Love, Marriage and Cap'n Crunch

Well, we have survived the move (barely) and I have actually started cooking again, after almost a month of eating out.  I never thought I would look forward to cooking, but there you have it....I do (at least until I can afford a personal chef).

Since my last post, my husband and I celebrated 22 years of marriage, and since we just celebrated our anniversary, I thought I would share the story of when I first fell in love with him.  It was over a bowl of cereal....yes, you read that right.  Not a romantic candlelight dinner but over a bowl of cereal (Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Cereal, to be exact).   Our story began at church, where we were both members of the same Sunday school class.  Somehow, we always managed to end up sitting next to each other during class and at class functions.  Soon, friendship turned into romantic interest and we started "dating".  I use that term loosely because our "dates" usually were renting a Disney movie and eating frozen pizza.  We also had a built in chaperon, my 4 year old son who loved to sit between the two of us on the couch as we watched the movie.  We had a lot of fun even if wasn't very romantic.  Steve (my husband to be) seemed to know very quickly, that I was the one he would marry and told me so but I wasn't so convinced after having come out of a disastrous marriage a couple of years before.  Anyway, one night, I had a business function that was going to run late and Steve (my husband to be) said that he and my son would just hang out and he could stay the night since I was going to be out so late for work.  My son was so excited about getting to sleep over, that he couldn't wait to get out the door and head to Steve's house.  When I called later that evening to check in with him and make sure everything was alright, my son exclaimed, "they were camping out in the living room, watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and having Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Cereal for supper!"  By the excitement in his voice, you would have thought it was Christmas morning and I knew right then and there, that Steve was the one.  My heart took a tumble and landed at the feet of the man that made my son so happy.  His name is Steve and he is my very own Prince Charming.  And as the story goes.....we have lived happily ever after.

In honor of that very special food...Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Cereal, here is a fun recipe for you to try.

Peanut Butter Cereal Treats 

Credit for Recipe and Photo to "Taste of Home"
Originally published as Peanut Butter Cereal Treats in Simple & Delicious May/June 2007, p56

Ingredients

• 30 large marshmallows
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon Jif ® Creamy Peanut Butter
• 6 cups Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch
• 1-1/2 cups milk chocolate M&M's

Directions

• In a large saucepan, combine the marshmallows, butter and peanut butter. Cook and stir over medium-low heat until melted. Remove from the heat. Stir in the cereal and M&M's.
• Pat into a 13-in. x 9-in. pan coated with cooking spray. Cool. Cut into bars. Yield: 2 dozen.