Tuesday, June 30, 2015

No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

I found this recipe online but then changed it some mainly by doubling the recipe but there is one other change I will recommend as well.
The bottom layer starts with:
1- 13 oz box graham cracker crumbs
2/3 cup melted butter
1 cup peanut butter

I mixed mine together with my blender. This is where I would make the changed. This was just not sweet at all and it needed to be a bit sweet so I would add about a 1/4 cup sugar to this. You put this in a baking dish that has been lightly oiled and lined with parchment paper that sticks up from the sides so you can remove the whole thing easily later.


You then take two bars (12 oz) of bittersweet chocolate and melt it in a double-boiler or in our case a metal bowl over a pan of water.


You then put this on the graham cracker layer and spread it out as smoothly as possible. Then you melt a little more peanut butter (maybe a quarter cup) in another bowl over the boiling water and you must make lines with this in the chocolate, then you take a toothpick and run it through the lines and then sort of swirl it a bit.


Isn't it pretty?! It then goes into the refrigerator for about 3 hours to set. When it s ready you lift it out by the parchment paper and cut into pieces.


My daughter took the pictures and does not understand that not every pictures needs to be shot straight down so you can't really see the layers in this picture but it is a very pretty dessert and would have tasted great had we added that bit of sugar to the bottom layer.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

One Lone Peach





So yesterday while looking for one of the cats Michelle noticed a water sound coming from under the house. As you know, you shouldn't hear water running under your house so that could be nothing but bad news. When I took Phil out there after he got home, we with our flashlights checked it out and found one of the lines to the hot water leaking. That could very well be the reason our electric bill jumped over $100 to $412 this month. Anyway, when we walked back in we went around the peach tree and I noticed this one perfect peach on it. I'll admit I have been too busy working to noticed if any of the little peaches the peach tree had this spring had made it through summer. It only had about 7 or 8 to begin with and we had a late frost and I really thought all of them had dropped. Apparently not. 


So I am not a peach expert but I felt it and it seemed ripe and I picked it. It smelled wonderful and was firm but not too firm. We took pictures of it and then I set it on the counter until this morning when I ate it. Yes, it was perfectly ripe and the best peach I have ever eaten. 
I need to do a little reading up on how to trim the tree. I have trimmed it a couple of times in the fall and it still does not seem to produce man flowers each spring. I need to see if I am doing it at the wrong time for this area. 

In other news, not everything is "peachy". I am no longer working for the Boys and Girls Club. The stress of working for someone who doesn't like me and was never going to treat me right was just too much. I do still work for Mistletoe State Park and I am still loving it there but now I am looking for a job to fill in during the week. It is no rush though, we will be fine until I find something. 
I am enjoying having some time here again though it is terribly hot this week and the air conditioners really do not keep us cool even inside. We basically do everything in the mornings when it is cooler. 
I am getting in some violin practice again, working on a crochet afghan and thinking about when I will butcher those meat birds as they are now ready (it will not be this week when temps are over 100 F. every day!)

Just so you know, I never did find my Sassy cat. She has been missing since the day before yesterday. I do hope she comes out soon. And Phil has figured out how he can fix the line to the hot water heater which wasn't as easy as it seems since this is an old doublewide and they no longer make those lines but there is a way to fix them with a special kind of cuppling that will attach the old line to the new line they now have so you don't have to replace the whole thing.