For our final Rice Krispies Making Memories Challenge we were asked to create a recipe and treats that would bring moms and kids together around a holiday theme. I can’t believe we have come to our final challenge already. It was such a fun experience and I loved working with my Philly team! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to join them in person this time at Tara’s house ( I was home with my newborn). But as always they were very creative and did an amazing job.

The theme the Philly Team went with was Christmas Krispies Kountdown. The original recipe was for Gingerbread Spice Krispies Treats.   The treats were cut into squares, decorated with assorted sprinkles, placed in ornament bags that were numbered up to 25 (for the days leading up to Christmas) and hung on a mini tree. Kiddies can then open a bag and enjoy a treat each day of December as they count down to Christmas. How fun!

And once again we are giving away a $100 Gift Card to a lucky winner. See the bottom of the post for details.

London Broil is one of the dishes I learned to make early on when I first started cooking. It is easy and cooks fairly quickly. London Broil is a style of cooking not a cut of meat. Usually it is flank steak or round steak that is marinated and then grilled or broiled and cut into thin strips against the grain. It is a good weeknight meal because it takes 2 seconds to marinate it (which you can do early in the am or the night before) and then 20 minutes to cook. While it’s cooking you can  prepare your sides. And best of all my family loves it. My 7 year old couldn’t get enough at dinner and my 5 year old loved helping me make the marinade.

We started by making a large flat tray of our Brown Butter Pumpkin Spice Treats which we covered in chocolate frosting and chocolate cookie crumbs (our dirt) to serve as the base for our haunted pumpkin patch. We then made our “fence” by connecting parallel running pretzel sticks to marshmallow “posts” and adhered them around the edge of our base. We made spooky “trees” with black licorice and adhered them into the frosting. A path was created through the patch using Reeces Pieces as “cobblestones.” We then whipped up another batch of Brown Butter Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispies Treats (this time dyeing them orange) and made them into round pumpkin shapes.  A third of a pretzel stick was stuck into each pumpkin top before a green icing leaf was piped on to the “stem.” Finally we decorated the patch with fun spooky items found at the craft store, like miniature wooden tomb stones, ghosts made out of Peeps candy, miniature mummies and skeletons, small plastic spiders etc.

We had a blast creating, chatting and decorating! Be sure to check out some of the amazing treats the other teams created on The Motherhood.

Brown Butter Pumpkin Rice Krispie Treats – Haunted Pumpkin Patch

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 stick (8 TBS)  butter or margarine
• 1 ¼ tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 1 package(about 40) + 10 regular marshmallows
• 2 TBS Pumpkin Puree
• 7 cups   Rice Krispies

Directions:

1. In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Stirring frequently. Butter will foam and then the foam will subside. Brown bits will begin to form at the bottom. Keep stirring. You will smell a nutty aroma and the butter will be lightly brown. Off the heat.
2. Stir in pumpkin pie spice until incorporated. Add marshmallows and stir. Put the heat back on low and stir until marshmallows are completely melted. Remove from heat.
3. Stir in pumpkin puree and two drops of red food coloring and 3-4 drops of yellow food coloring (to make desired orange color).
4. Mix in Rice Krispies until they are fully coated with marshmallow mixture. Turn out onto a wax paper lined baking sheet.

To Make Pumpkins:
Ingredients:

• One batch Brown Butter Pumpkin Rice Krispie Treats.
• Small Pretzel Sticks
• Green Icing tube with Leaf tip.

Directions:

1. Allow Rice Krispies Treats to cool for a bit.
2. Shape into round balls. Insert a 1/3 of a pretzel stick into the tops to act as a pumpkin stem.
3. Use green icing and an leaf tip to create a small green leaf on the side of the “stem.”

To Assemble Haunted Pumpkin Patch:
Ingredients:

• 2 batches of Brown Butter Pumpkin Rice Krispies Treats
• 1 batch Brown Butter Pumpkin Rice Krispies Treats made into Pumpkins
• 1 can Chocolate Frosting
• 2-3 cups Chocolate Cookie Crumbs (crumble plain chocolate cookies in a food processor or blender)
• 1 bag Marshmallows
• 1 bag Pretzel Sticks
• 2 -3 sticks of Black Twizzlers
• 1/3 cup Reeces Pieces
• Peeps Marshmallow Ghosts, assorted miniature Halloween signs, tomb stones, zombies, bats, spiders , ghosts from a craft store for decorating

Directions:

1. Spread a baking sheet with wax paper and spray with cooking spray.  Make 2 batches of Brown Butter Pumpkin Rice Krispie Treats and spread out onto baking sheet evenly. Once cooled completely turn over onto  a platter or tray.
2. Frost Treats with chocolate frosting and cover with cookie crumbs (for dirt).
3. Create a “fence” around Treats by taking 2 Marshmallows and connecting them with 2 parallel pretzel sticks. Continue to join pretzels sticks and Marshmallows until the fence goes around the tray of Rice Krispies Treats. Adhere the marshmallows to the chocolate frosting.
4. Make a “path across the middle of the Treats (vertically) with Reeces Pieces.
5. Cut the tops of the Twizzlers down in thin strips to make tree branches and cut them slightly at the bottom (to make roots) and adhere into the frosting for spooky trees.
6. Scatter the Brown Butter Pumpkin Rice Krispies Treat Pumpkins around the “pumpkin patch.”
7. Decorate with marshmallow ghosts and store bought spooky creatures and signs.

Each of our blogs below are also running a $100 giveaway! Go visit Team Philly and comment!

Sarah Peppel, Genesis Moments
Tara Bucci, Baby Momma Blog
Joey Fortman, Real Mom Media

Here’s how to WIN the $100 Bank Gift Card:

1) Leave a comment here telling me how you might take a tray of basic Rice Krispies Treats and turn it into a spooky fun treat for Halloween.

2) For additional entries to win: Blog, Tweet, and/or Facebook a link to this post. Leave a comment here letting me know in separate entries.

Post this on Twitter or Facebook :  Enter to win a $100 Bank Gift Card via @cookingwithz  http://bit.ly/p3HJ0b #RiceKrispies

4) Contest ends at midnight October 26, 2011. Winner will be randomly selected via Random.org .

Abbreviated Rules. No Purchase Necessary. Begins no earlier than 12:00:00 AM (ET) on 9/15/11 and ends no later than 11:59:59 PM (ET) on 10/26/11. For complete Official Rules, go to ( http://web.mediacdt.com/docs/BloggerRulesHalloween.pdf ). Open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and District of Columbia who are 18 years of age or older at time of entry. Subject to complete Official Rules. Void where prohibited. Sponsor: The Motherhood; www.TheMotherhood.com.

Disclosure: This is part of a paid campaign sponsored by the makers of Kellogg’s® Rice Krispies® cereal ®, TM, © 2011 Kellogg NA Co.

I have a lot of friends that have been going gluten free lately. If they are coming over, I like to make sure I have some gluten free options for them, especially with appetizers. Udi’s s gluten free products are great for this purpose. I recently experimented with their Plain gluten free bagels which are not only soft and chewy but also soy free, nut free and dairy free (if there are other allergies of which you need to be wary).

I made a tasty and very easy to assemble appetizer – Grape & Ricotta crostini using Udi’s Gluten Free Plain Bagels. They are a great combination of crispy, creamy and salty,sweet and take under 10 minutes to prepare. They make a great appetizer or snack for anytime of the day.

Separate bagels into halves and then cut each half into fourths.

Lighty brush bagels with olive oil and bake in the oven for 5 minutes.

While bagels are toasting, mix together ricotta, sea salt and olive oil. Let bagels cool. Spread with ricotta mixture, sprinkle with rosemary, top with grapes, drizzle on balsamic and garnish with rosemary.

I admit it, I have been guilty of buying processed American cheese for my kids. And I have bought it without giving it too much thought. Then recently, I was provided the opportunity by the Motherhood and Sargento to invite some friends over and participate in a cheese tasting, comparing Sargento’s natural cheese with the processed stuff. I was even provided with a cheese tasting guide which covered Look, Feel, Smell and Taste and some basic facts about the two. What an eye-opener.

On facts alone, we learned a lot about the difference in real and processed cheese. For one thing, some processed cheese  is made with emulsifiers and preservatives and sits on a store shelf for months without refrigeration, before being sold… eww. Processed cheese is first cooked into a liquid before being pressed into slices through its plastic packaging. The natural cheese is made only with milk, cheese cultures, enzymes and salts. It is aged naturally and tested by cheese graders to ensure quality. It is cut from a real block of cheese and packaged. It also contains a lot less sodium than the processed variety.

Here is where our tasting lead us:

1. Look. The natural cheese had a matte appearance and deeper color while the processed cheese was much more shiny and glossy and fake looking.

2. Touch. The natural cheese went bent would break off with a rougher texture while the processed cheese was pliable and rubbery and could be bent.

3.  Smell. The natural cheese we were tasting smelled like what it was sharp cheddar cheese. The processed cheese really didn’t smell like much of anything.

4. Taste. The natural cheese had a depth of flavor and was tasty. The processed cheese tasted salty and flat.

The Sargento Natural cheese also comes pre-packaged and in slices like many of the processed cheeses but it is much healthier and tastier. It also comes in a lot of varieties.

*Disclosure: The Motherhood and Sargento provided a stipend and the cheese for review. All opinions are my own.

I wanted to something to go with my Gazpacho for dinner. I have made crab cakes often but I never tried shrimp cakes and I very conveniently had a bag of shrimp in the freezer, so these were born. They were really good. My kids liked them plain and my husband and I enjoyed the extra zip from the sauce. They were also pretty quick to throw together. I didn’t think they were quite cooked enough after I fried them so I finished them off in the oven for 10 minutes.

Start with about 1 lb. of shrimp. Peeled, deveined and tails off. Chop it up in a food processor.

Add in chopped onion, garlic, lemon juice, dijon mustard, parsley, egg,  & salt and pepper. Pulse to combine.

Add in 3/4 cup of breadcrumbs and pulse to combine. Gently mix in corn.

Form into patties and lightly coat with breadcrumbs.

Fry in peanut oil.

Between my CSA and family/friend vegetable gardens summer’s bounty is overflowing in my kitchen.  It is another hot hot day, I need lunch and I have tons of fresh vegetables… obviously I need to make gazpacho. Now my normal go-to gazpacho is really simple, I just chop up all my veggies in the food processor add in my tomato juice, oil, vinegar and seasonings and I am done. The result is fresh and tasty. Recently though, my friend was raving Alton Brown’s gazpacho so I decided to try a version of that recipe. It came out delicious. Blanching the tomatoes and pureeing part of the gazpacho lent an almost creamy texture to the soup. And it really wasn’t any more complicated than my usual. Blanching and peeling tomatoes takes literally minutes. The result… a perfectly refreshing, healthy and tasty lunch on this hot day.

This week we kicked off the Rice Krispies Making Memories Summer Challenge – the theme… Summer Activities. My team, Team Philly, decided on a camping theme. We had so much fun with it! We were once again challenged to create a signature Rice Krispies Treat recipe and coordinating display around the given theme. This was the second challenge we completed in a series of four through a promotion with The Motherhood. So our team leader Sarah pitched a tent in her backyard and we all got to work.

Our signature recipe was a S’mores Rice Krispies Treat which we served on a stick. Everything is more fun to eat on a stick and we wanted it to resemble making s’mores around a campfire. We created the campfire using Cocoa Rice Krispies Treats, which we layered with marshmallow cream, rolled up and cut into “logs.” We stacked our Krispies logs to resemble logs in a fire, we stuck red & yellow licorice “flames” out of the middle and surrounded our fire with well toasted (okay charred) marshmallows for coal. We completed our tabletop display with “fishing” Rice Krispies Treats, Rice Krispie Marshmallow Skewers and a Rice Krispies Watermelon cake.

All of our recipes were centered on the basic Rice Krispies Treat. Our signature recipe for the S’mores Rice Krispies Treat was a thick rectangular cut Rice Krispies Treat (made with the basic recipe), placed on a stick, dipped in milk chocolate, coated with a thick layer of graham cracker crumbs and piped with marshmallow creme.

To make the Watermelon Cake: Make the traditional Rice Krispies Treat recipe and mold into a circle before cooling. Decorate with red and green icing and adorn with chocolate chips for seeds.

To make the Fishing Treats: Make the traditional Rice Krispies Treat recipe and cut out into fish shapes, using chocolate chips for eyes. Unfold a paper clip and attach one end to a bendy straw. Thread a gummy worm (bait) on to the other end of the paper clip before attaching it to the fishy Rice Krispies Treat.

We all really enjoyed working on this challenge we got creative and just had a lot of fun!

You can see more of the Rice Krispies Making Memories Challenge on The Motherhood. Take a peek at all 4 competing team challenges.

Each of our blogs below are also running a $100 giveaway! Go visit Team Philly and comment!

Sarah Peppel, Genesis Moments
Tara Bucci, Baby Momma Blog
Joey Fortman, Real Mom Media

I’ll be adding my other team members as their posts go live.

Here’s how to WIN the $100 Visa Gift Card:

1) Leave a comment here telling me how you might take a tray of basic Rice Krispies Treats and turn it into a fun dessert for a summer activity.

2) For additional entries to win: Blog, Tweet, and/or Facebook a link to this post. Leave a comment here letting me know in separate entries.

Post this on Twitter or Facebook Enter to win a $100 Visa Gift Card via @cookingwithz http://bit.ly/kZ3JT1  #RiceKrispies

4) Contest ends at midnight July 26, 2011. Winner will be randomly selected via Random.org .

Abbreviated Rules. No Purchase Necessary. Begins no earlier than 12:00:00 AM (ET) on 6/14/11 and ends no later than 11:59:59 PM (ET) on 7/26/11.  For complete Official Rules, go to http://web.mediacdt.com/docs/RKGiveawaySummer.pdf. Open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and District of Columbia who are 18 years of age or older at time of entry. Subject to complete Official Rules. Void where prohibited. Sponsor: The Motherhood; www.TheMotherhood.com.

Disclosure: This is part of a paid campaign sponsored by the makers of Kellogg’s® Rice Krispies® cereal ®, TM, © 2011 Kellogg NA Co.

I needed a dessert for Passover and I immediately knew I wanted to make a flourless chocolate cake. To give it some more depth of flavor I added raspberries and served it with some creme fraiche. Rich and chocolately. The raspberries and creme fraiche complimented it beautifully. It was a hit with the kids and adults.

I know I  have told you about my love for ice cream but I probably haven’t told you about my secret love for malt powder. Yes, I have been known to eat it straight. And I have now turned my kids on to it too. So Malted Milk Ice Cream is a perfect combination for us. I had it for the first time last Fall at Budakan in AC and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I knew instantly that it was a dish I would have to recreate at home. I finally got around to making it today. It was a big hit with kids and grown ups alike. It is made with Malted Milk Balls after all! Yum, Yum, YUM!!