Salt River Bars. OMG.

So I just got home from a beautiful two hour hike at the state park south of town. Beautiful hike on a beautiful day. And it reminded  me of a funny story (though some of my friends may not find it quite as funny as me). A few summers ago, while still in high school, I took 3 friends on a 7 mile canoe trip down river. I love kayaking and canoeing, but Megan, Nikki, and Kelsey, the friends I brought with me, were not particularly experienced. But regardless, off we went on a beautiful summer day, and for the most part the trip went pretty smoothly.

That is, until we reach a set of rapids. Long story short, Meg and I decide we're adventurous and going to paddle over them, and we end up getting stuck. We tell the other girls to hang back while we try to get out. But they let the river's strong current pull their canoe up against ours and get stuck as well. Meg and I decide to get out of our canoe and try to pull it loose, so we tell Kelsey and Nikki to be ready. Meg and I pull our canoe loose, and in movie-like slow motion I see the other canoe starting to tip. I let go of my canoe (and Megan is just a wisp of a girl--I don't know how she held on to it herself) and lunge for the other canoe as it flips and throws Kelsey and Nikki into the water. Meg is yelling, I am yelling, there's a few seconds of utter chaos--and then Kelsey and Nikki both pop up a little ways downriver past the rapids. I let go of their canoe so I can help Meg get ours down the rest of the way. Their canoe rolls down the rapids, filling with water as it goes, and then lodges against a fallen tree at the bottom of the rapids, half submerged in water. Mind you, this is not MY canoe, this canoe belongs to a nearby state park. Well, shit. After getting our canoe to the beach and making sure Kelsey and Nikki are ok, I go to the other canoe, which is slowly bending in half at the middle from the force of the river's current. I am so screwed. I can't get the canoe out of the water myself, and have to wait for the DNR officer to come later that afternoon at our scheduled pick-up time (oh yeah, because my cell phone was in that canoe that is now half buried in the river). Fortunately, when the DNR officer comes to get the canoes, he decides to call it an accident and not make us pay to replace the canoe. THANK. GOD.   

So, what does that story have to do with salt river bars? Ok, so here's the thing you have to know about me: I tend to have very random thought processes and connections that don't make sense to anyone but me. This is how this post came to be: I was hiking across a set of rapids at the state park today which made me think of that canoe trip which made me think of the river which made me think of river bars. So rapids > canoe trip > river > salt river bars. Which are sinfully delicious and ridiculously easy to make. And which will now make my two hour hike today null and void. But I don't care, because they are that good. So here is the recipe:

SALT RIVER BARS

1 box Club crackers (I've used Saltines before but I don't think they taste as good)
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 cup peanut butter chips
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips
Coarse sea salt (or fleur de sel if you want to be fancy/spend more money than me today)

Line an 8x8-inch pan with foil, allowing the edges to hang over the side, and lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray (this is VERY important because these bars are VERY sticky when setting). Place 15ish crackers in the bottom of the pan (3 rows of 5). For three layers, divide the peanut butter chips into thirds and sprinkle 1/3 over the crackers. Melt butter and brown sugar in a pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until bubbly and smooth and a creamy caramel color, about 4ish minutes (another thing to learn about me--I'm tend to be a "just wing it" person who doesn't necessarily time or perfectly measure). Pour 1/3 of the caramel over the peanut butter chips and crackers, then add another layer of crackers, peanut butter chips, and caramel, then repeat again for the third layer, topping the last layer with crackers. Melt the chocolate chips and pour over the crackers, spreading evenly. Sprinkle coarse sea salt over the top. Allow chocolate to start setting in refrigerator (about 30 minutes), then lightly cut through the partially-set chocolate (VERY imporant-once these babies set all the way through they can be verrrry hard to cut if you don't do this first). Place bars back into the fridge. Once cooled completely (about 3 hours), remove bars by lifting out foil. Cut accordingly and serve. Store in a sealed container a week (as if they'd last that long, HA). OMG. So good.