Peanut Bars

Peanut bars

A big fat pan of salted nut roll-esque bars. Delicious!  

PEANUT BARS

Base layer. 

1 package, yellow cake mix

1/3 cup butter or margarine

1 egg

Combine and press into 9" x 13" pan.  Bake at 350 for 12-18 minutes.  Remove from oven and spring with 3 cups of miniature marshmallows.   Return to oven until marshmallows are puffy.

Top layer. 

2/3 cup corn syrup

1/4 cup butter or margarine

2 T vanilla

12 oz peanut butter chips

In large saucepan, heat until chips melt and mixture is smooth.  Remove from heat and add:

2 cup Rice Krispies

2 cup salted peanuts

Spread peanut mixture over the marshmallow layer on bars.  Allow to cool.  Then chill and cut into bars. 

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Butterscotch Chiffon Pie

The pie section in the recipe box is thick especially to somebody that makes pies once a year on Thanksgiving.  

My grandmother's crust truly was the best.  I've tried numerous recipes...cutting in butter, adding a splash of vinegar, chilling, etc.  Why didn't I simply look in the recipe box for the Perfect Pie Crust? You will notice the brief instructions so a quick search yielded the appropriate baking temperature--and a discovery.  My grandma's Perfect Pie Crust is also one of Alton Brown's recipes.  Sorry, Alton, I think her recipe came first.  His instructions are way more detailed, makes me smile.  

This pie is my mother's all-time favorite.  So, it was a perfect reason to make it on her birthday...a little gift from her mother and her daughter.  

PERFECT PIE CRUST

Recipe makes enough for a double crust. 

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup Crisco

1/2 cup cold water

Mix until flour, salt and Crisco until it resembles cornmeal.  Add 1/2 cup water and stir.  Roll out (in between parchment paper is best).   [A few notes:  The dough is moist so rolling out between parchment paper made it easy to work with.  Put the dough between the parchment sheets in the freezer for a bit to make dough easier to work with.  To bake, I covered with foil and filled bottom with pie weights, removed part way through to finish baking the crust until browned].  Bake at 400 degrees. 

BUTTERSCOTCH CHIFFON PIE 

1 baked 9" pie shell (1/2 recipe from above)

1 envelope plain gelatin

1/4 cup cold water

3 eggs, separated

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup scalded milk

2 T butter

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp burnt sugar flavoring

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup white sugar

Soak gelatin in water for 5 minutes; stir from time to time.  Beat 3 egg yolks until thick and lemony, gradually beat in 1 cup brown sugar and scalded milk.  Add butter, salt and cook over water [double boiler] until it coats back of spoon.  [Stir constantly].   Stir in gelatin and cool.  Add vanilla and burnt sugar flavoring.  Beat egg whites until stiff; add white sugar gradually.  Fold the egg whites into cooked custard, pour into shell and chill until firm. 

Top with meringue if you wish! 

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Sour Cream Banana Bars

This recipe is typed and appears to be cut out from a newsletter - YWCA? Church? The heading is called "LADIES CORNER."  It must have been a small group because at the bottom after the recipe it says "If Lola would stop in, we have a gift for her." Adorable. 

The original recipe calls for Browned Butter Frosting (recipe below).  However, in handwritten notes there is also a recipe for a cream cheese frosting. Can you really go wrong with either?  Apparently so.  One family member begged to have the bars go unfrosted.  They are darn good either way. 

SOUR CREAM BANANA BARS

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter 

1 1/2 cup mashed banana

3/4 tsp salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sour cream

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional) 

Heat over to 375.  Grease and flour jelly roll pan, 15 1/2 x 10 1/2x 1.  Mix sugar, sour cream, butter and eggs in large bowl on low speed, scraping bowl occasionally for about 1 minute.  Beat in bananas and vanilla on low speed for 30 seconds.  Beat in flour, baking soda and salt on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally for 1 minute.  Stir in nuts.  Spread batter in pan.  Bake until light brown, 15-20 minutes. Cool.  Frost and cut into 2x1 1/2" bars.  Makes 48 bars. 

BROWNED BUTTER FROSTING

Heat 1/4 cup margarine or butter over medium heat until delicate brown; remove from heat.  Mix in 2 cups powdered sugar. Beat in 1 tsp of vanilla and 3 T of milk until smooth and of spreading consistency. 

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

3 oz. cream cheese, softened 

1/4 cup butter, softened 

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Beat first three ingredients together then add powdered sugar. 

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Oatmeal Sugar Cookies

This is one of many recipes that has a little (good) written in the corner.  After my husband ate the last cookie of the batch he said, "Well, I've grown rather fond of those cookies."  

OATMEAL SUGAR COOKIES

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup shortening

2 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups oatmeal

1 1/2 cup flour

Cream sugars with shortening.  Add eggs and cream again.  Sift baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and flour together.  Combine sifted dry ingredients with creamed mixture.  Stir in oatmeal and vanilla last.  Form dough into balls the size of walnuts, roll in granulated sugar.  Bake at 350 on greased cookie sheet [or parchment paper] until cookies are browned. 

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Poppyseed Bread (or Coffee Cake)

My husband loves the end pieces of any loaf.  I cut into this one, saved the end for him and moved on to other projects.  We crossed paths in the house and I mentioned the saved end piece.  "Oh, I know - I already ate it and about 5 more slices.  That stuff is good." 

POPPYSEED BREAD OR COFFEE CAKE

1 box butter pecan cake mix

1 (3 oz) box vanilla pudding

2 eggs

1 cup hot water

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup poppy seed

Mix ingredients together with mixer.  Bake in two greased and flour loaf pans for 40-45 minutes [at 350].  Turn loaves out of pans to cool completely. 

A special side note in recipe:  Spread slices with pineapple cream cheese if desired.  

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Stevie Pancakes

This recipe comes from my uncle Steve (aka Stevie).  As the family lore goes, he got it from Parade magazine 25-30 years ago when it was listed one of the Best Pancakes in USA.   It was originally from a truck stop or little cafe somewhere in the Midwest.  The origins are a bit sketchy; the pancakes are not.  

I've made them nearly every weekend for my kids for the past decade.  They simply ask, "Will you make Stevie's?"  Yes.  Yes, I will. 

STEVIE PANCAKES

Warning:  Follow the directions as written.  The order is crucial to success.  

2 cups milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

Dash of vanilla

Whisk the above together (in Steve's words, I kind of emulsify them).   Then whisk in until batter is smooth:

2 cup flour

2 T baking powder

4 T sugar

When batter is smooth, you are ready to drop on your prepared griddle.  

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Banana Bread. The recipe that started it all....

Banana Bread.  The recipe that launched Jana Vee and Marjorie.  Every time I bake the bread, every time I eat bite or watch my family enjoy a loaf, memories of my grandmothers come flooding back. 

While eating a slice (years ago) at one house, I commented on how much I loved the banana bread.  It was simply the best.  My grandma laughed, "Honey, that's your other grandma's recipe."  Ah, of course the recipes between two friends were exchanged.  

Enjoy. 

BANANA BREAD

Cooking time:  1 hour

3 ripe or overripe bananas (4 if small)

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup melted butter

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup chopped walnuts, if desired (a note on the recipe card from one grandmother to the other:  the original recipe doesn't call for them but I usually add)

Mash bananas with fork.  Stir in other ingredients.  Pour into well greased 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" x 2 1/2" loaf pan.  Bake for 1 hour at 325 in preheated oven.  Remove from pan to cool. 

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