Friday Favorites: Short & Very Sweet

Amazingly, Hillary over at The Other Mama and I are channeling the same sort of theme for Friday Favorites.

Mine? CHOCOLATE!!!!

(Should insert picture of chocolate here, but I've eaten it all. Must find more.)

Admittedly, I'm all PMS-y right now, so this is a major nutritional requirement. But I can always be in the mood for chocolate. When I'm on my last nerve. When the boy brings home a great report from school. When I'm tired. When I'm busy. When I breathe. (Maybe that's why I haven't been knitting or scrap-booking as much-- those are so chocolate-unfriendly activities. Unlike time at the computer.)

I like all chocolate. Godiva is as wonderful as Hershey's. Sometimes I'm in the mood for caramel (Milk Way now has a delightful all-caramel filled one as well as their "dark chocolate" one!), sometimes crunchy, sometimes PB. Handfuls of semisweet chips are cheap in a pinch. Someday soon I plan to try ChocoVine, a chocolate flavored wine recommended by the ladies over at Southern Fried Snark. I've heard it's very good. I even gave it to my son's two teachers as an end-of-year gift, along with some gourmet chocolate-filled cookies. They deserve it!

Yep, and today is the last day of kindergarten for MLB. Quite bitter-sweet.

Sounds like a good reason for chocolate to me!

Friday Favorites: Carmel Apple Salad

This is actually a "fave" from 2 weeks ago, but with end-of-school picnics & Memorial Day upon us, we could all use an easy-peasy, sure-fire recipe. I got this from Sue C., one of the ladies I knit with (when the kids let me,) and when she made it, I nearly made a pig of myself. So, I decided to make it for the "Appreciation" breakfast that I'd brought MLB's teachers two weeks ago. I understand they all but licked the bowl, too. I hope you like it, too.

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CARAMEL APPLE SALAD

1 (3.4 oz.) pkg vanilla instant pudding

1 cup milk

1 (8 oz.) tub whipped topping (can use fat-free kind)

6 - 8 Granny Smith apples, cored and cut into bite-size chunks

6 regular size Snickers candy bars, cut into bite-size chunks

(Optional: colored sprinkles or chocolate curls for garnish)

Mix milk and pudding until blended.

Fold in whipped topping.

Add apples and candy bar pieces, and mix well.

Chill until ready to serve. Garnish.

Serves 6 -10 (you hope!)

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Personal note: Please, PLEASE, remember to get the instant "no-cook" pudding mix. I wasn't thinking & grabbed a big box of the "regular" kind. I added it to the milk & thought, "OK, how is this going to thicken if I don't cook it? And how can I can add whipped topping to sloshy milk, or hot pudding. At 6:30 a.m. With 2 kids to get ready?" So I put the milk & mix into a microwave-safe bowl & nuked it 30 minutes at a time until thickened, and then flash cooled it in the freezer. It was much harder to properly fold in the whipped topping this way, and it took WAY longer than it should, but I got the job done. And it was delish. A different vanilla flavor to my taste buds, but I am somewhat of a super-taster. Consider yourself cautioned.

Another happy installment of the Friday Favorites carnival.

Coming soon...

to a blog near you! (Well, this one at least. Could be more.)

Janna at The Adventures of Motherhood has started a new blog, one dedicated to remembering who we were as kids, and where we might be going as adults. She loves having "Remember when..." conversations with her own mom & family, and would like to share those joys with her daughter someday. The best time to start someday is NOW.

Starting June 10th, and for the following 14 Thursdays, she and other linked up bloggers/FaceBookers/MySpacers will tell their stories about growing up, in as many or as few words as they like. (I like Strunk & White's admonishment that "Vigorous writing is concise." I'll admit: it's difficult to "Omit needless words.")

Sounds fun! Will you join me? Click here to get started, too.