Peanut Butter Balls

What Christmas treat are you known for? You know that recipe you make every year and everyone asks you for this recipe. For me, it's these decadent Peanut Butter Balls. It doesn't get any better than peanut butter and chocolate.

I've been making these at Christmas since Justin was small. My recipe is scratched onto a piece of notebook paper, it has my son's scribbles and a phone message he took for me on the back. Too sentimental to rewrite onto a recipe card!

Peanut Butter Balls
1/2 cup butter
3 cups Rice Krispies
2 cups smooth peanut butter
1 pound powdered sugar
8 ounces Hershey's chocolate bar
6 ounces semi sweet chocolate bits
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cake paraffin

Melt butter, stir in peanut butter until smooth. In a large bowl, combine rice krispies and powdered sugar. Pour peanut butter mixture over rice krispie mixture. Stir until combined well. Chill for at least one hour. Roll rice krispie mixture into balls approximately the size of walnuts.

In a double boiler or a bowl over a pan of boiling water, combine chocolate bar, chocolate chips, paraffin and vanilla. Stir until melted and combined.

Dip balls into chocolate mixture, making sure to cover all sides. Place on waxed paper to dry.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Treats

I decided to make homemade treats for my staff this year. Instead of making one thing, I decided to make a variety of treats. My often requested Peanut Butter Balls, mini loaves of Mrs. Flint's Banana Bread and a third treat to be revealed in January. You see it's the January 3rd Sweet Melissa Sunday's recipe.

Hopefully they will all enjoy some sweet holiday treats. They're a great bunch and I am lucky to have them all on my team!

Vegetable Stock from Scraps

When I took the Culinary Boot Camp series a few weeks ago, we learned to make stocks. I learned a lot of tips from the chef who taught our classes but one of my favorites was the save your veggie scraps and make stock. I am sure for some of you that's a given but for me, I'd never made stock before these classes.

For the past six weeks or so, I've been putting the celery, onion, carrot, mushroom and various other veggie scraps in a gallon bag in the freezer. I was excited to make my first ever Vegetable Stock using these scraps. While the stock was cooking, the house had a wonderful soup like aroma. Although I forgot to take a picture, the stock had a beautiful golden color.

Vegetable Stock

4 cups vegetables*

2 garlic cloves, minced

Water to cover

6 peppercorns

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon dried thyme

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons olive oil

In a large stock pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add vegetables and garlic. Sweat with the lid on for about 5 minutes, stirring at least once. Add enough water to cover vegetables, peppercorns, parsley, thyme and bay leaves. Simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Strain stock into a collander, lined with cheesecloth. If you don't have cheesecloth, use a strong paper towel.

You can freeze your stock in ice cube trays. This makes for a quick way to add stock to soups or sauces.

Tomato Soup

I have fond childhood memories of a steaming hot bowl of Campbell's Tomato Soup, a Grilled Cheese Sandwich and lunch with my mom. As I grew older, I became less and less fond of tomato soup or should I say canned tomato soup. Homemade tomato soup on the other hand, I love. The flavor is so much milder and less acidic than the canned varieties. I am always anxious to try a new recipe for tomato soup. I so enjoy Michael Chiarello and when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. The only change I made to this recipe was to substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock. This soup has a wonderful texture and a nice mild tomato flavor.

Tomato Soup
Adapted from Michael Chiarello

1 (14-ounce) can chopped tomatoes
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 stalk celery, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup heavy cream, optional

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Strain the chopped canned tomatoes, reserving the juices, and spread onto a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper, to taste, drizzle with 1/4 cup of the olive oil and roast until caramelized, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat remaining olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the celery, carrot, onion and garlic, cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the roasted chopped canned tomatoes, reserved tomato juices, chicken broth, bay leaf and butter. Simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add basil and cream, if using. Puree with a hand held immersion blender until smooth.

Gingebread Cupcakes - MSC

Gingerbread Cupcakes...hmmm? Gingebread, Gingerbread Cookies, Gingerbread Houses but Gingerbread Cupcakes? I am not a big Gingerbread fan but it is one of those signature holiday dishes, so knew I was baking this one. I really wanted to like these cupcakes but the truth is, I didn't. Now that wasn't really because of the flavor, it was because they were DRY!!! I followed the recipe exactly! As I was scooping the batter into the cupcake pan, I thought it seemed really thick. I even baked them for less time than the recipe called for. With some of the earlier Martha Stewart Cupcake bakes, I felt like my cupcakes were overbaked. I bought an oven thermometer to make sure the temperature was right on. What happened? I am anxious to read the other Martha Stewart Cupcake baker's blogs to see if I am the only one who experienced dry cupcakes. Now I am trying to decide what to do with the cupcakes because while on the first day they were dry but edible, on the second day, they're too dry to eat. Maybe some sort of bread pudding?

Thanks to Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table for choosing this great holiday recipe for this month's bake. You can find the links to all of the other Martha Stewart cupcake baker's here!

Oatmeal & Cream Cheese Butterscotch Bars

It's been a busy Sunday, I've baked, wrapped and made bath scrub and fizzies. I still felt like there was something missing. What's missing today is Sweet Melissa Sunday's. SMS has become a big part of my weekend routine. We're taking a break until after the holiday's.

This recipe was Day 7 of Food Network's 12 Days of Cookies. I wish I had the time to do my own 12 Days of Cookies or even 12 Days of Holiday Baking. I so admire the bloggers who are doing 12 Days of Cookies or similar baking events.

These bars are delicious. Butterscotch isn't one of my favorite flavors however the lemon in this recipe compliments the butterscotch nicely. I'd like to try this recipe with chocolate and orange juice/zest.




Oatmeal & Cream Cheese Butterscotch Bars
Recipe by Ann Burrell

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pea-sized pieces, plus more for pan
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 (11-ounce) bag butterscotch chips
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9 x 13" pan.

In a food processor add the flour, oats and brown sugar and pulse to combine. Add the 2 sticks of butter, the cinnamon and the butterscotch chips. Pulse, pulse, pulse until the mixture forms clumps when pressed between your fingers. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Press half of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan in an even layer, reserve the other half. Bake in the preheated oven just until slightly golden and set, about 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Beat together the cream cheese, condensed milk, lemon zest and juice and vanilla in an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle, or with an electric hand mixer until no lumps of cream cheese remain. Spread evenly over the baked and cooled oatmeal mixture. Sprinkle the remaining half of the oatmeal mixture over the cream cheese. Bake until the top is golden, about 40 minutes.

Cool and chill before cutting. Run a knife around the edge of the pan, and using the foil handles, transfer the bars to a cutting board. Cut into 2-inch squares with a sharp knife and serve.

Recipe Notes: I didn't add the butterscotch chips until the dough was almost ready. I didn't want to chop the chips!