Puppy Chow

Puppy Chow

Needed:

9 Cups Chex Mix, any variety (or multiple varieties)
2 Cups Nestle Dark Chocolate and Mint Chips, (these are only sold seasonally...otherwise use semi-sweet chips)
2 Tablespoons Peanut Butter
1 Stick Butter
2 Cups Powdered Sugar

Prepare cereal by putting it in a large mixing bowl. Prepare Powdered Sugar by putting it in a separate large mixing bowl. This way your chocolate mix won't cool too quickly while you're trying to prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Melt Chocolate Chips, Butter, and Peanut Butter in a saucepan on medium low until thoroughly melted.
Pour chocolate over cereal and mix gently, trying not to break the cereal.
Pour cereal mix into Powdered Sugar bowl, cover and shake gently to coat all the cereal.
Let cool and enjoy!

Apple Tart with Caramel Sauce

Apple Tart

Needed:

• Nonstick Cooking Spray
• 1 Medium-Large Apple
• 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
• 1 Tablespoon Dark Brown Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Raw Almonds
• 1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
• 3/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Large Egg
• 3/4 Teaspoon Lemon Juice
• 2 1/2 Tabelspoons Butter

1. Mix 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice and 1 Tablespoon Dark Brown Sugar.
2. Peel and slice apples.
3. Toss apples with lemon juice mix. Let sit.

 1. Mix together 1/2 Cup Raw Almonds and 1/2 Cup Sugar in a food processor. (*I used sliced almonds and a blender on pulse, about 25 seconds.) You can start preheating the over to 375 here.

 2. Add 3/4 Cup Flour, 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder, 1/4 Teaspoon Salt, 1 Large Egg, 3/4 Teaspoon Lemon Juice, and 2 1/2 Tablespoons of butter (cut up). If using a food processor, pulse until slightly mixed. (At this point, my blender started smoking, so I ended up hand pulsing, which made the mix too mixed. Go light here if you end up hand pulsing.)

 3. Press mix into a tart pan coated with Nonstick Cooking Spray- I only had a dark cake pan on hand.
4. Top with sliced apples in a pretty pattern.
5. Brush apples with extra lemon juice mix.
6. Bake 45 minutes.

Caramel Sauce

Needed:

• 1 Cup Sugar
• 6 Tablespoons Butter
• 1/2 Cup Cream

*It's super important to have all ingrediants pre-measured!

1. In a 2-4 quart pot, put sugar on high and continually stir until it boils. This will take about 3 minutes, and give you a good little arm workout.
2. Once it boils, don't stir but keep it over the heat. Let any remaining sugar clumps boil out. (The longer you keep the sugar on the heat, the darker/richer the sauce will be. I'm talking about a different of about 30 seconds to a minute, though.)
3. Add butter, and swirl the pot around over the heat until butter is melted. Watch the neat reaction between the butter and the boiling sugar!
4. Remove pot from heat and add cream by swirling the pot as you pour cream in.
5. Pour into a glass container to let cool. *Caramel gets VERY hot. Be very careful!

Top cooled tart with cooled sauce, and voila! Let adoring husband/friend/brother do dishes.

Dishes

I find I like cooking a whole lot better than dish-doing. So, the deal in my family is that I cook, he does the dishes. And, he does a fabulous job at dishes, so my competitive spirit says- "I must be fabulous at cooking!" Somehow, my limited knowledge, gained only from library books I started checking out in elementary school, has gotten me this far. Time to take it to a whole new level. It's a good thing I'm inventive- because I really hate doing dishes.