I loved it. TOO MUCH, thank you very much, and the fun thing is if you have the white chocolate, you can use just about any combination of anything to come up with wonderful goodness.... white chocolate and crunch = delicious!
I scrambled to find some fun substitutes from Mary Connealy's original recipe:
Connealy Crunch
2 pound package white Almond Bark (melted)
Melt in microwave 1 ½ minutes. Stir. Melt 1 ½ minutes. That should be enough. You might need slightly longer. Almond bark doesn’t lose its shape when it melts so you have to stir it to see if its enough. Add:
3 C. Captain Crunch Peanut Butter Cereal
3 C. miniature marshmallows
3 C. Rice Krispies
3 C. mixed nuts
Spread out on waxed paper. Let cool. Break into bite sized pieces.
Baklava mix:
2 cups chopped almonds
2 cups chopped walnuts
1 cup sugar mixed with 1 Tablespoon cinnamon.
Mix and freeze until needed for Baklava or as emergency substitution for Connealy Crunch... Oh, that cinnamon background taste was a marvelous addition!!!
Then I chopped up about another cup of almonds.... Nuts 4 Nuts, that's me!!!!
So you blend all this fun stuff in a very big bowl.....
Then we add the melted white chocolate. (It had been in my cupboard for a long time, it was BEGGING TO BE USED, a huge 2 lb. bar of Ghirardelli White Chocolate....
Spread it out onto a freezer paper or aluminum foil covered BIG cookie sheet to cool.
Break away one little corner at some point for grown-up research. :)
When cool, break it into smaller hunks/pieces, whatever. This was HUGELY POPULAR which meant I was hugely popular, and my ego was so grateful!!!!
If you have any left over, store it like you would any candy. I used a pretty decorative can with a tight lid. And then I wrote "Onions" on the lid so people would STAY AWAY.
But they didn't believe me, they're used to my tricks.
Sigh.
And this is our baby Jesus manger, with the continually growing pile of "good deed" yarn to keep Jesus warm.
Captain Crunch cereal has branched out to peanut butter flavour? Is that a good thing?! So Almond bark is white chocolate? Who knew? And Reese's Puffs? as in Reese's pieces? Oy -- you've gobsmacked me thing morning with all these startling revelations. :-)
ReplyDeleteAs to your manger still being help -- good idea for this cold winter. Poor baby Jesus needs as much warmth as he can get. Thankfully your kidlets seem to be the obliging kind. Just don't smother the wee bairn. It's a beautiful set, Ruthy -- I can see why you're not quite ready to put it away.
Kav, normally I'd have tucked it away, but they're still so invested in their "good deeds" that I can't make myself do it.
DeleteALL OTHER CHRISTMAS IS TUCKED INTO LABELED BINS, READY AND ORGANIZED FOR NOVEMBER.
That was my promise to myself after the debacle of having the attic roof torn off twice this summer and having to admit how messy my storage was..... That's the winter goal, to De-Mess the storage area.
There's a dumpster and a Salvation Army store with my name on it!!!!!
I suspect Almond bark is made by Dow Chemical and it has nothing to do with chocolate...or bark...or almonds for that matter. But it's super delicious.
DeleteDid Dow Chemical buy Ghirardelli? Because my white chocolate (and we really don't call it almond bark up here unless it's white chocolate coated almond bar..... but I wasn't about to CHANGE Mary's terms any more than I already did!!!! And my almonds do not bark.
DeleteI have never made this. There is a reason why. I'd eat the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteme too!
DeleteSusanna
me three!
DeleteI think it's important to have helpers with this recipe - not to make it, but to help eat it!
I froze half the batch. It freezes great, like any candy, and the crunchy stuff is still crunchy when you un-freeze it. So now I've got some for Superbowl Sunday without making more.
DeleteIt melts in your mouth deliciously.
And it's just wonderful.
Yes, an easy way to ruin a January diet, but so good.
You would eat the whole thing, Tina. It's just one of those foods with just enough sweet and salt mixed that you just keep wanting 'one more bite' until one gallon of candy is missing and you are bloated with calories, nuts and self-loathing.
DeleteWe need gorillas guarding the tin, obviously.
DeleteBig gorillas. The ones that smell bad.
Yes. It's that good.
My girls great-grandmother used to make something similar to this. But like you said, once you have th coating, th possibilities/combinations are endless. And I LOVE Captain Crunch. Even if it does tear up the roof of my mouth.
ReplyDeleteTotally loving the yarn thing. What a great idea. Maybe you can come up with and Easter version, or maybe just a good deed jar to have all year round. However, keeping baby Jesus warm is great motivation for those kids. Especially with the winter you're having.
Hey, wasn't it last year or the year before we were all commenting about barely having any winter at all?
We had a mild, soft winter two years back.... and it was fun! But we get those now and again, long before they started talking about Global-anything.
DeleteMy grandma talked about the year without a summer, cold all year, nothing grew.
Dave and I remember the news being full of "Mini Ice Age" in the seventies, about how our planet was cooling and crops wouldn't grow.
Another generation, another news flash! I'm seriously figuring the planet is doing okay and we're fairly insignificant in the whole dinosaurs made it for millions of years scenario.
This is a good kind of winter mostly. I can send the kids out to play (not in the brutal cold) but snow is fun.... Mud???? Blech. That's a whole other kettle of fish!
The winter of 1983/34 worst winter EVER. I had three pre-schoolers. It was worth my LIFE to leave the house. Three little ones on icy roads in bitter cold temperatures. Wow, my cupboards were BARE and when I did go for groceries I'd need to buy like...two shopping carts full of food to restock. What a struggle. I think a little global warming might just be exactly what we need.
DeleteI must be part hamster or something. As soon as the sun starts moving south in the fall, I start filling the pantry.
DeleteIf we get snowed in for more than a day (or three like we did in October), I could feed the whole neighborhood. :)
I'm with you, Jan. Whenever they so much as mention a cold snap or any type of wintry precipitation, I make sure the freezer and pantry are stocked, long before people are making those last minute runs for bread and milk. I do it because I love to cook, especially when it's cold and yucky outside, AND so I can avoid leaving the house when it's cold and yucky outside. :)
Deletewell I know which homes to visit in the fall and winter LOL! my mom would stock a pantry and freezer like nothing I've ever seen. she would panic if she ran out of mustard in the fridge and went to the pantry and saw only 2 more jars...
DeleteSusanna
Susanna, mine is crazy stocked too. Come anytime...
DeleteConnealy, that was the winter my first house caught fire. Minus nine degrees, Dave was working and I had five kids including a four-month-old baby to get out of the house, not freeze them, and it was 2:00 A.M. Quick fireman and no wind and me thinking to close the door to the bedroom kept the house from going up in flames. Fire was limited to one bedroom, and then water/smoke damage throughout.... but it was SO COLD.... after the 3rd hottest summer on record here. I remember that because I was crazy-pregnant all summer and was not a fun person to be around. I've mentioned what a big baby I am in the heat, right???? WHINE. WHINE. WHINE.
maybe I will next winter! my Sasha shepherd turns 13 tomorrow and don't think she'd like the cold or the long trip there...but if she goes before then I'll be free to travel (unless I end up with another dog or cat which I've come way too close to doing) I wanna see a bunch of snow from the safety of a warm house (skip the fire please)! and bake stuff and color bunnies that start with R...
DeleteSusanna
The summer of 1983, my baby was born in November and that was the only summer I spent pregnant, the other three babies were born in the spring. I think the average temperate was like 103. I was so miserable and I'd whine about it being so hot for the poor pregnant ME! And people would just glare at me and say, "We're all hot, idiot, don't think you're special."
DeleteNever do I get any sympathy!
LOL, Mindy! The cereal tears up the roof of my mouth too! But I still love it. :)
DeleteRuthy thanks for sharing this! I had Mary's recipe but think I lost the copy (or it's lost in the corner of my kitchen in my disaster of a collection of recipes).
I love these recipes where you can mix and match. No running to the store, no breaking the bank. Just more "use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without". :)
ReplyDeleteAnd with the cereals in there, this certainly would be a crunchy treat. Mmmmm......
Oh, yeah, you can have fun with this! And I bet you could put Craisins in, or raisins, or chinese noodles.... broken up, and tossed in. Anything crunchy. The Baklava mix really pleased people thought, that hint of background cinnamon. So of course you could just add cinnamon-coated nuts or add cinnamon sugar to the nuts on hand and mix it in.
DeleteSo stinkin' good!!!
I never deviate from the exact recipe. Innovations make me nervous. :(
DeleteDo not believe a word she says. She told me "Hey, it should work with any kind of crispy cereal, nuts, blah, blah, blah...." I think it's even on her website or some blogsite, so just IGNORE THIS SENTENCE from the Connealy. Pfft.
DeleteRuthy's advice to ignore me is actually good advice in general. It pertains to everything I saw, not just about cooking. Very wise as always Yoda Ruthy!
DeleteI'm with Tina- I'm afraid I'd eat the whole thing - I'd probably be digging in while the stuff is melting in the microwave... sounds good though - need to print it out when I'm at work next week so I'll be ready to go! are the miniature marshmallows the ones that are about fingertip size? I've seen the jumbo ones where one maybe 2 will squeeze on top of the hot chocolate in a cup then there's the smaller size after those...are those the ones or do they make an even smaller size? looks like you were cutting up the jumbo ones but not sure....
ReplyDeletelast night I tried the breakfast casserole recipe Missy (I think) posted last month - with the bread and eggs and milk (I had a lot of milk I wanted to use and some hamburger buns I was done with - sloppy joes get tiresome after about 4 meals...). I think I was short on bread - need 6 slices and only had 2 hamburger buns so tossed in 2 slices of the Ezekiel whole grain sprout bread (can't taste any yucky) but mine came out really soft. I did sub a bunch so probably got my ratios off and also didn't soak it overnight - cooked about 30 min later. so...any experts know if I was short on bread or did I need to let it soak longer? I used jimmy dean turkey sausage crumbles and threw in some bell pepper/onion that was in my way in the freezer and the cheese was cheddar/jack and mozzarella. so kinda changed a lot due to restructions. I have to say it was good- not wow kinda good- but it tasted better this morning- I decided since a little pepper goes a loonnnng way that I'd go with the southwest flow and put salsa on top - delicious! I think next time I'll follow MIssy's lead and do 8 slices of bread( I don't usually have bread on hand but could probably freeze my leftovers) and let it soak overnight. I want tot ry it with the ham and mushrooms - think that would be a totally different flavor and probably appeal to others more than having do dump salsa over it though I'm a fan of salsa and am finding myself wanting another serving LOL!
still trying to decide if I want to attempt those date nut balls this weekend...I posted the recipe a few posts back - think on the post with the brie recipe- weird yeah but that's the last place I was talking about it so I left the recipe under my reply LOL! lot of ingredients to risk a failure and even my aunt made some not-so-good ones a couple of times!
Susanna
I'd also be fighting Megan and ZZ for the 'good' yarn - I like rainbow and tie dye!
DeleteSusanna
Way to experiment, Susanna. Surely dumping an egg mixture over any breakfast-y type food, bread, buns, sausage, ham, peppers, anything like that, is going to make a tasty casserole.
Deleteyep and if it doesn't salsa makes the world a whole lot better! ;-) thank God I'm in Texas in the land of salsa...but I did learn that a little bit of pepper goes a long way..hard to hide that stuff in a recipe LOL! but at least I like it with sausage and salsa - next time I want a milder casserole so will find ham!!
DeleteSusanna
I should have made note of the substitutions - walked to randalls (next door) to get a bolillo roll to make a meatball sub for late lunch and remembered the date nut balls (still forget the Crisco for the palms so will probably try with butter...)and they didn't have white almond bark (was thinking white chocolate almond bark guess because you used white chocolate...) but they had vanilla...is that the same thing? also saw a big bar of white chocolate though maybe not 2 lb kinda big...LOTS of chips - my gosh there were at least 20 different 'chips'...may walk over again later LOL!
ReplyDeleteSusanna
and also found out what I call 'jumbo' marshmallows ain't! they have even bigger ones now if that's possible....and mine are the minatures!
DeleteSusanna
I think vanilla is the same as white. I didn't know there was vanilla so maybe I'm using vanilla myself.
Deletewell I attempted my aunt' date nut balls - not a success. in spite of my efforts to read the recipe and prepare everything I missed a very important ingredient..forgot to add the beaten egg :-( and this is In spite of saving an egg for this very purpose. :-( was supposed to add it to the sugar/oleo/dates and cook in the pan.remembered right when I added the rice krispies and nuts. WAH! I feel like crying. I ended up with date nut crumbles instead of balls.super sweet because I think part of the dates/sugar stayed in the bottom of the pan stuck for life :-( next time IF there's a next time I need to pull out the dutch oven 'cause I'm not talented enough to stir light weight rice krispie into a thick gooey mess...off to search to see if dates are bad for dogs 'cause if they're not I think sasha will help me clean the pan.....have a feeling they are since raisins are bad and they're next to the raisins in the store...
ReplyDeleteSusanna
SUSANNA!!!!! First, thank you for daring to try!!!! I need to find that recipe and try this recipe. Tonight I want to S-L-E-E-P. but with Superbowl coming, there'll be some experimental stuff going on here!
DeleteI'm so glad you tried but kitchen fails are okay, honey. It happens to all of us!
just don't forget the egg... and Crisco for your palms - I used butter and that stuff was HOT! I rolled some then put the rest outside for the birds...they aren't impressed so far..it's super sweet though - but I wish I'd though of the darned egg when I had everything mixed and at the right temp - don't wanna get a scrambled egg in there :-( have to go back to randalls and get more dates - the other bag turned out to be prunes...now I happen to like them but they work a little too well and don't want that, not with the way I can eat dried fruit...
DeleteSusanna
I once made a pecan pie and after it was in the oven I opened the microwave to see........the butter I'd melted for the pie. AHHH!!!!!
DeleteI believe I pulled the pie out, it was just newly put in, scraped the filling out of the crust, mixed in the butter and refilled the crust. It was a mess but not a disaster.
My point, Susannah, is, I totally get forgetting the egg.
Delete