Kibble Crunch Cookies - Part 2

Armed with my kibble of choice (Cocoa Puffs and Corn Pops),

I developed three Kibble Crunch Cookie prototypes.

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PROTOTYPE #1

First I started with my favorite oatmeal and peanut butter cookie recipe. After replacing the oatmeal and chocolate chips with cereal kibble the recipe looked like this:

Cream together:

• 1/2 c. white sugar
• 1 c. brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 c. peanut butter

Add:

• 1 c. Cocoa Puffs
• 2 c. Corn Pops

Mix well. Drop on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned about 10 to 12 minutes.

Result: Typical cookie with little crunch surprises in every bite. Not bad as a first attempt, but I wasn't sure it would appear kibble-esque enough for the TV cameras, so time for attempt number 2.

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PROTOTYPE #2

This time I modified my mom's Rice Krispy treat recipe. Since it worked with one cereal, I figured it would work for another.

• 3 cups Cocoa Puffs Cereal
• 6 cups Corn Pops Cereal
• 1 cups brown sugar
• 1 sticks of butter
• 1/2 cup Karo syrup
• 1/2 can condensed milk

Pour cereals into a large bowl. In a separate pan combine brown sugar, margarine, and Karo syrup. Boil 3 minutes. Add condensed milk. Boil three more minutes. Stir into cereals. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax or parchment paper. Wait until cool and eat.

Result: Tastes a lot like a caramel popcorn ball, but it's definitely more kibble looking than last attempt, though one observer said it looked more like dog vomit.

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PROTOTYPE #3

I wanted to improve the flavor of attempt number #2. I also wanted to see how it would look if it was made entirely out of Cocoa Puffs. So say ba-bye to the butter and condensed milk, and say hello to chunky peanut butter.

• 3-4 c. cocoa puffs
• 1/3 c. Karo syrup
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. chunky peanut butter

Pour Cocoa Puffs into a large bowl. In a separate pan combine brown sugar and Karo syrup. Boil 3 minutes. Add peanut butter. Stir into cereal. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax or parchment paper. Wait until cool and eat.

Result: By far the best tasting of the attempts, but it truly looks disgusting.

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I brought all three of my attempts into the office to let the powers that be decide which one deserves the spot light as THE Kibble Crunch Cookies for the episode. Any thoughts about which ones you think are most appropriate for the spotlight?

Kibble Crunch Cookies

Kibble: coarsely ground grain in the form of pellets (as for pet food)



Have I mentioned how awesome my internship is? Seriously it's the best. My assignment this weekend is to create Kibble Crunch Cookies, which should appear to have been made using Kibble, yet must be edible, delectable, and generally agreeable for a child's discriminating pallet.

Quite a tall order, yet one I will gladly take on. After all I am after the person who attempted making Peanut Butter Bacon Bread. If anyone could do this it would be me.

It's recommended that I use cereal as the kibble which makes sense. I mean referring to the basic definition above cereal is kibble, but I wouldn't recommend you telling your kids that. Coco Puffs and Kiks are probably my best bets as stand ins for kibble. The recipe itself needs to be light on the flour because I don't want anything masking the kibble texture, and flour might make it look cakey.

Someone suggested marshmallow treats, but I think I need something more transparent than marshmallow. I'm toying with something akin to my mom's rice krispy treats that are made using karo syrup. I'm also thinking peanut butter might be a nice touch. Well off to the store I go to buy a ton of cereal, karo syrup, and peanut butter.

I'll let you know how it goes. If the end product is edible I'll post the recipe. Wish me luck.

Boston Driving "Customs" vs. "Laws"

Within 5 minutes of driving on Boston streets, you will realize that all those rules you learned in traffic school simply do not apply here. Let me give you a few examples

Problem: Driver in right hand turn lane realizes that he/she needs to turn left.
Solution: When the light changes, driver guns engine, cuts everyone off and turns left.

Problem: Driver needs to go the wrong way on a one-way street to get to desired destination.
Solution: Back up the road so that your car is at least facing the correct direction.

Problem: Driver wants to make a left hand turn, but there are no breaks in traffic.
Solution: Inch out slowly until traffic stops for you and your left turn.

And all this is done with such prevalence that you might forget that common driving practices are not the same as driving laws. In fact, you might suppose that the only tickets that are issued here are for parking, speeding, and failure to get your car registered. As it turns out that is not entirely true as I learned just yesterday.

I was parallel parked on one side of the street, but I needed to head in the opposite direction. I did a proper lookout. Since there was plenty of space, I simply pulled out across the street and headed the correct direction. I of course did not think anything of the cop across the way who was out of his cop car writing a ticket for someone, but my passenger noticed when the cop signalled for me to pull over. That caught me off guard and I tried to pull over but that's hard on a busy road. While I sat there double parked, waiting for the cop to do something the following conversation went through my head.

"This is crazy," I thought. "I didn't do anything wrong. That cop isn't even in his car. I didn't see him wave me over. Maybe my passenger misunderstand the cop's signal. If I continue to sit here I'm going to get hit by another car. The cop's not even coming. He's like a half a block away. Besides, since when do I stop for cops who are standing by the side of the road just writing out tickets? This isn't Europe you know. "

So I started to drive away because obviously my stopping had been a mistake. Unfortunately just enough time had passed for the cop to get into his car and he came up behind me. At least he waited until there was actually room for me to pull over before he turned on his lights.

As it turns out I did an illegal U-turn. Is there such a thing in Boston? He says there were signs everywhere, but I was parked and couldn't see a sign. Then there's the whole issue of my crossing a double yellow line, which I thought just meant don't pass. I didn't realize it means you should make left turns or U-turns.

Fortunately I made it through with just written warning, but now I'm left wondering if is it possible to drive in Boston by following the driving laws instead of the driving customs. Perhaps the world will never know.