Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Peanut Butter Brownies - Pantry Cooking during the Coronavirus!


RECIPES AT THE TOP!  CHIT-CHAT AT THE BOTTOM!

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Peanut Butter Brownies - 
Pantry Cooking

  • 1/2 cup peanut butter (I used creamy "naturals".)
  • 1/3 cup margarine, softened (try not to melt all the way)
  • 2/3 cup white granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon baking POWDER
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup all purpose flour

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Spray or grease/flour your baking pan.  Use either 9 x 9 square pan or 7 x 11 rectangle pan.

Soften the margarine (try not to melt all the way).

Add in all other ingredients except the flour.  Stir well.  Add the flour.  Stir again to incorporate all of the flour.

Spoon into a sprayed (or prepared/greased/floured) baking pan.  Spread around.  I had to use the back of a spoon to mash the batter to all edges.

Bake in fully preheated (350) oven for 25-30 minutes.  I only baked mine for 25 minutes and once the edges started to brown and a knife (inserted) came out clean, I took them out of the oven.  (Over baking will make them dry out so once they are browned on the edges slightly and a knife inserted comes out clean, they are done!)

Cool at least until warm to cut.  Even better they next day!




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Hello everyone!  Long time no blog!

I've been out here not blogging for lots of reasons, some big, some little.  But, I decided this whole COVID-19 / Coronavirus thing warranted some blogging.  

My little blog still brings my family and I lots of joy.  Recently, all of my recipes were lost in a house fire (ok... there it is) so having this blog in existence preserved lots of recipes, pics of food we had enjoyed over the years, and stories/memories as well.  This blog is a little bit of home so it should continue!

Lots of my favorite "old" blogs are now sadly, quiet.  Life happens for all of us.  This is another reason I decided to revive this little blog.  Although, my cooking style is different now that our girls are grown, I still have some basic skills and a frugal/basic cooking style that some folks might appreciate.  

We are all being faced with limited abilities to get out for special ingredients as well as limited availability of those ingredients at the store due to current COVID-19 Stay Home Orders so basic recipes are a good thing, especially now!  We all still need to eat!  This blogging/journal also helps me mentally but at least I'm putting my wordy commentary at the bottom, right?!  :)

My husband and I are currently living in a tiny house.  We call it the "Love Shack" and although we have a full working kitchen, we have only one small cabinet for a pantry and maybe about two feet of counter space, excluding the stove.  Cooking is a dance in the Love Shack (the "little house that love made", in case you are wondering  :)).  We have limited dishes, cooking utensils, and no big mixer, etc.  We have a few appliances but they are on top of the cabinets and not easy to access.  Generally, we've been cooking our favorites the "old fashioned" way.

I decided to make a dessert this week.  Peanut Butter Brownies fit the bill because (a)  We had all of the ingredients; and (b) We love peanut butter!  (We are not allergic to peanut butter, thankfully.)

These little babies are fantastic!  I don't have a 9" square pan so used a small rectangle pan for baking them.  I measured and its 7" x 11".  I baked them exactly 25 minutes.  Doug and I both LOVED them!  

Peanut Butter Brownies will be a great recipe for taking to potlucks, carry in dinners (as long as no one is allergic to peanuts, of course), snacks, and desserts and this is a relative inexpensive recipe to make.  

If your family can eat peanuts, I hope you try them.  They are delicious.  Probably they would work with substitutions for peanut allergies but I cannot attest to that since I haven't tried that yet.  

Enjoy!

Gina