I love my Hubby. Dearly. He’s my best friend. My rock. He keeps me sane when I go crazy (which is often). He sticks around even when I decide to redecorate a room at 11:oopm at night. Or when I go into a dressing room with fifty dresses and decide I don’t like any of them. Or watch Real Housewives of New Jersey. Or New York. Or Orange County. He’s pretty awesome.

But sometimes I REALLY don’t understand him. And the number one disagreement in our marriage? I LUUUURVE Peanut Butter. He doesn’t. Seriously. How can someone born and bred in the United States NOT like peanut butter?!?  I’m pretty sure it’s un-American. I’m frankly surprised they even let him in the military with his hatred of Peanut Butter. The man likes peanuts. Just not peanut butter! And definitely not peanut butter with chocolate. He shuns desserts  like these Squirrel Bars or these Peanut Butter Brownie cups and yes, even these Muddy Buddies. I just don’t get it.

Because of this marital difference, my friends are the happy recipients of many peanut butter/ chocolate desserts. This Sunday, my friend Tess hosted a baby shower for my friend Leighanne–this fabulous lady right here:

LOVE her! Leighanne is a fellow peanut butter/ chocolate lover. So I did what any good friend would do..I made her this guy:

This is Martha Stewart’s Peanut Butter tart. And boy was it YUMMY.  I even bought a special tart pan for the occasion (which I’m very excited to use for many other tarts in the future!):

And my favorite part of making this dessert? Shaving the chocolate with a vegetable peeler to make these little garnishes:

Aren’t they fun? These would be a such great addition to all sorts of delicious desserts! So there you have it…I guess my hubby just doesn’t know what he’s missing!

My hubby had some friends over to drink beer, watch basketball, and play video games–or as I call it…”a playdate”.  So my sister and I decided to make crepes!  Yummy!  Never made crepes before? They’re sooooo easy!

Just throw together in a bowl:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs (beaten)
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix together until VERY smooth. Drop approx. 2 tablespoons onto warm skillet and swirl around until it’s evenly distributed.

Cook until golden on one side…you can flip them or not…your call!  Fill will mushrooms, cheese, strawberries, nutella, bananas…the possibilites are endless!  We did four combos:

1. Strawberries with chocolate syrup

2. Sugar and lemon

3. Nutella

4. Nutella and strawberries.

Yum!!!

My favorite apple pie recipe is the old faithful from Joy of Cooking.  And I have a confession to make.  I always use store-bought pie crust.  I made a pie crust from scratch once, but the next time, I needed a shortcut, so I bought one at the store (the rolled ones, not the ones already in the pans). I couldn’t really tell the difference between the two, so I’ve never gone back!  I’m a firm believer in making things from scratch when you can really tell the difference.  But I also believe in taking shortcuts when you CAN’T tell the difference!

So without further ado, my favorite Apple Pie.

Ingredients

• 5-6 large apples (not, my hubby ate some of my apples, so this pie only had 4 apples)
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 2-3 tbs all-purpose flour
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 tbs unsalted butter
• 1 store bought piecrust (two for top/bottom) or your favorite homemade crust

Directions

Slice up apples

Toss apples with sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon, and salt.  Let stand for 15 minutes, stirring several times.

Lay out pie crust in a pie pan.

Fill pie crust with the apple filling. Dot the filling with butter.

Vent the top crust.

Lay the top crust on the pie and crimp the edges.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Bake for 30 minutes at 425 degrees. Slip a baking sheet under the pie, reduce to 350 degrees and bake until the fruit feels just tender, 30-45 minutes more.  Cool and serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Enjoy!

When I think of my favorite foods two things come to mind: chocolate and peanut butter.  And this recipe is near-divine because it combines the two!  AND it’s super easy.  ”I have company coming in an hour” easy.  These sorts of recipes are what I call “Brownie Boosters”…little extras you can add to boxed brownies for a quick, easy dessert with a little character.  Have I built them up enough for you?  Okay, good.  Drum-roll, please.

Ingredients

• 1 box of Brownie Mix prepared (or homemade if you’re an overachiever)
• 1 bag peanut butter chips
• 1 bag chocolate chips
• 1 cup or so of peanut butter

Directions

1. Make a standard brownie receipe or if you want the shortcut, make a box brownie mix batter (don’t worry, this is what I ususally do…I won’t judge).
2. Mix in 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips and 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.
3. Pour mixture into 12 unlined, greased muffin cups.
4. Bake 15-18 minutues at 350 degrees.
5. Once you take the brownies out of the oven, heat 1/2 cup of peanut butter in the microwave until melted.  Using a pastry bag, inject a little bit of the melted peanut butter into the center of each brownie cup.  Sprinkle with a few more peanut butter and chocolate chips.
6. Let cool completely before removing from cups.

And you’ll be left with these:

Are you in the market for a quick and easy dessert?  I’ve got one for you!  I found this on Bakerella’s website, but it’s actually a Betty Crocker original using two Betty Crocker mixes: Betty Crocker’s chocolate chip cookie mix and Betty Crocker’s Hershey Original Supreme Brownies.  You can find the recipe here.

First, you make the two mixes according to the boxes.

Pour the brownie mix into a pan and drop spoonfuls of the cookie dough mixture into the brownie batter.

Bake 35-40 minutes in a 350 degree oven. When they come out, they’ll look like this:

Next, whip up a little ganache (heat 6 Tbsps butter and 3/4 cup of heavy whipping creame in a bowl until just before boiling and pour over 12 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips.  Let it sit for 20 seconds and stir until smooth.) and pour over brownies.  Let them cook COMPLETELY before cutting.

YUMMMMM!

So it’s been a crazy, crazy few weeks, so I’ve opted not to host an Oscar party this year and spend the evening with my hubby…BUT…I may or may not have purchased the Oscar cookie cutter in order to make these Bakerella creations for a future Oscar party:

How amazing are these?!?  You can learn to make them on Bakerella’s website.

Six months or so ago I stumbled across this Paula Deen recipe on Bakerella’s blog. (Notice Paul yearning for some cake in the background of this picture…)

My life hasn’t been the same since!  Okay, maybe that’s a BIT of an exaggeration, but not by much.  This has become my go-to dessert.  It’s pretty quick to make, relatively easy, and I usually have these ingredients on hand!  We had family over this weekend, so I just HAD to make it for them!  I serve it with whipped cream made from scratch.

So if you have a mixer…whipped cream is THE easiest thing in the world to make:

Step 1: Dump a pint of whipped cream into your mixer with the whisk attachment.

Step 2: Add a little sugar.

Step 3. Turn on the mixer.

Yup…that’s it.  Walk away for a few minutes, and when you come back MAGIC!  And then you’ll ask yourself, “Why have I been buying cool whip all these years?!?” Who knew whipped cream could be so delicious?!?

This is what the whipped cream looks like all cuddled up with the cake…

Aren’t they cute?!?

This is one of those desserts that becomes even better the second or third day in the fridge.  Luckily (or unfortunately?) I have lots of chocolate cake leftover and my hubby is gone for a few days.  So in approximately two minutes, I’m planning on curling up on the couch with my favorite pink blanket and a big piece of cake to watch The Hurt Locker. Night!

(Just in case you needed a visual…)

I recently read about these cute little edible icing sheets from Ticings.  Be sure to check out their website! Ticings makes modern press-on edible icing sheets which you just add to your own cupcakes for a unique look.  How cute would these be for at your next party?  Love them!

My hubby hates Peanut Butter (how they let him in the Navy, I’ll never now…I’m pretty sure a hatred for PB is about as un-American as you can get!), so whenever he’s gone, I make lots of peanut butter desserts. I made these for a Spouses Club meeting the other night…they’re one of my go-to desserts, a little different, super easy, and YUMMY!

They’re called “Squirrel Bars”.  They come from a cook book called Just a Matter of Thyme, and the woman who created the recipe originally called them “Swirl Bars”, but her daughter had trouble saying “swirl”, so she renamed them “Squirrel Bars”.  Love it! Anyway…here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup peanut butter (I sometimes use a little more)
• 1/3 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 6 oz. chocolate chips

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together peanut butter, butter, brown sugar, and sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour and baking powder.  Spread mixture in a greased 9″x13″ pan.  Sprinkle chocolate chips  on top and bake for 3 minutes.  Take out and “marbelize” the top (run a knife through the melty chocolate chips one direction, and then the other, kind of like you’re cutting them, and swirl chocolate around). Return to the oven for another 18-20 minutes.  Cool and cut into bars.

Enjoy your weekend!

Yes folks.  I have found it.  The PERFECT chocolate chip cookie. Soft and chewy, sweet and a little salty–perfect.  Well, just about as perfect as a cookie can be.  Part of me wants to hoard this recipe away where no one can find it and everyone will forever be impressed with my chocolate chip cookies, but I’m not that mean.  Or maybe it’s just that I can’t keep a secret.  Either way…you can find the recipe over at The Cookbook Chronicles.

I’m not even going to rate these, because I would give them a perfect score!  Really, they’re just that delicious.  What makes them so puffy and yummy?  Bread flour and high quality ingredients (chopped up chocolate rather than the standard Nestle Tollhouse Choco-chips).  I’m here to tell you, they make a difference! If you make these, let me know what you think!  Happy Baking!