Heaps of Yummy Rice Krispie Treats

I apologize for the fact that this large dish of Rice Krispie Treats--not yet cut--is not a very good picture. I'm not an exceptional photographer. Mediocre (another of those weird looking words). That's my photo skill level=Mediocre. At any rate, after posting the previous picture of my very faaaa-vor-ite cinnamon rolls, I realized that I promised my baby sister, who is almost ten years my junior, and younger, and more talented than I, that I would send her a copy of my version (as I mentioned in the previous post, I'm always messin' around with recipes to improve them) of Rice Krispie Treats. So, since I don't think she's managed, or bothered, to look up my blog, I thought I'd be mean and tell her that if she wants this recipe, she'll have to come here to find it. Big sisters are often mean like that. I try not to be too mean, however. We're really very close--emotionally and friendship-wise--even though she lives miles and miles and miles and miles away from me, as does my married daughter and her family of very cute and intelligent and entertaining family members. Which makes me very sad because I really miss all those adorable people.

Uh-hmmmm. Yes. Rice Krispie Treat Recipe. But, before I do that I have to publish a disclaimer. Sorry. I'm one of those terrible cooks who makes things up as I go. It's true. Ask my children. I'm constantly being admonished: "Mom, did you write down the recipe you concoted for this stuff. It's really good." Sheepishly I must admit, "Uhhhhh. No. Sorry." To which they often reply, "MOM! Write it down! Okay?" So then I try to recreate approximately what I put in the pot, or bowl or whatever, in approximately what proportions--Yeah. That's another of my foibles: I don't really measure. Usually. So, I've had to repent endlessly and attempt to mend my ways and start writing things down--and not losing them afterwards--and sharing them with my children, siblings that ask for them, and occasionally with friends.

With that said, this is APPROXIMATELY how I manufactured the heap of Rice Krispie Treats pictured above. By the way, the container you see measures 15" x 11". Just so you know what you're dealing with here.

I began with 1 cup of butter. DO NOT EVER attempt this recipe with anything less. Or different. Margarine of any sort simply will not do!!! That's what I believe! (My middle daughter tells me she uses margarine. So, I'm ammending my command: Use ONLY--if you absolutely have to use margarine--use only the kind that has no ADDED water. That's all I'm willing to say about the subject.) I only use butter. Period. Margarine has water in it. I learned the hard way, I promise. If you put water into your Rice Krispie Treats, you'll end up with--yeah--soggy Rice Krispie Treats! Yuck!!! WHO wants soggy Rice Krispie Treats? Not me! Certainly not you either. Right? Right.

OK. Now with that cup of butter, begin by rubbing it all over the insides of an extremly large pot. I used my very large canning pot that's supposed to hold 7 quart jars while pressure cooking the living daylights out of whatever I'm canning. The reason you want to rub the entire interior of that pot is this: you don't want any more sticky adherence of the goodies you'll place in there to stick more than necessary. You decide. But, that's how I did/do it.

Next. Place your exceptionally large, butter coated interior pot on the large burner and turn the heat to about medium or medium high. You want the butter and soon-to-be-added marshmallow avalanche to melt, not fry or scorch or anything remotely similar. So after the cup of butter melts satisfactorily, begin adding the aforementioned avalanche of mini-marshmallows. I used three pounds. Seriously. Three 16 oz. bags of mini-marshmallows. And maybe a smidge more, like a cup. I think I also added another stick of butter, for good measure about the same time. Honest. I stirred constantly with a favorite wooden spoon while the marshamallows simmered in the buttery ocean at the bottom of the pot until every last one of 'em (the little mini-marshmallows) had joined in happy harmony with all the others in the paradise of fat and sugar just waiting for the crispy, crunchy nutritionally enhanced cereal to be added.

When that harmony of butter and marshmallows was perfect, I turned off the heat! Very important!! That way you and I can, and did in this case, avoide the dreaded scorching nastiness that could have happened otherwise.

Next, I incorporated about 20 cups (an 18 oz. box plus another cup or three--just for good measure) of Rice Krispies to that yellowy-white, sweet, tempting mixture in the pot. I gently folded in the last ingredient (the Krispies) using a wooden spoon untill every bit of chrunchiness was covered with gooey, sweet, fatty goodness.

I had previously sprayed the interior of the 15" x 11" inch dish with a generous portion of Pam spray. You could use butter, of course, but Pam was simply easier for me. Now everything was ready for the last step: getting the wonder of sweet crispiness into the glass casserole dish waiting to receive it. So, being the wimp I'm becoming, I called for assistance from my oldest daughter, who was visiting and anxiously awaiting the tasting of that stuff. Between the two of us, we managed to pile it into the huge container previously prepared. Well, it wasn't big enough to handle all that STUFF. So, I found a much smaller container, sprayed it as well, and removed some of the sticky stuff and stuck it into the smaller container. I also scraped the interior of the humungous pot and put a goodly portion on a piece of wax paper for my personal sampling and was done. Well, almost. I wasn't acutally done until I tasted all the heap of stuff from the waxed paper. It was yummy, I tell ya'! Very yummy. And crunchy. Good, even.

I'm exhausted now, just thinking and writing about it. That was New Year's Day, I believe, and now it's like two days later, and there's like hardly any of the STUFF left! If my son-in-law were here, it would have all been gone the first day. If you want proof, check out my daughter's blog: bugsinthedesert. It shows him eating an entire pan of RK Treats. By himself. BY HIMSELF!!!! The very idea! Of course, had we been in the same room (or even state) at the time, I would have fought him for some, at least!