Break

I'm taking a little break from the blogging world over the next couple of weeks. If you couldn't tell, my posts have been pretty scarce here and here. I've been busy taking kids to the pool almost everyday and just trying to enjoy summer...the heat and all. Our little miss is in the beginning stages of crawling and the above picture has been her current favorite position on the ground for the past month. I personally think it is so cute. I might make an appearance or two, but for the most part, I am checking out. Ciao!

Natural Peanut Butter Winners

And the winners of the Krema/Crazy Richard's natural peanut butter are....

Teri said... 

Well, of course, the "Sticky and Sweet". What could be better?

Thanks for the giveaway.

erica e said...

mmm... i think i must try the grilled pb and banana split sandwich! i was sold when i realized there weren't only mini chocolate chips but also strawberries! oh yum!

Damaris said...

Peanut Butter Cup Bliss=yumm.

this also looks yumm.

Please email me at thecooknextdoor@gmail.com and leave your address so your peanut butter can be sent to you.

Thanks.

Peanut Butter Bars and a Giveaway

 

Peanut Butter Bars With Chocolate Fudge Frosting

from Brooke at Cheeky Kitchen

Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Bars

1 c. peanut butter

1 egg

1/2 c. butter

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. Coach's Oats

3/4 c. whole wheat flour

1/4 c. white flour

1/2 tsp. soda

In a large bowl, cream together peanut butter, egg, butter and brown sugar until light an whippy. Add remaining ingredients, then press into a small cookies sheet. Bake in an oven preheated to 375 degrees for exactly nine minutes. Don't overcook it! It might look a little soft and gooey, but it will set as it cools. Allow to cool before frosting & cutting into bars.

Whippy Cocoa Fudge Frosting

2 sticks butter, softened

4 c. powdered sugar

1/4 c. milk

1 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a microwave safe bowl, melt chocolate chips just until barely melted. Using and electric beater/mixer, beat in the butter, then slowly add the powdered sugar and just enough milk to make the frosting a nice, spreadable consistency. Frost cooled bars. Allow frosting to set up for about 30 minutes before cutting. ENJOY!

Remember when I had Melissa on from Krema and Crazy Richard's Natural Peanut Butter?  Well, when they sent me some of their peanut butter, I got right to work in my kitchen.  This is the Crazy Richard's brand.

This is the Krema brand.  

All N.A.T.U.R.A.L baby!

The ingredients.  I love how there are oats, natural peanut butter and whole wheat flour in these.  That makes them totally healthy, right?

Mix all of the wet ingredients together.  

Next, add the dry ingredients.

Press into a small cookie sheet.  I used my sheet that is half the size of my regular cookie sheets.  Otherwise known as a quarter sheet pan.

Do not overbake.  These are supposed to be moist.  I cooked mine until I could just barely see it browning on the top.

The whippy cocoa fudge frosting ingredients.  

Oh, la, la!

These are easy and fast to put together for an impromptu summer party or picnic outside.

The folks at Krema and Crazy Richard's Natural Peanut Butter would like to do a giveaway for my readers.

Here is the deal:

Go to their blog.  In your comment on my blog, state what your favorite "Sammy of the Week" from their blog would be and why.  There are many to choose from, so good luck.  They want three winners...how can I argue with that?  Each winner will have two jars of natural peanut butter sent to them.  One creamy and one crunchy.  

The giveaway ends Monday night at 11:59 pm.  

Grilled Marinated Flank Steak

Grilled Marinated Flank Steak

from Simply Recipes

Marinade Ingredients

1/3 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup honey

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Other Ingredients

2 pounds flank steak

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1  Score the surface of the steak with 1/4 inch deep knife cuts, about an inch apart, across the grain of the meat. Combine the marinade ingredients. Place steak and marinade ingredients in a large freezer bag. Coat the steak well with the marinade. Seal the bag and place in a bowl. Chill and marinate for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.

2  Using olive oil soaked onto a paper towel, coat the grill rack of your grill with olive oil. Preheat the grill with high, direct heat. The grill is hot enough when you hold your hand about an inch over it and you can only hold it there for about a second.

3  Take the steak out of the marinade bag and sprinkle generously on all sides with coarse salt and freshly ground pepper. The salt and pepper will help form a savory crust on the steak. Place steak on the hot grill. If you are using a gas grill, cover the grill. Grill for 4-6 minutes on each side. Half way through grilling on each side, turn the steak 90° so that you get more grill marks.

4  How do you know if the steak is done? The best way to tell is to poke it with your finger tips. While the steak is still raw, test it with your fingers; it will be quite squishy. That's what a very rare steak feels like. As the steak cooks the muscles contract and firm up. Touch the tip of your nose and that's what a very well done steak feels like. Here's a visual guide, the finger test to check the doneness of steak.

5  Flank steak is best eaten medium rare; well done will make it too tough. When the steak has cooked to your preferred level of doneness, remove from the grill and place on a cutting board. Cover with aluminum foil to hold in the heat and to keep the steak from drying out, and let rest for 10 minutes.

Make very thin slices, against the grain, and at a slight diagonal so that the slices are wide.

If you want, you can take the excess marinade and bring it to a boil, simmer for several minutes, and serve with the flank steak. Great also with salsa or horseradish sauce.

Serves 6.

{cooks note}

I made this for Cody on Father's Day and it was a huge success.  The meat was tender and juicy and grilled to perfection (thanks to Cody).  I marinated the steak overnight to let all of the marinade soak into the meat.  I boiled the excess marinade and then simmered it for a few minutes.  The added juices to the meat and potatoes was a welcomed addition.  I served the meat with garlic red mashed potatoes, fresh fruit bowls and green beans with bacon and cheese (recipes coming soon).  

Strawberry Shortcakes

Strawberry Shortcakes

from The Food Librarian

Biscuits

2 1/2 C + 2 T (12 1/2 oz) all-purpose flour

1 T baking powder

1/4 c sugar

3/4 t salt

7 T unsalted butter, very cold

1 C heavy cream, very cold

Extra cream and sugar for the tops

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Sift flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl.

3. Cut butter into small pieces, and cut butter into dry ingredients. I used a pastry blender, but you can use two knives or your fingers to get pea size pieces of butter.

4. Make a well in the center and pour in the cream. Gently mix the dough together with a wooden spoon or your hands. Don't overmix...it'll look shaggy.

5. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and roll out to 1-inch thick. I didn't have time for a roller so I just patted it out. Tartine uses a 4-inch circle cutter (for 6 circles). I used a small 2-inch circle cutter and got 15 biscuits.

6. Place biscuits on baking sheet (I placed on a Silpat) and brush tops with heavy cream and sprinkle with sugar.

7. Bake until golden, 10 to 12 minutes.

For my shortcakes, I cut about a pint of strawberries and macerated them in some sugar - amount of sugar depends on the sweetness of your strawberries. I whipped some heavy cream (about 1 1/2 cups) and with sugar and vanilla (to taste). Assemble and serve immediately or within a few hours.

{cooks note}

These were a huge hit.  Not too sweet, but sweet enough with the sugar on the strawberries and the whipping cream.  Just make sure you do not overbake the shortcakes.  You want them to be moist, not dry.

Sift all dry ingredients together.

Cut butter into small pieces and add to the dry ingredients.

Once the butter is cut in, make a well in the center of your dry ingredients.  

Place the 1 cup of heavy cream in the center and gently mix the two together.

I used a small biscuit cutter to shape my shortcakes.  You can make them any size you want.  I was serving individual strawberry shortcakes for dessert, so I wanted mine to be larger than a bite size shortcake.  Don't forget to sprinkle sugar on the tops.

Not too light and not too dark.

A wonderful summer treat to serve after dinner.

Picture upload problems

I have a problem.  Blogger is not letting me upload photos to both of my blogs.  Has anyone ever had this problem?  It's driving me crazy!  Do I have to buy more storage?  Please help a girl out.

Natural Peanut Butter: Guest Post by Melissa Sonksen of Krema and Crazy Richard's Peanut Butter

My mom and Melissa were roommates on a Study Abroad to Europe back in their college days.  They have kept in contact all of these years and see each other from time to time.  Krema and Crazy Richard's Peanut Butter is a family owned company based out of Dublin, Ohio.  I asked Melissa to share a few things about their natural peanut butter and why it has been rated one of the best natural peanut butter's out on the market.  Trust me, this stuff is really good. They sent me some of their creamy and chunky and it's already gone.  I love that the only ingredient is peanuts.  

"Do you feel this good about everything you eat?" That's one of our slogans. Apparently Men's Health Magazine, Prevention Magazine and Cooking Light Magazine agree as they have named our Peanut Butters in the listings of their top favorite healthy foods. They love our single ingredient, minimal processing, and top quality ingredients as some of the reasons they recommend us to their readers. We were also featured on the Today Show with Kathie Lee and Hoda on March 10, 2010. They Loved tasting our Crazy Richard's Peanut Butter and they especially loved the smooth and creamy texture and pure peanutty taste! If you're wondering what's the difference between our two brands, there isn't any! It's the exact same Peanut Butter but Crazy Richard's is sold on the East Coast and Krema is sold mainly in the Midwest.

Why choose Natural Peanut Butter??

Why do Men's Health Magazine, Cooking Light Magazine and Prevention Magazine choose Natural Peanut Butter? They have chosen Peanut Butter by the Krema Product Company because of the fact that there are no hydrogenated oils, sugars, or salt added in. Our Krema and Crazy Richard's brands of Peanut Butter are just Peanuts! That's all ! We use the top quality runner split peanuts from Georgia in the good old USA, carefully roast and grind in our time honored tradition and get it quickly to you and your families. We have been doing it the same way since our founding in 1898. Forget all this new fangled reduced fat, low fat, smart whatever peanut butter. Many of those have hidden ingredients like evaporated cane juice (sugar), palm oil, defatted peanut meal and salt, yuck! All you do is stir it up to mix in the peanut oil that has separated to the top. Once mixed, your jar of peanut butter will stay that way if kept in the refrigerator. But don't take out word for it! There's a new nutritional scoring system that allows consumers to see - at a glance - the nutritional value of the foods they buy. It's a summary of the overall nutritional value of grocery store products. It provides one simple score from 1 to 100. The higher the nutritional value, the higher the NuVal Score. Many grocery store chains are adding the NuVal score right on the shelf tags so the comsumers can see at a glance which product scores the highest. The NuVal System is based on a unique patented food scoring formula developed over the course of two years of research by an independent team of nutrition and medical experts from leading universities and health organizations. Led by Dr. David Katz of the Yale University/Griffin Hospital Prevention Research Center, the team's mission was to develop a science-based formula for all foods and beverages to be consumed. So, without all the boring stuff here's how a few peanut butters have scored.

Krema Natural Crunchy & Creamy 51

Crazy Richard's Natural Crunchy & Creamy 51

Maranatha Organic Creamy 21

Jiff Natural Creamy 21

Jiff Regular Creamy 21

Skippy Regular Creamy 20

Smuckers Natural Creamy 20

Skippy Natural Creamy 18

Jiff Reduced Fat Creamy 7

I love that Krema and Crazy Richard's Peanut Butter is made from start to finish in the USA.  They were recently featured on the Today Show.  Check it out here.  You can go here to find out more about Krema and Crazy Richard's products, where they are sold and how you can order them.  They also have an awesome blog with a variety of recipes incorporating natural peanut butter.  Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing some of my favorite recipes to use peanut butter in.  Luckily for me, I can purchase Krema at my local Kroger's.