1. In a large sauce pan, add butter marshmallows and vanilla and melt, stirring as you go until well blended
2. Remove from heat
3. Add rice cereal and stir to coat well – careful, sweet confections retain their heat well
4. Butter a 13 x 9 glass pan
5. Press rice cereal into pan using a spatula or very clean hands – it's just easier – until consistently even
6. Allow to cool
7. Cut into squares
8. Enjoy

Circa 1938, Wisconsin housewife became something of a marketer's dream when her original recipe creation was featured on a cereal box by the Kellogg Company. The three-ingredient confection she created was called "Rice Krispies Marshmallow Squares", the ubiquitous treat found in lunch boxes, grocery stores, bakeries and kitchen countertops the world over. How many incremental boxes of cereal were sold, how many millions of dollars the company has made over the past almost-century is anyone's guess. And while the crispy rice treat recipe was featured prominently, her name – not so much. Such is the word of big business and marketing.

Her delectable three ingredient treat featured melted butter and melted marshmallow combined with rice cereal pressed firmly into a greased pan and then cut into squares and the crispy rice treat was born. It just doesn't get much simpler than that.

The crispy rice treat of 1938 is fundamentally the same one we enjoy today though it sometimes served with chocolate candy, chocolate chips, chocolate or butterscotch topping – all simple variations on a theme.

We are cooking now, please wait for it to come out. It will be delicious.