One of my Favorite things...

...is something my mom made as a kid and called it "Frosty Treasures" it is also called "snowman poop" and "puppy chow." Ringing a bell?

I made some Friday night around 10 pm because I was craving it on the way home from eating on of my top 10 favorite burgers, ever, from Urban Burger Company in Rockville. I had been craving a cheeseburger for a full 24 hours, after reading an article about cooking them on Serious Eats, mainly their "A Hamburger Today" portion. A quick search of The Washington Posts' "going out guide" led us to Urban Burger. It was delicious. If you live in Maryland, especially those of you near College Park, it's worth it. It was $19 and change for 2 delicious, made-to-order burgers, an order of fries (you only need 1 order for 2 people, trust me!) and 2 sodas (they had Old Dominion Root Beer on Draught-amazing).

Anyways, back to the real story here-Frosty Treasures.

My mom would make them when the cereal in the pantry was starting to get a bit stale. She'd throw other stuff in there too, like stale marshmallows (my mom, sisters, and I all seem to like our marshmallows stale...mom will buy Peeps on sale, stab a hole in the cellophane, and give them to us the next Easter. delicious.), pretzels, m'n'ms. Whatever was lying around.

Ingredients and Tools:
1 cup creamy peanut butter (in case you haven't tried it yet, Giant's brand is GROSS. Wegman's is amazing)
1 12oz bag of chocolate chips (most recipes call for semi-sweet. I used Hershey's milk chocolate because I was going for the "Reeses" taste)
5 tablespoons of butter (most recipes call for a whole stick, but it doesn't need that much. You can probably use less. Or use cooking oil, whatever you prefer)
1 box of Crispix cereal [(Any of the Chex works as well-Rice, Wheat, Corn.)(If you have any other snacky foods that are going stale, or you're just sick of eating plain, put some of those in there, too. (Speaking from experience, Cheddar Goldfish are GROSS in there))]
2 cups of powdered sugar

Tools:
A microwave
A microwave safe bowl large enough to hold the chocolate, peanut butter, and butter. (A 4 cup pyrex is perfect)
Wooden/mixing spoon
Either a large ziploc bag (gallon sized or bigger) or a large plastic bowl with a lid.

Here's what you do:
1. Melt the peanut butter, butter and chocolate in the microwave. I do it in 1 minute increments, stirring as it gets melty. You want it to be pretty liquidy, but not to the point of separation. You could use a double boiler if you want, but it will take awhile.
2. While the stuff is in the microwave, pour the cereal into the large bag/bowl.
3. After the PB/chocolate/butter mixture is melted, pour it over the cereal. Seal the bag/bowl and shake vigorously until the cereal is well-coated.
4. Pour the powdered sugar in, and shake it up again until the cereal is whiteish with sugar. You might need to add a bit more if the cereal mix won't coat.
5. Now you can eat it. It might look a little iffy, but it is so good!

Enjoy!

It makes good gifts at Holiday time! Pour some in a bag, stick it in a festive mug, and voila!

Guinness Cupycakes Part 2 (Well, it's turned into a cake..)

So those Guinness cupcakes that I made last night- I ended up making 12 cupcakes and then a nine inch cake. For 2 reasons...well maybe 3.
1) I only had 12 cute green and blue plaid wrappers
2) We'd eat all of the cupcakes (which we did, there are only 3 left)
3) I couldn't find my other muffin tins. And I was lazy- didn't feel like filling more liners and waiting for them to bake.

Ok, the recipe. I adapted SmittenKitchen's "Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes" recipe.
Cupcake Tools:
2 Mixing Bowls
Measuring Cups and spoons
Mixer
Whisk
Small saucepan
Rubber Spatula
Muffin Tin or cake pan
Regular Sized Muffin Tins and Cuppycake liners (we had cute green'n'blue plaid ones)

Cupcake Ingredients:
1 cup stout-I used Guinness. (open the can, pour and let it sit for a minutes before you get the final measurement, because as any good Buffy fan knows: "Beer: foamy")

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used the rest of the Nestle Toll House from the cupboard)

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sour cream (I actually used about 3/4 of a cup...I was feeling particularly liberal)

Frosting Tools:
Mixer
Mixing Bowl
Rubber Spatula
Measuring Cups and spoons
Pastry bag (you can get on from Target for less than $10. OR Cut off the bottom tip of a Ziploc Bag)

Frosting Ingredients:

3 cups confections sugar

1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys (I used Caramel Bailey's 'cause that's what we had. And I probably used about 4 and a half tablespoons)

Cupcake/Cake Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. (Or spray some Pam on 2 8 or 9 inch cake pans. This time I made 12 cupcakes and 1 cake)
2.Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly. (It got a little seperate-y for me. I just ignored it and hope it would turn out- it did)
3. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend.
4. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend.
5. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine.
6. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined.
7. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.(That is, if you don't eat them all first)

Frosting Directions:
1. Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy.
2. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.
3. When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys (or milk) and whip it until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.
4. Ice and decorate the cupcakes. Make sure the cupcakes are totally cooled. It usually takes a few hours. I didn't frost mine 'til the day we served it. (St. Patrick's Day!!) I used a star tip and kind of wavered it around to make it look foamy, like the head of Guinness.

The cake looks really cute- like a disk of yummy, yummy Guinness. The cupcakes that we inhaled...er tested just taste like a really rich chocolate. The Guinness adds and extra "umph" that you usually don't get from milk or cream. The frosting is rather sweet- I really like that I used Caramel Bailey's because it adds an extra creaminess that you don't usually get from regular Bailey's.

We're having corned beef, cabbage, carrots, and fingerling potatoes for dinner. Dave made Irish Soda Bread. There's Guinness, Smithicks, and an Irish Cream Ale in the fridge. The Irish Rovers are on the stereo. Friends will be on their way over shortly. It's going to be a good evening!