Pretzel Rolos

Ingredients:

Rolo chocolate candies
Mini pretzels
Nuts - pecans/almonds/hazelnuts/walnuts

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350

Upwrap your Rolos. Place pretzels on baking sheet. Top with a Rolo.

Bake in oven for 3-5 minutes, until the chocolate just begins to melt. The Rolo should be soft but not completely melted.

Remove from oven, place on cooling rack and immediately squish the chocolate with a nut. Watch the caramel oooze out. YUM!

The Real Scoop
by Andrew
These were so easy that one of my friends helped Mom make these.  She took some home and her mom loved them, too.  They should make these again.

Rocky Road-Peanut Butter Candy

Ingredients

• 11-oz. package peanut butter and milk chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter 
• 1 cup crispy rice cereal  (I ended up using about three cups because the mixture was really wet.)
• 1 cup miniature marshmallows
• 3/4 cup unsalted roasted peanuts, chopped  (I used pecans.)

Preparation

1. Microwave peanut butter and milk chocolate chips in a large glass bowl on high for one to 2 minutes or until melted, stirring every 30 seconds. Stir in peanut butter until well blended.
2. Stir in rice cereal, miniature marshmallows and chopped peanuts. Spoon mixture by heaping tablespoonfuls evenly into miniature paper candy cups. Chill one hour or until firm.

The Real Scoop
by Andrew
We made these for a church group and they all loved them.  Serve with napkins because they are messy.  Or just wipe your hands on your jeans.  That works, too.

Peanut Butter, Chocolate & Bacon

While staying at Mom's, we tried this recipe that sounded like it had the fixins of something wonderful...

We found it on the Betty Crocker website.

Chocolate-Topped Peanut Butter-Bacon Bars

1 pouch Betty Crocker® peanut butter cookie mix
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons maple-flavored syrup
1 egg
10 slices bacon, crisply cooked, crumbled
1/2 cup chopped peanuts
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (6 oz)

• 1 Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly spray 9- or 8-inch square pan with cooking spray.
• 2 In large bowl, stir together cookie mix, oil, syrup and egg until soft dough forms. Reserve 1/4 cup bacon for garnish. Stir remaining bacon and peanuts into dough. Press evenly in pan.
• 3 Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven; sprinkle with chocolate chips. Return to oven; bake 1 minute. Immediately spread chocolate over bars. Sprinkle reserved 1/4 cup bacon over chocolate. Cool completely, about 1 hour or until chocolate is set.
• 4 For bars, cut into 4 rows by 4 rows. Store tightly covered in refrigerator. 

I'm sorry to say that this one gets a bad review.  Perhaps it was the high Ohio humidity, but the cookie was extremely soft - to the point it tasted stale.  Unfortunately, there wasn't much bacon taste, even though I actually used more than the recipe required.  This one had so much potential!

The Real Scoop
By Andrew
I jumped up and down when I saw all three of my favorite foods in one recipe, but YUCK. 

I'm done with recipes for a while.  I need to go do something more manly.

Marchocolate

I couldn't let this NW Ohio holiday pass us by.  For Marchocolate, we made Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake for the neighborhood kids.

Cake:
1 chocolate cake mix
ingredients on back of box
1/2 chunky peanut butter
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips





Frosting:
16 oz. container of chocolate icing
1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup chopped peanuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Make batter according to directions. Add peanut butter & chocolate chips.
Bake 25-30 minutes in a 9x13 pan.

Mix frosting ingredients and top cooled cake.

The Real Scoop
by Andrew

Very yummy!  We had big pieces, then had a second helping!
Deryus (in the back) did the icing.

Pizza & Cake

Place: Dewey's Pizza on 5th Ave. in Columbus

New tastes: Pine nuts & artichokes on pizza and mint cream on cake.  Not sure I would do the artichokes again, but I definitely would do another slice with pine nuts.  I'm also hoping I can find a good dessert with mint cream.  Recipes?  Suggestions?

I have no idea why I didn't take pictures of the pizzas we ordered:

• Edgar Allen Poe Pizza:  White saucee, olive oil, mozarella-fontina cheese blend, roasted garlic, kalamata olives, goat cheest, tomatoes & parsley.
• Green Lantern Pizza: Red sauce, mozzarella cheese,  minced garlic, goat cheese, artichokes & pesto.
• Custom Pizza #1:  Peppers and smoked cheddar
• Custom Pizza #2:  Ricotta chese, tomatoes & pine nuts

And then there was dessert...chocolate cake with mint cream between the layers.  Chocolate crumbs around the outsided edge, and a layer of chocolate and a layer of mint on top.  So yummy!

It's so good to share food with friends.