You read that right. Maple. BACON. Rice crispie treat.
Heaven have mercy on us all. And our clogged arteries.
You might recall me mentioning that we had the missionaries over for dinner a few weeks ago. Somehow the subject of our annual Halloween Doughnut party got brought up. And then the Baconstein. And then it was like a light bulb went off in my head. "If bacon is yummy on a doughnut, it would certainly be yummy on a maple-flavored rice crispie treat. Ding ding ding!!!!"
And so I made it.
And it was so worth it.
The maple flavor was not as strong as I would like, but that's easily tweakable. The rice crispies stayed crispy and the bacon didn't get soggy like I worried about. It was an irresistible combination of sweet and salty. Plus, it's one of those desserts that just gets better with age, a definite plus for a family reunion.
And did I mention BACON?
Do we have a winner? Possibly, possibly. I still have lots more recipes to try. But do we have a contender for the short list?
Our Mother's Day festivities began on Saturday evening when Dad and Susie got to our house. They were able to come out for a short visit because my dad had some spider killing project for work here in Lafayette. You read that right - spider killin'. We put the kiddos to bed and then enjoyed an "adult dinner", meaning that the food was too good be wasted on children. On the menu: grilled stake, grilled lime shrimp, glazed green beans, grilled pineapple, and homemade pineapple mango sorbet. You read that right, too.
As per usual, Sunday morning was spent at church. Spencer and Josh behaved. Cole and Tess did not. In fact, Tess decided to be a bit ornerier than normal, in honor of it being Mother's Day and all.
Tess loves her mommy. A LOT. As in, it took her just about three days to be willing to be held by grandpa and grandma. She'd be happy for a few minutes at first, and then realize that it was not me holding her. Then... ANGRY TESS. Fortunately, grandma and grandpa are not easily insulted by such rude baby behavior.
That afternoon I finally remembered to take some pictures of the early Mother's Day gifts I received.
Lance gave me some hostas.
Tess gave me some hydrangeas.
They look kinda small and silly now, but give 'em time and they'll fill in the space.
Spencer got me a Granny Smith apple tree, Josh got me a Gala apple tree, and Cole got me a peach tree. But only Josh was willing to pose for the camera.
Ah, yes, the ol' Madsen orchard. Or so it will be called 20 years from now.
A big thank you to Lance, who not only allowed me to go by MYSELF to choose all my Mother's Day gifts, but he also provided all of the hole digging and filling. He's a mighty fine husband.
In honor of Mother's Day, Grandpa cooked dinner. We had ham and macaroni and cheese and a yummy broccoli salad. This was a very kid-friendly menu, which meant there was no complaining, which made mommy very happy. For dessert he made a yummy raspberry chocolate cobbler and homemade vanilla ice cream - in my brand new no-ice-needed ICE CREAM MAKER!! Woo-hoo! You know what we'll be eating all summer. (Yes, rice crispie treats.) ((NO! Homemade ice cream!))
Josh wanted to help Grandpa with the ice cream. And by help I mean get in the way, try to stick his fingers in it, and whine until it was done. Good job, Josh.
Monday was the last day of preschool. It was also the day I needed to pick strawberries at the local u-pick farm. Susie, who was sick with some sort of awful cold the whole trip, graciously and bravely agreed to come with me. What a trooper! In just less than an hour we picked 23 pounds! I think we probably could have gotten more, but for the last 15 minutes Tess whined and cried and demanded to be held ONLY by mommy.
The afternoon was spent cutting up strawberries, snacking on strawberries, and trying to stop the kids from making themselves sick by eating too many strawberries.
Tuesday was the end of the year preschool picnic. I sure was glad that dad and Susie were willing to join us for this. (I'm not so sure they were glad after the fact!) Actually, the weather was beautiful and the food was decent. But Cole? Well, Cole was Cole. He whined and cried and refused to eat and stepped all over my food and spilled my drink and got into all sorts of mischief. That child... that child. People say, "Well, he's a middle child, what do you expect?" To that I answer, "No, he's not A middle child. He's THE middle child. And he's going to send me to an early grave."
Josh wanted to get a picture with his teachers. Here's one with Miss Lori. (Miss Dee wasn't there - sad!)
Here's one of Spencer at the picnic. No, he's not out of school yet. I just thought it was a good idea to take him out of school for a preschool picnic.
Not really. See, he had an orthodontist appointment the other day and the orthodontist decided that two of his baby teeth needed to come out. Now. So I made a dentist appointment for him. And then I decided that, heck, while he's there we all might as well get our teeth cleaned since it was that time of year anyway. And then I scheduled it for 1pm, since our dentist is out by the preschool. And then I realized that that would mean I would have to go to the picnic, then go get Spencer from school, and then all the way back out to the dentist. Yeah, no thanks. So Spencer got a half day of school, and he sure was happy.
Thankfully - THANKFULLY!!! - Dad and Susie were willing to take Cole and Tess home while we were at the dentist. (And then at the orthodontist - again! - but that's another story.) Could you imagine Cole in a dentist's office? I shudder at the thought.
The rest of the day was spent playing with the kiddos and admiring Spencer's freakishly long root on one of his baby teeth. It was disgusting and I can't believe I didn't take a picture of it before the tooth fairy took it. (And left Spencer $5 richer!)
Dad and Susie were very amused by Tess and her refusal to crawl. She's pretty much as close as a baby can be to crawling without actually crawling. Seriously, it's like she's refusing to crawl on religious or political principles or something. She'll lean or roll or spin to where she wants to go. But crawl? Yeah, right.
It was a great Mother's Day and a great visit from Dad and Susie. I sure am grateful they are so willing to travel so far to see us! We can't wait to see them this summer! (I promise - Tess will like you then and Cole will be much better behaved.) ((You know that those are promises I really can't keep, right?))
I'm sorry that my posting has been sporadic at best lately. I know, you're totally moping around your house, whining to whoever will listen that "Maren hasn't posted in a long time! What am I to do with myself?! Waaah!"
At least that's what I like to think of my blog readers doing.
Anyways.
I do have an excuse - we have family in town! So I find myself gabbing away with my dad and Susie during the evening, rather than blogging, editing, or doing much else, really. This is perfectly acceptable, and, in fact, preferable right now. Sometimes you need a little break from the norm.
However, I thought I'd post these most excellent photos of our very own Messy Tessie. Remember how she was something of a first birthday mess disappointment? (NOT that Tess was a disappointment - just her mess-making skills with her birthday cake. Ahem.) She made up for it yesterday with the yummy Mother's Day dessert my dad made: chocolate raspberry cake with homemade vanilla ice cream.
It was very much Tess approved.
And very much Maren approved. But you won't be seeing pictures of me shirtless and covered in cake, no matter how much you whine.
She doesn't look very messy, but trust me - Tess was so sticky we could have stuck her to the wall.
She looks like her momma.
She loves hamming it up for the camera now! (Remember when it was all I could do to get even a smirk out of the girl?!)
1. Things have been a bit crazy around here lately. I've been trying to get a lot of work done outside, with the lawns and flowerbeds and garden and such. Also, it's the end of the school year, which means I'm pretty much editing non-stop. This is great for our DisneyWorld 2015 budget, but not so great for getting anything else done. Plus, my dad and Susie are coming for a quick visit this weekend, which means I've also been doing a bit of extra housecleaning lately. The rational part of my brain knows that Susie and Dad won't care or judge me if my house isn't immaculate for them. However, the irrational (and, frankly, larger & stronger) part of my brain wants to punch my rational brain in the mouth. But it can't because it's too busy scrubbing behind the toilets.
2. Spencer is a super-grouch. Do all 8 year old boys become super-grouches? Because this is a phase that just won't end. He's grouchy All. The. Time. And it drives me nuts, because we'll be having a perfectly pleasant afternoon at home, and then he comes home from school and sorts of heck breaks loose because all he does is squabble and pick at his siblings. (He's tried that with his Momma, but with disastrous consequences on his end.) I'm interested to see if he'll be a super-grouch while Dad and Susie are here. If he isn't, then once they leave I'll be all "Hey, how come you're not a super-grouch when Grandpa and Grandma are here?" This will probably make him even more grouchy, but at least he'll know I'm on to him.
3. I totally forgot that this week was Teacher Appreciation Week. Even though there were a bajillion projects for it all over Pinterest and such. I'm cool like that. But I remembered this morning and decided that I should make something for Spencer's teacher. I didn't want to bake anything because 1) we most certainly do not need more desserts around here, 2) she's a nice, single lady who lives by herself; I don't know that she would really want a dozen cookies or brownies, 3) I didn't really have time to bake. We gave her a bunch of much-needed school supplies at Christmas, so that route was out, too. So I randomly decided to make her a felt flower pin and put it in a cute box. Here's how it turned out.
Not too shabby, right? I totally want one of those pins for myself now. My only worry is that she'll think I expect her to wear the pin the next time I see her. I do not. Hopefully she'll just know how grateful we are that Spencer has a good, patient teacher!
4. Tess has decided she no longer eats breakfast. She'll drink about 1/2 a bottle of milk and then she's done until around 10am. This is a problem on preschool days because we are always out and about and it is not always convenient to feed a baby then. To make things even more fun, she has decided she doesn't want anything to do with Cheerios, crackers, or any other convenient on-the-go snacks. No, she wants fresh fruit and cheese for her 10am breakfast, and woe on anyone who doesn't give it to her! She is also teething (which may be why she doesn't like anything crunchy), has a slight cold, and is in the process of unsuccessfully giving up her morning nap. What a little ray of sunshine she is!
5. The other day we stopped at Menard's to pick a few things up. I swear to you that Cole sounded out the letters and read the Menard's sign while we were walking through the parking lot. "Meh-eh-ehn-ah-are-duh-sss". Madness. Sheer madness.
6. I think Cole's spelling and reading has made Josh feel a little inadequate. I have offered to help him learn how to read, but he turned me down. In reaction to everything, Josh now talks in baby talk about 75% of the time we are at home. Obnoxious.
7. Tomorrow is the annual father/son camp out that our church does every year. Only this year they decided to turn it into a family camp out. Nothin' doin'. Even though I haven't been since I was pregnant with Spencer, I actually do like camping. What I don't like is the idea of camping with little kids. Also, I do not like the idea of giving me one wonderful night each year where Lance takes the kiddos and I can do what I want, and then taking that night away from me. (Sure, I've had babies at home with me for the past few years, but I put them to bed and then do what I want!) So I'm not going. Sure, I understand that they probably changed it to accommodate families without sons or without children at all. To that I say: hey, if you don't have any sons you can borrow one of ours. Seriously, we have spares. And for those without children - are they really going to want to go camping with a bunch a group FULL of other people's kids? I wouldn't. (Heck, that's really just another reason I don't want to go - I don't want to deal with all of my kids plus others!) Instead, I'm hiring a babysitter and going out with some friends for pedicures and dinner. If that makes me a spoil sport, so be it. I'll be a spoil sport with cute toes.
... that you fell asleep while building a couch cushion fort with your brother?
Cole has.
I forgot to post this picture the other day. I don't know that it's really worthy of an entire "Have You Ever Been So Tired" post, but you have to admit his faceplanting technique is pretty awesome.
So, I never thought I would say this, but... I think we're kinda getting tired of rice crispie treats.
And by "we" I mean "me".
I'm pretty sure Lance and the boys would eat them every day of the week if given the opportunity. Well, I know Josh would.
Anywho, that's why I didn't make a new batch today. I did, however, make a new batch last week, but I never got around to blogging about it.
I had several people send me this recipe, which leads me to suspect that people are using me as a guinea pig to test out new rice crispie treats before they invest the time and money into making it for themselves.
This is perfectly reasonable to me.
The missionaries came over for dinner last week and I served these for dessert. They just about fell out of their seats when I explained what they are: peanut butter rice crispie treats with peanut butter fudge and mini peanut butter cups in the middle, topped with peanut butter chocolate.
Verdict? Delicious.
However.
These treats had the same problem that I am beginning to realize all peanut butter rice crispie treats have: they aren't really all that crispie. I think the fat in the peanut butter makes them mushy unless you eat them right away. (Not an option in layered ones like these.) Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me?
And while they really do taste wonderful (very rich, very peanut-buttery), I couldn't get past the texture. I like a crispy treat, not soggy.
All was not lost, though. The elders started talking about yummy and interesting desserts, which led me to come up with a wonderfully crazy rice crispie treat idea. A wonderfully crazy recipe that could lead to my win of ETERNAL FAME AND GLORY!
The boys have their annual father/sons camp out next weekend - the perfect opportunity to test out my recipe. Stay tuned.
The biggest garden pest I will have to deal with this summer?
Not deer. Not rabbits. Not birds or insects.
No, I present to you the biggest pest of all:
Toddlericus Rexus Americana.
That boy tried to destroy most of the garden before I even got it in. I suspect it will be a long, battle-filled summer. Anyone know of any organic toddler repellents? (Haha.) (I'm not kidding.) ((Yes I am.))
