Molten Chocolate Cakes 2.0

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Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, so if your true love is chocolate, put away the boxed brownie mix and whip up these oozy chocolate cakes instead. Seriously – you have to trust me on this one. Super easy to make, and guaranteed to WOW. Plus, they can be prepped up to 2 days ahead and baked right before serving. Continue reading

Craving: Chocolate Chex Crunch

Chocolate Chex Mix Buddies

Maybe you’ve heard of this chocolatey-peanut-buttery snack mix as “Puppy Chow” or “Muddy Buddies” – but I think those are terrible names! So maybe “Chocolate Chex Crunch” isn’t very creative, but at least it’s descriptive (and a little more appetizing). Easier to make than Rice Krispies Treats, this Chex™ cereal recipe should be in every chocolate lover’s repertoire. Truth be told, I can’t stop eating the stuff – to the point where my kids have started to hide the container from me (“for my own good”). I use good-quality Ghirardelli semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips, so the addition of vanilla (per the Chex recipe) isn’t really necessary. You can find the original recipe on the back of Chex cereals, or my version below. Continue reading

Ice Cream Sand-Witch

Has this ever happened to you?

You duck into the grocery store for one thing (something you need for a recipe and/or forgot from the last visit to the store). Once in the store you start thinking about other things you need, and soon you have a cart full of stuff. (And of course you didn’t bring your reusable bags in from the car because you were only supposed to be getting one thing.) All this, and by the time you get home you realize you forgot the one thing you went to the store for in the first place.

This just happened to me today, and not for the first time.  I think I should coin it “Grocery Store ADD”, and shopping lists are the only way to cure it. Unfortunately, I didn’t bother making a list because I was only supposed to be getting one thing – gruyère cheese for my cauliflower gratin. The cheese never made it home. Before I could get to the cheese aisle, I had to pass some Halloween displays and the ice cream aisle end cap display. This is what got me derailed:

I’d never noticed this product before, and instantly I had an idea that got me all excited (and forgetful, apparently).  The wheels were turning.

With a few store-bought products and the vanilla ice cream I had at home, I could quickly whip up some ice cream witches’ hats for after school snacks. By cutting down the cones, the portion of ice cream becomes just right for kids (or, ahem, moms).

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