{Easy} Salted Praline Pecan Clusters

Look...I'm as Yankee as it gets. No one in my family is from the South or ever has been. I've lived in Ohio and NYC. I'm Italian and Irish. I think the Civil War did in fact end 150+ years ago. I don't like sweet tea.

Buuut sometimes I say y'all. And I love comfort food. And I love pralines.

So...Southerners...can you just like let me sometimes be one of you? In the land of pralines, at least?

That said...I'm 99% sure these are not traditional pralines. I've actually had a few pralines and these have very little in common with them. But...like I said...what do I know? And regardless, this recipe is insanely easy and yields DELICIOUS little pecan caramel-y clusters!

And you know what the best part of these "pralines" is? Ok....well...the best part is the taste.

But do you know the SECOND best part?? You make this recipe by just putting some stuff together and throwing it in the microwave! And...that's mostly it. Then you spoon some of the mixture onto a silpat or wax paper or something and sprinkle it with salt and YOU'RE DONE! This is actually a pretty dangerous situation we're all in now. Because we can have these YUMMALICIOUS lovelies so quickly and so easily. It's bonkers.

And seriously....they're so rich. And salty-sweet. And crunchy. It's like...pecans covered in a hardened salted caramel or butterscotch sauce...sorta. They're good, my friends. SO GOOD. That's all you need to know.

Peanut Butter Caramel Pie

This recipe was supposed to be a copy cat recipe. But then I got a little too creative, and it sort of became it's whole, own, new thing. Which is totally awesome and delicious. And really...this just means I get to make another recipe to be the copy cat in the future.

Oh noooo not more caramel pie!  :P

In case you're curious, I was trying to copy cat the gooey caramel pie from O'Charley's restaurant (a place near our house that we frequent and which has the GENIUS promotion of Free Pie Wednesdays). I did want to add some oomph to the pie initially by making it a gooey salted caramel pie. But then I went a step further and, after seeing a recipe for peanut butter caramel and thinking OH MY YUM, made it a peanut butter caramel pie. And then I got lazy and saw a recipe for microwave caramel and...you get the idea. This is how we ended up with this pie.

Which is a couple steps too far removed to be a copy cat of the O'Charley's pie but...regardless...

still friggin delicious.

A delicious peanut butter graham cracker crust (my go-to graham cracker pie crust recipe, in fact) is topped with a layer of super easy to make (remember? lazy. Microwave caramel sauce. FORREAL) peanut butter caramel (which is super sweet but also rich and peanut buttery, and thusly has that delish salty element as well), some salted whipped cream (which I thought was genius but is actually kind of weird but, luckily, worked in this pie) and then some pecans because they're fun and tasty and were on that original pie.

PEANUT BUTTER FLAVOR TO THE MAX.

Sweet, salty, rich, gooey, crunchy, luscious....just....mmmm....ok?

And check back about that copy cat recipe....I'll get there (but in the meantime there's nothing wrong with creating a fun, entirely new thing, yeah? Yeah. No regrets about this pie. NONE.)

Microwave Caramel Popcorn

Caramel corn is super duper delish. It's portable, it's addictive, it's crunchy, it's sweet and salty and just....YUM!

But...ugh. It is a hassle to make! That is why this recipe is AWESOME! So much quicker and so much easier, it's a gift from the caramel corn gods!

Now, I will say, when it comes down to it: I still prefer my old favorite caramel corn recipe. BUT, like I said-a hassle. This recipe is my new go-to when I have a hankering and I just want to be able to whip up some caramel corn quickly and easily and without such a big mess and with A LOT less dishes! (woot! wooooot!)

Hey-when you say "caramel corn" do people ever think you mean candy corn? This has been a mixup that's happened a couple times in my life recently. It's like...nono I know candy corn is awful. I'm talking about CARAMEL corn...you know...popcorn....coated in caramel. Like from the circus or a fair or just that super cute gourmet popcorn kiosk in the mall?

Anyway. So. Here's what we've got: pop some popcorn in a brown bag (which we've talked about before), mix up some caramel in the microwave (surprisingly simple!), then-now, prepare yourself, this COULD get messy, make sure your brown paper bag is sturdy!-you pour that caramel in the bag with the popcorn and shake it until it's all coated, THEN microwave, THEEEN shake it, THENTHENTHEN microwave it some more. Then shake it again. Then lay it out and let it cool and harden. TA-DAAAA (or, as the little girl I babysit says "DAAAAAA!") you have caramel corn!!! It's going to be crunchy, but still a little sticky (so be prepared to find delicious leftover morsels in your teeth for the next couple hours :P). 

And there you have it: simple! Gotta love a microwave.

Hot Chocolate in a Microwave-for One

'Tis the season for Kayle to try out more hot chocolate recipes!!! 

Generally, I eat whatever I want, regardless of the time of year. But hot chocolate...well....it's hard to muster up the energy to drink it when it's hot outside (excluding my beloved Max Brenner's hot chocolate....I'll drink that wherever, whenever!) BUT! It's cold! And nothing sounds nicer when you're shivering in your apartment because your landlord doesn't turn the heat on half the time, than a nice big mug of hot cocoa. 

Mmmmm but I don't know about anyone else but sometimes when it's chilly, I just wanna lay under the covers and be lazy. It can be hard to muster up the energy to, not only leave aforementioned covers, but to leave them long enough to actually make make something. Which is why this hot chocolate is so brilliant! You can make it in a microwave AND it is so much richer and more delicious than that powdered stuff most of us grew up on*! AND it's single serving. One big mug of hot chocolatey goodness, that you don't need to share-yessss. (This is good for me because Michael usually doesn't like his hot chocolate as rich as I do, but if you have more peoples to make this good stuff for, just multiply the recipe by however many people you need to!)

*(in my opinion)

Has it happened? Have I found a homemade hot chocolate recipe that lives up to Max Brenner's??!

...well...no.

BUT it is deliciously full of dark chocolate flavor. And creamy. And rich. And as good as any other homemade recipe I've made thus far (with the exception of maybe this one, and def. excepting the s'mores hot cocoa...but that's just because of s'mores), with the added bonus of being QUICK and eeeeeasy to make! And, woot woot, no extra dishes!

Now, put on your slippies (or as some of you lame people might say, slippers), a warm robe, your fave jammies, and cuddle up with a big warm mug of this hot chocolate. Maybe watch some My Fair Wedding on Netflix. Or 25 Days of Christmas on ABC Family. Yeah...that's a good day.

Coffee Cake in a Mug

I'm a morning person. I'll admit it. I'm that girl. In high school, I used to do the morning announcements and drive everyone crazy with my overly awake and perky voice. Sorry guys but...once I'm awake, I'm AWAKE. Even so....I tend to find myself dragging my feet when it comes to actually doing stuff in the morning. Particularly making food. Because I'm tired and hungry and I just wish food would magically appear in front of me, no effort required.

Now, while I don't have the magical ability to summon up an instantaneous, effort free, breakfast....this recipe comes pretty close.

You pretty much just combine some ingredients in your favorite mug (yes...I made mine in a Disney princess mug and yes...I made Michael one in a Batman mug. I enjoy this about us. I think it's charming. sooo...yeah...) then you microwave for a few minutes and...that's it. You have coffee cake.

CUHRAAAZY.

Now, on the real real...not my favorite. It was fine just...I dunno...I felt like the cake was a bit bland tasting. Not enough cinnamoooon! It was good though, especially considering it took like 5 minutes to make. I just prefer real coffee cake. 

That said-Michael really enjoyed it and didn't see anything wrong with this simple little breakfast. And just imagine how much fun something like this would be if you have a bunch of girls waking up after a slumber party at your house! Or if you partied hard last night and need a quick easy breakfast. You know...just depends on your current life situation.

Or you could just be like me, a perky little Disney princess, waking up, singing with the birds, and then being like "ughhh but...doin' stuff?" and then remembering, "Oh hey! I can have a little coffee cake in my belly like..practically right now!" and then you run to the kitchen.

...and to be honest..if this is me we're talking about...and I'm running to the kitchen...

...I probably trip.