Cookie Jar: Rice Krispies Crunch Cookies

Today is the first day of school for most public school students in Hawaii.  D2 began today, and D1 will begin tomorrow.  Today is a 9th grade-only day at her school.  I have 2 classes of 9th graders, and historically, 9th graders have been the class I try to avoid.  They are 1 step outta intermediate (middle) school and tend to be social buffoons.  In the old days, when classes were mixed grades, the 9th graders would be set straight very quickly by the upperclassmen.  Now that they are separated by grade levels (thank you, Common Core State Standards), the 9th graders will just fester.  Ugh.

I barely recovered from hosting the Japanese girls.  They were fun, but its very intense while they are here.  I'm grateful they don't come during the school year because it would just be too much.

It took the better part of last week to attempt to switch gears from vacation mode to work mode.  Work mode kicked off with a work session on Monday. We were supposed to stay until 3 pm, but the school kicked us out because of impending bad weather from Tropical Storm Flossie.  That ended up being much ado about nothing because there were no torrential rains, no thunder, no lightning, no flash flooding, and no gusty winds, at least where I was.  It was a missed opportunity (and I'm grateful) to see the flooding pattern of my classroom.

Tuesday was the first OFFICIAL day of work, and the hospitality at work was amazing.  Near-bottomless supply of candy on the table; sushi, teri beef, katsu, korean chicken and chips for morning snack; steak fry for lunch.  At my previous work site, the only type of meal was a potluck lunch (with the exception of generous meals provided solely by the High Commander).  The potlucks were a joke because there were those chronics who never brought anything to share, pretended to forget, then heaped it on when some kind person offered them a plate.  Fricking shame!

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were a blur, but I know that the HHS custodians are the best!  They take care of the teachers BIG TIME.  My swivel chair and phone got swipered, but they returned my phone to me and they also got me 2 swivel chairs!  They replaced my burnt out light bulbs and also gave me another trash bin.  I totally lucked out!

I spent the weekend either at school or doing school stuff at home.  I think I am ready to begin.  I just need to get to OfficeMax to take advantage of the 50% off lamination.  School has a machine, but trying to get to use it is absolute hell, and I'm not sure if it laminates with the same thick film as OfficeMax does.

With all this work, I didn't have a decent meal all weekend.  I did have some of these cookies to snack on, but they are gone now.  I need to bake another batch to share with the custodians!

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Rice Krispies Crunch Cookies

     1 lb butter
     1 1/4 c sugar
     1/2 tsp vanilla extract
     4 c flour
     1 c pecans, chopped fine
     3 c Rice Krispies

Cream butter and sugar.  Beat in vanilla.  Stir in flour.  Stir in pecans.  Fold in Rice Krispies.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Plop tablespoon-sized balls (use #50 disher) onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Flatten with fingers to 1/4" thickness.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Remove from sheets and cool completely on rack.  Makes 76 cookies.

If you prefer smaller cookies (silver dollar size), use #60 disher (makes 102 cookies) and shorten baking time by 1-2 minutes.