to find something in my bag, I realized what was happening. Mike proposed! And...of course, I said yes!

Shirts and BYU

Mike is a huge BYU football fan! I'm a fan of them also, but a little more calm (sometimes). We went to BYU campus to get ourselves matching shirts to wear when we watch the game. CUTE!

As of today BYU is 1-2...not good. We hope that they will get their game together. They have some good plays and moments, but need to be consistent. I think they'll be able to pull it off as long as they keep working together.

Still Together

It's the beginning of August and Mike and I are still together. Things have been going well for us and we are happy being with each other.

Sarah hosted a Midland Reunion at her place. We had a nice bar-b-que, which was yummy. It was fun to see all the my friends from back home in Texas. Yeehaw!!!

Ice-cream Cookie Sandwich

July was a perfect month for this cool treat!

Ice-cream Cookie Sandwich

1 pkg uncooked cookie dough
Ice cream, any flavor
Mini chocolate chips or sprinkles

Bake cookies per instructions. Let cool completely. Scoop ice cream between two cookies. Roll edge in mini chocolate chips or sprinkles. Serve or wrap up and freeze.

I had intentionally intended to bake my own homemade cookies, but decided against it when the time came for making the treat. I think that using the packaged cookie dough worked best for this recipe because my cookie recipe comes out puffy and soft. These cookies came out a little more flat and crispy. The crispy is important because you don't want your cookie to get soggy from the ice cream. I made vanilla and strawberry ice cream cookies.

Wendy's Visit

Not only did I get a visit from my friend Julie, but I also got a visit from my sister Wendy. It was so fun to have her here for almost 2 weeks. I'm so happy David let her come while he took care of the 5 kids!

We did a lot of hanging out and eating. I also introduced Wendy to my favorite TV show, Psych. While I was at work, Wendy would visit her old roommates and mission companions. Wendy also spend time with Rynell and her kids.

One day we went to spend a morning at Temple Square.



It was neat to see all the changes that have been made. We took a tour of the new conference center. I've been in there a couple of times for some meetings, so it was nice to see some of the other things they had in the building. The grounds are very nice and peaceful.



I love my sister and am thankful for all the times we get to spend with each other.

Julie's Visit

At the end of July I had a surprise visit from one of my amazing friends, Julie. I've been able to visit her a couple of times in England and now I had the chance to have her at my place and spend a fun day together.

We had a lazy morning and laid out at the pool. Then we ate at Cafe Rio for lunch before heading to BYU campus to reminisce about the good old college days. There were lots of great memories!

Finally we went to Bridal Veil falls to enjoy the beautiful weather. We came back to my place afterward and I introduced Julie to my favorite TV show, Psych. Mike came by so I could introduce Julie to him and by the time we finished visiting, it was time to take Julie to her next destination and we said our goodbyes.

I hope to be in England again someday. It's always fun to be with Julie!

Mike

I started dating Mike earlier this year. He's very thoughtful. When I came home from my European cruise there was a bag at my door. In the bag was orange juice and cinnamon rolls with a note saying:

I thought the pantry might be a bit bare, so I though you could use some breakfast. :)
~Mike

How could I not love a guy as thoughtful as that?!

Hazelnut Cake

I am now trying to catch up on all the desserts I have made since my European cruise. This is a hazelnut cake. The cake is rich and dense, has a great flavor and the chocolate compliments this nut very well.

I served this cake at one of my book groups and it was loved by all.

Hazelnut Cake

Cake:
1/2 c butter
2 pkgs (2 1/2 oz each) hazelnuts (filberts)
3 eggs
1 1/2 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 c flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Glaze:
1/2 c whipping cream
1 c semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 tsp vanilla

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease bottom only of 10-inch spring form pan with shortening or cooking spray. In 1-quart saucepan, melt butter over low heat; set aside to cool.

Reserve 8 whole nuts for garnish. In food processor or blender, process remaining nuts until ground, making about 1/3 cups. Reserve 1 Tbsp for garnish.

In large bowl, beat eggs, sugar and 1 tsp vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed 2 to 3 minutes or until thick and lemon colored, scraping bowl occasionally. On low speed, beat in flour, baking powder, salt and ground nuts, scraping bowl occasionally. Continue beating, gradually adding cooled, melted butter until well blended, scraping bowl occasionally (mixture will be thick). Spread batter evenly in pan.

Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Remove side of pan; run long knife under cake to loosen from pan bottom. Place heatproof serving plate upside down over cake; turn plate and cake over. Remove pan bottom. Cover cake with cloth towel; cool completely, about 30 minutes.

In 2-quart saucepan, heat whipping cream just to boiling; remove from heat. Stir in chocolate chips until melted and smooth. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Spread glaze over top of cake, allowing some to run down side of cake. Sprinkle reserved ground nuts around top edge of cake; arrange reserved whole nuts over ground nuts.

I couldn't find whole hazelnuts, so I used a bag of nuts already chopped. I reserved the 1 tablespoon of chopped nuts for the garnish before blending the remaining amount. I blended the nuts till they were almost a peanut butter consistency. It wasn't as hard as I imagined getting it to that consistency and it was good to work with.