peanut butter pie

In yesterday's post, I mentioned the Peanut Butter Pie I'd had for breakfast.

Just to refresh your memory, here is a picture of that very piece of Peanut Butter Pie.


Not to be confused with the piece of Peanut Butter Pie I had for breakfast this morning.

I did not take a picture of that particular piece of Peanut Butter Pie, because that would just be ridiculous.

(Okay, I actually did take a picture of it, but didn't like how it turned out, and since I didn't check the picture before I ate the pie, the only way to remedy that situation would have been to slice and then dress up yet another piece of pie and then at that point the only viable option would be to eat it as well to hide the evidence and while I'll do a lot of things for a good photo, even I get a little nauseous at the thought of two pieces of Peanut Butter Pie for breakfast. I have my limits. Although in hindsight, Peanut Butter Pie is really just a lovely combination of dairy and protein and everyone knows dairy and protein are good for you, especially at breakfast time, so I really don't know what my hang up was.)

But back to my story.

Yesterday I mentioned Peanut Butter Pie, and that pie got a shout out or two in the comments, which is totally to be expected because, hello, it's Peanut Butter Pie.

One comment in particular, in fact this very comment....


.....caught my attention, because I happen to know that Valley Girl is expecting a baby.

Now I had every intention of posting the Peanut Butter Pie recipe sometime in the near future, but when a Pregnant Sister Friend is wanting your Peanut Butter Pie recipe, you give that girl the recipe and you do it sooner rather than later. It's an egregious violation of the Sisterhood Rules to make a pregnant girl wait for anything food related.

It's downright mean.

So for all of you and especially for Valley Girl, here it is.

Peanut Butter Pie

1-1/4 cup chocolate cookie crumbs (I use Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafer cookies)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
Mix and press into a 9 inch pie plate. Bake at 375* for ten minutes. Cool completely.
(Please make this from scratch. It is a million times better than a store bought cookie crust.)

1 - 8oz cream cheese, softened - dairy and good for you
1 cup creamy peanut butter - protein and good for you
1 cup sugar - no comment
1 tablespoon softened butter - dairy and good for you
1 teaspoon vanilla - vanilla bean=bean family=protein=good for you
1 cup heavy cream, whipped - speaks for itself
Beat first five ingredients and then fold in the whipped cream. Spread over cookie crust and chill till firm.

Lick beaters clean.

Peanut Butter Pie....it's a good thing.

christmas 2010 - part one

A text from my oldest yesterday afternoon...."Touchdown in God's Country. I need a lift".

Always one to oblige, I skedaddled to the airport to pick up my son and his adorable girlfriend. Poor things had to get up at one in the ayem to catch a train into New York to get their flight yesterday morning. Amazingly enough, they were up with the rest of us this morning. I was very impressed.


I'm pretty excited to have another girl in the house. I've been outnumbered for the last twenty three years, but for this week at least, the balance of power won't be quite so lopsided.


The infamous red dresser is tucked away in its new home. I'm hoping the fairy lights and the vintage Christmas tree take attention away from the fact that it takes a body builder to get the drawers open. They used to open and close like a dream, but I think the eight coats of paint I put on them had a detrimental effect on their smooth operation.



There are still a few large, blank walls in the guest room, but when in decorating doubt, just add more fairy lights and a couple cute baby pictures of your guest's boyfriend and you're good to go.




One final touch....I found these adorable Christmas Paper dolls at The Graphics Fairy.
Check out this site when you have at least four hours to get lost in all manner of vintage clip art goodness.


It looks like our week is off to a good start. Everyone has safely arrived, the kitchen is stocked and I had leftover Peanut Butter Pie for breakfast.


It's Christmas at Meadowbrook Farm.

snow day

I always think I'm just popping out for a picture or two.


I pass the coat closet on my way out the door.


But I don't need a coat, or gloves for that matter.

Certainly not gloves.

I'll just be out for a minute.


However, I'm a grass is greener girl, and the best pictures are always just a little bit farther. I get there, wherever there is, and see an awesome picture....just a little bit farther.


Frostbite is my friend.

i'll be home for christmas

December first?

December first.

It's December first.

I had such a jump on things this year, or at least I thought I had a jump on things, but as The Season is officially upon us, maybe not so much.

Our Christmas will be early this year. Really early. My oldest will be home on leave from the Coast Guard next week, so our Christmas dinner and gift opening will be December 7th, and our big friends and extended family Christmas Eve dinner will be on the 10th and all that, my friends, is right around the corner.

Dates don't matter much though, as long as the house is full of my people. I haven't seen my first born in over a year, and that's Just Wrong.

Dear Junior #1,
I can't wait to see you next week!
Love,
Ma

The decorating is about ninety percent done, the Christmas shopping is about sixty percent done, and the grocery shopping is about zero percent done. I've started the list and so far it covers the page front and back, double columned, single spaced. Food will be a focal point next week....we'll have prime rib, enchiladas, manicotti, soups, breads, salads and pies and cakes and cookies and on and on.

Cream cheese, butter and sour cream will reign supreme.

Sugar highs will rule the roost.

Carbohydrate comas will abound.

Yum.


This is the best.

Better than a tropical vacation.

Better than winning the lottery.

My whole family together.

Friends old and new.

A cozy house.

Snow in the forecast.

A kitchen that smells of casseroles and cookies.

Lots and lots of chaos.

Sounds perfect to me.

old man winter

How was your weekend?

Mine was good.

And cold.

And snowy.

And involved lots and lots of paint.


I'll address the weather first.

We've been in the single digits and there's a vicious rumor going around that we're headed well below zero by midweek.

I don't mind the cold and I love the snow, but it just so happens that our furnace has decided to be a bit temperamental.

Perfect timing.


On the painting front, I'm painting a dresser for the guest room. I'm painting it red. Have you ever painted anything red? I don't recommend it even one little bit. For reasons my paint store friend explained, but I quickly forgot, red doesn't cover well at all. I lost count, but I'm pretty sure it took at least eight coats of paint. I wish I was kidding.

I also painted my front room for the third time in as many weeks. I'm very, very picky about paint color and I'll keep repainting till I get it right. I painted my family room four times before I was happy, and I'm not talking about a few swatches on the wall. Every corner of a room has different lighting, and in my world, you have to find a color that makes all your corners sing a happy color song. In the case of my current project, I thought paint color number two could hold me for a while, but I just couldn't bring myself to leave well enough alone. I have a big bucket, several different gallons of paint and my biggest kitchen whisk and play mixologist till I get it right. I think there's a good chance that the third time is the charm, but I'll have to see what it looks like in the full light of day to know for sure.

Regardless, once the Christmas tree goes up, I'm done for a while. I'll do a lot of things for my walls, but maneuvering a ladder around a decorated Christmas tree while carrying a bucket of paint just seems like a bad idea.


The last item on my weekend list was vacuuming. After a month in the repair shop, I finally picked my vacuum up on Friday. You can only imagine what my floors look like right now.

But, instead of vacuuming, I played with photos and textures and more textures until I'd textured the poor pictures within an inch of their digital lives.


It's common knowledge that when you're actively shirking your vacuuming duties, it's hard to exercise texture restraint.

And just for fun, I'll leave you with this....


Have a great Monday!

the guest room

For the first time ever, Meadowbrook Farm will have a wintertime guest.

(Can I just tell you that I giggle a little bit every time I type the words Meadowbrook Farm? It makes me feel a little like Scarlett O'Hara talking about Tara... perhaps a wee bit pretentious, don't you think?)

Moving on.

The guest room is getting a makeover.

I've been in the makeover stage for a little over a year now. Last fall, we upsized from a double bed to a queen and that was pretty much the extent of my progress for about six months. As in, the mattress was leaning against the wall for that six months until I had a houseful of girlfriends visit and then the mattress was placed on the floor along side the old double bed for a charming mattress superstore effect.

I had an idea of what I wanted for bedding, but of course it didn't really exist anywhere but in my mind.

I knew I wanted to go fairly bright and cheery, and I knew I wanted these pillows to be able to do double duty when they weren't holding down the fort on the porch swing.

I finally found some Pottery Barn bedding that was in the right color family, and while I liked it well enough, I didn't love it. In order for it to work for me it needed to be cottaged up a bit.

Enter gingham sheets, vintage pillowcases and the quintessential cottage ingredient, a quilt. Add an old clock and some fit in with the color scheme books and I'm off to a good start.


I still have a long way to go, but having the bed finished gives me a focal point to work from. I have an eye out for architectural items and some form of artwork to bring it all together.


The cute gingham sheets will be swapped out for a set of Costco's fleece sheets so my wintertime guest will stay cozy and warm. Do you have a set of Costco's fleece sheets? If you live in a chilly climate, they will change your life forever.


Oh, and the walls are painted a color called Margarita. While it didn't photograph well at all, the color is perfectly named. In fact, when the sun shines in, you truly feel like you are in a Margarita....all glowy and green and a little bit woozy if I'm perfectly honest. The color may/will need some tweaking down the road, (I'm a chronic re-painter), but for now, Margarita it is.

raspberry jello

Are you a jello fan?

I am a jello fan.

Is jello out of style?

I just don't see a lot of jello recipes making the rounds, but maybe I'm not looking in the right place.

Or, maybe I'm not even looking at all, and should do some research before I start a blog post about the lack of jello related conversation on the internet, because I just this very minute spent some quality time with Google, and there are in fact entire blogs devoted to jello.

Will wonders never cease.

Any time I make a full blown, company's coming dinner, it includes some sort of jello. More often than not, it includes this very jello because it's quick, easy and very, very good.


Raspberry Jello
1 - 6 oz package raspberry jello
1 cup boiling water
1 - 20 oz can blueberry pie filling
1 - 20 oz can crushed pineapple
****************************************
8 oz cream cheese
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

In a large bowl, pour boiling water over jello and stir until totally dissolved. Stir in pie filling and crushed pineapple with juice. Place in refrigerator to cool.
Soften cream cheese in the microwave and stir with a whisk until smooth. Stir in sour cream, sugar and vanilla.
(Make sure you get all the lumps smoothed out of your cream cheese. Lumpy cream cheese does not a pretty jello make.)

Back in the day, I used to let the jello set up quite a bit before I swirled the cream cheese mixture through. Nowadays, I usually just blend the two together right away. It's not quite as pretty as having the cream cheese swirled throughout, but it's just as good.

You can also substitute raspberry pie filling. It's every bit as delicious and kind of pretty to have on your table at Christmas as it makes the dish red instead of the purple you get with the blueberry pie filling.

Are there any other Jello Junkies out there? If so, shout out your favorite jiggly recipes.

Unless it's the one with the cottage cheese.

That one makes me a little nervous.