Les Bonnes Choses

I can see from the hits to yon blog that I'm overdue for an update. Nothing is sadder than seeing Sherbrooke, PQ, hit up the same entry twice.

Today I will treat you all to a snapshot of my highschool years, while preserving one of the best recipes ever for all time in the carbonite that is teh interwebs.

Back in the day (and this is several days back, I warn you), a merry band roamed the Forest City. In a sort of Robin Hood-esque way, they would crash parties, rob from the pantries, and give to the revelers. Often times, they would leave the party goers wondering who the hell just showed up at their party, not-baked some treats and left.

Okay, so maybe we -- I mean, the merry band -- were more like culinary vandals. Regardless, the following recipe is why this merry band are now remembered as folk heroes of legend. We folk heroes had a reunion this past weekend, and stayed up late eating no-bakes and having the kind of conversation that would have given anyone else an excuse to not stay up late. I present to you the recipe for No-Bakes: Iron Chef Edition. What relation does the recipe have to the Iron Chef competition? A secret ingredient. There must always be a secret ingredient, and it must be something on-hand.

Iron Chef No-Bakes
3 tbsp cocoa powder
3 half-cups (that's 1 ½ cups) of sugar
½ cup milk
½ cup butter
3 cups rolled oats
½ cup peanut butter
3 tsp vanilla
Variable amount of the secret ingredient.

You will notice that all amounts are in either 3s or halves. Although this may have been coincidence, the original recipe from Martin's mom's recipe book called for 2 cups of sugar, so we reduced it because less sugar was sufficient, and also to fit the 3s and halves mnemonic, and having a mnemonic is important unless you want to bring a cookbook with you to every party. How lame would that be?

Okay, so bring the cocoa powder, sugar, milk and butter to a boil over medium heat. Once it hits a boil, let it boil for 3 half-minutes (that's 90 seconds), then remove from heat.

Stir in the peanut butter until it melts, then add rolled oats and vanilla. Finally, add your secret ingredient. You may voluntarily impose the 3s and halves constraint upon yourself, but think about what you're doing, and scale the quantity according to the ingredient. We used 1 ½ cups of marshmallows this weekend, for example. We've used raspberry jam with success in the past, but a cup and a half of jam would just be gross.

Finally, spoon your mixture on to a cookie sheet and refrigerate to cool.

Ta da! I 100% guarantee that any confusion you generate at a party will be more than compensated for by their gratitude.