Homemade Peanut Butter Cups (on a Vintage Plate)

Ha, don't you love my title? Truth be told, not every single thing that I blog about is vintage or antique.


I guess you could say that this recipe for Peanut Butter Cups is technically vintage, since I remember my Mom making them as a kid--but at least I photographed them on an antique plate so as not to be too far out of bounds of my blog's theme.

I was at a friend's house last weekend and she had put out a great array of Christmas cookies for us all to sample. One of the cookies made me think of the Homemade Peanut Butter Cups that my mom made as a kid. Well, they weren't really cups, more like shards. They are made in a pan and they have to be broken apart. I have seen them made in cups as well, but i wanted exactly what my Mom had made, and I think this recipe is it!

Peanut Butter Cups

2 sticks margarine
1 package graham cracker crumbs
1 cup peanut butter
2 1/3 cups confectioner's sugar
12 oz bag of chocolate chips

First, melt the margarine on the stove top. I think my Mom might have used butter, in fact I don;t ever remember her using margarine, but I wanted to keep true to this recipe. The end result was great, but I might try butter next time anyway.


Add the confectioner's sugar, graham cracker crumbs and peanut butter to the pan. I had a box of grahm cracker crumbs, and I use about 3/4 of it. I thought a whole box would be a bit dry. I also added another half cup of peanut butter.


Mix it in the pot with the melted margarine and it looks like this. Try really hard at this point not to sample it. (But that was impossible for me.)


Spread the mixture in a pan.


Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave. Follow the instructions on the package.


Spread the melted chocolate on to the peanut butter mixture and chill in the fridge until set.


Bust into pieces and serve.


I enjoyed this last night with a nice cup of hot coffee and watched three episodes of Mad Men. HEAVEN!

If you have made this recipe in the past and have some alterations to it, let me know. If you make it because you read the recipe on my blog, come back and leave me a comment about how it turned out.

And THANK YOU to my friend for bringing a little bit of nostalgia about my Mom back to me!

Chocolate Bark Recipe - - The Best Holiday Treat EVER

This is my favorite holiday treat recipe. IT IS SO GOOD. It is simple and easy and usually can be made with staples that you have on hand in your pantry. I started making it last year and immediately began to get requests for the recipe. I just made it earlier this week for my son's first-ever pre-k concert and the teachers at his school began to ask for it. So here is the recipe!

If you are visiting my blog for the first time, be sure to say hello at the end of this post in the comment section.

CHOCOLATE BARK

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Line two baking sheets with tinfoil, and place Saltine crackers in a single layer.


Set a saucepan to medium high and add four sticks of butter.


Then add 3/4 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 cup white sugar.


Bring it to boil for just a minute.


Remember those saltines? Pour the butter toffee mixture over the saltines.


Put the sheets in the oven for ten minutes. I rotate the pans at the 5 minute mark. They'll come out all brown and bubbly.


Next get some chocolate, either 2 bags of Nestle morsels, or you can use Hershey Bars. After the sheet pans come out, put the chocolate on top of the crackers, and pop them back in the oven for a couple of minutes--just long enough to soften the chocolate.


Next chop some nuts. Whatever you like. I use that awesome Pampered Chef chopper. Got one? Get one!


Now, take the sheets out of the oven and with a spatula, spread the chocolate evenly over the saltines. (Honestly, I didn't have as much chocolate here as I wanted.) I would have liked to have had twice as much.


Next sprinkle the chocolatey goodness with the nuts. Or if you don't like nuts, skip that step altogether.

Place the baking sheets in the fridge or in a cold place so that they candy can set up for a few hours. After that, peel the bark away from the tinfoil and break into pieces.


Next? enjoy, hoover it like crazy, eat it for three meals a day, put it over vanilla ice cream, what have you. And be prepared to be the baker of the most popular treat at any holiday party you attend!

Enjoy!

This post is apart of the fun over at Tea Rose Home's Link Party #32!

A Little Friday Love for My Mom's Baking

This blog is dedicated to my Mom--it is filled with her memory and her spirit, and I know that it us a way to connect with her now that she is no longer here. I lost her in February of 2009 and I miss her terribly.

I am my own person, but I do know that there are a number of things about me, my personality, the things I take an interest in, etc., that are so clearly her. Baking is one of them. I can't say that I am the marvelous baker that she was, but I do try. And when I make these rolls, I feel like she is standing right next to me.


Mom gave me a cookbook that had a recipe in it for one Hour Buttermilk Rolls. She had made them for Christmas dinner in 2002. Here is her own hand, marking the recipe's significance and a few small changes she made to it.


The book is called "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Cooking."


The recipe makes two pans of rolls. And let me tell you, they are GOOD.


Especially with leftover turkey and cranberry sauce!


Now you have to go make them, don't you?


PS--Mom always buttered them a few minutes before they came out of the oven. Enjoy!

Thanks Mom, for all that you did, all that you taught me, and for helping me to become the woman that I am today. Miss you like crazy.

Old-Fashioned Carrot Cake

For today's link up party I decided to blog about my favorite baked good--Old-Fashioned Carrot Cake! My Mom made it every year for my birthday.


She used a recipe from Marjorie Standish's Keep Cooking the Maine Way. I blogged about Mrs. Standish's cookbooks here.


This is unbelievably moist. I think it's due to the fact that you separate the eggs first, whip the whites with some sugar and then fold them into the batter at the very end.


The cream cheese frosting is out of this world--and so simple to make! I could never eat it out of a can when I know how amazing this frosting is. (Oh, and I double the cream cheese and the butter but I use less sugar.)


Sometimes I make two 8 inch rounds, other times I just use a sheet pan. That's what I did this time around.


Yum! Make one--and if you do, let me know how you like it! (I think I have one piece left--breakfast, anyone?)

Please go visit these fun link parties for more great recipes and crafting ideas! And don;t forget to follow me and leave me a comment.

Thanks!

Old-Fashioned Blueberry Muffin Goodness

Baking blueberry muffins evokes many memories for me--most about my Mom and when she would bake them for my sister, my Dad and I using a recipe from an old New England standby--"Cooking Down East" by Marjorie Standish.


Printed in 1969, Marjorie Standish had a column called "Cooking Down East" in the Maine Sunday Telegram for 25 years. Having been raised in Maine, I am proud that this volume has been an integral part of my life. One of my most favorite aspects of "Cooking Down East" is that the author writes before every chapter and nearly every recipe about the Maine history attached to the food--and since she was local to the coastal area where I grew up I recognize many of the places that she mentions.


Here is the recipe, complete with a little spill of muffin batter. If you click on the photo you can enlarge it to read the recipe. If you can't read it, e-mail me and I will give you the recipe. The only part missing from this page is that you heat the oven to 425 and bake them for 25 minutes.


I used a Salmon Falls Stoneware muffin plate made in Dover, NH. Though not vintage (it was made in 1999) it always reminds me of New England.


I mixed the ingredients in two of my three favorite stoneware bowls (the third is a mustard yellow and the largest). These were a gift from a friend a few years ago who knew the look I like in my kitchen. They aren't old--I actually think they came from Costco, but they look perfect in my kitchen!


And of course I was wearing my sweet apron!


Here is the batter in the pan before going into the oven. (I used Picnik's Orton effect for all of these photos).


Here they are fresh from the oven! They didn't rise like I thought they would and I am not sure why (they have always risen before.) Thank goodness they tasted as delicious as always!


Mmm . . . and of course they are topped with Kate's Butter from Maine.


Here they are cut open and you can see all of that yummy blueberry goodness!!


They were a hit for breakfast yesterday. James had two! (So did my husband!)


The plate tells the story!


I hope you enjoyed this little recipe today, that takes me back in time to when I was a kid!

Mom, my sister Amy (on the right) and me in our kitchen in 1979.

And if you make them, please come back and tell me how they were!

This post is a part of the following link parties: