Recipe: Peanut Butter Muffins for Brunch or Breakfast

From Denny: I'm putting up two recipes today to fill the peanut butter craving for my friends! This is a wonderful breakfast or brunch or even a snack recipe for muffins. C'mon, when are muffins not enjoyed by us all? They seem to be the ultimate comfort food and this peanut butter version looked like a great one to add to this blog's recipe file. Enjoy!

Brunch Peanut Butter Muffins

Yield: 12 servings

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Ingredients:

• Crisco® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray

BATTER

• 2 cups Pillsbury BEST® All Purpose Flour

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 large egg

• 1 cup milk

• 1/3 cup Crisco® Pure Vegetable Oil


TOPPING

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 3 tablespoons Pillsbury BEST® All Purpose Flour

• 3 tablespoons Jif® Creamy Peanut Butter
OR Jif® Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter

• 1/8 teaspoon salt


Directions:

1. HEAT oven to 400ºF. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with a no-stick cooking spray or line with paper cups.

2. STIR together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Combine egg, milk and oil in small bowl. Add liquids to flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Divide batter evenly among cups.

3. COMBINE sugar, flour, peanut butter and salt in small bowl, mixing with fork until crumbly. Divide topping over muffins. Lightly stir into muffin with knife.

4. BAKE 18 to 23 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on rack 5 minutes. Remove from pan to rack to cool completely.

Recipe: Chewy Fudge Cookies

From Denny: Looking for a cookie with a bit less sugar? Pillsbury has a product called Reduced Sugar Milk Chocolate Brownie that you can gild the lily for presentation as well as great taste. There is even a Reduced Sugar Chocolate Fudge Frosting used to frost it. Give it a try if you are trying to reduce the sugar in your life.

Chewy Fudge Cookies

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 12 min

Ingredients:

• 1 (12.35 oz.) package Pillsbury® Reduced Sugar Milk Chocolate Brownie

• 1/4 cup Crisco® Butter Shortening, melted

• 1 large egg

• 1 (16 oz.) can Pillsbury® Reduced Sugar Chocolate Fudge Frosting

• 2 tablespoons chopped dry roasted peanuts


Directions:

1. HEAT oven to 350°F.

2. STIR brownie mix, melted shortening and egg in medium mixing bowl until evenly moistened. Scoop into 1 1/2-inch balls or drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.

3. BAKE 10 to 11 minutes or just until set. Cool on cookie sheet 1 minute. Transfer to cooling rack. Spread frosting on cooled cookies. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts.

Cheeky Quote Day at The Social Poets! 23 Sept 2009

From Denny: Make sure you collect your work week laughs of funny quotes over at The Social Poets! I've been wrestling with my Twitter account for several months now and it's been slowing down my daily posting on time. Along the way of building a new account I've found a lot of funny quotes on Twitter to give you some grins! For your dose of cheeky quotes, go here.

Photo by I'm Fantastic @ flickr

3 Funny Quotes About Human Nature

Photo by snuzzy @ flickr

From Denny: While I was setting up a new account on Twitter now called DennyLyon7 (the old one - warriorlight - got messed up from putting a badge of support on my avatar.

Note to self: Never put a badge of support on your avatar ever again. Write this 1,000 times on the blackboard or digital equivalent thereof. It was a lemonade badge to support kids with cancer. No good deed goes unpunished. :)

So, while I was laughing at myself (and groaning about all the tedious tech work for the past week this has required) I thought I'd fish around for some funny quotes about human nature so you could laugh with me! Even the dog is laughing...

Quotes

* Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not, a sense of humor to console him for what he is. - Oscar Wilde

* All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it. - H. L. Mencken

And my absolute favorite:

* Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century. - Dame Edna Everage

Recipe: Peanut Butter Buckeyes Cookies Dipped in Chocolate

From Denny: Since I've learned so many of my readers enjoy peanut butter with their chocolate I'm working on loading this blog with lots of yummy recipes to satisfy that craving! :) Here's another winner from the Jif site (my favorite commercial peanut butter).

Warning: These super sweet cookies can be addicting! :)

Buckeyes Cookies

Prep Time: 30 min

Yield: 5 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups Smucker's® Creamy Natural Peanut Butter, stirred OR Jif® Creamy Peanut Butter

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3 to 4 cups powdered sugar

• 1 (12 oz.) package (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips

• 2 tablespoons Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening


Directions:

1. COMBINE peanut butter, butter, vanilla and salt in large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on LOW until blended. Add 2 cups powdered sugar, beating until blended. Beat in additional powdered sugar until mixture, when shaped into a ball, will stay on a toothpick. Shape into 1-inch balls. Refrigerate.

2. PLACE chocolate chips and shortening in microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on MEDIUM for 30 seconds. Stir. Repeat until mixture is smooth. Reheat as needed while coating peanut butter balls.

3. INSERT toothpick in peanut butter ball. Dip 3/4 of ball into chocolate, leaving top uncovered to resemble a buckeye. Remove excess. Place on wax paper-lined tray. Remove toothpick. Smooth over holes. Refrigerate until firm.