Midnight in Paris

Last night was the night our Honor Society has been planning for what feels like forever- the special needs formal!  Our big project every year is a big formal dance for the special needs students, complete with a catered dinner and pictures.  It was more work than I ever imagined it would be, but so much fun! There are some legal tangles in publishing pictures, but I snapped a few on my phone before they arrived:

There was a Day of Beauty event for all the girls before the dance, and after we finished setting the tables I dashed over to change and have my hair curled. :)

With my amazing tennis girl Sierra!

The dance was an absolute blast!  The music was loud, everyone looked great, and we had a great time shaking it to the Top 40 hits and some classics like the Macarena and "YMCA".

One of the nice surprises was dessert- we had cute little sorbets in fruit shells.  I had the pomegranate-lemon, which was served in half a lemon rind.  It was fresh and perfect for a light dessert before a night of dancing.

Since the rest of the weekend has been so full, I've been laying pretty low today.  My parents went out for dinner last night and I stole a piece of leftover pizza for lunch.  Perfect for a Sunday afternoon!

Here's the recipe for the S'mores Bars I made for the dance!  They were all gone by the end of the night, so I think they were a hit.

S'mores Bars


from our church cookbook

1 stick butter
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees, or 325 for a glass pan.  Melt butter in a 9x13 baking pan.  When butter is melted, evenly sprinkle on graham cracker crumbs and pour the sweetened condensed milk evenly over the crumbs.  Spirnkle with chocolate chips (and chopped pecans if desired) and bake for 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with marshmallows.  Bake 2 minutes more.  Remove from oven, let cool, and cut into bars.

We didn't have any mini marshmallows, so I used a bunch of the extra large ones, turned down the heat, and baked until they melted.  Then I spread them evenly over the crust and cut them into bars when the marshmallow topping was hard.  And don't be afraid to thrown on a few extra chocolate chips!

Few weekends go by in this house without a night of grilling burgers.  Normally we bake a big pan of sweet potato fries from Costco also, but a recent weekend saw the end of the sweet potato fries.  So tonight we're making regular oven-baked potato fries.  Their so simple and so good, and go perfectly with burgers!

Wash and slice as many potatoes as you want, and cut into slices.  You can make big steak fries, or skinnier ones if you like crispy fries.  Throw them in a bowl, toss with plenty of olive oil, and transfer to a baking pan.  Pour the extra oil from the bowl onto the pan first, just to make sure the fries don't stick.  Add whatever you like- we like tons of garlic, but you can use Italian seasoning, your own blend, Parmesan cheese, or anything else you like on fries.

Throw the pan into a 400 degree (or very hot) oven, and bake for about 20 minutes, depending on the size of the fries.

Enjoy!

I hope you had a great weekend!

Love,
Rosie