Peanut Butter and Jelly Hairpins

Handcrafted with love from polymer clay, two PBJ sandwich halves adorn 2" silver-toned hairpins. With creamy peanut butter on one slice of white bread and grape jelly on the other, these hair accessories are simply sweet! Get yours at mack on Etsy, $6.
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Martha's Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

I found this recipe at Martha Stewart. At first I didn't care for it much, but I've discovered that by using a lot less salt, and refrigerating the bars before serving, they are very addictive. I've tweaked the recipe a bit here. If you try this one, I'll be interested to know what you think of it.


Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2-1/2 cups smooth peanut butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups your favorite jam or jelly
2/3 cup peanuts, roughly chopped

Directions
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-inch pan with butter and coat inside of pan with flour; set aside. Place butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. On medium speed, add eggs and peanut butter; beat until combined, about 2 minutes.
2. Whisk together salt, baking powder, and flour. Add to bowl of mixer on low speed; combine. Add vanilla. Transfer two-thirds of mixture to prepared pan; spread evenly. Stir jam to make it smooth and easier to spread, then spread jam on top of peanut-butter mixture. Spoon remaining third of peanut-butter mixture on top of jam. Sprinkle with peanuts. Press peanuts lightly into peanut butter mixture.
3. Bake until golden, about 45 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into bars. Refrigerate for a chilly taste sensation.

You'll Never Want Plain French Toast Again

I found this recipe at Rachael Ray. It is amazing! Pretty easy to put together, and definitely worth the effort. Next time you want to impress someone at breakfast, serve this. If they're not impressed, they probably weren't worth impressing anyhow.

Stuffed French Toast

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup jam or jelly
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• dash salt
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 8 slices bread
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1 tbsp butter
• whipped topping

Mix the jelly and 3 tbsp water. Heat until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally. Set aside, but keep warm.

Mix milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt with a wire whisk. Transfer the mixture into a shallow bowl.

Spread each slice of bread with about 1 tbsp peanut butter. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over 4 slices, and top with the remaining slices of bread (peanut butter sides down).

Soak the sandwiches one at a time in the milk and egg mixture. About 5 seconds should do it, and depending on how large your bowl is, you may need to turn the sandwiches to soak the other sides.

Melt 1/2 tbsp butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 sandwiches and cook until golden, about 2 minutes on each side. Repeat with the remaining butter and sandwiches.

Serve with the whipped cream and jam syrup.

Wash Your Mouth (with a PBJ?)

This soap makes me smile every time I look at it! Yes, it's soap, in the form of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It's actually four individual soaps, so you can use them all together or just wash with bread if you feel like it. I know that some of you (yes Travel Beggar, I mean you) avoid soaps that look like they might be edible. But for everyone else--you have absolutely got to check out this soap!

These are handcrafted by a 3rd grade teacher in Oklahoma who started making soaps for her own children because her little one has such dry and sensative skin. She started making them fun soaps--bath time is more fun with a fun soap, right?--and it has grown from there. She's been making soaps for almost four years now, has sold them on eBay and now on Etsy at Sugarlane Soaps.

I heard a rumor that Sugarlane will also have food candle tarts. I'll keep you posted!