Apple Dip

It's CHRISTMAS!!!! That means Christmas parties are coming.  That means I can make Apple Dip.  Because this is the ONLY time of year that I allow myself to make this.  And I only make this for parties.

That way I'm not left gorging on an entire bowl of it myself.  Because I can.  And I would. 

Apple Dip
Recipe from Quick Cooking Magazine
Prep time: 15 minutes


8oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup mini marshmallows
1 jar hot fudge ice cream topping
Lots of super tart apples, like Granny Smith
2 tbsp lemon juice

1.  In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, peanut butter, brown sugar and vanilla until smooth; stir in marshmallows.

Use kitchen shears to quarter big marshmallows into minis.

2.  Spoon half into a 3-cup bowl; spread with half of the hot fudge topping. Repeat layers.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Chocolate fudge is NOT like Hot Fudge topping!!

THIS is the good stuff.

3.  Toss the apples with lemon juice. Serve immediately with dip. 

Layer 1

Layer 2

Layer 3

Layer 4

There are two things I've learned about this dip in the last 8ish years I've been making it:

• Even if you prefer to eat sweet apples, you MUST get the tart ones for this.  This dip is rather rich and very sweet.  Tart apples have that bite to balance out the sweetness.  A sweet apple is just going to make this taste like sweet overkill. 
• Not all fudge ice cream toppings are created equal.  A couple times now I have been lured into saving .10 and buying chocolate fudge topping instead of hot fudge.  NEVER AGAIN!!!  Chocolate fudge has a thinner, looser consistency that's easier to spread, but not dense enough to hold up that second peanut butter layer.  You really do need that slightly more expensive, thicker hot fudge topping.

Peanut Butter Popcorn Balls

I made these for Gavin's snack day today at school.  SUPER cute. SUPER fun to make.  SUPER easy!!

Peanut Butter Popcorn Balls
Recipe from Dig This Chick
Prep time:  20 minutes   Cook time: 10 minutes

15 cups popped popcorn [This is about 3/4 cup unpopped kernals if you're doing your own popping]
1 cup sugar
1 cup honey
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tbsp canola oil

1.  Mix honey and sugar in a pot and cook over medium heat until melty and boiling. Turn off heat, add peanut butter and vanilla and mix well.

Keep stirring until smooth

2.  Pour the canola oil on a plate so it's easier to get the oil on your entire palm. Pour the hot peanut butter mixture over popcorn and mix as gently as you can.  You will crunch some of the popcorn and that's ok.  Just try to get everything fairly evenly coated.

I had to use my largest soup pot for all this popcorn.

3.  When you are able to stand touching the popcorn (it’ll be hot!), palm the oil with both hands. Grab a clump of popcorn and firmly shape into a ball. Keep it up, dipping in oil as necessary (to prevent popcorn from sticking to hands). Makes about 20 three-inch balls.

A plate makes oiling your hands SO MUCH EASIER

One of my favorite things about kindergarten is Snack Day.  I actually don't often get a chance to play with snack recipes as my boys are satisfied with fresh fruit, goldfish crackers, cheese sticks, and the occasional granola bar.  So when Gavin has to supply his class of 18 students with a snack once a month, I get pretty giddy about it and hit up my cache of snack recipes.  This one I mentioned to Gavin when I found it, and after he finished drooling he immediately requested I make them for his next Snack Day.  Happy to oblige!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

I am not above bribery.  If I'm making something for dinner that I'm not sure Gavin will eat, I like to have something truly decadent for dessert to see if he'll go for it.

Behold!  Something outrageously decadent!!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
Recipe from Ree Drummond
Prep time: 15 minutes   Chill time: at least 1 hour

For the crust
25 whole chocolate sandwich cookies
4 tbsp butter, melted


For the filling
1 cup peanut butter
1 (8oz) pkg softened cream cheese [psst! Use Neufchatel cheese if you're concerned about calories]
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 (8oz) container Cool Whip, thawed

1.  For the crust: In a food processor, crush the chocolate sandwich cookies until they’re fine crumbs. Pour melted butter over the top and pulse until the crumbs look like moist potting soil. Press into pie pan and bake at 350 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes, or until set.  Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

My camera didn't like the sudden BLACKNESS of the crust.

2.  For the filling: Beat the peanut butter with the cream cheese until smooth. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add in the thawed Cool Whip and beat mixture until smooth, scraping the sides as needed.

Be careful beating in the sugar that you don't cover yourself in a fine white coating.

3.  Pour filling into crust, evening out the top with a knife or spatula. Chill for at least an hour before serving.

Omg.  I could lick the screen.

Gavin likes to keep me on my toes.  As much as my Picky Eater loves sweets, if there's something on his dinner plate that he Really Doesn't Like, the absolute best I can hope for is that he'll consume his required minimum bites with as little drama as possible.  BUT, I'm getting sick of the drama.  I'm getting tired of his squeamishness over trying new flavors and textures.  So yes, you could say that I  decided to fight dirty by making a pie out of his two Most Favorite Flavors in the Entire Universe.

I don't care.  It worked!!

Make It Monday - Peanut Butter Cookies

I guess I could call this a new summer series of posts I'm starting.  I tend to think of it as the food portion of the summer camp style of entertainment I have planned for my boys this summer.  Well, mostly it's for Gavin.  Kieran just crawls around our feet and shrieks a running commentary.

So yeah, every Monday (or as many Mondays as I can manage around our travel plans), Gavin and I will hit the kitchen and come up with some concoction.  And yes, I've dubbed it Make It Monday (I wish I could say I came up with that on my own.  Alas, I stole the name idea from my sister-in-law's friend.  Thanks friend!).

Anyway, it was really important to me that for our first Make It Monday, we do something that was near and dear to my heart.  Something that I made as a child.  Something sweet.  Something awesome.  Something that maybe I won a blue ribbon for at the local 4-H fair.

Nope, not kidding.

Peanut Butter Cookies
Recipe from Kids in the Kitchen

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

1.  In a large mixing bowl, cream together the shortening, peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and egg.

Some basic cookie ingredients

2.  In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture and blend to combine.

Ready for the fridge!

3.  Cover the bowl and chill in the fridge at least 1 hour.

4.  Preheat oven to 350.

5.  Using either a tablespoon or cookie scoop/melon baller, scoop relatively even amount of dough and roll into balls.  Place the balls about 3 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet.  Flatten the cookies crisscross style with a fork dipped in flour.  Bake 10-12 minutes.

Gavin demonstrates making the crisscross

When we lived in Maryland, I participated in 4-H for a couple years.  One year, I'm not sure what possessed me but I entered these cookies in the local fair.  I was terrified.  I still remember meeting with the judge, her taking that first bite, and talking to me about my cookies.  I also remember walking over to the display table later and seeing that blue ribbon.  It's been close to 20 years but I still remember it.

So yeah, these TOTALLY hit the "near and dear to my heart" qualification.  And now I have some new memories of these cookies, making them with my son. :)

Crazy Oatmeal

This is totally the wrong time of year now for oatmeal.  I know that.  But try telling Gavin that.  He continues to ask for oatmeal most mornings, and this is one of his favorite versions.

For a long time I had no name for it but when Gavin kept requesting it, I finally just christened it Crazy Oatmeal.  Mostly because Rob thinks I'm absolutely looney for loving this concoction.

Crazy Oatmeal
Recipe adapted from Rachael Ray

1/3 cup quick cooking oats
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 heaping tbsp creamy peanut butter
1/4-1/2 cup plain yogurt (depends on much you love yogurt)
2 tbsp honey

1. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the oatmeal, water and dried cranberries.  Microwave on High for 1 minute.

Quick oatmeal is a 1:2 ratio.  So if you want less, use 1/4c oats and 1/2c water.

2.  Stir the peanut butter into the hot, slightly-too-soupy-still oatmeal.  Don't worry; the peanut butter thickens it up.

You don't want this too thick before adding the peanut butter

3.  Top with the plain yogurt and drizzle with honey.

Yes, I was generous.  We like yogurt here.

Yes, I love to eat a crazy concoction of oatmeal that a very famous cook developed for dogs.  And I'm not ashamed.  Because it's really good!  And ohmyGRACIOUS is it hearty!!  Eat this in the morning and I promise you will not be hungry for hours.  I've even been known to eat this at night.  It's just a hearty bowl of comfort and who doesn't love that?!

Indonesian Pork Tenderloin

It doesn't matter if the Family Cook is sick or not, we still need to eat.  So some meals over the weekend got shuffled around in my plan, and take out did get ordered at one point.  But I was DETERMINED to find enough energy to put this one together.  Soooo glad I did!

And it's truly amazing how much flavor there is in such few ingredients...

Indonesian Pork Tenderloin
Recipe only slightly adapted from Kitchen Confidante

1 1-lb pork tenderloin
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp creamy peanut butter
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, minced
Vegetable cooking spray
1/4 cup mango chutney


1.  Preheat oven to 375°F.

Don't we all have these ingredients in our pantries?

2.  Combine soy sauce, peanut butter, red pepper flakes and garlic, stirring well. Spread mixture over tenderloin. Place in a 9x13 baking dish coated with cooking spray.  Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

Thick coating

3.  Brush tenderloin with mango chutney and bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until meat thermometer registers 160°F with a meat thermometer, basting often with chutney [Note: I hovered over the oven and basted every 2-3 minutes]. Remove from oven, cover lightly with foil, and let stand 10 minutes before slicing.

Quite possibly my new favorite condiment.

I may have been extra stuffed up when I made this but I still could smell the amazing aromas wafting from the kitchen.  And the flavor of this was INCREDIBLE!!  I'd never worked with mango chutney before, but I kept hearing about it so wanted to give it a try.  WOW!  The ginger especially came through and helped to balance the sweet mango and salty peanut butter.

We devoured this with some baked potatoes and a tossed salad.

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Have you ever taken a piece of banana bread and smeared peanut butter all over it?  I did not discover what an amazingly wonderful treat this was until about a year ago.  I know, I know... Elvis thought of this brilliant concoction decades before I was born.  What can I say?  I'm a bit behind.  Forgive me?  Anyway, I really like the contrast of the sweet bananas with salty peanuts.  So imagine how giddy I was when I came across a recipe that combined both for me into one ready-to-eat loaf of deliciousness!

Yup, bananas get brown when you freeze them. Still taste the same though!

Peanut Butter Banana Bread
Recipe adapted from Joy the Baker, who got it from CookingLight


1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed meal [confession: I didn't have any so I just left it out.]
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas
1/3 cup plain or vanilla fat free yogurt
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar

1.  Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9×5-inch loaf pan. Set aside. 

2.  In a large bowl, whisk together flours, flaxseed meal, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon and ground allspice. 

3.  In a medium bowl, whisk together mashed bananas, yogurt, peanut butter and melted butter. Whisk in eggs and sugars. Blend mixture until no sugar lumps remain. 

4.  Pour the wet mixture into the larger bowl with the dry ingredients. Fold together with a spatula until no more flour bits remain. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. 

FYI, the batter smells really peanut buttery and really good

5.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes before running a butter knife along the edges of the pan and inverting the bread onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

6.  This bread lasts, well wrapped at room temperature, for up to 4 days. It is also great to store, well wrapped, in the freezer.  (Ooooo!!!!  I sense a "Get Ahead" opportunity here!)


Tip: Don't think you have to wait for bananas to turn black in order to make banana bread.  Thanks to my Fruit Monster son, we always have bananas in the house.  He likes to eat them perfectly ripe with little to no brown spots on them.  Any bananas that end up ripening past anyone's enjoyment, I smash up, put into quart-size freezer bags, and toss in the freezer.  I think have about 6 bags in there just waiting for me to get the urge to bake.  

Peanut Butter Banana Wraps

I don't know about you but I am in a hurry most mornings.  I don't ever have time to actually eat breakfast at home; I'm usually eating in the car or as soon as I make it to the office (if I can hold out that long).  And when it comes to breakfast, I really like to have some protein so I can make it as close to lunchtime as possible without snacking.  So my breakfasts typically consist of some kind of oatmeal concoction, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt with granola, etc.

I found this wrap recipe though and thought "what a perfect breakfast (or snack) to eat on the go!"  And it's also great to make a couple of these at a time, toss one in the fridge for another day that's even more hectic than usual.

Peanut Butter Banana Wraps
Recipe adapted from So Easy

2 tortillas
4 tbsp peanut butter
1 large banana, sliced
10 dried figs, sliced
Cinnamon

1. Lay the tortillas on the counter and spread a couple tablespoons of peanut butter on each.  Top with half a banana and five figs per tortilla.  Sprinkle with a little cinnamon.

2. Carefully roll up each tortilla and wrap in plastic wrap.

Feel free to use whatever dried or fresh fruit you like.  I happen to have a thing for dried figs (I feel like I'm eating Fig Newtons...YUM!) but if you like cranberries, raisins, apricots, pineapple, whatever, go ahead and use those instead.  Not a fan of bananas?  No problem!  Try a different fresh fruit instead.  That's what I like about these kinds of recipes.  They're really not so much recipes as concepts: understand the concept and the flavor combination sky is the limit.  So try it out and let me know what you think. :)