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.

Thanksgiving Memories: Pumpkin Crunch Cake

I didn't do much this past Thanksgiving, but I had a great day.  The Help picked up a ready-to-heat turkey meal from Foodland, which was unbelievably delicious.  Now I'm thinking that given the sheer ease of throwing a meal like that together, its just unbelievably time-consuming (and not exponentially better tasting) to make your own food.  One thing we both enjoyed was the absence of the mound of oily dishes from roasting the bird and cooking all the trimmings.

The dessert which came with the meal was a small pumpkin pie.  While I'm not against pumpkin, I am definitely not a fan of pumpkin (and custard) pie.  I like the taste of the filling, but to me, pumpkin pie is so boring.  In the past, I've made a few kick-ass pumpkin desserts (fresh pumpkin cake, pumpkin roll, pumpkin and cream cheese layered dessert), but I just didn't feel excited about eating any of those things this year.  The Help told me he saw a dessert at Moonstruck Patisserie called "Pumpkin Crunch", but when asked to describe what it was, The Help was at a loss for words.  But he insisted it sounded good.

In search of the perfect Pumpkin Crunch recipe, no easy task for someone who never tasted it, I looked through about a dozen cookbooks before I found one.  In fact, the identical recipe appeared in several cookbooks.  The universal appeal is that it uses whole-package amounts of purchased ingredients (8 oz. Cool Whip, 8 oz. cream cheese, etc.).  A few recipes called for odd amounts of these ingredients.  I mean, really, what would I do with an 8 oz. container of Cool Whip after a cup of it has been removed?

To make a long story short, Pumpkin Crunch Cake (not really a cake in my book, and, I'm sure Melissa would agree. . .I KNOW cake), was a huge hit, in spite of it being unknown in my home before November.  Then my friend Harvey told me its one of his favorite desserts.  A few days later, I tried to get cousin Kent to take some home (when he came for a consultation to look at D1's bruised black big toe), but he politely declined and said he and his wife had been eating it for over five days past Thanksgiving.

click on recipe title for printable recipe
Pumpkin Crunch Cake

     1 can (29 oz) pumpkin

     1 can (13 oz) evaporated milk

     1 c sugar

     3 eggs

     1 tsp cinnamon

     1 box (abut 18 oz) Duncan Hines yellow cake mix*

     1 c pecans, chopped

     1 c butter, melted

     8 oz cream cheese, softened

     8 oz Cool Whip

     1 c sifted powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9 x 13" pan, and line the bottom with parchment or waxed paper.  Grease paper.  In a large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, evaporated milk, sugar, eggs, and cinnamon.  Pour into prepared pan.  Sprinkle dry cake mix over pumpkin mixture.  Sprinkle nuts evenly over cake mix.  Carefully pour melted butter over nuts and cake mix.  Bake for 1 hour.  When completely cool, invert pan over serving tray.  Peel off paper.  Combine cream cheese, Cool Whip and powdered sugar.  Beat with mixer until well combined.  Frost top (pumpkin layer) of cake.  Store in refrigerator.

*If you are using a new cake mix with less than 18 oz (about 15 oz.), add 6 tbsp flour to cake mix before proceeding with recipe.