Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake Bars

Another favorite here...if you've been reading here awhile or browsed my recipes, you've probably figured out that one of the most-loved combinations around my house is peanut butter and chocolate.  Add cheesecake into the mix, and you can't go wrong.
Even my non-cheesecake-loving parents enjoyed this one....and that's saying something!
I got to use my homemade graham crackers (chocolate ones!) for the crust and was excited that it turned out great!  I've been wanting a good substitute for store-bought graham crackers for crusts for a long time.

Recipe: (adapted from The Sweet's Life)

Crust:
7 whole graham crackers, crushed (I used 1 c. homemade chocolate graham crackers)
6 T. unsalted butter, melted (I used about 4 T. for my crust -if it seems too dry, just add a little more)
3 T. brown sugar (omit if using chocolate graham crackers)
2 T. all-purpose flour
1/8 t. salt

Filling:
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, room temperature
2/3 c. sugar
2 eggs
1/4 c. sour cream
1 t. vanilla extract
25-30 miniature peanut butter cups, chopped

Topping:
1/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 T. milk
10-15 miniature peanut butter cups, chopped

Preheat oven to 325°.
Line an 8 or 9" square pan with foil, leaving a 3-4" overhang on each side.  Grease foil.
Make crust by adding crackers to blender and crushing until fine.  Add butter, brown sugar, flour, and salt.  Mix well.  Press into the bottom of the baking dish. Bake crust for 10 minutes.  Let cool.

In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth.  Slowly add sugar, beating well.  Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.  Beat in sour cream and vanilla extract until fully combined.  Don't overbeat at this point!
After chopping peanut butter cups, set aside approximately 1/2 cup for later.  Stir the remaining chopped candies into the cream cheese batter.
Pour batter into baking pan, spreading evenly over crust.  Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the edges are set and the middle still jiggles slightly.

Cool cheesecake for 2 hours.  Prepare topping by melting chocolate chips with the milk and stirring well until smooth.  Pour or drizzle over the cheesecake.  Top with reserved chopped candy. Cover and refrigerate 3-24 hours.

Remove from fridge and using the foil overhang, remove bars from pan. Cut into small squares.

Homemade Graham Crackers

I love graham crackers.  Who doesn't? 

What I don't love is the high fructose corn syrup and other weird preservatives that store-bought graham crackers have in them. 

So I decided to give this recipe for homemade graham crackers a try.  I have to say, I love them. 

In fact, I just couldn't stop munching on them.  They're not hard at all to make....and it was my first time using sucanat (which I bought at a local health food store awhile back and just hadn't gotten up the nerve to use yet).  I was so pleasantly surprised. 

The next batch I made, I included 1/3 c. cocoa to make chocolate graham crackers.  While they don't taste just like storebought ones, they worked beautifully to make the crust for a cheesecake recipe....which will be coming shortly. They're just a simple, crunchy chocolate cookie, that's all.  The kids weren't overly impressed, expecting them to be sweeter, I think....but once they got over that expectation, they gobbled them up also.  

Recipe: (from Heavenly Homemakers)

1 stick of butter, melted
2-1/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. sucanat (deydrated cane sugar juice) or brown sugar
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. cinnamon
1/3 c. cocoa (only include IF making chocolate graham crackers)
4 T. honey
1/4 c. water
1 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°.
Melt stick of butter in the microwave or in a pan on the stove; set aside.
In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sucanat or sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
Add the liquids; honey, water, vanilla, and melted butter.
Stir well until a nice ball has formed. 
Cut two pieces of Parchment paper the size of your cookie sheet.  Lay one piece of parchment paper on the cookie sheet.  Place the ball of dough on the parchment paper.  Lay the other piece of parchment paper on top of the ball of dough.  Squish dough down a little with your fist.  Use a rolling pin to roll the dough between the pieces of parchment paper.   Roll until the dough covers the whole cookie sheet.
Remove the top piece of parchment paper. 
(you can either cut the dough into squares or shapes now, or wait until baking is done)
Bake in oven for 15-18 minutes.
If you haven't cut it into squares yet, now is the time to do so!
Turn oven off, but leave crackers in the oven to get crisp.
Remove from oven after 20-30 minutes.  Break graham crackers apart.
Store in an airtight container.

"H" is for Hot Fudge Sundaes, among other things

For our Alphabet Service Project this week, we decided to do something a little different and have over a friend who's name begins with H.  Annika has a sweet little friend from church named Hannah, so we asked her and her mom and brother over for lunch and a playdate.

The girls played Hungry Hippos and Hi Ho Cheery-O, wore Hats, colored Horses, and we ate grilled Ham and cheese sandwiches, fruit salad with Honeydew, and indulged in Hot Fudge Sundaes (for which Annika and I made this chocolate syrup) for dessert.  

  

The rest of the week, we also ate Hot dogs, Hamburgers and Hashbrown casserole, gave lots of Hugs, and played Hopscotch.   And after all that, Annika is still calling the letter H "G"instead.  Guess we'd better keep working on it.    

Caramel Glazed Apple Bread

If loving caramel is wrong, I don't want to be right.  


Seriously....this topping is so yummy, I just wanted to eat the pan of it straight.  


I managed to restrain myself and pour most of it on the bread.  The bread itself is delicious.....not too sweet, nice and moist, nice apple flavor.  I might add a little vanilla next time, but it was really good.  But the glaze takes it over the top.  I wish I had pecans mixed in the bread, but since my family would all revolt, I settled with sprinkling some on top of part of one loaf.  Still good, but I would love more nuts!  


Recipe: (adapted from Pass the Sushi)


1-1/2 c. grated, peeled apples (I used 3 small Gala)
1 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. oil (canola)
1/4 c. applesauce
4 eggs, lightly beaten
3 c. white whole wheat flour
2 t. baking soda
2 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. salt
1 t. ground nutmeg
1/2 c. chopped pecans (optional)


Topping:
2 T. butter
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
1 T. milk
1/2 c. powdered sugar


Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease bottoms only of 2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans with cooking spray or butter.
In a large bowl, stir together apples, 1 c. brown sugar, buttermilk, oil, applesauce, and eggs.  Stir in remaining bread ingredients just until moistened.  Pour into pans.
Bake 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool on wire racks.


Meanwhile, prepare topping.
In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Stir in 1/4 c. brown sugar.  Heat until boiling, stirring constantly.  Reduce heat to low.  Boil and stir for 2 minutes.  Stir in milk.  Heat to boiling; remove from  heat.  Cool for 10-15 minutes. 
Gradually stir powdered sugar into glaze mixture.  Stir in additional milk, 1/2 t. at a time, if mixture is too thick.  Beat until smooth and thin enough to drizzle.  
Drizzle glaze over loaves. 
Wrap tightly and store at room temp. up to four days or refrigerate up to ten days. 

Of Friends and Crayons.....

A little over a month ago, I had a surprise comment from a friend from long ago......my mom had mentioned my blog to her and she came over to visit and say "Hi".  I think the last time I saw her was about 13 or 14 years ago, can't remember exactly, but my main memories of her are from my freshman year in high school, which was back in '91-'92. 
 
It's funny how time changes things......

Back then Tracy was my basketball coach for the year, the older sister of a couple of my close friends, a young married momma of two little ones who sacrificed her time to passionately coach my team of rather inexperienced girls.  Oh, I adored her...we all did....but we were worlds apart.  I was not even 14 years old, totally immersed in my friends, surviving biology and dissecting fetal pigs, passing notes in class, and of course gossipping about who had a crush on who....that sort of thing. 

Now.....

She's a mom of eight...yes, 8!!!......her two littles I that I vaguely remember are all grown up, one is even married, has a baby and another on the way, but Tracy also has children around the ages of my children.  How cool is that?  She has a lovely blog about her family called Finding Joy in the Little Things and one about her crafts  - man, she can sew!  She homeschools and has many of the same interests as I do....I just wish we lived closer so I could get together with her.
Anyways, when I reconnected with her on her blog, she happened to be having a give-away, of these gorgeous crayons from Rainbow Resource.

Her kids loved them and she wanted to give some to another family. 

Of course I entered....

and to my great excitement,

I WON! 

(I don't usually win things.....except that one time I won one of the Pioneer Woman's giveaways - have I mentioned that?  Maybe another time....and no, it wasn't one of those awesome cameras or KitchenAids or IPads......but it was pretty cool to win something out of 14,000 entries anyways!)

But I digress.  I was so thrilled to win the crayons, and Tracy sent them to me quickly. 

When we got the package and I opened it, the kids said, "What?  Crayons?  What's so special about that?"

And then they started coloring.

And then all they could say was, "These are the COOLEST crayons, EVER!!" 

They're so smooth, so silky, so easy to use and vibrant to look at....the kids just can't get enough of them. 

She had also thrown in a little bonus, Crayon Rocks.

Annika (3) in particular loves these....in fact, I'm pretty sure she's hidden them from the other kids because she loves how cute they are in their little bag.  :)
So I give a hearty THANK YOU to Tracy - not just for the crayons, but for getting back in touch with me - which is a delight and a blessing.  We're finding joy in the little things here, too!

Barbecue Chicken Casserole

I was browsing through my Taste of Home Winning Recipes cookbook recently and this recipe caught my eye.  Grant and I love barbecue chicken, and the kids love corn, so I thought it would be a fun one to try.  

The original called for a whole chicken, cut up into pieces....I don't prefer to deal with helping kids remove chicken from bones at the table (can you say "messy"?) so I decided to use diced boneless skinless chicken breasts instead.  I thought it turned out really well.  

Every one liked it.....although Grant said he'd prefer it without the corn next time  It has sort of an Asian taste to it, a sweet and sour chicken if you will.  It would probably be delicious served over rice.  We'll try that next time.  

Recipe:

1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced

1/3 c. all-purpose flour

2 T. olive oil or vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

2-3 stalks celery, chopped thinly

1 c. ketchup

1/2 c. water

3 T. brown sugar

3 T. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

1 package (16 oz) frozen corn, thawed (optional)

Additional salt, if desired

Place flour in a large resealable bag.  Add chicken and shake to coat.  In a large skillet, brown the chicken until no more pink remains.  Transfer to an ungreased 13 x 9" baking dish.

Drain skillet, reserving 2 T. drippings.  (I had no leftover drippings, so I added a T. of butter)

Saute the onion, pepper, and celery until tender.  In a bowl, combine the ketchup, water, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper.  Add to vegetables.  Bring to a boil.  Pour over the chicken.  

Sprinkle corn on top, if desired, and add a little extra salt for the corn if desired.

Bake uncovered at 350° for 20 minutes, or until heated through and bubbly.  

"G" is for Gorp

Our Letter of the Week Service Projects continue.  "G" presented a bit of challenge, as I had no desire to take Garlic, Green beans, Guacamole, or Grapes to anyone....although I did entertain the idea of Granola Bars.   Grant suggested my popular recipe of White Chocolate Gorp, and I was sold.

(For the record, Gorp stands for "Good Old Raisins and Peanuts"....although obviously mine contains much more than that).

It's delicious, easy, and kids love to help make it and eat it.  We bagged it up, stuck on some Green bows, and delivered it to a lovely middle-aged couple from our church, the G______s.   It was pouring rain and not really the weather anyone would want to go out in, but we had fun visiting with them and spending a few moments getting to know some familiar faces from church on a more personal level.

If you haven't had a chance to make this Gorp recipe, you really have to try it.  It's irresistible.