0 A Go-To Peanut Butter Chocolate Blondie Recipe & Gearing Up for Summer

Next week is the last week of school for my kids and I am trying to gear up for summer.  I have to admit that at this point in the calendar, after an intensely packed school year for me and my kids, I just want to sit on the porch, read books and drink lemonade for the next 2 months.

However, the reality is that my gang needs me to be a cruise director rather than a checked-out mom.   I start to have flash backs to Julie McCoy from The Love Boat.  (Or was this before your time?)

Thinking through and trying to create a strategy for managing (and maximizing) long summer days has become an annual ritual of mine. As I looked back at my post this week last year, I saw that I wrote about this AND the Chewy M & M bars that I had just discovered.  I can't tell you how many times I have made them in the past year, since that post! They were on heavy rotation in my kitchen.

Recently, I have added another bar cookie to my Go-To list. A few weeks ago, I was looking to make an easy but delicious dessert for small group in honor of Caroline's love of peanut butter and chocolate.  I found this one online, and it far exceeded my hopes.  It is gooey, just the right amount of peanut buttery and chocolatey, and is a bar which I love - as it is so easy!  It's made with things I had on hand, and is a cinch to whip up.

On days when I need to make a treat for a party, or a picnic, or a get together this summer, these Peanut Butter Chocolate Blondies are a good bet.

(I found the recipe on a blog and it made a small batch- which I wasn't expecting because her pan was rectangular and it threw me off- since I am used to a small batch being in a 9 X 9 pan.  I quickly doubled the recipe and made the large batch (9 X13 pan) for the crowd I was serving.  I have included ingredient measurements below for both sizes, as you might need the big for a crowd or might want a small batch if you are just making them for yourself- as they are hard to stop eating!)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Blondies

borrowed from The Sweet Talker (who borrowed from Two Tiny Kitchens)

(for a 9 X 13 pan)

1 cup peanut butter butter (I used natural- it made them nice and gooey; and you can use

 creamy or crunchy- your preference!)

2/3 cup butter, softened

1 1/3 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

2 cups chocolate chips

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

(or for an 8 X 8 pan …so you don’t have to do the division J)

1/2 cup peanut butter (I used natural- it made them nice and gooey; and you can use creamy

 or crunchy- your preference!)

1/3 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Preheat oven to 350˚. Grease baking pan.

In a medium bowl, cream together peanut butter and softened butter. 

Gradually blend in the brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla; mix until fluffy. 

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the peanut butter mixture until well blended.  

Fold in chocolate chips.

Bake for 30 minutes in preheated oven, or until the top springs back when touched. Don’t over bake!

Cool, and cut into squares.

Of course, feel free to add in other treats- like coconut, or Reese’s pieces, or M & Ms, or nuts into the batter.

So, in addition to making these bars and eating them, I'm working on a summer strategy for reading, projects, filling our days with productive, seasonal, relaxing and connecting things.  I am asking my friends with kids for good ideas to help with this. I used a punch card system last year that worked pretty well for my people.  My sister is working on this list of "optional activities" for summer that I am trying to figure out how to best mobilize into action.

I'm looking for a "summer central" type of spot in my house to post our plans/ideas/etc. Maybe the laundry room…or clear off the refrigerator and do it there?

We are also making a Summer Bucket List of things we want to do this summer including:
making lots of variety of popsicles and ice cream (more posts to come on those),
taking hikes to different trails/parks in the area,
pick fruit from local farms, just to get started.

I have all of these pipe dreams of learning to embroidery, learning how to play Rook as a family, working lots of jigsaw puzzles, doing house projects, and the list goes on.

And I have created my annual summer book stack- ones I need and/or want to read this summer.  I don't know how much of a dent I will make on this, but I am sure gonna try.

(I welcome any of your suggestions for managing the chaos of summer with kiddos!)

Regardless of how we end up ordering our days this summer, one thing is for sure: things will be busy in the  kitchen - with lots of hungry eaters and more time to get creative and try new things! 

Detail: A Go-To Peanut Butter Chocolate Blondie Recipe & Gearing Up for Summer

0 An Inspiring Book and Easy Dessert (before I leave the country)

I've been packing my bag, marking things off my lists, leaving instructions for my family, and preparing to leave for India today. I'm headed with 2 friends from my church to spend a week with our friends who live in Northern India. We will be seeing their world and learning how we can support and be involved in the work that they are doing there.

I can't believe it!  The day is finally here.  I am excited, expectant and yet feeling utterly unprepared for what lies ahead on this journey I am about to take.  Before I go, I thought I'd leave you with a couple of things I've been wanting to pass along to you.

So, I'll make it quick:

This inspiring book.

If you are a mom, you should think about reading this book.  If you know a mom, you should think about recommending this book to her. Last week I started reading 52 Things Kids Need From A Mom,  by Angela Thomas.  I like her a lot.  I saw this book at a store a couple of months ago and picked it up.  

CONFESSION: I have a book buying issue.  I know, it's true.  This weekend, when I was running to Target with my pal, Amy, to pick up my last things for the trip, we were in the book section and I was really trying to only buy one new book.  I confessed to her that "I have a book buying problem", which I knew was safe to share, since she too has this "issue".  She said, "it could be worse... that's the way I see it!  We could be spending our money on far worse things than books."  She's right.  Although, you know, from my summer reading stack, that I didn't need one more new book this summer.  (And Amy gave me a copy of a book she is also reading , The Supper of the Lamb, by Robert Farrar Capon.  Have you read it?  I'll be taking it on my trip and will let you know more!)

So, this Mom-book is great.  I knew it would be solid, but had no idea how fresh and practical and fun to read and INSPIRING it would be.  Each chapter is just a couple of pages and highlights one of the 52 things she proposes that kids need from their moms.  She is gracious and bold and fun and intentional all at the same time. She is the mother of 4 children.  She knows what she's talking about. 

Now, I'm sure it would be great to read one chapter each week for the year...stretching it out for 52 weeks, but I can't.  I will say, I am trying to shut the book after each chapter and think about it, maybe tell someone near enough to listen.  Then I proceed to the next chapter. Like putting your fork down between bites of food.  

I love her examples and her humility with which she boldly challenges us to be intentional moms.  I have been trying to implement some of her suggestions already.  

I started to send an email to several friends telling them about the book, and then I decided to just write about it here to share with even more people.  

When I find something that I love, it's hard for me to keep from sharing it with others!

A yummy easy dessert:

The other tidbit I want to share with you is a recipe that I've been meaning to share for a while.  It's a simple, tasty dessert from Everyday Food magazine from several years back, that we like at our house.  It was originally called "Cookie Break Up".  We call it 

Cookie Brickle though .  While the name Break Up is accurate, as it's a cookie that you "break up", I think it's a downer name for such a great cookie!  Who wants to eat a break up?  I try to avoid break ups in my life.  I renamed it Cookie Brickle a few years ago.  It looks like a chocolate chip cookie, but broken into pieces.  However, it's texture is crunchy and is very buttery tasting – reminescent of toffee.  Brickle reminds me of Butter Brickle Ice cream, which is toffee flavored and the definition of Brickle is "easy to break".  So...Cookie Brickle it is .  It's super yummy and because the pieces are broken you feel justified in eating a little piece, and another little piece, and another...

It is the best recipe to make when you have just a few minutes and can't get to the store.  You surely have all of the ingredients in your house.  It's a great thing to take to picnics or places, as it's easy to transport and can't mess up along the way.  (They are conveniently already broken!)  We have taken them to a pool party and a picnic at the creek this summer, and they were well received and easy to pack and take. 

Cookie Brickle 

¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

½ tsp salt

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1 heaping cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350˚.  Line a 10 X 15 inch rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in salt and vanilla.  Reduce speed to low; mix in flour (dough will be crumbly).

Stir in chocolate chips.

Press mixture evenly onto prepared sheet.

Bake until golden, about 20 minutes.

Cool in pan 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

To serve, break into pieces with your hands.

 My kids help me make it.  Asher made it by himself the other day with just minor supervision (mostly about not pouring flour all over the floor). 

In these last days of July, if you are needing some inspiration, here is my two cents worth. 

I'll hopefully have great photos to share with you of my journey to India and stories of the people I encounter.  Who knows, I might even get to bring back some Indian recipes or culinary skills!

Detail: An Inspiring Book and Easy Dessert (before I leave the country)