Rocky Road Bars

My sister-in-law J. sent me a couple of decadent (one might say, completely over-the-top) recipes from the murder mystery novels by Joanne Fluke: Cream Puff Murder, Carrot Cake Murder, and more. She notes that as you read these books, you become very, very hungry.

Ingredients for Rocky Road Bars:
- 24 graham crackers (12 double ones)
- 2 cups of miniature marshmallows, white not multi-coloured
- 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup of salted cashews ( I used mixed nuts)
- 1/2 cup of butter
- 1/2 cup of brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 by 13 inch cake pan with a non-stick cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with a layer of graham crackers and sprinkle them with the marshmallows. Then, sprinkle the marshmallows with the chocolate chips and cashews. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the butter and brown sugar. Stir this mixture constantly until the sugar has dissolved, then take the pan off the heat and add the vanilla. Drizzle the contents of the saucepan over the contents of the cake pan and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the tops of the marshmallows are golden. Cool the bars in the pan, then cut them into brownie-sized servings. There's no mystery here...these are just very good.

Editorial Note: I have a feeling that I should used chopped rather than whole nuts. Don't get me wrong...the whole nuts are tasty , just a bit unwieldy, but they kind of add to the whole over-the-top nature of this recipe. Come to think of it, everything I used to make these bars was too big; large rather than miniature marshmallows, chocolate chunks rather than chips... even the cakepan was too big.