Sweet & Salty No-Bake Bars

BOO!

Hee hee hee hee!

I love this time of year. A lot of people say that, and I'm one of them.  First of all, I'm totally a cold weather person. Us cold-weather people seem to be rare, but we do exist. I'd much rather snuggle up under a blanket, with my nose all froze and a cat on my lap and a good movie on tv, oh, like "The Princess Bride" or something.  Totally my idea of an awesome evening.

And there are so many good memories for me, that are somehow linked to this chilly fall weather. It reminds me of the start of the school year; when I was younger I loved school, because there was so much new stuff to put into my brain!  It reminds me of our Halloween trip a couple years back, getting to visit my best friend in Colorado and introducing my husband to my extended family. Heck, just the feeling late at night when it's all cold and dark reminds me of the many nights driving down from New Jersey to Virginia, when my husband & I were in the early months of our courtship.

For a lot of people, I guess cold weather signals the end: the end of bathing suits and flip flops and miniskirts and mani/pedis.  For me the cold weather is a beginning. It's the beginning of comfy sweaters and squishy comforters, of big stompy boots (mine are purple!) and big warm coats, of mostly rain and a little snow, and stew and homemade bread and Christmas shopping and that wonderful way the trees look at dusk when they're all dark and wet against a light grey overcast sky.
I love this stuff.

So anyways, we're gonna start you off with some Halloween treats. Admittedly, they're only Halloween treats if you stick some candy corn on top, but you can spook people by telling them that you made dessert out of Fritos. Heh heh heh!

With thanks to Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.

Ingredients

1½ cup of light corn syrup
1/2 cup of sugar
1½ cup of crunchy peanut butter
1 bag of Fritos, 10.5 ounce
Approx 2 cups of candy corn

1) Pour the Fritos into a large bowl and break them into medium pieces. I used a potato masher for this, and it worked pretty well. Make sure your candy corn is ready to go.
2) Grease a 9x9" square baking pan liberally with butter or coconut oil.
3) Pour the sugar and corn syrup into a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally until it comes to a boil.
4) Lower the heat to low, and stir in the peanut butter. Keep stirring until it's completely combined.
5) Pour the sugar liquid over the Fritos and stir it up with a wooden spoon until well-covered.
6) Press this down into the 9x9 pan, and immediately press on the candy corn; don't wait, or else the bars will get too cooled for the candy corn to stick.

Voila! That's all there is to it. And honestly, it's pretty darn good.