S'mores!

I love s'mores. A lot. It saddens me that we in Ohio are only capable of having a campfire for about 3 months out of the year since the other 9 months are either too hot or too cold. This means I have to find new ways of getting s'mores goodness throughout the rest of the year. Below I share with you a few s'mores recipes that I plan on trying ASAP. They look so good and they consist of chocolate, marshmallow and graham crackers...how could they not be delicious?!

 

(originally found here)

S'mores Graham Krispie Treats

Yield: 12 Bars

Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Cook Time: 10 Minutes

Total Time: 25 Minutes

A twist on a campfire classic treat

ingredients:

1 bag (10 oz) Mini Marshmallows
1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate chips + 1/4 cup for topping
1 box (12 0z) Golden Grahams Cereal
6 Tbsp Butter
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
Non-Stick Cooking Spray

directions:

In a 9x9 inch baking pan, spray with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

In a large non-stick pot over medium heat, melt butter. Add in marshmallows and stir together with butter until marshmallows have melted and become creamy. Stir in vanilla extract.

Fold in grahams cereal until all marshmallows and grahams are evenly mixed together. Mix in 1 cup of chocolate chips. Spread treats into sprayed baking pan. Press into pan and sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup of chocolate chips on top of the treats, lightly press into top of treats to make sure they stick. Place into fridge for 10 minutes to cool.

Slice into bars and serve. Devour.

These bad boys look especially delicious....S'mores Cookies? Yes, please!

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
Cream together butter and sugar until incorporated

Add:
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
Beat thoroughly

Add:
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips, or one giant Hershey's bar, chopped
1 cup mini marshmallows
Stir to incorporateThe most fun part about these cookies is that you actually bake the cookie on top of a whole graham cracker.

Bake at F350°, for no more than 11 minutes (after 11 minutes, the graham cracker will burn).
Some of the marshmallow may toast off the cracker, but simply remove the cracker from your cookie sheet and quickly transfer to a wire rack.
Yields 4 dozen

S'mores Pops! There's really nothing else to say.

S’mores Pops Recipe

(Original recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1 bag large marshmallows
• 1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 package cinnamon or honey graham crackers (about 9 long/large crackers) – or just buy graham cracker crumbs
• lollipop sticks (available in cake decorating aisles)

Method:

Begin by twisting the lollipop sticks until they are securely in the middle of the marshmallows.  (Insert them on the flat, not rounded, side of the marshmallows.  Then push them in until they almost pop through.)  Then place the graham crackers in a strong ziplock bag, and use a rolling pin (or whatever you’d like) to crush them until they are finely ground.  Then place them in a small bowl.

Then heat the chocolate chips in a double-boiler or (carefully!) in the microwave until they are melted and somewhat runny.

While holding the stick, carefully dip a marshmallow in the chocolate mixture until completely covered.  Then gently roll the sides and top of the marshmallow in the graham cracker crumbs until they are well-coated.  Place on a plate or on wax paper to let cool and dry.  Repeat with remaining marshmallows.

Ali’s Tip:

If your melted chocolate mixture is still too thick, stir in a spoonful or two of shortening until it reaches your desired consistency.  I know it’s not the best for nutrition, but it’s the best chocolate thinner.  :)  (Hint: never, ever add water!)

 
S'mores Bark 

                Inspired by: Golden Graham S'mores and my co-worker, CL

Almost 1 bag mini marshmallows

Almost 1 12 oz box graham cracker cereal

2 lbs candy melting chocolates

Divide: I found it easier to work in two batches. Divide the ingredients approximately in half.

Melt: Take the first pound of chocolate and in a microwave safe bowl heat in the microwave at 50% power for 30 second intervals. Stir in between. Stop when chocolate is completely melted.  

Combine: In a large bowl, mix the melted chocolate with about 1/2 of the cereal and marshmallows. Toss to coat well.

Spread: Take the mixture and spread it out onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet. You may need 2-3 cookie sheets total for the whole recipe.

Repeat: Repeat the steps above with the remaining half of ingredients.

Cool: Allow bark to cool completely for an hour or two.

Assemble: Break the bark apart in small chunks and serve in cupcake liners.
   (Note: Recipe can be cut in half. This makes a large amount of bark.)

Um, S'more Dip? Mmmm, yes, please!!!

S'mores Dip
ingredients:

1 14oz can sweetened Condensed Milk
1 1/2 cups Chocolate Chips
1/2 cup marshmallow cream
Graham Crackers, for serving

directions:

In a small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips and condensed milk on High 1 - 2 minutes, stirring about every 30 seconds, until chips are melted. Mix well. Pour into 9-inch glass pie pan, spreading evenly. Drop marshmallow creme by tablespoonfuls randomly over chocolate mixture. Microwave on High about 30 seconds or until marshmallow creme is softened. Immediately make several swirls through marshmallow and chocolate, creating a marbled appearance. Serve immediately with graham crackers for dipping.

Another version of S'mores Pops. These can be done with or without a stick...simple break the s'mores in half and dip the top half into the chocolate instead of inserting the stick and immersing the entire cracker! (see the site for the recipe)

S'more Cups

7  whole graham crackers (1 cup finely crushed)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

6 tablespoons butter, melted

4 bars (1.55 oz each) milk chocolate candy, divided

12 large marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place graham crackers into a large resealable plastic bag. Finely crush into crumbs. Combine graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar, and butter in a small bowl.
Place 1 tablespoon of crumb mixture in each cup of a mini muffin pan. Firmly press crumbs to form shallow cups. Bake 4-5 minutes or until edges are bubbling. Meanwhile, break two of the candy bars into rectangles. Remove pan from oven; place one rectangle into each cup.

Cut marshmallows in half crosswise using shears dipped in cold water. Place one marshmallow half, cut-side down, into each cup. Return to oven 1-2 minutes or until marshmallows are slightly softened. Remove pans from oven to cooling rack; cool 15 minutes. Carefully remove cups from pan. Cool completely.
Break remaining candy bars and place in small microwavable bowl. Microwave on high 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring every 20 seconds. Dip the top of each marshmallow in melted chocolate. Turn top-side up and let stand 40 to 60 minutes or until set. Makes 24 cups.

Note: Store the cups in a single layer in an airtight container for up to 1 week. Freezing is not recommended.
For a richer chocolate flavor, substitute dark chocolate candy bars for the milk chocolate.
Each cup has 100 calories and 6 g fat. 

Ok, I apologize. That was way more than "a few" s'more recipes, but don't you wanna make and eat them all, right now? Maybe I'm just really hungry...that's probably a bad time to be making a recipe post, huh? Oh well, enjoy making and eating these tasty treats, my friends!

Tutorial: Super Simple Elastic Waist Skirt

I made this super cute (admittedly wrinkled in this photo) skirt using this tutorial from Sweet Verbena. She has amazing tutorials! It was really easy! I think the hardest part was picking out the material ;) Here's a close up of the skirt:

It has a gathered elastic waistband. You can either wear it alone or with a belt, like I did. I think it looks better with a belt, but that's up to you. I have been on a crazy belt kick lately. Especially this one, I wear it with everything. 

I'm almost done with another project (which I hope to finish tonight!), so I'll put that up tonight or tomorrow. I used another tutorial from Sweet Verbena (a few of my ideas will come from there, they're just too cute not too!), but I took my own photos along the way so I'll post some basic instructions and my variations along with a link to her original post.

Until then!

Crafts to Come

I have a few ideas of some DIY's that I wanna try out. As soon as I get them done, I promise to post tutorials with photos (as long as they turn out of course ;)). In the mean time, I'll be posting a super cute DIY done my friend (and bridesmaid!) Julie. She's in graphic design, so of course she's creative. But don't let that scare you, it is super easy and can make a really cute gift! As soon as she gets me the instructions, it'll be up in no time!!! :)

Blog Design

Hey guys! I hope you all have been patient with me today. I have been trying to update my blog design. I think I finally got it how I like it! The tabs are still a work in progress, as I haven't quite figured out how to do the posting under them and there's also the lack of materials to go under them ;) I hope to get them going soon! I have some fun crafts I want to do and I'll make sure to take pictures along the way and provide step-by-step instructions and of course provide the original source if I didn't come up with the idea myself :)


See you soon ;)

A Terrible Day and Beautiful Photos

Yesterday I told you that I went on vacation, so I wanted to share a few of my favorite photos with you since my first day back to reality has been kind of terrible so I can reminisce. I'm gonna warn you now that the next paragraph is a detailed description of my terrible day. You can either read or skip to the pictures below!

Why was my day so terrible? Well, first I overslept by 2 hours, so I was already running really late. Then as I go to leave, the dog needs to go outside. I take him out...and he doesn't want to come back in. What should have been a 2 minute go-outside-pee-come-back-in ordeal turns into 15 minutes of me trying to get the dog back inside. Once I finally get him to the door, I can't get the door open as somehow the screen door locked itself when I went outside. Luckily I had my house key  on me, which opens all the doors to our house, so I was able to get back in through the garage. Ugh. Then of course there's construction on the way into work and people are going slow as heck the whole way. Oh yeah, and they're re-doing the parking lot at my work, so I have to find a parking deck downtown to park in and walk to the office. I walk in and sit down to eat my cereal (I never have time to eat at home)....and realize I forgot to grab milk on my way out the door. And that parking lot I was talking about? They're also removing the stucco from the side of our building, so all day it's been non-stop sandblasting & obnoxious amounts of noise that you hear throughout the entire building. It seriously wasn't my morning. The only good thing about this morning was that it was my boss's birthday yesterday, so there was a giant, yummy cake waiting for me to chow down on. Luckily, my day has gotten slightly better. Tonight my soon-to-be hubby & I are going to get a pre-approval so we can finally buy a house (yay!) and then we're going out to dinner, hopefully at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Anyway, now that my rant is over (for those brave souls who decided to read it!), on to the pictures! 

This was the sunset on our last night there...it was beautiful!

This is my incredible fiance :) I can't wait to marry this man!

This is us on the beach our last night :)

We got up super early one morning to catch the sunrise over the ocean.

I love this one!

Our shadows on the sand.

I can't wait for this day to come!!!!

Incredibly, on our last day, we saw a full arc double rainbow over the ocean. It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen. Unfortunately, I was unable to capture the entire thing in one picture since it was so huge.

There you have it! 

***Update*** So our loan officer forgot about us and left work early. Awesome. So we have to wait even longer to get our pre-approval. It seriously topped off my day. On the plus side, I did get my Mexican dinner and tonight I'm going to try on my wedding dress, which came in after I had to re-order it in ivory, as the bright white made me look paler than the Cullens....

Vacation!

Sorry I haven't posted all week. I have been on vacation with my amazing fiance. We spent the week at the beach and pool in beautiful South Carolina. I read every day and loved it. I finished an entire book in one day! 

I re-read an old favorite:


and ready 2 new ones:
    

 I started to re-read the first in a series I started awhile ago but never finished:


I would highly recommend any of these books. Granted, if you don't like fantasy, none of them would probably tickle your fancy except for The Last Summer (of You and Me). That one was beachy, romantic, sad, and wonderful. A must read. It's funny, I wandered around Barnes and Noble the weekend before we left trying to find a new book to take with me. I always find it incredibly difficult to find a new book. I love books. I just don't like judging books by their covers (sorry for the cliche). I feel like I have to literally take every book off of the shelf and read the backs to make sure I'm not missing a book I would like. This causes me to spend HOURS in a bookstore. I finally narrowed it down to buying The Last Summer (of You and Me) and Switched...while making 2 "To Read" lists in my phone as I went. In the end I am so happy with my choices. I found a a new summer favorite and a new series to read. Switched is book 1 of a 3 book series that I wanted to go buy the rest of as soon as I finished the book. I plan on doing that soon. Very soon. As for now, I have to go unpack all my crap (ugh) and get ready for reality to start back up tomorrow. Which will actually be kinda exciting as we are going to get our pre-approval tomorrow for our house!!!!! And then the house hunt begins by going to look at, oh say, 4-5 on Saturday. Yay!

I'm off for now. See ya!

Hey guys!

Today I decided to start blogging since I have so much going on in my life right now that I feel like blogging is a good way to relieve some stress and share my ideas with other people! I'm a college student (for 10 more months!!!) planning my dream wedding to the most perfect man. Did I mention that I also work part-time, have a year-round internship until I graduate AND we're also searching for a house? Ugh. Luckily we are leaving for a beach vacation tomorrow. I seriously need a break.

Anyway, I wanted to show off some of the ideas I have for the wedding and some things I've already decided on! I loooove checking out pinterest for super cute wedding ideas and wedding photography ideas. Some of those pictures are super freakin' cute! Here's some pictures that I love and some ideas I'm gonna be putting into place for my own wedding!

I love the idea of using large wooden letters to spell out the couple's last name. I really wanna do this!

We already had our engagement pictures taken forever ago, but I've always loved this super cute photo of a vintage car with the license plate showing the wedding date!

This was actually taken a few blocks from my office in Downtown Akron. I love how much fun these guys are having!

This is a beautiful wedding hairstyle for someone with longer hair. I think a shorter length could still pull this braid off with some cute waves!

I absolutely adore this framed fingerprint tree guest book. I've never understood the traditional guest book where people write their names on a page and after the wedding, the book gets tossed in a box and never sees the light of day again. This would be a great way to remember all the friends and family who joined you in celebrating your wedding everyday hanging up on the wall. We're doing this but we're gonna have my aunt (who hopefully agrees to draw this ;)) have the leaves already drawn on the tree so we don't have to worry about having messy fingers.

These are my wedding shoes! They're David's Bridal Style Maribelle in Malibu :) They are sooo cute and I can't wait to wear them for the wedding and then out afterward with a pair of skinnies!

I'm also gonna post all my fun ideas for decorating our house (which we have yet to buy!) but hey, a girl can dream until dreams come true, right? I'll also post yummy recipes and links to cute tutorials I find along with ones I come up with and their inspirations. I'm sure there will probably be an occasional post ranting about writing stupidly long papers, crazy people I meet in my clinicals and coming up with ideas for my huge menu project next spring (I'm a nutrition/dietetics major). 

I'll see y'all later!

Kara