The Adventures of a Frustrated Baker

So, my family has an obsession with bacon.  Like seriously, an obsession.  I remember once making chili dogs and my daughter looked at me after I placed them in front of her and asked in all seriousness, "What?  No bacon?", as if that was a normal ingredient like salt or pepper.  Now it has become the running joke, that everything I serve must contain bacon.  Most often, I ignore my crazy husband and daughter but occasionally, I give into their wild demand and throw bacon randomly into something that doesn't usually have it. This recipe came about mostly because my husband was hassling me about making his favorite cookies, peanut butter chocolate chip bacon cookies (I featured them on the blog a while back if you want to go check them out here ) and I didn't feel like going through all the effort of making cookies.  I love rice crispy treats, mostly because they are crazy simple and delicious.  This recipe seriously takes 5 , maybe 10 minutes max ...

Did anyone else get any fun new appliances for Christmas?  We sure did!  Because I love to bake I usually get something new for the kitchen every year, sometimes it is just a new spatula because I broke my favorite one, other years it's a new food processor and sometimes it's just something fun someone saw and thought of me.  This year it was actually my husband (gasp!) that received the fun new appliance, a hot dog toaster!  I know, strange..him...in the kitchen...you'd be surprised how often he ends up there sometimes. Anywho, it reminded me that last year, he gave me a pretzel maker for Christmas and as with all of my kitchen stuff that doesn't get used on a regular basis, it was shoved into a cabinet and forgotten about until it fell out as I was trying to find  a new home for said hot dog toaster. We love the big soft pretzels and often stop to get them as treats when we are shopping and need a bite to eat.  The joy of this little appliance is ...

A few days ago, this blog hit its 2 year birthday and what better way to celebrate than with a ridiculously indulgent cupcake recipe?!  After all, that is kind of what I am all about.  These cupcakes were actually a special request from my boss at Starbucks.  He found the picture and I hunted down a recipe.  I even brought them in as a treat on my last day! I don't know if any of you are familiar with monster cookies, I know I wasn't...I lived a sheltered childhood apparently!  That's okay though, these cupcakes more than make up for a lifetime without monster cookies, though after seeing some recipes for those I think they may make an appearance at our house very very soon!  These cupcakes are essentially peanut butter chocolate chip cupcakes, which pretty much makes them perfect, then to make it even more amazing, you top them with a "cookie dough" made of peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chips and m&m's!  (I say "cookie...