Peanut Butter No Bakes

Peanut Butter No Bakes.

I love peanut butter. And chocolate. And oatmeal cookies aren't half bad either. Why not combine them all?

-1/2 cup butter

-4 Tablespoons cocoa powder

- 2 cups sugar

-1/2 cup milk

-1 cup peanut butter

-1 Tablespoon vanilla

-3 cups oats

-Wax paper

Pretty simple ingredients. 

Step 1: Melt the goodies! 

Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and milk. 

Mix this slowly and make sure the butter does not burn at the bottom of the pan.

Step 2: Bring to a boil.

After all of the first ingredients are combined, bring them to a boil. 

Let boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat.

Step 3: Mix in the rest! 

Now mix in the peanut butter, vanilla, and oats. 

Peanut butter, oats, and vanilla.

Return the pan to low heat to melt peanut butter while combining. 

Step 4: Make the cookies! 

Line a pan with wax paper and drop teaspoon size amounts of mix onto the pan. Spread out to make larger cookies if desired. Refrigerate cookies to cool and harden.

Line cookie sheet with wax paper. This will make for easy cleanup and cookie removal!

I used a regular spoon to drop the cookies onto the pan.

I spread the cookies out a bit to make them bigger. Refrigerate for at least an hour to harden.

Step 5: Eat up! 

Another 5 step recipe! Pretty simple! And delicious! :)

Simple chocolatey-peanut buttery-goodness. Can't go wrong. :)

Happy eating! Share the love!

Bear With Me

Hi there! Once again, I've gotten way behind on my blog! I'm in the process of trying to "consolidate" all of my blogs into one location, so I'm about to go on a manic and crazy posting spree to get all of my old recipes onto this site!

Bear with me, and check out the recipes! Now I won't have to link you to them on the other blog! :)

Thank A Farmer: National Ag Day

Happy Ag Day! There are 23 million jobs in the field of agriculture in America, making it the nation's largest employer! Whether you're aware of it or not, you probably know somebody who works in the field of agriculture, because ag is more than just farming. Be sure to thank that person today for the work they do to bring food, fiber, and fuel to our growing world! Without agriculture, we'd all suffer. 

Do you know anyone who holds one of these jobs? They are an agriculturalist. Thank them today.

Courtesy: Erin Ehnle; "Keeping It Real: Through The Eyes of a Farm Girl"

A farmer does much more than you would think. Farming is not easy, but every farmer is willing to sacrifice ease to feed people he doesn't know. 

Courtesy: Erin Ehnle; "Keeping It Real: Through The Eyes of a Farm Girl"

Paul Harvey: "So God Made A Farmer"

And on the eighth day....

God looked down on His planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker."

So God made a farmer. 

God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk the cows, work all day in the field, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting at a school board."

So God made a farmer.

"I need someone with arms strong enough to wrestle a calf, and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Someone to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies, then tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon...and mean it."

So God made a farmer. 

God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt, and watch it die, and dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year...'. I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoo a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of hay wire, feed sacks and shoe scraps, who in planting time and harvest season will finish his 40 hour week by Tuesday noon and then pain in from tractor-back will put in another 72 hours."

So God made a farmer. 

God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds, and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place.

So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to yean lambs and wean pigs and tend to the pink-combed pullets who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark." It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed, and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five mile drive to church. Somebody who'd bail a family together with the soft, strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh, and then sigh, and then reply with smiling eyes when his son says he wants to spend his life doing what dad does. 

So God made a farmer.

Selfishness & Saltwater Tears.

What’s so special about saltwater tears, exactly?

I’m a selfish person. I never realized it until a couple of weeks ago. I was talking to my beautiful friend Jennifer about something one night on the phone, and all of a sudden, it clicked. I’m incredibly selfish. Not exactly the revelation that I had wanted to walk away with from the conversation we were having, certainly not the revelation I had expected to walk away with. But God doesn’t tend to care about what I want, He would much rather deliver me with what I need. And apparently, I needed to know my selfishness.

So after I hung up the phone, I prayed that God would keep my eyes open to how selfish my heart can be, how impatient I can be.  And I went to bed, and I woke up the next day, committed to keeping a spotlight on my heart so that I was always aware of when something got in the way of the light God shines on me. 

I quickly realized that all of my fears and worries stem from selfishness. The doubt wouldn’t be there if I wasn’t afraid that my agenda wasn’t going to be met. My problem isn’t that I don’t know what God can do. I have a grasp (not a tight one, not an unshakeable one, but a grasp nonetheless) of God’s power. I know He moves mountains. I know He brings beauty in all things. Yeah, I know. But that doesn’t stop me from doubting whether He will bring beauty in certain situations in my life. I tend to think that maybe I just need to relieve Him of His duties. As if Heaven is a business and there’s a shift change right at the point of the day when it’s time to make the decisions for Olivia’s life. I start to feel like at that point, I should give God a break. I’ll hop up on that throne and I’ll take over those decisions. He doesn’t need to worry about me, I’ve got this.

Selfishness. That’s selfishness. It’s impatience, it’s doubt, and it’s an underestimation of an overwhelming God.

Which leads me to the saltwater tears. Funny that you should ask why they’re so special…

I talked to Jennifer on a Thursday night, and throughout the weekend, this idea of my selfishness just kept running through my mind. I became so aware of it, and I kept praying that He would remove it and help me to serve others in whatever way I could, especially in prayer. I decided that I was going to turn my selfishness into prayer. I made this decision on the side of a gravel road located somewhere near SR 28 in Tippecanoe County, although I have absolutely no clue where.

As I drove back to school that Sunday night, I pulled over on the first spot of road that I could find far enough away from a house that flashing hazards wouldn’t worry the owners, and I cranked my music loud. I rolled down my window so that I could feel the words, and I got out of my car, and I looked up, and I cried.

Something about NEEDTOBREATHE singing “Something Beautiful”, and the crisp late winter air, and the bare, flat Indiana cornfields that went for miles, and the stars, it was over. Those stars. Man. I hope that every one of you has had the chance to see the stars from a country sky.  If not, get on that. That’ll teach you about God.  I was just overwhelmed by His bigness. Like I said earlier, I know He’s big, and like I said earlier, I have a grasp on that. But it’s moments like the one I had on that side of the road that loosen my grip and make me question my understanding of anything. I think those are the times that God laughs at me most. He’s just sitting up there thinking, “Oh, Olivia. You thought you had me figured out. Well, you didn’t. I just threw an extra thousand stars up in the sky just to put you in your place. Nice try.”

Take this in. 

God overwhelmed me. He flooded over me like a tsunami. He whipped me around like a hurricane. And the tears streamed down my face like rain. Saltwater tears. It was no more than 23 degrees outside, and I am no scientist, so maybe my idiotic logic is completely wrong. It probably is. But it makes for a good blog title. I stood out there for 5 minutes. Crying, freezing, praising, freezing, praying, freezing…you get the gist. But none of my tears ever froze. Is it because they’re saltwater? Maybe, maybe not, but that’s not what mattered. What mattered was that God showed me how big He was through something as small as a teardrop. He created tears to not freeze. How much would it suck if I had stood out there and had a frozen stream of water running from my eyes? But I didn’t. He is big enough to create the thousands of billions of stars that I couldn’t even see, yet miniscule enough to care about my tears not freezing.

Saltwater tears. Because God is that amazing, and because with a God like that planning my life, I have nothing to worry about. He told me so…

“I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out; plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.” [Jeremiah 29:11, MSG]

Apparently God is okay with working a double shift. I may need the money, but I’ll let Him handle the planning of my life. He seems to be enjoying Himself at work. 

Bruschetta

Bruschetta. 

-Italian bread

-5-6 Roma tomatoes

-Fresh basil (10-12 leaves)

-2 cloves garlic

-1/4 cup olive oil

-Fresh parmesan and mozzarella cheese

-Salt and pepper to taste

I'm salivating just typing this. So you know.

Step 1: Make some bruschetta.

Start with the tomatoes. Wash and dice and toss into a bowl. Next comes the basil. Do that chiffonade thing I showed you before. If you didn't see that post or forget, it's in this post right here. Throw the fresh basil into the bowl and take in the wonderful-ness of the pretty red and green. Next, mince the garlic cloves. And if you don't remember how to break into the clove, look at this post here. Good thing I did tutorials, huh? Annyyywayyy. Mince the garlic and toss it in the bowl. The smaller the pieces, the better. Unless you like mega-potent bites, I'd go as fine as possible.  Add a little bit of salt and pepper and the olive oil and your done. Not too difficult. Now for pictures.

Step 2: Finish it up.

Okay, I'm not real sure why I keep doing steps for this stuff. I think I'm going to take them out next post. Just so you know. Anyway, slice the bread at a diagonal with about half inch thickness. Then spoon on the bruschetta and sprinkle with some fresh parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes or until cheese is golden brown. You may want to broil for a few minutes as well to finish it all up and melt the cheese completely. 

Bada bing, bada boom. All done and delicioso!!! 

Happy eating!! Share the love!!

Chocolate Brownies with Chocolate Chunks Dipped in Mint Chocolate

Chocolate Brownies With Chocolate Chunks Dipped & Drizzled In Mint Chocolate.

-1/3 cup butter

-3/4 cup sugar

-2 Tablespoons water

-1 teaspoon vanilla

-2 eggs

-3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

-1 cup Andes baking mints

-2 eggs

-3/4 cup flour

-1/4 teaspoon baking soda

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-2 Tablespoons shortening

It's the most wonderful time of the year. :)

Step 1: Homemade brownies!

Start by melting and boiling the butter, water, and sugar together in a saucepan. Make sure to only boil for 30-45 seconds so you don't over-boil. 

Mix in vanilla and 1 cup of chocolate chips until smooth. Remove from heat after this step for 5 minutes.

The reason you let it cool- the eggs. I forgot to take a picture of this step, but regardless, make sure to let the mixture cool for a few minutes. If not, the eggs will cook when you mix them in. No one wants set up egg whites in their brownies. Add them one at a time until mixed well. 

Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda in a separate bowl. Combine this mixture with the chocolate mixture. Then stir in 1 cup of chocolate chips in. 

Pour into a 9"x9" or 8"x9" (that's what I used) pan lined with nonstick foil. If you don't have nonstick, just regular, put the non-shiny side up. 

Bake at 325 degrees for 35 minutes. Let cool completely. I remove the foil lined brownies from the pan so they cool quicker. 

Step 2: Get them dip ready!

Wrap foil around the brownies and put in the freezer for awhile. Don't let them freeze completely, because you'll need to cut them. Once they're cut, wrap them up and freeze them completely this time. 

Does it get any better than this? Yes. Just wait. 

Step 3: Dip and Drizzle!

Melt the remaining cup of chocolate chips and the cup of mint chips together with the shortening in a double boiler. Take the frozen brownie bars out of the freezer a few at a time and dip them. Place on wax paper, drizzle with more mint chocolate and refrigerate to harden the chocolate. 

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Amazing-ness.

Fruit Salsa

Fruit Salsa.

-2 Small Granny Apples

-1 cup Strawberries

-1 cup Blueberries

-1 Small Orange

-1 Kiwi

-2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar

-2 Tbsp. Apple Jelly

I obtained this recipe a few summers ago from my mom's (and I count her as my own as well) friend Michelle. Side note; Michelle started an AWESOME Non-Profit called Hope For His Children, Inc. you should ABSOLUTELY go and check it out. And maybe, just maybe, "like" the Facebook page. It's a total summer dish. I mean, you could make it in the middle of December, but what fun would that be? It would be like making peppermint bark for the Fourth of July.

Step 1: Get that fruit prepped and ready!

This is really the only step. I mean, the only step that requires any real work. Wash the fruit, and slice it all up! Place all of the fruit in one bowl and mix it up. In case you aren't following, here are the pictures.

Does it get any more summer than this?

Cut the apples pretty small. The food processor won't cut the apples near as much as the other fruit later on, so work ahead on this! 

The strawberries can remain a little bit larger because they're a softer fruit. This will also go for the rest of the fruit as well.

I just toss in about two handfuls of blueberries, don't really worry about measuring.

In my opinion, most successful way to get to a kiwi is the "spoon method".

I'm horrible at peeling oranges. And I hate that white stuff. So since it's all being chopped up anyway, cutting away the peel works for me. 

My grater was in the dishwasher, but I sliced off a little bit of orange zest as well. It's okay if it's not grated; it will be chopped in the food processor.

Throw it all in the bowl and mix it up! 

Step 2: Let's make some salsa!

My processor isn't industrial by any means, so I had to do this a little at a time. Gradually, food process the fruit mixture. I suggest doing 5-6 pulses. 

It should end up looking something like this. 

Step 3: Final touches!

Stir in 2 Tablespoons of brown sugar and 2 Tablespoons of apple jelly and you're good to go! 

The key is to eat the salsa with cinnamon sugar chips. Target used to sell them under the Archer Farms label, but sadly discontinued them. Luckily, Michelle pointed me in the way of Stacy's Pita Chips in cinnamon sugar. De-lish! You can also make your own chips by brushing butter on flour tortillas, sprinkling with cinnamon sugar, and baking at 450 degrees until crisp.

Summer Lovin'. :)