Friday Friend Recipe #239 - Peanut Butter Bars

Making my way thru my Friday Friend Cookbook, one recipe at a time.

What is the Friday Friend cookbook? I once had about 50 of my closest friends and family (from all over the county) on an e-mail forum which I called the Friday Friends . At first, most of them didn't know each other, (they knew me) but over the past 20 years, we've answered and shared silly--and serious---questions, exchanged Secret Santa Christmas gifts, had a dieting contest in which we paid a $1 a week and that money went to a scholarship fund for a Friday Friends son's memorial scholarship, and we went on a great vacation for my 52 birthday. (plus so much more....)

AND, we contributed recipes for a cookbook.

I was looking at the cookbook the other night and I said, "I should make every recipe in here for my blog."
The Handyman--who thinks he knows me better than I know myself (this happened to be a question on the Friday Friend forum once---does your spouse/partner know you better than you know yourself?)--said,  "you'll never, EVER do that."
WELL---maybe I'll show him!  Maybe I will.

Which brings me to this... recipe #239

Tomi's Reese's Peanut Butter Bars

These are good!  So, Soooo good.

They taste exactly like a  Reese's Peanut butter cup.

Reese's Peanut Butter Bars (a copycat recipe)

Tomi Pingree

1 lb. powered sugar

2 cubes melted butter

1 wrapper graham crackers--crushed

1 1/2 cups peanut butter

Mix all together and press into a 9x13 pan.

Melt 12oz chocolate chips and spread over the top.

Refrigerate till firm and cut.

These are  yummy beyond yum!

My mom always made the Buckeyes at Christmas time, but the rolling and dipping proved to be too much for me--perhaps that is the epitome of laziness, but these bars are to die for and they have the same ingredients, peanut butter and chocolate, so why not do what is easy?

This is Tomi's 5th appearance in the Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown.
You can see all her recipes here.

I was looking thru some of my old Friday Friend Notebooks ( I secretly printed out sheets and sheets of emails ---I can be the WHISTLE BLOWER of the Friday Friend Forum--I know all their secrets!)  to see if something struck a memory to write a story about Tomi--I found a few of her answers to the everyday silly questions I would ask my 'Friday Friend Forum'.

In the fall of 2006, I asked these questions:
Do you like Applets and Cotlets?
Are you a hugger?
Do you wear rubber gloves when cleaning/doing dishes?
List 4 jobs you've had in your lifetime.

I know that For Christmas the year before, Tomi's mother-in-law received some Applets and Cotlets and that Tomi did not like them as they have a weird texture to them.
In her humble opinion.

Here is what she said about hugging...
To hug or not to hug.  You know that I am  not a hugger.  I do hug, but mostly my family and close friends.  I'm not a casual hugger. I like my personal space. I will admit that I'm getting better at hugging and being hugged--when you teach little kids, you're getting hugged all the time, so I've come to appreciate the spontaneous hug now and then.

Rubber Gloves when cleaning or doing dishes?
No I don't wear rubber gloves--they make me feel claustrophobic.  Weird, I know.

And four jobs in her lifetime:
Cashier at Skaggs Drug, ticket taker at the local movie theater, Credit Evaluator at a bank,  and teacher.
I would have to say that being a teacher has probably been the oddest and most rewarding job.  Odd in the sense that you never know what is going to happen-kids o and say strange things, and rewarding in the sense that teaching opens up possibilities to kids. 

Rewarding?  Perhaps, but the best story comes from her time as a cashier at Skaggs Drug.
A guy comes up with some condoms and Tomi, being young and naïve (high-school, 1974ish) called for a price check on Trojans.  
OVER THE INTERCOM!!

And that is my Tomi Story!
See... I do know everything!  About all my Friends!
And I never forget!! 

Below is a photo of Tomi (on the right) and our good friend Dink Gootman Schemenkminor on the left.  (it's a long story---her professional social worker peers just call her Dorothy Minor)
Dink/Dorothy never was on the Friday Friend Forum.  She said she didn't do computers once she was off work.
We've been friends for year, so once in a while I'll stick her photo in here too!

This was at one of my son's wedding receptions about 17 years ago.

Well I spent this past weekend trying to figure out exactly how many recipes I have left to do.

I have made 257 recipes.

This one will make 239 I've posted.

When I did a count of recipes not made yet, I came up with 99.

THEN I crossed referenced how many recipes of each Friday Friend I had left to make and I came up with 100.

I will recount sometime this week, as this will drive me crazy!

But for now--- this is where we stand.

My friends I bring to you recipe #239

Only 128 left to go!

(or 127 if my count is wrong )

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Friday Friend Recipe #236 and #237 - Barb's Chicken Spaghetti and Brown Sugar Squares

Come with me as I continue to countdown my Friday Friend Cookbook!

What is it, you may ask?

In a nutshell....

About 20 years ago, 50 of my closest friends and family, who had been on an

  e-mail forum with me, sent in recipes in different categories and we compiled a cookbook.

I decided to count those down!

Why?

Because one night I was looking thru the cookbook and I said, "I should make every recipe in  here for my blog."

The Handyman, who thinks he knows me better than I know myself, said "you'll never EVER do that."

Well, maybe I will!  Maybe I'll show him!

My mom had this recipe too---except she called it Brown Sugar Chewies.  They are very chewy, those Brown Sugar Squares.  Chewy and Good!

I think bar cookies are an easy, delicious way to end any dinner when you need just a little sweetness.  

This recipe calls for mostly  items you have on hand, making it easy to enjoy  any night of the week.

They are kind of 'melt in  your mouth goodness'

My mother had the absolutely worst handwriting ever!

I just like to look at it---it makes me miss her.

My dad had bad handwriting too.  It was always a mystery to figure out their letters and postcards.

(one time my dad sent me a postcard from Hawaii and he wrote that they were going out to dinner--all I could read was that they were bonging out for summer.

I was surprised at my parents!  LOL

This is the best comfort food ever!

I love the chicken spaghetti!

It's just cheesy, noodley  goodness.

Barb's 52 appearance in the countdown!

And again, I say, I'm running out of pictures and stories about her.

A few years ago, about  8 to be exact, I had a birthday party for myself at our cabin in Oregon--Wallowa Lake--and a lot of my Friday Friends came from all over (Washington, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Minnesota,  etc)

Barb drove up from Arizona and then she and I left a day early to go up to the cabin and get things ready for everyone.  

Thursday we made pulled pork and a few salads for everyone who was arriving that evening.  Barb helped me to get things ready for that.  We grocery shopped, we cooked, we pulled (the pork), we cleaned, we planned, we had fun.  It was a bit drizzly that day, so we even played some cards while we awaited the masses.

Friday night we took over a small restaurant where they made beer can chicken for us.

Saturday night we had a traveling cocktail party.

Sunday all kinds of leftovers.

Barb was like my girl Friday, or my extra special assistant. 

It's a good thing she is super extra ordinarily organized and efficient--because then I didn't have to be! 

 I'm just going to share a few random photos of Barb at the traveling cocktail party.

I promise when my next recipe on the countdown comes up, I will give a full review of my best birthday party weekend of all time.

But for now---I give you random Barb.

I'm not sure if she and April were doing the Bump or not?

And at one cabin on the travels--it looks like Barb had to hold herself up with a pole. I mean this was the 5th cabin-- was 5th cocktail of the night--and we still had more to go!

Oh... in case I forgot to mention--it was a WALKING traveling cocktail party.

Every cabin had a 'theme' (I'll have to tell the story of the whole weekend sometime) and this particular cabin's theme was "Elf Yourself Happy".   I had taken a photo of a sign that said 

Drink your self happy or something like that, but there was a pole blocking out the S on self, so it looked like it said to Drink your ELF happy.

So we were!

 Barb with a pork rind, Because before the Elf cabin, there was the hillbilly cabin.

Themes people---it's all about themes.

Barb (and Doug and Cherrie) saying 'CHEERS' to a vacation well done!

At least I think that's what she's doing.

That's my story!

My friends I bring to you recipe #236 and #237

Only 130 left to go!