Livin' the Dream in Lima

I don't know what it is about rice krispy treats, but they are one of the best things in the entire world. Ooey gooey marshmallow and crispy cereal. But they have to be homemade! None of those blue metallic wrapped things... they just don't do it for me. I've been having fun over the past few months creating some twists on the classic rice krispy treats, including Oreo Rice Krispy Treats and Cake Batter Rice Krispy Treats. And then I had a thought... Red Velvet Rice Krispy Treats ? Is that a thing? And lo and behold, after a trusty Google search, it is definitely  a thing! There were many different twists - regular rice krispies cereal, cocoa krispies, cream cheese frosting, red food coloring, etc... I ended up going with a cocoa krispies cereal base, and adding red velvet cake mix to the marshmallow mixture. I even went a step further and added chocolate chips because I am a chocolate lover, but you could easily substitute white chocolate chips or leave them out...

We arrived home just in time for dinner last night... so good to see our families! And the Monical's pizza was delicious as always. My mom & I decided to tackle some baking today in preparation for Christmas. (What else is new? :-P) You'd think fifteen types of cookies would be enough. Nope, not for us. We decided on a Red Velvet Cake Roll to take to my grandma's tonight for dessert, and a couple coffee cakes for the morning. And this Creme de Menthe Cake which is a Christmas tradition. I've never made a cake roll before, so I was looking forward to a new experience. It was actually quite simple! (As long as you follow the directions.) The cake part is a red velvet sponge cake. The eggs are beaten for a good 5 minutes until they're light and fluffy; then the rest of the ingredients are added. The cake is baked in a jelly roll pan that has been greased, lined with wax paper, greased again, and flour. You don't want the cake to stick. That wo...

Cue : Alice Cooper. We played that song in marching band in high school; it was awesome. Did I ever mention I was in marching band? I played the flute. It's where I met my Business Man, at band camp. When I was just a wee little one, 14 years old. Crazy to think about! Anyways, school is officially out for summer! Yesterday was our last day with students, and today was a teacher "work day." Aka clean up the crazy mess your room has become over the past 9 months and turn in your lesson plans that were due several weeks ago.  What better way to kick off the summer than with a pool party? One of the teachers invited the entire staff over to her home for a potluck lunch and to swim in her pool. And considering that temps today were in the mid-90s, it was the perfect day to be pool-side. I decided to make cupcakes to take to the pool party. (Surprise, surprise.) But not just any cupcakes. Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcakes. It's kind of a long story how the...

The sun came out today! This left me smiling from ear to ear all day. Ironically, though the sun was shining strong, we had Snow Day #3 of the week. (I guess the roads were really icy this morning. They actually were pretty bad when I headed to the gym around 10am.) Fingers crossed we'll be back at school tomorrow, because now we're at the point where we will be adding days to our school year in June! Anyways, I've pretty much exhausted myself of ways to entertain myself outside the baking world. I've watched TV, read blogs, read books, organized closets, dusted, changed sheets, and even cleaned the bathroom. I haven't touched a lick of schoolwork, but that's beside the point. I finally broke down and got busy in the kitchen today, preparing a special treat for my Business Man. I discovered a recipe for Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies while browsing the interwebs this morning. Now, most recipes that I find on the internet, I usually file away on my...