Remembering my Mom and Chow Mein Noodle Cookies

 I completed decorating the house early this evening. I let husband know that we can probably stop buying me Christmas decor as I didn't even put out everything that is stored in "the twelve boxes of Christmas". However, there are many treasured, special items that I will always put out, that have some kind of memory or meaning. One item is this silly little music box.

It has a wind up mechanism on the underside and it plays the tune of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". It uses magnets I believe so that the two little mice spin on top of the "ice". One tree along the side has a broken off top. One of the mice, or I think it was a mouse, maybe it was a bunny, no longer has any ears.

My mother went through some years where she would buy all of us "kids" (most of us adults by then) the same item. One year it was wooden Santas, another year it was a lovely resin Santa figure sitting in a chair in his slippers with a list in his hand and a cat on his lap (which always made me think of my father, who often had a cat on his lap), and one year it was this music box. We all got one. I don't know if my siblings still have theirs, but our two kids used to love to wind it up and watch the mice spin around. It was simple and sweet and when I wound it up today, I got a little choked up. Mom's been gone many years now, but she would have liked to know that I still put it out for the family to see.

Another thing I do at Christmas is make some of the goodies and treats that she used to make. One of those is chow mein noodle cookies. Our son called them spider cookies, because they kind of resemble a multi-legged creature, so we have renamed them spider cookies. The hardest thing about making them is finding the chow mein noodle cookies in the store.

Ingredients: 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips

                    2 cups of butterscotch chips

                   1 package of chow mein noodle cookies (mine was 170 grams)

                   aprx. 1 cup of salted peanuts

Melt the chips over a double boiler, or cautiously, in small increments in the microwave.

I like to snap some of the noodles in my hands so they are not all a long length. Once the chocolate and butterscotch chips are melted, add your dry noodles and peanuts. I honestly just dump peanuts in until it looks like there are enough. Maybe it's a cup, maybe it's more or less.

Try to really stir the contents well so that everything gets coated. Don't worry if you snap more noodles while you do it.

Using two spoons, drop clumps onto waxed paper. I ended up with three cookie sheets full. 

Here is a close up of these weird and wonderful treats. Put them in the refrigerator to cool and set up and store in an airtight container until you wish to put them out at a Christmas gathering (I keep mine in the fridge). They will be fine at room temperature later. 

My mom also made short bread that she put through a cookie press, funny little sugar cookies that were wrapped around a red maraschino cherry, rolled in sugar, and baked, and Hello Dollies which were squares with a graham cracker base, chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and coconut. They may be called something else where you are from.

I like keeping some of the traditions alive, and adding new ones, or ones borrowed from my husband's family. Stockings for instance, were not part of my childhood at all, but his family always did stockings, so we started them with ours. Do you make any Christmas treats that you mothers made? 

Day Three of the Seven Treats of Christmas

 Tis a snappy cold day here, no snow in the air, but the threat of high winds and some ice in the next day or so. Thankfully I don't have to be on the road, but likely it won't be as bad as predicted.

Enough of weather (must be done, I'm Canadian), and onto today's treat: Sweet Marie Bars! This is mostly no-bake until the very end where you need your broiler for no more than two minutes. 

I am guessing these are called Sweet Marie Bars because long ago, in my youth, there was a chocolate bar called "Sweet Marie" which had peanuts and chocolate in them.

source

I'm pretty sure I have the correct "vintage" with this image, but maybe a fellow Canadian can let me know if this is what they looked like in the 70's (Debra? Martha? Rosalea? Maebeme? Patio? Melinda? Other names I've forgotten... sorry) 

Here is the recipe, front and back of the card:

Don't you love my high tech way of providing the recipe? Ahhh well, this is Blogger, not paid-for Word Press! 

Here is an assembly of ingredients, however I realized I did not show the butter/margarine or the vanilla.

Notice the no-name corn syrup and parchment paper (Ooops, sorry, just noticed I had the French side showing, think I did with the peanut butter as well), the store brand peanut butter, chocolate chips, and peanuts. I must clarify that I purchased the no-name stuff eons ago, not as a result of the beloved Galen Weston reaching out to the minions and maintaining the prices of his no-name items in an effort to justify his healthy Loblaw's profits as of late (but I digress...). The Rice Krispies are name brand because they were on sale, but any knock off variety would work just fine.

I decided to use parchment paper in the baking pan this time, as it will be a sticky mess trying to pry it out later. Here is a nifty parchment paper trick that I did not invent myself. To get your parchment paper to sit securely in your baking dish, instead of sliding around and shifting, rip off the amount you need, then crumple it into a ball.

Then uncrumple it, smooth it out a little, and it will fit nicely in your baking dish (use a bit of pleating in the corners to make it fit even better). 

Did you know you can re-use parchment paper? If I was using it to line a baking sheet for cookies, (and not to use for something sticky like this), I could use it over and over and it still does the trick!

Next, use a big enough pot to hold all the ingredients eventually, and put in your sugar, peanut butter, and syrup.

Heat this on a medium, or slightly medium high heat, stirring all the time until it is smooth and just starts to bubble, shifting it off the heat at that time so you don't start burning any of it. 

Then add the butter (I used margarine) and vanilla.

As usual, save money by buying artificial vanilla extract, rather than the much pricier pure vanilla extract. Unless you are making quite an exquisite dish that requires the real thing (or scraping an actual vanilla bean pod!), nobody is going to know the difference.

Then it is time to dump in your Rice Krispies (or similar cereal) and the peanuts. Your pot should be off the heat by now.

Take the time to really stir this well, coating everything. (Excuse the front of my stove on which the finish has worn off over the years of wiping it down ).

Dump your mixture into the parchment lined baking dish (I think it's  9 x 12?) and smooth it out, trying to get it as evenly distributed as possible.

Then sprinkle your chocolate chips on top and put the pan under the broiler for no more than a couple of minutes. I didn't even let my broiler come up to temperature, I just turned the broiler on and stuck the pan under it and the chocolate chips were soft enough after two minutes.

Once it's out of the oven, spread the softened chocolate chips as evenly over the top as possible, and let it cool. Cut into small squares and enjoy!

I still have ALL of my wrapping to do, almost all of my stocking stuffers to buy, and four more treats to bake. When I'm all done, this is how I will look:

For the record, I have completely given up on keeping that tree skirt in place and properly tied. Like last year, I will need to remember to leave a cat sized hole when I start putting presents under the tree. 

Pre-Christmas

Today, my list included some laundry, some chicken chores, the rest of my baking, and wrapping presents. I did the laundry, I did the chicken chores, I did SOME wrapping, and I did my baking, although decorating of cookies will have to happen tomorrow.

I decided to try a new gingerbread cookie recipe and I was very pleased with how it turned out. I even dragged out my fancy big mixer!

Can you smell the cloves and ginger?

I even followed the instructions and wrapped and refridgerated the dough. (Sometimes I skip this step). Hang on, I think that's the sugar cookie dough. I made three different things today: gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies, and "Christmas crack" which is the saltine crackers with a liquid toffee poured over it and then milk chocolate chips melted on top. Are you familiar with it?

Gingerbread cookies waiting to go in the oven.

Sugar cookies in the oven. Boy, the house smelled good!

Santa heads, candy canes, ornaments, a boot... all going to be decorated later.

The tree is up and decorated. We still have a real tree. I'm not sure if we will ever go the artificial route. 

The village is a-lit, and the Santa collection sits above it. If you look closely, you will see that Godzilla has made his way to the village and is about to wreak havoc.

A display in the livingroom. I love the Santa and reindeer. It's pretty big and I pack it away carefully every year.

Symmetry in the den. The shelf came from my parents' house.

Finally, here is Scooter nestled under a pile of flannel pajamas. Nothing says winter like flannel!

traditional decadence

Christmas is getting closer and closer. I've never been the poster child for being ready for Christmas well ahead of time (still have gifts to buy, decorating to do, baking to accomplish, presents to wrap...), but I did manage to make some goodies this morning. I got this recipe from an old friend, Claire, years ago and since then it has come to be an expected part of our sweet treats at Christmas time. No doubt many of you make or have made something similar, but just in case you would like to take in an extra few thousand calories over the holidays, here is the recipe:

Peanut Butter Confetti Bars

-1/2 cup margarine or butter
-1 cup smooth peanut butter
-1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips
-1 1/2 cups peanut butter chips
-1 bag multi-coloured mini marshmallows

Melt and stir all ingredients except marshmallows in a double boiler until smooth. Remove from heat and let cool a little. Add 1 bag (mine was 250 g) of mini marshmallows and stir to coat them all. Pour into a 9 x 12 baking pan (I line mine with foil to make it easier to lift it out and slice up). Let it cool, cut into smallish squares.

Pan is lined with foil.

Butterscotch, peanut butter chips and butter in double boiler.

Now, the peanut butter.

Melting and getting smoother.

Wait a bit before you add the marshmallows, so you don't melt them as well.

Stir everything well so all the marshmallows are well coated.

Let it cool and harden before you try to cut it up. Decadent, sweet, and guaranteed to add about a half inch to your hips over the holidays. Enjoy!