Laces Out, Dan!

So I've been holding onto this box for a while, patiently waiting for football season to begin.  I sent it out a little early still, but I have already passed the official cut off date for packages, so it's now or never.  Well anyhow, I had a lot of ideas for cookies, but I thought I'd again mix it up and throw in something new...so this week I made Rice Krispie Treats with chocolate peanut butter coating and vanilla bean icing for laces.  This recipe was sort of made up on the fly...so I'll give this tutorial a (pathetic) shot.

1) Make your Rice Krispie Treats
-Melt 3 TB of butter over medium
-Add 4 cups of mini marshmallows and stir until melted
-Mix in 6 cups of cereal
-Spread into a pan coated with cooking spray.

Sorry I have no photo of this. But if you don't know what Rice Krispie Treats look like then you probably aren't getting enough electricity in that cave of yours to turn on your oven anyhow.

2) Make a sinful coating
-While the treats cool, melt 4 squares of bakers unsweetened chocolate in the microwave (about 1 min).
-Remove and stir in 1 cup of peanut butter (preferably smooth and/or creamy...the peanuts in the chunky don't make for a pretty surface for these footballs) and heat for another 30 seconds in the microwave until soft.
-Once the treats have cooled to a room temp, spread this dangerous mixture of chocolate and peanut butter over the top.
-Cool in the fridge for at least 1 hour (until the chocolate mix is hard to the touch)

I didn't have a pan that was an appropriate size so I improvised...deal with it.

You can stop here and cut squares later, but If you want footballs...continue on...

3) Make the footballs...
-Use a football shaped cookie cutter and cut them out
-Smack yourself in the forehead for needing a tutorial for this step


4) Lace it up
-Combine 6 tablespoons of milk with 6 tablespoons of corn syrup in a mixer.
-Add in a tablespoon of Williams-Sonoma's Vanilla Bean Paste (if you don't have this, run out and buy it now!!)  If you aren't fortunate enough to get your hands on this paste, just bust out the regular old blah vanilla extract. *WARNING* It won't taste nearly as awesome. ;)

Legal Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for any damage caused to your wardrobe, taste-buds, or kitchen in the baking of these footballs.  They are extremely rich and not recommended for the amateur eater. 
 

Finger Foods

Tonight I made up 2 batches of cookies, one for taste, one for fun.  The first batch I'll tell you about is the batch for show. They are just your basic run of the mill sugar cookies with some food coloring and a pumpkin seed.  They are zombie fingers.  Yes, I know there's still 2 months before halloween, but I'm not sending my husband a halloween themed box, so back off!  I am sending him a zombie themed box :)  My husband oddly has a major interest in the idea of zombies taking over the earth one day...it's a joke people, don't get your panties in a bunch.  Anyhow, so in honor of my husbands love for the zombie scene, I've centered this week's box around zombies (Jeez, I know I already said it, I'm just making sure you're paying attention.)  Anyhow, when doing a google search for zombie cookies I came across the idea of green fingers (yes, I know zombies don't have green fingers, witches do...big deal, they looked cool.)  Anyhow, so I figured the idea was pretty simple and quick so I went with it.  The recipe called for pistachios but I thought pumpkin seeds looked more like finger nails (yes I'm aware they wont taste that good on sugar cookies, but who cares, they are for show anyhow...jeez you are so rude tonight).  Well, like I said the recipe was pretty cut and dry, but if you really must have a step by step (mr. pushy pants), here ya go...

Step 1: Add green coloring to your sugar cookie mix

Step 2: Roll into log shapes, add knuckles by using a toothpick, press seeds in for fingernails and bake.

Take out of oven.  Turn the tables for once and eat a zombie :) 

My son wouldn't eat one, he said it would make him a zombie too. HAHA

Now I'm going to tell you about cookie #2 for the night.  These are chocolate chip peanut butter cookies.  You can find the recipe here. They looked and smelled yummy, but because I'm on a diet again, I can't tell you for sure.  Anyhow, I made up enough to place 3 in individual baggies for disbursement in the hubs care package.  I also left out a handful to give to the man at the post office who always teases me about not saving him any cookies.  Just a hint to my fellow army wives, when sending out multiple packages a week to go overseas, it's always good to have the postal employees on your side.