Four Days Worth...

of BiRtHdAyS!!

My birthday was last Thursday, Chris's was on Saturday. And yes, we celebrated for four whole days. Lucky us, huh?

ThUrSdAy...

Happy birthday to me! Our big celebration of the morning was lunch out with my dad. Thanks, Dad, for buying even though we invited you. I promise I didn't plan it that way!


Golden Corral is great with our kids. Both of them are free and there is always something for everyone to eat. Yay!

Big celebration of the evening was rice krispie treats with my family at our house. I'm telling ya, if you want to win your way into my good graces, rice krispie treats are the way to go.


I found someone online with the same, ahem, passion for this treats as me. His detailed instructions had me cracking up all day. I followed them to the T and man, oh, man, they were tasty. The entire pan was gone within fifteen minutes.

Since I really liked what he said and want to have a copy in my blog book, I am including his instructions in their entirety here, though I will make them small so you can easily skip it if you want. Mock me if you will, but I really do find it quite entertaining. If you want it bigger, click here for the original site.

JEFF'S RICE KRISPIES TREATS

Note: If you are interested in the heart

      healthy version of this recipe,

      you will have to look elsewhere.

I have spent my entire life refining what I believe to be the finest snack treat of any kind. I have combined ideas and suggestions from family and friends to come up with a recipe which, for me, produces the greatest release of endorphins per bite of any food I can think of. It also contains each of the four food groups... when eaten with an apple and a fish sandwich. The instructions in this recipe assume that you already have a box of Kellogg's Rice Krispies in your possession. While my recipe is based on theirs, I will explain how to make your Rice Krispies Treats extra yummy. I will also mention some common mistakes which might make yours end up less-than-professional-looking, ordinary tasting and expose you as a "by-the-box" chef.

One common mistake is to assume that all roundly shaped rice cereals are alike. Do not try to save 40 cents by getting Healthy Hank's Imitation Rice Cereal Pellets. Get the real stuff! The same goes for the marshmallows. If you doubt what I am saying, buy some generic marshmallows and compare them to the Jet Puff brand. Jet Puffs are hand picked from the finest Marsh trees in Bolivia. All other brands are synthetic and tend to increase one's gag reflex.

Next take your margarine out of your refrigerator and hurl it into your back yard. The animals will enjoy it, and your Treats can be affected if the margarine is even in the same room during Treat preparation. You should purchase some sticks of Land-o-Lakes Lightly Salted Butter. It is my personal favorite, but I am open to suggestions if you know of a better choice. I don't suggest using the same comparison technique as you would for comparing marshmallows, but it is not out of the question. If you insist on using margarine, then save yourself some time and just read the box.

It is important that you prepare the pan before you begin to melt the marshmallows. A 22x12x2 pan works well for a double batch. You knew I meant inches, right? Experts have told me that the technical term is "Jelly Roll Pan." I suggest you remove any jelly rolls at this point. If you have some non-stick cooking spray, leave it in the cabinet. It will completely ruin your Rice Krispies Treats! If you doubt that, take out a cookie and spray some all over it and have a bite. What? You don't want to? I didn't think so. Instead, use your newly purchased butter to grease the pan. Use a lot. Don't be timid. Keep an extra tablespoon of the butter set aside for later. Don't worry. I will tell you when to use it.

Although I personally stopped measuring the amount of Rice Krispies long ago, I need to let you know that if you use the same Krispie-to-marshmallow ratio suggested on the box, your treats will be inferior grade, dry and only marginally sweet. If you prefer foods which are not very sweet, then stop reading, and see my recipe for homemade noodles. A good rule to start from is to use the same amount of marshmallows they suggest, but use 5 1/2 cups of Rice Krispies -- not six! Also, not only will you replace the "M" word with butter, but you should use 3/4 of a stick and not the 1/2 stick stated on the box. As a side note: if you use a full stick, the end product will be hard and chewy -- and not in a good way. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

When I make Treats, I always make a double batch. I suggest you do the same since it involves no extra trouble and produces twice the enjoyment. I use two large (16 oz.) bags of Jet Puff marshmallows, one large box of Kellogg's Rice Krispies (you will have some left over), 1 1/2 sticks of butter and an extra large stew pot. First, slowly melt the butter. Then add all the marshmallows. Be patient while melting the marshmallows. Don't turn the heat very high. If the slightest bit of gray color shows up as they are melting, it will produce a flavor which I can best describe as... well... burnt marshmallows. That flavor might be okay by the campfire, but not in our current context. Trust me on this one. After the fruit of the Bolivian Marsh trees has completely melted, turn off the heat and begin stirring in the Rice Krispies. It is best to have a helper to accomplish this part. Have your helper poor slowly as you stir until your arm begins to cramp. Ask them to pour in the areas in which the white of the marshmallows is most prominent. If you are unsure whether you can completely coat every single Krispie, stop pouring. Don't stop stirring until each one is completely covered with goo. Don't be disturbed by the appearance of spider web looking strings coming from your spoon. Chances are they are not real spider webs.

It is now time to pour the goo-covered krispies onto the jelly roll pan. Don't worry about getting every little spoonful out of the pan. Now you need to find the tablespoon of butter you set aside. If it is lost, get some more. It is sure to show up later on the bottom of your shoe or the seat of your pants. Spread some of the butter on your hands and begin to mash the goo down into the cookie sheet. When it starts to stick to your hands, use more butter. Use your fists to pound it flat. You want them to be as packed as possible, and evenly packed as well. Keep adding butter to your hands and spreading it as you smooth everything as much as possible. Failure to achieve sufficient packing density will result in an amateurish look as well as treats which contain a lot of air. Air does not taste as good as marshmallows -- at least not where I live. Cover it with aluminum foil until it cools. In the winter, I suggest putting them outside in a safe place to speed things along. Be warned that dogs like them them too! At this point, you may stop rubbing butter on your hands. You will look silly.

After the Treats cool, just slice them to the desired size. If you live alone, no slicing may be necessary. For a seasonal touch, add red or green food coloring to the melted marshmallows or use the tricolor Rice Krispies. Do not attempt both food colors in the same pot as it will cause a disruption in the space-time continuum... or make brown marshmallows. If you are unsure how to eat them, please mail them to me. If you know how to make them better, please tell me. If you are under the age of 18, ask your parents before you use the oven. My Easy-Bake Oven version still needs some work. If your finished product does not taste good, then we have had a breakdown in communication. Maybe I will be more specific with my next recipe.

Thanks, family, for hanging out for my birthday.


Our side adventure of the day came when Jane climbed into Megan's crib and tried to hang off the curtains, thus breaking the curtain rod in half. The thing is, this is the fourth curtain rod she's broken this way. Ugh. Her punishment:


Scrub the kitchen floor. By hand. Every spot that Mom pointed out. She also had to scrub a few handprints off the walls. Might seem a little harsh, but now every time she goes to bed, she talks about not breaking the curtains because she doesn't want to clean the floor. I think the lesson stuck--at least for now.

Megan was just helping for fun. She thought it was a great game.

P.S. Thank you everyone for dressing up for my birthday! So nice of you!


I will only wear my "rub for luck" shirt when I'm obviously pregnant (I'll let you guess why...). This is the first time I've been big enough to wear it on my birthday.

fRiDaY...

My mom picked up the girls at 8:30 Friday morning, and Chris and I were on our own. Hooray!! We spent most of the day shopping at South Towne Mall, where we scored new shoes, pants and dress shirt for Chris, flower girl dresses for Jane and Megan to wear to Bill and Morgan's wedding in July, a new maternity dress for me, and an adorable little outfit for baby boy that says "little brother". Yay for our little boy! And cute new clothes!

We went out to our traditional dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory, then we checked into the Anniversary Inn for the night. 'Nuff said.

SaTuRdAy...

Happy birthday to Christopher! We left the hotel and headed up to Idaho. All but one of Chris's siblings was there (slacker Brenda was in Oregon (; ). Since it was Chris's birthday, he had his traditional birthday lunch at China City. Yay!

We did a little treat shopping with Michael and Amanda. At the grocery store, we found an amusing sign that we were, in fact, in rural Idaho. I'm not sure many other places would chose this particular stocking placement.


I did get some funny looks from employees while I was taking the picture. I even had one guy follow us around the store for a while after...

We were actually all there to see Craig and Janet perform in the community performance of the musical Oliver!. I didn't get any pictures that night, but here is one shot that was sent to me via text message.


He was Fagin. I've never seen him look less like himself--nicely done. And they both did a very good job in their roles. Yay!

After some late-night birthday ice cream cake and sparkling cider, Chris and I bid farewell and headed out to another hotel in Pocatello.

sUnDaY...

Staying in the hotel was well worth it to shave 45 minutes off our drive in the morning so we could make it to our own ward's sacrament meeting in time to sing with the choir. We stayed after for choir practice, then went home for a nice, long, still kid-free, uninterrupted nap. Ah, the bliss of occasionally pretending not to be parents.

Then at 4:30, we were quickly reintroduced to parenthood when we picked up the girls from their grandparents. Thank you, Mom and Dad and Amy and Deborah and everyone else who helped watch them. I hope it was as worth it to you as it was to us!