S'mores - big kid style!

I have joined an adult organization - with meetings, events, and fundraisers.  Apparently a lot of fundraisers for adult organizations consist of feeds.  I've been invited to spaghetti feeds, beef feeds, fish feeds, pork feeds...and my particular organization is hosting it's annual Chili Feed!  Fortunately for me, I have no idea how to make chili. I do however make a mean dessert and with M working for a chocolate company I know make a seriously mean chocolate dessert.

On the menu today - Chocolate Peanut Butter S'more Bars.  They are easy, pretty dang quick and ooooh so delicious.

Preheat Oven to 350.  Make a Graham Cracker Crust -I use this recipe doubled, substituting chocolate graham crackers for the standard issue.  I put in in a 9x13 pan and cover the bottom and up the sides.  This is important as marshmallows and the chocolate stick to the pan, breaking your bars, otherwise.

Once the crust has cooled (yeah for a fridge that's mostly empty) I put in my Peanut Butter Chocolate wafers down in a single layer, covering most of the bottom of the crust.  This goes in the oven for about 5 minutes, or until soft and spreadable.  Smooth out the Chocolate to cover the entire bottom. and slightly up the edge.  Then I dump in mini marshmallows.  Remember these will expand as they heat, so you don't need to fill it up to the top of the pan.  About half-way is good, or at least enough to cover the chocolate.

Bake at 350 for approximately 10 minutes until the top layer of marshmallows are golden brown.

You should have a beautiful pan of golden lumps like the one above.  You'll also have a wonderful smell in your kitchen.  Resist the temptation and let them cool completely before cutting.  Sadly some of the fluff in the marshmallows will have deflated, but they are still oh so good.

Enjoy!

Spilling the Beans

I have a lovely couch.  A beautiful red couch.  I'm extremely proud of my couch.  However, I still sprawl on the floor 80% of the time.  Unfortunately, this gets pretty uncomfortable after a while. It's further my misfortune that a bean bag chair is more college dorm chic than young-professional.  So I went on a quest - to find a floor pillow that didn't remind me of my days back at USF.  That's when I stumbled across a Gumdrop Pillow by Amy Butler, but OUCH, $12 for a pattern to a pillow.  Especially since I could tell by the construction was really just two pieces (the 8 sides, and an octagon covering the central piece).  Um, no thanks. Off I went again to find an alternative.

I found a blog post where she created her own pattern, but she just linked to another DIY tutorial for a Moroccan Pouf.  The original blogger was surprised that the tutorial didn't mention the Amy Butler pattern.  It's not like Ms. Butler invented the idea.  It's a style of pillow that's been around for a while, and anyone who doesn't mind the math can do it themselves.  It's about geometry.

Anyway - here's what I did step by step to get my lovely Moroccan Pouf (which sounds much better than a Gumdrop Pillow, and no in the least dorm room-esque).

I found fabric that I loved at Joann Fabrics on sale, and bean bag filing half-off at Shopko - Score!

I created the pattern on poster board.  Then end goal was to make two house shapes, connect them on the bottom edge and Viola - I have an outline of my pattern.  I couldn't follow the DIY directions exactly as finding a 36" piece of poster board was impossible and folding poster board seems silly.

I measured out 18 inches on a piece of poster board, this would be half the length of my patter piece.  Then four strips with a  width of five inches.(My side B).  Put the sort sides of my "houses" at 7 inches (making my Pouf 14 inches tall).  And Viola - a house with a really tall roof.

At first I was going to put the houses together - floor to floor- and create one pattern piece.  This was a bit unwieldy though, and would require more cuts than simply folding the fabric in half a few times and using the half pattern.  So I opted for that instead.  I measured 40 inches, just over the full length of my end piece, and folded it over so I had a doubled 40 inch piece.  I folded again, so I have a four think 20 inch length of fabric.  Once more fold, this one from the side, and I had a 20 inch length that was about 23 inches wide.

This allowed me to law the pattern pieces next to each other and only have to cut out two shapes to come up with 8 total pieces.

I laid out my pieces to make sure I hadn't botched anything too badly. Then is was simply sewing my pieces together.  That part was easy.  It took about two hours total at this point.  I left a 3 inch gap on the bottom to put in the filling.  I figured this part would be quick...I was wrong.

Filling was a pain.
And made me realize that I should have opted for fiberfill.  The 4 inches was way too small and pouring beans - much harder than expected.  Filling this stupid thing took about an hour. And a full bag of beans.  Way more than I expected too.

Plus I think the final look would be better.



I'm still pretty dang happy with the final product - behold the Moroccan Pouf!

   

I will probably add the octagon to cover the middle, but maybe not.  :)  I'm feeling pretty good with it just as it is!