February is here. . .

Happy February everybody! Yesterday marked that silly little holiday centered around a groundhog. . . apparently he saw his shadow, which means apparently means 6 more weeks of Winter. I am a firm believer that this DOES NOT apply to my California brain. Yesterday was beautiful and included some park time with the kiddo. Today, I woke up to dense fog! Oh well. There is so much going on in the next 6 weeks, that I will keep busy. . . I promise! I am sure you will all survive, too.

Now, on to more important matters . . . Valentines Day! Wahoooo!!!! The day of Love! I just love fun holidays . . . they make me smile from the inside out! Sunday, I made these heart treats on a stick to see how many hearts I could get out of 1 batch (10 glorious hearts). Next weekend, I will be making 4o of them for a tea party. . . they are going to look wonderful!

I didn't just use the ordinary rice krispie treat recipe, but the salted browned butter recipe from Smitten Kitchen. These are just fantastic! I have made them twice and can't wait to make them again! So delicious! I got the idea for the hearts on a stick over at skiptomylou.org (they have some fantastic ideas, if you are in the need of some Valentines Day ideas).

Here's the recipe:

Makes 16 2-inch squares or 32 1- x 2-inch small bars
4 ounces (1/4 pound
or 1 stick) unsalted butter, plus extra for the pan
1 10-ounce bag marshmallows
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
6 cups Rice Krispies cereal (about half a 12-ounce box)
Butter (or coat
with non-stick spray)
an 8-inch square cake pan with 2-inch sides.

In a large pot, melt butter over medium-low heat. It will melt, then
foam, then turn clear golden and finally start to turn brown and smell nutty.
Stir frequently, scraping up any bits from the bottom as you do. Don’t take your
eyes off the pot as while you may be impatient for it to start browning, the
period between the time the butter begins to take on color and the point where
it burns is often less than a minute.
As soon as the butter takes on a nutty
color, turn the heat off and stir in the marshmallows. The residual heat from
the melted butter should be enough to melt them, but if it is not, turn it back
on low until the marshmallows are smooth.
Remove the pot from the stove and
stir in the salt and cereal together. Quickly spread into prepared pan. I liked
to use a piece of waxed or parchment paper that I’ve sprayed with oil to press
it firmly and evenly into the edges and corners, though a silicon spatula works
almost as well.

A Baking Dissastor Story:

These week I made banana bread. I didn't have all the ingredients to make my traditional recipe, so I tried the one here and it completely messed it up. I ended up not having enough brown sugar and was too lazy to make my own, so I used white sugar and poured a bunch of molasses into the batter. Yep, was not expecting anything too pretty. I am sharing this, because there is no picture. . . not because it went immediately into the trash, but because it is gone. . . as in we ate it all! It was delicious!

Happy Baking!