Land of the Free and Home of the....... CHIEFS! (sorry, old habits die hard)

It's hard not to smile when looking at that little face! I hope your 4th of July was as exciting as mine. I grew up loving the holiday and now I have a true appreciation for it. It's a great way for family and friends to get together and mingle. If you know me, you know I love to mingle!

I went a little overboard with making goodies for the holiday. I got really excited about dipping things in chocolate and using food coloring to dye things red, white, and blue!

First, I cheated. I have never been able to successfully melt chocolate without burning everything in site. So, I bought this:

....and holy smokes! IT WAS AMAZING! It cut down on my frustration level completely and it tasted yummy.

First, I snagged Martha's idea and made Pretzel Sparklers and they were delicious and super simple.

Kudos, Martha!

Next, since I was on a roll with dipping things in my cheater chocolate I moved onto marshmallows. I thought it would be a great idea to have my 2 year old nephew help with this feat. He carefully took the skewered marshmallow and SLAM-DUNKED it into the chocolate. After drizzling chocolate all over the counter and me, I took over. No need for a panic attack on the 4th!

After a few minutes of practicing our colors, I had a bowl full of red and blue M&M's to decorate my rice krispies.

snap, crackle, POP!

The trick to my rice krispie treats is less KRISPIE! I don't put in the full 6 cups of cereal that the recipe calls for. That way, they are more gooey when you eat them. My tip comes with a warning though: once I thought it would be a good idea to use food coloring to dye my treats another color for Valentine's Day. Of course, I picked the color of l-o-v-e: red. Do you know what rice krispie treats look like when they are dyed red?

Raw meat. It was difficult trying to convince people to eat my snack when they thought I had brought raw meat to our food share! Be cautious of what color you dye your treats!

The food I posted today is so easy... your 5 year old cousin could make it. Really, famous chefs would probably laugh at this post because of its simplistic features! Oh-well.. they tasted yummy and were stress free!


Enjoy a picture of my pooch, Alex.

As Tigger would say... TTFN!