Best Rice Crispy Treats Ever!

I love Rice Crispy treats. Let me clarify that... I love eating Rice Crispy Treats. I hate making them more than almost anything (anything!) Which is really too bad because they are SO GOOD! And they are so easy to have the kiddos help out with. AND you can do so many things with them. Just go on Pinterest! The possibilities are endless. What's not to love about them? Unfortunately, since I love them so much I try to make them pretty often... which is usually a disaster. My crispy treats have turned out every single way you could think of that they are not supposed to. I've had too-hard crispy treats that break into crispy treat confetti when you bite into them. I've had the too-soft version that is so gooey that they melt apart into molten marshmallow-ey mess all over your hands. Even if I seem to get them just right, the next day, in a cruel twist of fate, they always end up like one of the previous two versions. I don't even think I was looking for these when I just stumbled upon them one day in the great Pinterest wonderland...

THE PIN: The Best Rice Crispy Treats Ever. The name right there got me hooked. I followed the link to this wonderful little blog (http://cookbookproposal.blogspot.com/) and found the recipe. It seemed reasonable enough. I had all the ingredients. And I had this sudden hankering for a nice, big chewy rice crispy treat...

Pic from http://cookbookproposal.blogspot.com/

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

1 stick of butter (make sure you use real butter - I think it makes all the difference!)

1- 10-ounce bag of marshmallows
1 heaping teaspoon coarse sea salt (I left this out - I just wanted to try it without the first time. Perhaps it makes it better but I wanted what I wanted)
6 cups of rice crispy cereal (It's about 1/2 of a small box or about 1/3 of a big box)
More butter or non-stick spray (make it easy on yourself and go with the non stick spray. Who cares if it's worse for you!?)

I almost always have all of these things in my pantry. Refer to my earlier comment about how much I love rice crispy treats. I get ambitious every time I go down the cereal or baking aisle and I buy all the ingredients to make them... and they usually sit in my cupboard until they get hard or stale. Until now! I don't know if these particular instructions are why these turn out for me, but I always get hard little cubes that break into a rice crispy dust cloud when you bite into them.

So here's how you do it... I would measure everything out first. I did and it made it a thousand times easier. Do yourself a favor... pre-measure! Also, get the pan ready that you're going to put these bad-boys into so that you don't do that "Oh crap!" thing once they're done and ready to be mushed in there. I put tin foil in and then spray that w/ cooking oil - easier clean-up! Do all that and you'll be a happier person later - promise!

Okay... melt the butter in a big pot (make sure it's your big one, not the medium... you'll thank yourself later). I don't know if this is the magic trick that makes them turn out, but I think the way this recipe has you cook the butter might be the trick! I usually wait until the butter is just melted and then I dump in the rest of the stuff. But this time, I followed the recipe and cooked the butter a little. I was so excited about these that right after I took this photo, I dropped my phone in the butter. Oops...

Right before the iPhone butter bath

So it will bubble a lot, and then after awhile (keep pulling it from the bottom of the pot with a rubber spatula) you'll see it start to turn brown-ish. The recipe said "it will start to smell nutty" and I was like, "Yea right..." but it actually does. Don't wait too long! As soon as you see it brown a little pull that sucker off the burner and throw in your marshmallows (I had the small people pre-measure everything before we started so it was really easy... reallly... measure stuff out first!). I used the bigger marshmallows (there was a reason... see below) and they took a little longer. The residual heat from the browned butter didn't melt them all, so I stuck the pot back on the cooling-down burner and it was enough to finish the job. When I read blogs/recipes, I always wish someone would show me a dang picture of what I'm supposed to see... Therefore... a picture timeline...

Bubbles a lot...

  Foams up...  

Turns brown and smells nutty 

Put marshmallows in (mine are the pink, strawberry-flavored, Valentine version)

Stir the crap out of it (I did it really fast, not only because it made the little ones laugh but because maybe it made the mallows melt faster... maybe). I think this is when you put in the salt too (again - I left it out). After the mellows are melted and you have a nice, thick goo then you toss in the cereal (again.... pre-measured) and stir those around some until it's all mixed in. Make sure you scrape the good bits off the bottom! Put it all into the pre-prepared pan.

Now here is where I throw in my own special trick (I'm sure I'm the first one to EVER think of this...). Once you have the marshmallow-ed crispy mixture in the pan, get another piece of tin foil and spray the tar out of it w/ cooking spray (over the sink if you don't want your kitchen to turn into a skating rink!). Then lay the tin foil, spray-side down, over the crispies. Get another pan that's about the same size or a little smaller (if you're using a 8x11 pan, you could use an 8x8 to do this), and use it to smush the crispies in. It makes the tops perfectly flat and lets you get the crispys into all the crevices and corners. When I do this, sometimes I have to take the pan off and mush some into the corners with a rubber spatch, but overall it's a pretty nifty trick! Plus, it's a perfect thing for the smallish humans to help with.

Smush 'em together! 

Let them dry for a few minutes (or not!) and dig in. I usually can't wait, so I eat one while it's still gooey and hot. The kids love picking the little gooey crispy bits out of the bottom of the pot and off the spatula. Sometimes I even let them do it before I lick the pot and spatch clean myself.

The end - Sweet bliss!!

Can't wait to dig into these bad boys (the pink tint is from the strawberry marshmallows. Trust me... you want to try this!)

COST: $ I'm not really sure since, like I said before, I usually buy the necessary ingredients while shopping for something else. I'm not sure I've ever bought just the ingredients for this. But overall, it's really pretty cheap. Butter, crispies, mallows... I'm thinking between $7-$10? That's a guess...

DO-ABILITY: Pretty darn easy. The hardest part is making sure you take the butter off after it's browned, but before it burns. You really only have about a 30-60 second window for this. God speed.

BEST CRISPY TREATS EVER?: Um... yea. You will want to make these. Tonight. They are so, so good. Exactly what I think of when I dream about rice crispy treats... which is probably about daily. I almost didn't even get any because the kids (and husband... don't deny it!) devoured them before I could even blink. We made another batch with a different kind of mallow (see "One Last Thing" below!) and they were so good! Exactly what rice crispy treats should be! I'm in love...

THE GOOD: Best. Crispy Treats. EVER! I can't say enough. You'll have to try it for yourself. I'm a converted rice crispy treat ruin-er. Never again!

THE BAD: The butter part is a little tricky, but at least it's the first step, so if you DO burn it, you can start over and not have ruined a bunch of ingredients. Unfortunately, butter has gotten so dang expensive...

THE UGLY: The clean up stinks. Do yourself a favor. When you buy the ingredients for the crispy treats, get some Dawn Five-Minute Soak. It is magical! No scrubbing required.

PIN OR  BUST: Definitely a pin! You'll want to save this one for a lot of years (and school snacks, and birthday parties, and moments of weakness) to come. Plus, there are so many fun things you can do with crispy treats! Just go look on Pinterest! The possibilities are, literally, endless.

ONE LAST THING: Use the seasonal mallows to your advantage! We used the heart-shaped strawberry flavored ones on this batch and the little hint of strawberry was SO good! One suggestion - you might want to take the extra time to cut them into smaller bits because they take a little longer to melt. I didn't want to take the time because I wanted those crispy treats, like, yesterday. Your choice.

Happy Pinning!

The "Get Along" Shirt

It has been so long since my last post. I apologize! Parent-Teacher conferences (both my own child's and those of all my students), trips and the month of March is nearly gone... my apologies!

I had had it. We were on day two of a nonstop bickering, fighting, nitpicking marathon. The hubby and I were at our wits end. Our girls would NOT stop fighting with each other! Even our son, who is only one-year old seemed to be getting in on the fun, chasing after his bickering sisters and yelling, "No!" at them over and over. There was yelling. There was cajoling. There were headaches. Yes... there was even bribery and promises of movies and sweets to try to get them to quit the constant bickering! When thant didn't work I think I even threatened to leave (which I actually did, because I needed to take a walk around the block before my head exploded. Turned out to be good because I remembered seeing a picture somewhere...). I think I had done everything that the experts and magazines tell you not to do and probably none of the things that actually work. Throw me a bone... I was tired and had a headache. It got so bad that the husband and I started in on one another. Well... when the going gets tough, the tough look on Pinterest. I think my husband and I could have really benefited from the awesome Pin I found!

The Pin: The "Get-Along" shirt. Why have I never seen this before and why have I not been using it for the last three years!? My girls are 18 months apart and, like all siblings (especially ones so close in age), they fight. A lot. I can relate to them... I am the middle of three sisters, one 18 months older and one 18 months younger. Trust me. I get the whole "her foot is on my side of the chair" complaint. I can remember when my sister also looked at my Barbie doll the wrong way without asking. I understand. But when you're on the OTHER side of these nit-picky arguments, it is such a different story. (Side note: I know my mother is laughing right now. Paybacks!). I'm sure my kids are way worse than my sisters and I were and I'm sure we NEVER fought as much as they do now. Maybe... Either way, I was done with the fighting. So I hit Pinterest and I found this wonderful little gem...

Photo from Pinterest

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

2 or more bickering children

1 XL size white t-shirt (you could use a different color too!)

Permanent Marker

Scissors

Bickering children? Check. I definitely have those! Three to be exact. 1 XL size white t-shirt. A quick check in the black hole that is my husband's closet. Check! Permanent marker... I'm sure I have one floating around somewhere that my kids haven't ruined yet by either putting it in the toilet or leaving the lid off. Check (found in the back of the junk drawer). I didn't even have to buy anything. Bonus!

So I took the extra large t-shirt and laid it out flat on the counter. I wrote on the front in big, block letters "Our Get-Along Shirt". Your message could be a slight variation of this phrase. I think something like "We WILL get along!" or "We will wear this until we stop fighting" would work too. Let your creative juices flow! The possibilites are endless. I wrote fast because I was seething mad at this point, but the message was clear. Two of my curious little angels came over to investigate what I was doing. "What is it mommy?" "What are you doing?" "Is that for us?" I gave them the mom-look. You know the one. Here's what I ended up with.

Get Along Shirt - Genius!

At first, I didn't cut the neck at all. In hindsight, I would have done this sooner. I'll explain. Keep reading... I'm sure the suspense is killing you. My kids are pretty small still (6 and almost 5) so the XL fit them fine. If your kids are bigger, you may want to go with a XXL or larger. So I called them over and had them stand shoulder to shoulder.

Girls: "What is that mommy?" (Craning necks, trying to see the new clothes I had).
Me: "You get to wear it. It's a new shirt for you. Both of you. You get to wear it together. Isn't that fun!"
Girls: "What does it say on it?"
Me: "It says 'Our Get-Along Shirt'. You get to keep it on until you stop fighting. The longer you fight, the longer you get to wear the shirt!"
Girls: "That doesn't sound fun."
My conscience: "You think this is really a good idea?"
Me: (thinking to my conscience): "Shut up conscience! I'm working..."
Girls: (now giggleing) "Okay!"

They wouldn't be giggling for long. I slipped it over both of their heads and had one of them each put an arm through a sleeve. They were so cute and naive at first! They laughed for about the first 3 1/2 minutes. Here they are in those first innocent minutes...

Awwww... they're so happy.

Still happy...

They were so happy at first! They laughed and giggled as they tried to make it around the house in their new, tandem state. Then they started bickering about which way they would go. And who was going the wrong way. And who got them into this situation in the first place. They tried to go opposite ways. This hurt their nexks (see previous comment when I said I would explain about cutting the neck...). The older one begged me to take it off. 

Daughter 1: (through tears) "Pleeeeeeeeeeeease Mom! I'm choking. Do you like hurting me?" 
Me: "Stop fighting."
Me:" I will take it off as soon as you two get along and stop fighting.
Daughter 1: (crying)

There were a lot of tears, but I held strong.

Reality sets in!

After awhile I felt bad, so I took the pair of scissors and cut the neck seam out on the sides. I would have done this sooner if I would have known it was going to "choke their necks" (their words, not mine). Pain was definitely not my goal. I'm not that mean. In their minds, I'm sure they thought they were stuck together for hours. In reality, it was only 10 minutes. As soon as they stopped bickering, the shirt came off. In the meantime, after about 7 minutes of the shirt, their attitudes turned around pretty quickly. Get-Along shirt... success!

COST: $ I'm sure almost every mom has a shirt and a marker laying around somewhere. If you did have to buy them, it would probably cost you somewhere in the $10 range. Do-able. Bonus: the bickering children are free and I KNOW all moms with 2+ children have those at some point.

DO-ABILITY: Easy. Marker. Shirt. Kids. Done. Doesn't really need a lot of extra explaining.

MAGIC SOLUTION? : Did it stop the bickering? For now! I know I will come back to this little trick for future bickering marathons. I'll just keep The Shirt in a VERY easy-to-find location.

THE GOOD: Super easy and inexpensive solution to the endless quarreling and bickering. While it might not work forever, for me it works for now! 

THE BAD: The shirt collar hurt their necks. It rubbed on them so they had little red marks. Nothing major (although the older one thought she would have to go to the emergency room). If you cut slits in the collar or cut it away from where their necks are, it shouldn't be a problem.

THE UGLY: The yelling and complaining when the shirt is first administered are sort of hard to take, but if you can hold strong until they actually stop bickering, it works like a charm!

PIN OR  BUST: I think it's defintiely worth pinning, if only to make sure that all mothers are aware of this super easy trick to end (or at least postpone) their children's fighting. In my mind, if it makes them quit their nitpicking at one another for a few minutes, it's worth it!

ONE LAST THING: I haven't had to use "The Shirt" (as we've so endearingly termed it) since this incident. I'd be interested to see if this worked for anyone else. If you've tried this before (whether it worked or not) let me know! I'd also be interested to see what other "phrases" people have come up with. Comment and tell me all about it!

Happy Pinning!