S'more Bars

Since Zachary was going camping this past weekend, I asked him if they were going to make S'mores - because when I went camping when I was younger, s'mores were the biggest part of the weekend!  That is one of the biggest things I looked forward to when I went camping.

Zachary said they probably weren't going to be making any s'mores so I decided to make these s'more bars.  Thank you to my friends and Angela and Lauren who made them on girls weekend, I thought these would be the perfect late night snack for Zachary and his friends.  

Angela found the recipe on Pinterest and here it is below:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (approximately 7 full graham crackers)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 super-sized (5 oz.) dark chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and brown and white sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined. Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. Two 5 oz. Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick. Spread marshmallow fluff evenly over the chocolate layer.

Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff. This is most easily done by putting the second half of the dough in a gallon size freezer bag. Use your palms to flatten it out, and then use scissors to cut down both long sides of the bag, so it will open up book-style. Open it up carefully, and the dough will stick on one side of the bag. Then place the bag, dough side down, on the other three layers. From there peel the bag up ad spread the dough where it is uneven.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars

Makes 16 cookie bars.

Take a look below - it took all my will-power to not have a bite of these!

I want S'More!

xoxo Sarah

Ina Garten's Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

I can honestly say, this is probably the best and most beautiful batter I have ever baked with!  Also - I think Ina Garten (also known as the "Barefoot Contessa") is a genius and one day, I will own all her cookbooks!  If you have never been to her website - please go!  It's awesome: http://www.barefootcontessa.com/

Zachary went camping this past weekend for a Bachelor Party so I decided to make some treats for him to bring so they ate at least some breakfast instead of grilled burgers and brats all weekend!

I have made these before and every time I do, I still think these are the best muffins I have ever made.  Blueberries happen to be my favorite fruit as well - so that makes it an easy winner for "best muffin ever" in my book!  I am going to have to bring these back to WI one of these times as I found out this past weekend my sister, Kate, also enjoys my love for blueberry muffins!

Here is the recipe below - this recipe is also HERE on the foodnetwork.com where I got it from:

Ingredients:
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 8 ounces (about 1 cup) sour cream
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 half-pints fresh blueberries, picked through for stems

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place 16 paper liners in muffin pans.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla, sour cream, and milk. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed add the flour mixture to the batter and beat until just mixed. Fold in the blueberries with a spatula and be sure the batter is completely mixed.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each cup just over the top, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the muffins are lightly browned on top and a cake tester comes out clean

Yeah for Blueberries!
xoxo Sarah

Rainbow Fruit Skewers

For a simple easy fun dessert or appetizer try out these fun fruit skewers!  These are GREAT for summer because of the awesome colors these bring out!

All you need are the following:
1) Strawberries
2) Oranges
3) Pineappple
4) Kiwi
5) Blueberries
6) 1 1/2 Cups Greek Yogurt
7) 1/4 Cup of Honey

Assemble your skewers and then mix the the yogurt and honey together and you are all set!

I found this recipe on one of my favorite blogs skinnytaste.com.  Click HERE if you want to see how it is done!

Yeah for Fruit for the Summer!
xoxo Sarah

Memorial Day!

All though it is a day late, happy memorial day to all those who have served or who are serving for our country - from my grandpas to my brother-in-law, Happy Memorial Day - thank you for all you day!

In our life, Memorial Day is the start of summer which means it is pool time!!!  Zachary and I are fish at heart - we love the pool!  Yesterday, we had Zachary's parents and sisters over to spend Memorial Day with us!  We had soo much food and awesome weather for the pool!

Zachary and his sisters in the pool soaking up the sun!   I love seeing how much fun they are having!

For snacks we had Nueske's (my personal favorite meat products ever) Summer Sausage, cheese curds, homemade French Onion Dip, and rainbow fruit skewers!  For dinner we had the original baked beans and BBQ pulled pork sandwiches - the perfect way to start the summer in my book!  

Hope you all had a great Memorial Day and start to the summer!

xoxo

Sarah

Tea of the Week!

Hello All and Happy 4-day Work Week!

New tea alert!!!

I got this tea over the weekend and IT IS AWESOME!  

I am officially in love with Raspberry tea!  I picked up this "Red Raspberry" caffeine free tea this weekend when I was up in Wisconsin!  

Click here if you would like to purchase it online - I got it at Sendik's in Mequon!

Even when I was making it this morning, Zachary said to me that he thought the tea smelled amazing!  And it does!  I recommend it definitely for a great refreshing summer hot tea to drink!  Especially in the mornings :)  

Have a great Tuesday everyone!  More posts will come about the past weekend and Memorial Day!

Happy Tea!

xoxo Sarah

Table for 1 on a Friday Night

So as Zachary travels off to his first Bachelor party of wedding season, I will be home tonight being creative and crafty, relaxing and having a glass of wine!

What do you do on a Friday night when you are by yourself?  I would love to know!

Tonight I am going to make myself a new pasta recipe from my Mother-In-Law and hopefully indulging in a dark chocolate peanut butter cupcake with a glass of wine!  I might give myself a mani-pedi while I'm at it!

What are your thoughts?  What would you do with free time on your hands?  Would you clean?  Read a book?  Watch a girly movie?

At the Signature room enjoying a martini - wouldn't that be a fun "Table for 1" night!

I want to know your thoughts!
xoxo Sarah

Library Time!

Hey Everyone!

So in the past two weeks, I have finished the Bridal Quartet series by Nora Roberts.

Four Books:
1) Vision in White
2) Bed of Roses
3) Savor the Moment
4) Happy Ever After


It took me two days to read each book.  I LOVED THEM ALL!!!

I would recommend this series to whomever loves some good, sappy, girly, romance books!  I was voted "Hopeless Romantic" by my senior class in high school (still don't know if that was good or bad or not lol), but you had to know I was going to love these books.  It's a story that is put into 4 novels about 4 best friends who live together and run a wedding business together.  One is the photographer, one is the florist, one is the baker, and one is the planner.  I just loved them all!  I cried with each one of theme - especially on the last one - but don't worry - they were happy tears!  Thank you Angela P and Lo for the awesome recommendation - you both know me too well!

Now I am onto The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, another recommendation from Girl's Weekend 2012.  It's about how to live your life happily, recognize what makes you happy, and what doesn't and working on the things that do make you happy.  It's a story about the author's life through her Happiness Project.  It is a NY Times bestseller - and I have heard about it before Girl's Weekend but never had the chance to read it!  I'm excited for the challenge!

Keep Reading!
xoxo Sarah