Cure for winter blues

Chocolate. Its like the cure for everything. I snagged this recipe from Lovely and Little blog and modified it for what I had on hand. 

1 cup milk 
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons sugar
4 Tablespoons Almond Joy Coffee Creamer

Marshmallows or whipped cream
Heat up milk on the stove or in the microwave, add cocoa, sugar, creamer.

Sweet Treat - Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

yep. Just when you thought chocolate chip cookies and cheesecake were delicious enough on their own... A co-workers wife made these and I couldn't keep my hands off them. I requested that I recieve the recipe, but who knows how long I could have been waiting before I could eat one of these things again! Desperate times call for desperate measures. They seemed simple, so I took a shot at making my own version and I was pretty pleased (so were our friends) with the out come.

I don't have a lot of photos, I was literally making these for a party, so I had to focus on making them extra delicious. And since I was sort of winging it, I don't have exact measurements. Baisically these have 3 parts: grahm cracker crust, cheesecake middle/filling and chocolate chip cookie dough topping.

I knew the cheesecake filling in the middle needed to be a precise measurement of ingredients in order for it to be cheesecake-esque. I was able to find this Pilsbury recipe, that is similar, but doesn't have a grahm cracker crust, so I used it for the cheesecake part. Which is 1 package of cream cheese (softened), 1/2 cup sugar and 1 egg. I beat all these ingredients together while the grahm cracker crust baked in the oven.

I think I used approximately 2 cups pre-crushed grahms (amazing time saver!). If you can't find this, just crush your own. I added 1/2 cup melted butter to the grahms and patted them into a rectangle glass baking dish lined with parchment paper. I pre-baked the crust at 350 degrees for 10 minutes AT MOST. I let it cool a little before I poured the cheesecake filling in top.

The best part is the crumbled choc. chip cookie topping. I used Nestle, but you could certainly use your favorite cookie recipe and I think the possibilities are endless with the type of cookie dough you put on top. Something with raspberry and chocolate would be AMAZING! Just crumble the dough on top of the cheesecake filling. Be sure to cover the cheesecake filling as best you can.

Bake again for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees F. Let them cool for 30 minutes and then put them in the fridge for 2 hours. They set up really nicely if you can be patient enough not to cut into and or pick at them!

The parchment paper allows you to pull them out and cut them into bite sized pieces. They look prettier too :) Happy eats!!!

Rocky Road Rice Krispie Treats

Hello - I've been busy behind the scenes lately developing my brand, logos, and website among other projects and I'm on the verge of doing my first 'serious' wedding season. Scary yet so exciting! One project I've been wanting to tackle is documentation of making a recipe. This particular recipe is pretty easy and I actually had the time to do it! I found it on Tasty Kitchen Blog. I love their recipes and the food pictures are delicious eye candy. All these pics are unedited (SOOTC).

Here's the recipe:

•1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
•½ cups Peanut Butter
•½ cups Nutella
•½ cups Mini Marshmallows
•¼ cups Pecans
•¾ cups Rice Krispies

I also added toffee pieces and extra nuts.

I started with the PB and nutella in the same bowl, something microwavable and large, because you'll be adding all the other ingredients to it. Add the chocolate chips to the PB/Nutella bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring until chips are melted. I'll refer to this trifecta as the chocolate batter.

I could see this combo being very useful for other things as well, dipping sauce for pretzels, frozen on a banana, curing cancer...

Once the chocolate batter is melted and stirred together start adding ingredients, beginning with the rice krispies. You may have to add more krispies depending on how much extra chocolate batter you seem to have. Stir in each ingredient after you add it to the chocolate batter mix.

Add pecans...

Toffee chips (optional - but sooo worth it!)...

Marshmallows...

Have a buttered 8x8 inch pan ready to go... you'll then dump the krispie mixture with all its ingredients into the pan and pat down gently so it covers the bottom of the pan and its fairly flat on the top.

Top the mixture with more nuts or toffee...

And more marshmallows too...

Gently pat down toppings so they stick.

Refrigerate for an hour, or as long as you can stand to not eat them...

Me peeking to see if they looked ready to eat...

Forgot to mention, I bought a little step stool, because I am short... I can't reach anything and its come in handy for instances like this when I want to photograph something from above. I'll definitely be taking this with me on shoots. $12! At container store!! AND it folds up FLAT!

Set the table all nice too for our dinner guests where we devoured these treats...