Kristen's Christmas Roll

I love that our family continues to grow and expand and that with each new addition that means we learn, add, and adopt new holiday traditions. This year we added quite a few, including the Pateca Bread that Kristen's mother makes every Christmas. She and Marlon spent Christmas Eve chopping, mixing, kneading, rolling, and baking this delicious bread. Of course we all had to sample the goods, but we saved the majority of it for Christmas morning to eat with the traditional Kringle, coffee, and hot cocoa while we opened our stockings and presents. It was a HUGE hit and the unanimous decision was made that it should be added in as a new Christmas morning tradition.
Thank you Kristen for being so awesome and sharing your family's traditions with us.

Our new favorite Christmas tradition!

Puppy Chow

In honor of Gram. (January 9, 1922-October 27, 2013)

Gram loved clipping recipes from newspapers and magazines and trying them out. Especially recipes that involved chocolate. One of my all time favorites was her "People Puppy Chow" recipe. She made a huge batch for me one time while I was visiting during my middle school years. She offered me a tin full of "puppy chow", the weird thing is that it kind of looked like dog food and I thought she was little nuts for asking me if I wanted to eat dog food. She laughed and told me it was for people. I took a handful and it was love at first bite. The perfect combination of peanut butter, chocolate, and crunch. We made several batches during that visit, and I couldn't believe how easy it was to make. She used to make batches and send them in care packages when I was in college.

Love ya Gram!


Ingredients

9 cups Chex or Crispix Cereal

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)

1/4 butter

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar


Directions


1. Measure out the cereal into a large bowl and set aside.
2. In a 1-quart microwavable bowl add the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter. Microwave uncovered on high for about 1 minute, or until the chocolate is melted. Stir together until smooth.
3. Pour the mixture over the cereal and mix carefully until the cereal is evenly coated with the chocolate mixture.
4. On a cookie sheet covered in wax paper lay out the cereal evenly and let it the chocolate harden.
5. Pour the coated cereal and the powdered sugar into a 2-gallon resealable plastic bag and shake the contents, until the cereal is coated with the sugar.
6. Store in an air tight container.
7. Eat and enjoy!

photo credit: littleindiana.com