Smoars!!

Melissa: I have been popping a few of these in the oven whenever I get a craving for something sweet. Graham cracker, semi-sweet chips and mini-marshmellows!! Pop'em under the broiler for a minute or two and TaDA!! Instant dessert. Just make sure you keep your eyes on the prize. These things will go up in smoke (literally) super quick under the broiler. I pull them out as soon as I see the first wisps of smoke curl off the crackers.

These really hit the spot when I want a baked treat without investing a lot of time and dishes!

Pizza - Mark's First Crust

Melissa: Mark made his first Pizza Crust (and the resulting pizza) last week. The total rising time was only 2.5 hours, so he was able to work it in between nap time and dinner.

Oh! and the sauce? He made from scratch the night before for spaghetti and meatballs! I'm not a big red sauce fan, but this sauce, with fresh tomatoes? So good.

Toppings were spinach, (1/4 box of frozen), pepperoni and mushrooms. And of course mozzarella. It was great. I noticed with my pizzas I use too many toppings, so everything is competing with everything else. This combo was just right.

Quite the chef I married, eh? Thanks to SmittenKitchen for the inspiration for both recipes.

Brownies - Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Melissa: I made a pan of brownies on Tuesday night. We polished them off Wednesday evening. Is that bad?

I used this recipe by DREW KIME @ How to Cook Like Your Grandmother, which told me "the quality of the chocolate makes a huge difference." Agreed, but the proximity of the chocolate is also important. I used the Hershey's Special Dark powder we had in the pantry and some Nestle's chips that were BuyOneGetOne this week. I also MAY have run out of sugar and substituted in some brown sugar. Maybe.

At any rate they were delicious! They had a little bit of a weird flavor in the background, I'm not sure if it was the chocolate, the flour or maybe the lack of vanilla extract? But it mellowed by the next day. Not bad in a pinch.