Southwestern Potato Skins

I seriously contemplated calling this post "The Great Jalapeno Hunt" but that would have just confused everyone.

This post was the hardest recipe I've made in a long time. Not skill wise. No, actually it was really easy. But frustration level? That's a different story. It jumped out at me and screamed, "Make me NOW!" So of course I obliged. It's the perfect timely Superbowl snack. I went to the grocery store that night and gathered the ingredients, anxious to make these delicious little treats. Except I forgot corn. And then my onion was moldy. And then.. I lost my jalapeno.

How exactly do you lose a jalapeno? Well, that's a very good question. I'm still wondering that myself. I swear it was there hanging out with my tomato on the counter when I went back to the store for the fourth time in a week to replace my moldy onion. When I came back not even 20 minutes later, the jalapeno was gone. GONE.

I tore this place apart looking for it. I mean, a jalapeno doesn't just disappear. I looked in the sink. In the trash. Under the stove, the dishwasher, the fridge. Every place I've ever found a cat toy before. Under the couch. Behind the couch. Every place I could think the cat might have knocked it off and batted it to. For over a half an hour I searched every inch of my house. Laying on the floor shining a flashlight under things. Moving furniture. I even looked in my PURSE for goodness sake. (Because it was the only place left I hadn't looked.) And what did I find? A whole lot of cat toys, but no jalapeno. It's gone. My jalapeno just vanished into thin air.

But finally after trip #5 to replace my Houdini pepper, I was able to pull these out of my oven and snap a few pictures to share with you before I shoved them into my face. Here's the thing--truthfully, I don't like half the ingredients in these. I hate onions, loathe beans, despise tomatoes, and don't care for cilantro. But I can guarantee you I ate every last bit destroyed these. It's definitely a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

They're absolutely perfect for a Big Game party. They're super easy to put together, they can be made ahead of time to save yourself some hassle and stress, and they're utterly delicious. Best of all, unlike a lot of potato skins that are smothered in cheese and bacon, there's no meat in these, so vegetarians and meat eaters alike can nosh on tasty snacks while cheering for their favorite team (or favorite commercial). And since they're full of vegetables and come from Clean Eating magazine, we can pretend that they're reasonably healthy! Maybe?

Just be sure to keep a close eye on your ingredients so nobody makes a daring escape.

Homemade S'mores

“Hey, you want a s'more"
“Some more what?"
“No, no, you want a s'more?"
“I haven't had anything yet, so how can I have some more of nothing?”
“You're killing me Smalls! These are s'more's stuff. Okay, pay attention. First you take the graham, you stick the chocolate on the graham. Then you roast the 'mallow. When the 'mallows flaming... you stick it on the chocolate. Then you cover it with the other end. Then you stuff. Kind of messy, but good!”

I still think of these lines, from one of my favorite movies growing up, The Sandlot, every time I make s’mores! When I went camping with Boyfriend and some of his old coworkers about a month ago, I was totally sitting there with my marshmallow over the fire, thinking, “When the ‘mallows flaming…”

Since then, I’ve been craving s’mores really bad. Instead of taking the easy route, just buying the marshmallows and graham crackers at the store, I decided I wanted to make them both from scratch.

Homemade graham crackers and homemade marshmallows. Time consuming, yes, but not nearly as hard as it sounds! If you can make meringue, you can make marshmallows. The only scary part is the boiling sugar. (I still picture myself with a sugary toasted hand.) There was a minor freak out when my sugar syrup started turning toward a caramel color before it reached the right temperature. I thought for sure I was going to end up with brown marshmallows (yuck), but after whipping them with the gelatin, they were perfectly snow white. And DELICIOUS. I cut the leftover scraps into tiny little squares and seriously ate them as a snack. I couldn’t stop. These will definitely make an appearance again, because I can already think of 2 things I want to use them for.

And the graham crackers? No harder than a regular cut-out cookie! The dough is quite a bit sticky at first, so make sure your work surface and rolling pin are well floured. Also, I had better luck freezing my dough than just chilling it in the fridge. From the fridge it softened up way too quick, but the frozen dough held together much better without sticking nearly as much.

While they’re not exactly the quintessential campfire s’mores, with the toasted marshmallow squishing out the sides, and the melty chocolate, they’re a really good, not-as-messy substitute. They’re more s’morewiches than s’mores, but I’m okay with that. I think they’d be perfect for a picnic or a summertime cookout!

No Bake Peanut Butter Granola Bars

Granola bars—oats, dried fruit, nuts. Sounds like a healthy snack, right? Eh. I don’t do healthy. I do dessert. So when I decided to make my own granola bars, I went straight for a recipe that sounded like exactly what I usually buy in the store—a bar filled with chocolate and peanut butter.

Last weekend, Boyfriend and I went camping with some of his old coworkers from his first job. Like we usually do, we went overboard on food and snacks, bringing way too much to eat, and leaving the entire box of granola bars I’d bought completely unopened. I finally broke into them when we got home, tempted by their “Sweet and Salty” promises of chocolate, peanut butter, and pretzels, and within 2 days I’d eaten half the box. I knew I had to make some of my own!

I’ve only attempted to make granola bars once before, to not-so-great results. Those first bars were overly sweet (even for me!) and rock hard. Once you finally did manage to gnaw a piece off, chewing it was no easy feat. It was like trying to chew through sweet leather. Needless to say, they were a flop. But these? Totally easy, and 1000 times more tasty. Start to finish, I think it took me maybe 20 minutes to put together, not including chill time. And most of that was just waiting for the honey to boil. And the beauty of granola bars—you can add whatever you want to them. Peanuts or almonds? Go for it. Butterscotch chips? Sure. Dried fruit? Have at it. Throw in anything you want!

I put pretzels, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips in mine, to make bars that were just like the ones I bought. And they’re delicious! (I’ve already eaten a TON of them.) They still need a little tweaking, but overall it’s a keeper. They’re a tiny bit on the gooey side, so next time I’ll either up the amount of oats and Rice Krispies to 2 cups each, or cut back on either the honey or the peanut butter. And they’re still a little sweet, so I might even omit the sugar altogether and throw in some salted peanuts to up the salty factor. But there will definitely be a next time. Probably very soon.

Caramel Popcorn

This was supposed to be a post about Bailey’s Irish Cream Caramels for St. Patrick’s Day. Chewy, delicious caramel candies with a hint of Irish Cream flavor. I was going to tell you all about how to make caramels because I was confident after two successful attempts that I had all the mechanics down. I survived both adventures relatively unscathed and while terrifyingly scary, the process is actually quite simple. But of course that confidence came well before my most recent batch of caramels was actually done. And guess what. It never set. It solidified past the “sauce” stage, but never really made it to “chewy, delicious candy”. It simply hovered around the “squishy goo” stage instead. I thought about just throwing it out, but Boyfriend gave me a better idea. When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. When it hands you gooey caramel? You make Caramel Popcorn.

I melted my caramel goo back down to sauce and poured it over a big pot of popped corn. Then I threw it on a baking sheet and baked it for an hour. The result? Caramel popcorn that I can’t. stop. eating. Literally. Every time I took it out of the oven to stir, I ate some. As it was cooling I ate some. While I attempted to take pictures last night, I ate some. I ate so much of it yesterday, I thought I was going to make myself sick. I’m ashamed to admit that I grabbed more than a handful when I got up to get a drink last night... At 4am. And today? As soon as I got home from work, I sat down on my kitchen stool with the bag in front of me and just started munching away. And then ate some more as I was taking more pictures. This stuff is dangerous. I made an entire gallon Ziploc bag of the stuff and it’s almost halfway gone. If I keep this stuff around, it’ll be gone before the weekend’s over.

Homemade Kettle Corn

I’m not the biggest fan of summer. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy a lot of things that come along with the season—the flowers, the fresh fruit, grilling out, driving with the windows down, wearing flip flops… It’s mostly just the heat I can’t stand. I hate feeling sweaty. I hate that unintentional leg waxing I get from hot leather seats. I hate looking like a cooked lobster after sitting outside for a half an hour. But I’ll subject myself to all of that for one thing—baseball. I love baseball. I love the simplicity of it. Unlike most other sports, I understand it. I see the point. I get what each player’s role is. Football? Other than the quarterback and the kicker, I couldn’t tell you what most of the positions are called, much less what they do. And don’t try to explain formations or plays to me. I’ll never understand, so it’s not even worth it. I like football, I really do. I just don’t get it. It’s the same with almost every sport, except baseball. Baseball I get.

Caramel Pretzel Bites

On the Fifth Day of Christmas The Busty Baker made for me... Caramel Pretzel Bites!

‘Tis the season for lots of holiday parties. Whether it’s a party at work, or a party with friends and family, chances are you’ll hit up, or host at least one social gathering this season. And chances are, you’ll be met with the same old tired cheeseball , veggie tray, or bowl of nuts as snacks. Why not serve up something different? Why not set out a bowl of Caramel Pretzel Bites?