Peanut Butter Pie (in Vanilla Wafer Crust)

There is only one food that renders me truly weak in the knees: peanut butter. And I'm not talking about the "healthy", "organic," "natural" kind. I'm talking about what you grew up with: the thick, creamy (hold the crunch, please), sweet, salty, coat the roof of your mouth, glue two pieces of white bread together kind. That is the stuff I'm talking about. I love it between two crisp saltines. Or slathered into the center of celery. Or on toasted, whole-wheat bread drizzled with honey. Or, truth be told, straight up on a spoon. Maybe sprinkled with M&Ms. Have you ever done that? Instant dessert.

And, apparently, I like it in pie.



My college roommate Jennifer used to make candy-bar pie for us almost once a week. I remember it being easy to make, with Hershey bars, whipped topping and a graham-cracker crust, chilled until solid. We were kids back then, and it the dessert sweet spot for us. This pie is a lot like that, but it's good enough for adults. A homemade vanilla-wafer crust. Crushed, roasted peanuts sprinkled on top.

Yet it still appeals to the kid in all of us. It's got whipped topping in it, too. And powdered sugar. And my beloved peanut butter, of course.



Summer is right around the corner. The advent of afternoons running through the sprinkler will make a first appearance around here, soon, when I introduce Cash to the fun that is running through soft, skin-tickling drips of water. We will grill hot dogs on our patio and slather them with MiMi's chili and my homemade slaw. We will drop fresh blueberries in our lemonade to see whether they sink or float. And we will eat peanut-butter pie, sharing a piece, Cash and I. A bite for me. A bite for him. Then a toddler jaunt around the backyard to pick "flowers" for his mama or to chase down a football thrown by his daddy. Then back to mama for another bite of pie.

Yes. I think I'm ready for summer. And pie. I'm always ready for pie.

Peanut Butter Pie
Adapted from Taste of Home, via The Cookin' Sisters
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I think this is a great pie to serve family during the week. It's easy and unfussy and easily tailored to suit your family's taste. Try it with a graham-cracker or chocolate-cookie crust. Drop some peanuts into the vanilla wafers when you pop them into the food processor. Leave off the peanuts when you serve it, and drizzle it with chocolate syrup instead. Good ideas abound!

Ingredients
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1 carton (12 ounces) frozen whipped topping, softened
2 unbaked, 9-inch vanilla-wafer crusts
Dry roasted peanuts, chopped

Directions
1. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, peanut butter and milk until smooth.
2. Beat in confectioners' sugar, one cup at a time. Fold in whipped topping. Divide mixture in half an spoon into two prepared crusts.
3. Cover and chill a few hours. Sprinkle with peanuts before cutting.

Vanilla Wafer Crust
Adapted from AllRecipes

Ingredients
1 box vanilla wafers
1/3 cup melted butter

Directions
1. Chop vanilla wafers in a food processor until they form crumbs.
2. Stir in melted butter until mixture resembles wet sand.
3. Divide mixture in half and press into two pie plates.

Bacon-Ranch Mac-N-Cheese

"What did you feed Cash for supper?" I ask while I'm at work Sunday night. (Because I obviously didn't leave anything at home for the guys. Although we did make homemade "pasta" for lunch! But that's another story, and I'm getting away from things more pertinent to today, such as that photo above. *drool*)

"We went to the grocery store. I got some roasted potatoes, and he had some 'ronies with cheese," Brad tells me. (We call them 'ronies, because that's what Cash calls them. And since he loves 'ronies we'll call them whatever he wants if he'll actually eat them. My kid, he doesn't eat much. *sigh*)

"Was it good?" I ask.

"Not bad," Brad says.

"But not as good as that mac-n-cheese I made last week," I say. "The dish with the bacon and ranch flavor. That was good."

"It was awesome," Brad says.

"Man, it was incredible. I wish I had some right now," I reply. (Even though it's midnight and I just got home from work. Because seriously. That stuff was so, so good. Even if I did take a Cooking Light recipe and make it ... uh ... not-so-light. But then again I guess that's why it was ultimately so, so good. Hmmm. I might have to go make some more. Like, right this second.)

Bacon-Ranch Mac-N-Cheese
Adapted from Cooking Light
Printer-friendly recipe

Ingredients
8 ounces elbow macaroni
4 slices bacon
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1.5 cups milk
1 recipe Barbara's white sauce (scroll down; this is in place of a can of soup)
1 cup, plus 1 tablespoon sharp, shredded, cheddar cheese
1/4 teaspoon dried dill
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray

Directions
1. Cook pasta according to directions.
2. Cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove slices, but keep 2 tablespoons of drippings in pan. After bacon cools to the touch, chop it into bite-size pieces and set aside.
3. Make white sauce in separate saucepan. Set aside. (Note: I used bacon drippings in place of the butter to make this.)
4. Add butter to bacon drippings in pan and let melt. Sprinkle flour over melted butter, whisking constantly until combined. In a separate bowl mix together milk and white sauce, then pour over flour mixture, whisking constantly. Bring mixture to a boil and cook until it thickens, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand a few minutes until mixture cools slightly. Then add bacon, cheese, dill, garlic powder, mustard powder and salt.
5. Preheat broiler. Grease casserole dish. Pour prepared macaroni into greased dish. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon cheese. Broil until cheese melts, about 2 to 3 minutes. Serve hot.

And of course this makes fabulous leftovers - if you have any left. I mean really; is there anything better than leftover mac-n-cheese? I think not!

Oops

I feel like I should send out a quick apology to all of you who view Confabulation in the Kitchen in a feed-reader. Because, uh, my feed has been stuck since June of 2009. I know! I hated that, too! I figured out how to fix it tonight. And now you have ... a very full reader. So. Sorry 'bout that, but from now on it should all be hunky dory. So just mark 'em as read, and we'll move on. (Surely I'm not the only one out there with severely lacking technological skills? Sigh.)

Slow-Cooking Saturdays: Crockpot Chinese Chicken Curry

Now before you get your knickers in a knot, yes, I realize this isn't a true, complete, slow-cooker recipe because it takes - omigoodness - a bit of sauteeing. But if you can't handle sauteeing a few onions and garlic well, there is little I can do to help you, my friend. For most of you out there, however, I know a pan and a little oil won't hurt you. And in fact being the true eaters and food-lovers you are you'll welcome the fabulous aroma of sauteed onions and garlic wafting through your house. But if you're one of those people who don't like the smell of onions and garlic in your house, well, all I can say is stock up on your take-out menus!

For me the ease of using the slow cooker isn't just that I can just dump in the ingredients and walk away (although let's face it - that is one of its major attributes.) It's that I can make a fabulous meal and keep it fresh and hot - even when I don't have the time to stand over the stove in the evening when dinnertime arrives. So maybe you don't have time in the morning to sautee a few veggies - that's okay because it's perfectly acceptable to use your slow cooker on the weekend, too, you know. So get up, chop and sautee some veggies. Put it all in the slow cooker. Then head out and enjoy the day. When you come back weary and sun-drenched - voila. Dinner is served!

I know it's only been a week since we last visited Full Bellies, Happy Kids, but I can't help it. Sandra's recipes have nestled right up close to my recipe rotation and made themselves comfortable. Head on over (again) for the recipe for Slow-Cooker Chinese Chicken Curry.

Chocolate Revel Bars

If you've ever been on a diet you know what trigger foods are. They're the foods that you simply cannot have in the house because you'll eat them. All of them. At one time. In one sitting. Like, the whole bag. You get my drift? For me those foods are potato chips, homemade bread and chocolate - chocolate in any form. In other words baking Barbara's Chocolate Revel Bars was a bad move on my part. And that's because no matter how well I hide my trigger foods from myself I still manage to find them every darn time.

I mean just look at that luscious chocolate layer! (It's okay. Nobody can see you drooling on your keyboard, and I understand if you just had to lick your computer screen. It's totally understandable.)



Like me, Barbara loves "collection cook books," as she calls them. I've mentioned before that I have all of my grandmother's church cookbooks, and that I love flipping through them, finding her notes and dog-eared recipes. I've also highlighted one or two of those recipes here, and many of you have agreed that they're just as fabulous as I promised. The recipe for these Chocolate Revel Bars comes from a cookbook published by St. Anthony Catholic Church in Mooretown, North Dakota. I always thought that Southern grandmas had a leg up when it comes to recipe collections, but it appears that North Dakotan grandmas have that sparkle up their sleeves, too.



And if you don't believe me you can take it from a certain little chocolate connoisseur in training...



Chocolate Revel Bars by Barbara at Bless Us O Lord. (Barbara knows her stuff. Remember this Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle? Mahvelous stuff, it is.) And look - it's a photo of the actual cookbook for sale! (Scroll down a bit.) Margaret in Minnesota's sister was the editor of this gem. (Tell her thanks from all of us, Margaret!)

Portugese Chicken Rice

This blog has and always will be about feeding my family. That's not to say that at times I won't try something new and a bit more involved, but it does mean that for the most part what you'll find here are recipes I've made for my family, enjoyed, and put into our meal rotation. It was a given, then, that when I ran across a blog called Full Bellies, Happy Kids it would pique my attention. And for good reason. I haven't made anything from it that we haven't loved. And this Portugese Chicken Rice is an excellent example.

I'm going to be honest: I don't know diddly squat about Portugal. I mean, I can Google it and tell you all kinds of interesting facts, such as it's the 14th-most peaceful and the 13th-most globalized country in the world. And Portuguese wines have deserved international recognition since the times of the Roman Empire. But you guys can look that stuff up for yourself. All I can tell you is that if this recipe is representative of its cuisine I must go there. (And the whole peacefulness bit doesn't hurt.)

Miss Sandra knows how to cook, and her family is a well-fed bunch, as you'll find if you visit her blog. Lucky for us she's sharing the wealth! I made this dish on a Sunday afternoon after church. You know, when you come home starving having decided to save money and avoid the restaurant rush. It comes together fast, and it uses ingredients we all have in our pantries. Plus, if your kid is anything like mine rice is always a hit.

So like I said. Family food. This is so definitely that.



Portugese Chicken Rice by Full Bellies, Happy Kids.

My changes include:
* Extra chicken and no chorizo (because I didn't have any that day).
* All homemade stock (no wine).
* 1 whole cup frozen green peas.
* No parsley.

Plain Jane Egg Salad

People who don't cook say they "can't even boil water." People who do cook say that boiling eggs is a hard task to master. Both groups should be happy to know that instructions for successfully boiling eggs abound on the Internet, and that once they master the task they can eat like kings and queens - as long as they like egg salad, of course. In this house we do love egg salad but only the plain-jane kind that I grew up with. You may add celery or relish to yours, and you may like a spot of mustard. When I was a kid it could only be served on white sandwich bread, but nowadays I like it on whole-wheat toast - the nuttier the better.

If you're like a lot of households you've just recently boiled, colored, hidden (and maybe eaten) several dozen eggs for Easter. I love cold, hard-boiled eggs for snacks (sprinkled with a bit of sea salt), and my mama always made hard-boiled eggs for breakfast when we were having toast with gravy. Making egg salad is a great way to use up the colored eggs that you kept in the fridge. (I wouldn't recommend eating the ones that you took outside to hide over and over again!) Nothing beats a fresh egg-salad sandwich, alongside a cold dill pickle and a bag of plain potato chips. It's picnic food at its most simple, and bonus: it's easy on the pocketbook.

Tell me: How do you like your egg salad?

Plain Jane Egg Salad
By Confabulation in the Kitchen
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6 to 8 eggs
3 to 5 tablespoons mayo
1 to 2 teaspoons white vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Boil eggs and let them cool for easier peeling.
2. Put eggs in medium-sized bowl and mash. A fork always works for this step, but if you're trying to create double-duties for your kitchen gadgets try your pasty blender.
3. Add 3 tablespoons of mayo to bowl. (In our house it can only be Duke's brand). Stir carefully with a large spatula so that you maintain chunks of egg white and don't break up the yolks. If you like the consistency now you're done. If you want it creamier add more mayo, 1 tablespoon at a time.
4. Add 1 teaspoon vinegar, salt and pepper. Taste. If you like it, it's finished. If you want more vinegar (and I like mine a bit more tart) add another teaspoon at a time, tasting as you go. (At this point you can also add in your extra ingredients, such as relish, pimiento, celery, hot sauce, onion or chives, diced ham or shrimp, paprika or even curry! Get creative, or go the simple route like me.)
5. Serve on crackers or bread of your choice. (I've also been known to make lettuce rolls with it.)

Tips and tricks:
* Do not boil eggs that have tiny chips and cracks in the shell; doing so will result in green yolks.
* Don't add salt to the water; doing so will result in rubbery egg whites.
* Use eggs that are at least 3 days old; fresh eggs will be harder to peel.
* Bring your eggs to room temperature before peeling, which makes them less likely to crack in the boiling water.

Easter Marshmallows (DIY Peeps)

Cash's first Easter was fun, but because he was so small we didn't get into the candy and the egg hunts and the Easter baskets ... but this year? We have done every single bit of the fun stuff that goes along with this glorious spring holiday! And perhaps he didn't quite understand the egg hunt this morning even though he screamed when he had to wait his turn. (One small, purple egg was enough to make him happy in the end.) And perhaps the Easter Bunny won't be bringing him a ton of chocolate tomorrow morning because, well, he's almost two and goodness knows almost-2-year-olds don't need any more energy than the good Lord already bestowed upon them. And perhaps our attempt to take him into God's Acre tomorrow for the Easter service will be less than, uh, simple because who wants to stand still when there is all that fluffy green grass to run around like a madman in? But that's okay. These are the things that memories are made of!


And when he gets older? We're going to make marshmallows - homemade Peeps, if you will - together. There will be plenty for him - or your kids - to do. Homemade colored sugar? Easy, peasy and a blast to shake up. A sheet of fluffy marshmallow goodness waiting to be turned into Easter candy? Miniature cookie cutters in the shapes of eggs, butterflies, bunnies and flowers will do the trick quite nicely.


But the mess! I can hear you saying it, and I thought the same thing because powdered sugar and cornstarch and hot sugar syrup ... well, oh my! But it was a cinch to clean up. I mean think about it: Have you ever met a marshmallow that could stand up to a mug of hot cocoa? Exactly. This mess is nothing a sink full of hot water can't handle.



Focus instead on sticky fingers begging to be licked; sighs of amazement as clear, liquid sugar turns into a fluffy cloud of marshmallow sweetness; and giggles and shouts of joy at the thought of being allowed to eat all that sugar. Well, if you're a mom you may not want to think about eating all that sugar because naps? Um, they may be out of the question this one specific afternoon! Instead think of it this way: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Because if there is one holiday where a sugar high is required it's Easter! And besides, who are we to try to resist the sweet siren call of pastel sweets? Especially homemade sweets like these....


Tips and Tricks:
* I used Alton Brown's foolproof recipe for homemade marshmallows. This was my very first try, and it was a complete success. It did take my syrup at least 10 minutes to reach temperature, but this step is nothing to be afraid of - I promise!
* The DIY Peeps idea was inspired by Twig and Thistle, whose wee candies are absolutely amazing.
* My Easter cookie cutters came from the Easter aisle at Target, and they're made by Wilton.
* I made my own colored sugar - and saved a bundle - thanks to Catholic Icing.
* And on all those notes, Happy Easter! May your Easter Sunday be filled with nothing but sweetness.