Why, hello there! Soooo....what have you all been up to? Jon and I have been busy bees. On Saturday, we went to my great-uncle's 75th birthday. He is my grandma's twin brother so while the celebration was mostly a happy one, it was also a little bittersweet that my grandma wasn't there to celebrate with him. The best thing about the party though? My great-uncle married a Puerto Rican woman who loves to cook. Therefore, the food was incredible! She makes the best chicken and rice I have ever tasted. She and her daughter also made two types of sangria, red and white, and oh, my goodness both made drinking in the early afternoon so worth it.
We actually started Saturday off by hitting several community yard sales in my parent's town. Yard saling is probably our favorite thing to do in the summer. Yes, it means waking up at 7:00 AM to get all of the awesome early bird deals, but you can't beat the bargains. I've never been a snob when it comes to buying things second-hand. My mom has had me out yard saling since I was a little girl so I knew at an early age that just because things weren't brand new didn't mean that they didn't have any life left in them. Heck, I furnished my entire post-college place with yard sale finds and you wouldn't have known it unless I told you! Our best deals this weekend? Jon bought a brand new snowboard for only $10 and I bought a Pilates Reformer for only $25! No, we don't have room for them in our condo, but my parents graciously agreed to house them in their garage until we buy a home next year.
The Reformer looks just like this one:
In other exciting news, we had a Bake Off contest at work today and I won first place! The prize was an iPod Shuffle! Even though I already have the Nano, I'm super excited about this one because it will be easier to wear when I workout. The funny thing about me winning the bake-off is that my entry was a no-bake dessert. I made Double-Dare Bars and believe it or not, I forgot to take a picture of them! Before last night, I had never made them, but the recipe sounded delicious and the best part was that they were super easy. I actually picked up the recipe at Target in the fall. They had free recipe cards near all of the Halloween candy so I grabbed this one. Here it is:
Double Dare Squares
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 9 cups of mini marshmallows
- 1/2 cup of creamy or chunky peanut butter
- 1 cup of dry roasted peanuts
Directions:
- Lightly grease a 13x9" baking pan and set aside
- In a large saucepan, over low heat, melt the chocolate chips and peanut butter together, stirring constantly
- Allow to cool for 5 minutes
- Gently stir in marshmallows and peanuts
- Pour mixture into prepared pan and refrigerate bars for 30 minutes, or until firm
- Using a lightly oiled knife, cut bars into squares
And that's it!! I modified the recipe a bit by melting some extra chocolate chips and peanut butter to pour over the mixture once it was in the pan. This allowed the extra stuff to completely cover the mixture in a thin layer. Then I sprinkled some crumbled peanuts over this layer to finish it off and make it look a little fancier. Refrigerate and enjoy!!
