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You’re welcome
The Hallowe’en treats have barely hit the big bowl in the front hall and someone out there is whining about whether or not they can say “Merry Christmas”. For goodness sake! Nobody cares. There isn’t a law to prohibit the use of season’s greetings of any kind. Any kind! But it certainly is the time for people to find something else to drone on about. Welcome to the “indoor season”. It’s the time of year when you seriously start to question if you’re going for a walk to the Post Office Box or you’re going to warm up the Rollscan- hardly and drive over to pick up the window envelopes of full of statements and comeons. Personally, I don’t give a good gosh-darn if you wish me out of your life so long as you do so with a smile on your face. Why are we so upset about Holiday Greetings? What makes it so difficult to just be respectful of another person’s cultural background? If you know me (and let’s face it, you don’t) you’d know I’m as likely to wish you a Merry Christmas as I am to wish you a Happy Hanukkah or Festive Kwanza or a Delightful Diwali. Get over it. Be nice. If you have to, just wish a person a “Lovely Day”.
So, here we are. If you gave out treats to tricksters you may, or may not, have leftovers. We always hope we have leftovers because we like teeny little chocolate bars—they fill the gap until Advent Calendar time. Finding creative ways to incorporate those little leftover treats into delicious main courses has always been one of my passions. This year I’m thinking if we have enough leftover Mars Bars we might have Mars Bar Lasagna. Yup, you read that correctly. Mars Bar Lasagna. Now hold on a second, I know Mars Bars don’t exactly complement the flavours of oregano, Mozzarella, Parmesan, tomato or spicy Italian sausage, but with a few tweaks here and there you’ll thank me for this taste treat. Find yourself a suitable baking dish. Any kind will do as long as the sides are tall enough and you have enough ingredients. I like to use a Pyrex™ 9 X 9 baking dish. This is a no-bake lasagna, so no need to spray the dish unless you like spraying stuff. The bottom layer should be a coating of chocolate syrup. Don’t be shy. You want this to be a hearty, homey dish. Sprinkle the syrup with chopped coconut and chopped peanuts. Of course, if you want this to be a healthier dish use unsweetened coconut and maybe skip the peanuts and add a sprinkling of Rice Krispies™ or Count Chocula™. See, that’s easy enough. Time for the second layer— and don’t be too health conscious about this part. Slice the leftover Mars bars into quarter inch pieces—lengthwise or widthwise—and cover the first layer with those slices. Easy enough right? It’s close enough to the festive season for my method to be “one slice for the pan, one slice for Theresa”. A happy cook is, well, a happy cook. Once you’ve done that, I’d head into the creamy layer. This is where you get to shine. The creamy layer can be just about anything that tickles your fancy and your palate. It could be Marshmallow fluff. It could be the contents of those little pudding cups, or just plain old pudding, or whipped cream, or “foosh” (which is what our kids call whipped cream in a spray can) or, what the heck, Nutella™ mixed with “foosh”. It’s Mars Bars Lasagna, go crazy. The top layer needs to be as exciting as the rest of the layers. My favourite is a delicate melange of crumbled pretzels, crushed cookies (not Ginger Snaps) and blitzed whatever other little chocolate bars you’ve got. Mix that all together and sprinkle it over the top. Dinner’s ready! I like to use a chocolate chip cookie instead of a spoon to eat this right out of the pan. You’re welcome.
Come on, don’t take your life so seriously. If you aren’t going to put yourself into a sugar coma (or endanger your internal organs), have a big scoop/dip of Mars Bar Lasagna for dinner! Go for it. You really only go around once, make it memorable. Of course you can always follow me on “the socials” for more insanely delicious, heart-stopping recipes. I’m a Merry Chris-Ma-Ka-Bunny-Ween kinda gal. And again, “you’re welcome”.
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