Meet me on Monday (Peanut Butta Freight Train)

 
1. Crunchy or smooth peanut butter?


I like both, and it kind of depends on what the purpose of the peanut butter is. To each just straight out of the jar, I like crunchy. It makes it more like a whole snack because you have to chew it. (I am VERY into chewing things. lol Okay, that's funny, but I swear I am not making a joke. Like, I could live on Slim Fast Shakes if I could chew some portion of the meal...)  When I cook with peanut butter is should be smooth, and I like smooth. I guess you could say that since I am a bonafide peanut butter lova, I am not picky and enjoy it in all forms. You know what would be a good idea? A peaut butter TASTING! We could have a peanut butter party and do a taste test of all the brands and kinds! OOOh! How fun would that be?!

...I think my peanut butter issues are starting to surface.

Here's a peanut butter pie recipe I know you are DYING to try. I went digging for this online after watching "The Joy Luck Club" one too many times and staring at that pie in that one scene... torture.

http://adventuresinemilyland.blogspot.com/2008/07/emily-is-posting-recipe.html
And here is my attempt at Java's (NGO) peanut butter eggs, or Reester Eggs, as I call them. I modified both recipes to my liking. :)

http://adventuresinemilyland.blogspot.com/2010/04/reester-eggs.html

2. What is your favorite color Rose?

Hmmmm. I guess it would depend on the bouquet. Roses really aren't my favorite flower (I love hydrangeas, lisianthus, peonies, rununculus, poppies, etc... FLUFFY flowers!) but I like them, and I would love to receive them. In FACT, I went to church in Virgina last week and they gave all the adult women roses. But the people I was staying with offered to take it back to the house to put it in water and I forgot about it and never saw it again. :( I only got to hold it for a couple minutes.

Oh, I feel sad now.

Oh, right, colors. Um... My favorite used to be the fallish colored ones- yellowish orange with the reddish tips... when I was a little girl I loved "sterling" which is the purple/lavender rose. Now... hmmm. I am having such a hard time! What colors do roses come in again?  Uhhh... Red is beautiful. I dunno, maybe the fall colored ones?
3. Do you remove your shoes when you walk into your home?

I flip 'em off across the room. Is that the same thing?
4. What is your favorite season?

Fall. It is the season of anticipation and new beginnings for me. Thats my favorite. I liked being teased with things to come I guess!
5. Approximately how many hours a day do you spend blogging?
Ugh, on my work blog, on the days I do blog, it can take me 4-6 hours to do a post. WHY? Because of the re-sizing of the images, applying the watermarks, creating iage storyboards in photoshop, sometimes touchups because stuff looks funny resized... redoing things because it doesn't work. Then after you finish the images, you upload them, and write the post (although I try to do it at the same time and usually do.) It's hours. It's a time suck for sure. Sometimes I can do them faster, but blogging is time consuming when you're doing designing as part of the post. For awhile I was doing sooo good and had a bunch of posts pre-scheduled, but that ran out. :(

Reester Eggs (updated)

I got this recipe from the"Never Growing Old" blog, and I gotta say... making the double batch is probably wise... or not if you're dieting... lol Because they are soooo good!

Here is the recipe link to NGO's blog and here are my pictures from the ones I made at Easter!

Recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Eggs: http://nevergrowingold.blogspot.com/2010/03/creamy-peanut-butter-eggs-mmmmmm_23.html

Here is the recipe pasted in below from her blog, but I have added in my notes and changed things here and there, but there are pictures on NGO's blog of the process as you go along if you need it!

Single Batch Recipe

3/4 pound butter (3 sticks) (do not use margarine) Room Temperature
2 pounds Powdered Sugar
13 oz. Marshmellow Creme
2 lbs. Peanut Butter (Jif seems to taste the best)
2 1/2 lbs. Chocolate Coating Disks (see below)



Double Batch Recipe
1 1/2 pound butter (6 sticks) (do not use margarine) Room Temperature
4 pounds Powdered Sugar
26 oz. Marshmellow Creme
4 lbs. Peanut Butter (Jif seems to taste the best)
5 lbs. Chocolate Coating Disks (see below)

These directions are for the double batch!
Once the butter is soft, use electric mixer and beat the butter and 1 pound powdered sugar on medium speed until creamy.
Add the 26 oz. marshmellow cream.
Beat with mixer on medium speed until mixed.
Add the 4 lbs of Peanut Butter
Beat with mixer on medium speed until smooth
Next add the remaining 3 pounds of powdered sugar a pound at a time... take your time, it's going to be a little thick.
Lay wax paper on cookie sheets. Shape mixture into oval eggs. Place on cookie sheets.
Put cookie sheets in refrigerator for several hours or freezer for 45 minutes. They have to be really cold before you can dip them in the chocolate.
After they are cold, melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Or, heat the chocolate at 30 second intervals in the microwave. Stir every 30 seconds until the chocolate looks glossy. Be careful not to burn it!
Once the chocolate is ready use a skewer, a stick, a chopstick, SOMETHING thin and pokey. I forget what I used. I might have used a fork and careful covered up the poke holes by laying the egg down on that side. I might have scooped it instead of stabbing it too.
 Dip one egg at time...let the excess drip off.

You can make your eggs alittle fancier if you want by drizzling some of the excess chocolate over an egg that has already been dipped. My first batch I did that, and the second, third and fourth batches (ahem) I heated up white chocolate, dyed the chocolate some Eastery looking colors and drizzled that on top to make it look pretty and festive.


Some extra tips:
You can't heat all the chocolate at once, it cools too fast...(and you can't do all the eggs at once, they heat up to room temp too fast) ...while the chocolate is heating, put the eggs that you didn't dip back into the refrigerator or better yet, FREEZER...take one tray out at a time..keeping the other trays cold. You can use a paper towel to wipe off your tool after each dip. (I didn't do that though) The colder the egg, the easier it is to dip.

I made a few changes to the recipe, and I was really happy with the outcome. I tried doing closer to the regular way on my second batch, but I think I still prefer my altered recipe.

In addition to the peanut butter, powdered sugar, butter and marshmellow fluff for the filling, I also added a bunch of wheat germ. I didn't measure, but it might have been as much as half of the standard size jar. I just kept adding it under the dough was firmer, but still clumped when rolled. I think the wheat germ really helps mimic the texture of a real reese's and also adds a bit of healthiness to it too. If I make these again, I will also add fiber powder to it too... can never have too much fiber! LOL

The second change I made was with the chocolate coating. Instead of using chocolate melting discs, I used nicer chocolate and just added some vegetable oil while it was melting to get it to the right consistency.

I made a batch with cadbury dairy milk and hershey's chocolate bars, and dilluted a bit down with the cheap "almond bark" brand of chocolate to stretch it and save some money. I did another batch, also with the almond bark brand chocolate, and that other brand of chocolate... not toblerone... Ferrera? Not Ferrera Roche... Whatever the brand of chocolate which makes the chocolate bars in the shapes of oranges? That brand, I got a couple of oranges, but they were plain chocolate flavored. I think those made the best ones, but all were delish. I can't say enough about this recipe- it's awesome!

EMILY IS POSTING A RECIPE.... EVERYONE, LET'S JOIN IN A ROUND OF APPLAUSE!



Ok, I love to bake and cook, I just never do it because I am lazy and hate to clean and my house is always a mess and I hate that I have to clean everything first before I feel like I can start cooking.



So I have been spending a fair amount of time watching the Food Network and reading Whitney's Lovin' from the Oven because I am obsessed with blogs and there are around 50 now that I check regularly- either because the person writes well and I like to read, or it's a cooking blog and I am hungry and want to look at food, (LOL) or most validly, photography blogs for research for work so can stay on top of my game and continue to grow and develop and all that stuff.



I was watching the Joy Luck Club and there is this scene in there where one of the women makes a "Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie" for her husband because he loves it and they show the pie and it looks so good. So I went hunting and I found a recipe!



So anyway, here is my recipe to share, complete with pictures!



CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER PIE



Filling:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened (I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese)

1 c. sugar (I mixed sugar and splenda)

1 c. creamy peanut butter (I used reduced fat chunky)

2 T. melted butter (I used 50 calorie per tab light butter)

1 c. whipping cream

1 T. vanilla

I also added 6 tablespoons of Wheat Germ to the batter, makes it nuttier and adds protein.



Topping:

4 oz. semisweet chocolate

2 T. butter

2 T. salad oil (This is just vegetable oil)

1/4 c. chopped peanuts



Some kind of crust or pan to dump it in!



Whip cream until firm. Whip in vanilla and set aside. Whip creamcheese until fluffy, then slowly add sugar, peanut butter and butter.Blend 1/3 of the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture. Foldpeanut butter mixture into remaining whipped cream. Fill pie crust,smoothing top. Carefully wrap with plastic and chill overnight. (I only waited a couple hours and it was fine)



Topping: combine chocolate, butter and oil in top of a double boilerover medium heat until mixture melts. Remove from heat and cool slightly.Spread chocolate on cooled pie, starting from center and working out.Sprinkle top with peanuts while chocolate is still soft.

Here I am whippin' the cream.


Here is the batter before adding the whipped cream.

After folding in the whipped cream.

Ready to go in the fridge!
I used the mini-pans so that I could control serving-size. I was going to use one big red0ced fat crust, but when I read the labels, I realized there was only a 10 calorie difference between the minis and the reduced fat so I thought- what's the point? So here's the finished product! The chocolate was easier to spread when it was a little cooler, by the way.





Ta-da! They are still setting, so I haven't tasted them yet but I can tell you right now that the batter tasted VERY GOOD!
:D
UPDATE! I just checked them and they are all set so I cut one in half, and it popped right out of the pie tin, which I was not expecting but was Soooo happy about, I took a bite...
OH MY GOODNESS. This is the best thing I have ever put in my mouth! WAY better than a real Reese's! AHHHH! I highly reccomend the grahmn cracker crust! I took small measures to make the recipe healthier and you so can't tell so I reccomend the same to you!
SO GOOD! OH MY GOODNESS! I have to give them away or I am going to eat all of these!!!!