I’ll get into why in a minute, but I was pretty much hooked from the start. What could be more amazing than dreaming of a dessert and then creating it? Sure, back then I needed recipes (I was very reliant on them),  but it was still a lot of fun to cook in my crappy dorm kitchen.

These brownies are the first ones I ever baked from scratch, and the first baked good I ever added my own spin to. I used to call them “candy bar brownies” because they are very much like that. Rich, fudgy brownies are filled with peanut butter and milk chocolate chips, with a thick layer of the same on top. They’re crazy addictive!

When I was in college, I had a boyfriend who was sort of local to the area. He’d invite me to his mom’s house on weekends, and I always wanted to bring a hostess gift of some kind. The problem? I didn’t have much money, and whatever money I did have I would spend on veggie burgers to make it through the week.

That’s when I started learning how to bake. I went to the college bookstore and bought a Pillsbury baking book (still one of my favorites) in the reduced-price bin. If I couldn’t bring expensive chocolates or bottles of wine (um, wasn’t 21 yet) as a present, I could at least bring baked goods.

At first, it was something of a struggle. I had no mixer, didn’t know what any of the directions meant (creaming? straining? whaaat?), and didn’t own more than one or two pans. Luckily, these brownies fit into the one kind of pan I did have: the ever-useful 9 x 13.

One day, I was in the baking aisle at the only grocery store I could walk to, and I found a box of Baker’s unsweetened chocolate. On the back was a recipe for one-bowl brownies, and there was no mixer needed. I could just melt the butter and chocolate in a microwave, mix stuff together, and be done with it. Instantly, that became my go-to brownie recipe of the 90s.

When Reese’s peanut butter chips burst onto the baking scene, I found them at the grocery store, too. They got a lot of use in my kitchen then, and they still do. I think they always will!

These brownies are full of both milk chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. When the brownies come out of the oven, I sprinkle the same mixture over the top, let it melt, and spread the chocolate over the surface. When it hardens, it’s like a brownie and candy bar in one!

I might not be in college anymore (not by a long shot), but I can still enjoy these brownies to the utmost. I hope you do, too!

I’ve been on a banana kick this summer, and it’s probably just me making up for lost time. I barely posted any banana recipes in the first two years of the blog, so this summer it’s just bananas all the time. Plus, I don’t like to keep them on the counter in the summer. The bugs, they will come.

Plus, this feels like the right time to write about this cake. There’s a slice of it on my desk in my new office, and I’m looking out at the tree by my window and contemplating happy thoughts. Why not add a moist banana cake filled with both peanut butter cups and peanut butter chips to the mix? A gluten-free one, might I add?

I’ve never had a tree by a window where I work, and I’m finding it to be a very cheerful thing. There’s something about connecting to nature when you spend the day encased in cinder block that is very soothing.

The cinder block leads me to my big question here. You ready? Adhesive.

Yes, I said adhesive. I’ve been doing a lot of wall mounting as I set up this office, and things keep falling down. Seriously, one crash after another. I’ve been using adhesive mountings because I can’t make holes in the wall, but it’s not going well. You see, cinder block is very resistant to adhesive.

Any tips? And no, super glue is not one of them. I can’t do that. Or crazy glue. Or any glue at all. Can you help me before I lose my mind? If I hear one more thing come crashing to the floor, I might run for the hills.

A few months ago, I made this banana toffee snack cake, and people loooooved it. Seriously, I can never predict what people will go for. I make the most amazing thing and the pictures turn out great, and barely a reaction. But sometimes, a recipe just goes sailing through the interweb in the most gloriously unpredictable way.

This, then, is an experiment. I used the same cake base, but I changed up the mix-ins. To be honest, I love both versions. If they were my children, I’d love both equally. But as a peanut butter lover, I’d have to direct you toward this one. I mean, come on. It’s so happy.

Like my other banana recipes, this one is effortlessly gluten-free, thanks to oat flour. And it’s also super easy with no mixer or crazy bowl action needed. That means if I see a banana on the counter, it’s getting baked. This recipe is too simple not to go for it.

If you have any help to give me with adhesive matters, let me know. I need it. Pleeeeeeease!

And it’s even more a thing when it’s smothered in peanut butter caramel and sprinkled with sea salt. If you’re looking for me, I’m hiding in a closet with a giant wedge of this and a martini. Come find me sometime next week.

Oh, and did I mention there are peanut butter chips inside the brownie? This is one of those times when you run toward making this. No walking!

I’m sure you’ve all been following the news story about the gorilla and the kid at the zoo. The story is tragic and scary in so many ways, but that’s not what I’ve been thinking about for the past week.

To be honest, I’m completely shocked at the response to this event. Without seeing much (or any) footage or even knowing details, people quickly and vocally split into Team Kid or Team Gorilla. They’ve been tearing one another apart online, each side insisting on being right. Experts have been brought in too, just in case the fighting wasn’t loud enough.

Even if you know the details, even if you were there, can I make a request?

Be compassionate. Be kind. Have good manners. Stop assuming you know everything and that you are above reproach. Stop tearing other people apart.

No matter what political affiliation you have, this election season has been marked by the same vitriol and hate. Instead of arguing issues, people are employing the classic logical fallacy of ad hominem rhetoric to make personal insults and senseless jabs the order of the day. It’s as though a reality TV mentality has taken over our political consciousness and landscape, replacing real conversation and intellectual debate with spite and pettiness.

Well, I’ve had enough. I don’t want to read any more about the horrible things people say and do to one another. How can we expect our children to grow up and be good people if the adults around them have lost their minds?

I spend a lot of time practicing avoidance. Instead of letting stupidity get to me, I often pass up reading the newspaper. That probably makes me less informed, but considering how idiotic people can be, I’m cool being out of the loop. I’d rather stay in my bubble and eat dessert.

All I did here was take my happy brownie base, add peanut butter chips, and put it into a 9-inch springform pan. After baking it, I covered it in my super-easy peanut butter caramel, which is a hack. Just combine sweetened condensed milk with a cup of peanut butter over low heat and stir until smooth. Once it’s covered and set, sprinkle the whole thing with sea salt.

The result is a brownie cake you will not soon forget. I wish I could forget all the ickiness going on in our world right now, and that everyone could just behave. But since that won’t happen, I’ll hole up with this instead!

Confession: I don’t really do smoothies much. As someone who rushes out the door to work in the dead of night (okay, well, 5:30 in the morning), I don’t want to be turning blenders on and waking up the sleeping monsters…oops, children. I’m more of a protein bar kind of girl.

But when there are muffins around, I’ll grab one of those instead. These are gluten-free and they even have protein in them (yay, Greek yogurt!), so they do the trick, And they’re peanut butter and chocolate. You are so welcome.

I’m at that stage in life when weekends are more tiring than the weekdays. Kids have all this ungodly energy, and if they don’t expend it, they turn into disciples of Satan. To make kids happy on a weekend, there is constant activity and running around. You have to pack roughly 42 activities into each day to make them tired so they don’t turn on you.

On Memorial Day weekend, we went to a great park. This park had a playground, a carousel, a train, a farm with animals, a nature center, and a nice pond and picnic area. We got there around 9:30, did everything, and around 1:00, we announced it was time to go home. The response? “We can’t leave. We just got here!”

Once we got the kids home, all I wanted to do was stretch out on the couch and sleep. But they all started fighting with one another, so when a friend called to make barbecue plans, I groggily agreed. We were at this friend’s house a mere hour later, watching kids screech and run around in the rain while pelting one another with bouncy balls. Then they all got hot dogs, which gave them more energy to bring back the crazy. Even the cat couldn’t take it. The poor thing kept trying to hide from aggressively rough hands “petting” her, to no avail.

So as the weekend approaches, I’m gonna need these muffins. They’re my only protection from the boundless energy of three young kids in the summertime.

Like many muffins, these come together without a mixer. It’s a simple process of mixing ingredients together, and look at the results!

Plus, I mean, peanut butter chips. Can anyone think of a more addictive food item? Not for me, anyway.

Hope your weekend is sunny, bright, and free of screechy whiny drama. You deserve some quiet time!

I used to take regular pilgrimages to NYC before the kids came along, and back then, there was a Popcorn, Indiana store in Times Square. I’d go there and order popcorn slathered in chocolate, have them pack it up in a big bag, and eat it on the train ride home.

Like all great stores, that one closed down, but I learned my lesson: always dress up your popcorn as much as you can. This one is covered in chocolate, mixed with Reese’s minis, and finished off with dollops of melted Reese’s chips. No trip to New York necessary for all of this madness!

Spring is such a transitional season. It’s when we feel the itch to do new things, see new places, have new experiences. It’s when we see hope that we can rejuvenate and find ways to make our lives even more meaningful. Or is that just me?

This time of year, the world looks totally different. The dark skies are light by 5:30 in the morning, the breezes are gentle, and people begin to daydream more, looking forward to beach getaways or lazy afternoons by the pool.

Maybe it’s just that I work in a school, but the focus here is definitely shifting. The same things that would have bothered me in October aren’t getting to me nearly as much right now. It’s the magic of springtime!

I wish I were as easygoing at home. It’s almost like an opposing force is at play. Yesterday, I walked by the backpack that I’d asked my daughter to put away five times. It was still in the middle of the hallway in a place seemed almost designed to make someone sprawl face-first onto the floor. Gotta be honest here: I didn’t use my patient voice this time.

But then I made it up to her by giving her some of this popcorn, and all was right with the world again. See? #goodparenting

The best part about making blinged-out popcorn is that it takes almost no time. Typically, I like to use kettle corn because it’s both sweet and salty, which gives the end result more dimension. You can use a microwaveable kettle corn, or many groceries sell really good ones as well. Popcorn, Indiana makes the BEST kettle corn. And no, they’re not sponsoring this post. I wish.

Once you have the popcorn, you mix chocolate candy melts and Reese’s minis into it, which melt ever so slightly. And don’t forget that thick ribbon of melted peanut butter chips!

Spring is here and everything is in transition. The only constant is change, but this time, the change is warmer weather and green leaves on trees. I’ll take it!

You know that I can’t go more than a week or so without doing something PB-related. It’s the ABCs of me, baby, and I’ve embraced it. Just like I’ve embraced the role of sugar in my life. More on that in a bit.

If you get frustrated because your peanut butter ice cream isn’t peanut buttery enough, or because it doesn’t include enough mix-ins, look no further. This no-churn option will satisfy all of your frozen peanut butter dreams!

I’m tired of the war on sugar. Yes, I realize I’m a baking blogger and so my credibility is lessened here, but I’m going to be very real with you.

First of all, a qualifier: the following thoughts do not apply to anyone who cannot have sugar for medical reasons or anyone who has disordered eating habits. I’m not a doctor or a nutritionist (clearly), so the following thoughts are just opinion.

A few years ago, after reading endless articles about the evils of sugar, I tried it cutting out. To call it a disaster would be fair. It’s not that I had withdrawal (I didn’t, shockingly) or any other noticeable symptoms. People told me I’d feel better, and that didn’t happen. I felt no different. Life was a little more boring, and I had to say no a lot, but that was about it.

What prompted the disaster was a lot of sudden weight loss. I’ve always been petite, and I have always worn sizes in the low range of the spectrum. But with the cancellation of sugar, I quickly lost 20 pounds and became very obsessed with maintaining what I now see was an unsustainable diet. I spent a lot of time chopping veggies, eating lean protein, and feeling virtuous.

Along with that came insecurity, doubt, a constant nagging hunger and the desire to eat everything in sight. I didn’t realize it at the time because it all seemed so healthy, but I was depriving my body of essential nutrients. What looked like fitness and health was really dysfunction.

Thankfully, I pulled myself back from the brink. As a result of this experience, I refuse to cut out food groups anymore. Did I put the weight back on? Yes. And I’m grateful for it, for my muscles (thanks, barre workouts!) and for whatever curves I like to think that I have.

When I see people turning sugar into the enemy, I get angry. It’s not sugar that’s the problem. It’s the extreme approach to food and the lack of emphasis our society puts on balance. I haven’t mastered balance, and I might not ever. But I’m sure gonna keep trying.

There’s your PSA. Now let’s get our sugar on!

This ice cream is full of it, not gonna lie. It’s got peanut butter, sweetened condensed milk, and whipped cream. You can be lazy and use Cool Whip (no judgement), but I like the less chemical taste of the whipped cream. And then I loaded the whole thing down with peanut butter cups, peanut butter chips and milk chocolate chips.

Suffice it to say, I’ll be eating a lot of this ice cream later. Probably a little more than I should. But you know, that’s life. And I’m happy that I don’t have to say no to anything anymore!

If people’s reaction to them so far is any indication, then absolutely. I had these on my desk at work wrapped in foil, and someone actually opened the foil (they can see my baked goods coming a mile away) and ate a few. Then others joined in making happy noises. To me, that’s success.

I mean, there are other ways to be successful. But few ways are more rewarding than a chewy chocolate cookie with peanut butter chips inside!

Making cookies requires patience, mainly because most good cookies require a chilling period for the dough that ranges anywhere from a few hours to overnight. And they say that patience is a virtue, but I’ve never believed that. Maybe patience is a good attribute in a baker, but in life, it can really backfire.

Patient people can miss out on opportunity. If you spend time waiting for the perfect moment, it can easily pass by and become obsolete. There’s rarely a right time (though some times are more right than others) to have a baby, ask for that promotion, take a dream vacation, or start a food blog.

When I decided to start JAB over two years ago, the timing could not have been less opportune. I was still in a sleepless haze from having three kids very close together, my job was as demanding as always (being a teacher is not a low-stress field), and I knew little about food photography and nothing about running a website.

I could choose to be embarrassed by the missteps I’ve taken along the way. My early photography was abysmal, and it could be better nowadays. I don’t spend nearly enough time on social media promoting JAB, but it’s not a strength of mine. And I could be more actively pursuing sponsorships and business, or editing my cookbook.

But see, I’d rather not be patient and give JAB everything I can without having a nervous breakdown. It’s far from perfect, but I do work that I’m proud of, and I keep learning more. So if patience is a virtue, the only way I can prove that is by continuing to work on something that takes time to get right.

Speaking of that, when you make these cookies, the dough chilling is NOT optional. If you don’t do it, you’ll be sorry. These cookies tend to be on the chewy/crispy side as it is, and not chilling them first will make them bake up as flat as pancakes.

Now that Friday and the weekend loom, I’m certainly not patient about getting my sugar fix on, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of. Thanks to JAB, I always have treats on hand and inspiration for future posts. Patience might work sometimes, but it’s overrated. Live in the now!

Okay, maybe that’s a tad hyperbolic. But honestly, s’mores need peanut butter like Kanye needs Twitter. Magic bars are already over the top gooey and chewy, so why not have a little mouth party up in here? The week is going to be so much more pleasant with some sugar.

These are a riff on the standard magic bar, which comes together quickly and (of course) magically with fairly few ingredients and a can of sweetened condensed milk. SCM (as we bakers like to call it) is stuff of the gods and should not be put in a corner. Nobody puts Baby in a corner.

We’re heading into birthday season in my family, and it’s always a long run. Everyone’s birthday falls between March and August, and since we all live in the same area, it’s a lot of parties and cake. Can you guess who bakes a lot of the cake? Yep. I’m cool with it.

This year, my son has requested his usual vanilla cake with…ready? RAINBOW frosting. As in, all different colors. If I didn’t love the kid so much, I would have told him in no uncertain terms that I’m not in the mood to spend the next three weeks studying YouTube tutorials on how to get a rainbow cake accomplished with the least amount of pain. At the moment, the main decision lies between fondant and buttercream, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The biggest problems always center around party venue. I don’t like having the parties at home because, to put it mildly, lots of children trash my house faster than a pack of wildebeests would. So we can pay oodles of money to a bouncy place, or a nature center, or a trampoline zone. But that’s all very been there done that at this point, so I’m out of ideas. #firstworldproblems

And don’t get me started on goody bags. Just do not.

I guess all of these issues are as widespread as the age-old question of what to eat for dinner. Check out my post on the Today Food Club website and click to the left of the Facebook icon to vote for me!

If all of life’s problems could be solved as magically as a, well, magic bar, I’d be a happy kid. These are so simple to make, and they hit all my happy places!

Hey, if only party planning could be as easy as a magic bar. But we can only have so much in life! In a world with peanut butter s’more magic bars, it’s not right to complain anyway!

If you are getting excited, join me. I’m pretty psyched about these. You see, I’ve never been much of a muffin girl. To me, a muffin is a cupcake without frosting. Yes, I know that’s technically wrong, but whatever.

When a muffin gets to emulate one of my favorite dessert bars, though, I’m down. These are the best dang muffins I’ve had in many a day.

Breakfast is very much about sweet cravings for me. I went through a period of making little egg muffins that were super-healthy and packed with veggies for my morning meal. They were definitely satiating, but there is a huge difference between being full and being satisfied.

Ever wonder why you eat when you’re full? It’s because you’re not satisfied, and that is very much an in-your-head kind of problem. I spent years chomping on sugar-free gum to get that sweet fix after a meal when it would have been much more practical to eat some chocolate. It just took me a while to realize that being full doesn’t mean that I should automatically be happy with my meal.

Every day, I see people at work eating the lunches they think they should eat, not the lunches they want to eat. The result? A lack of satisfaction, of course, which leads to after-work snacking and dinners that are less than ideal. We’re so busy thinking about what we should be eating that we’ve forgotten to listen to our own bodies.

My body wants sugar in the morning, so I finally gave up the egg muffins and usually, breakfast is a protein bar that has either chocolate or peanut butter flavors, if not both. The protein bar is processed, but it fills me up and, more important, I don’t feel like running toward the nearest cookie after it’s eaten.

Not that I don’t eventually get my cookie. I’ve learned that listening to my cravings is essential for keeping things in balance. But if I can have a cookie with lunch, and some chocolate between lunch and dinner, I don’t need that gum.

Believe me, I’m no dietary expert or nutritionist. But common sense dictates that saying no to food will send you rushing toward forbidden fruit faster than a Kardashian rushes to a plastic surgeon.

And I can’t say no to all the food I make. These peanut butter blondie muffins are a classic example. I bake them and think they’ll be great but resistible, and then I try them. Needless to say, when I shared these at work, they went fast. One coworker kept trying to eat pieces, and then she threw in the towel and ate the whole muffin. And maybe another one. Because that’s what dessert demands!

These are a one-bowl deal, and about as easy as it gets. But  be advised: these muffins are not healthy. They are based in peanut butter chips, not peanut butter. So don’t for a second think that you’re getting your daily protein. Nope. That’s for your meals. This is dessert!

If I’d frosted these, they would have been cupcakes, maybe. But they also would’ve been too much. These have just the right amount of sweetness, and they’re packed with both milk chocolate and peanut butter chips. If you can stop at one half, you have more self-control than I do.

Eating is a delicate balance, but I have to believe that the right way to begin is by saying yes. Yes to being satisfied, yes to being happy, yes to being open to possibilities. Otherwise, the joy of food disappears. And that is just a shame.

Cue stage whisper: I’m not that into banana.

Don’t go screaming now. I can’t handle that. It’s not that I hate it or anything, but in the world of baked goods, anything with banana ranks low. So take it as a sign of how much I love you all that from time to time, I produce a banana-based dessert. That is some selflessness. Of course, I did add a wee bit of peanut butter (and peanut butter chips, too) to make this more of a Mir-style dessert. And there’s strawberry jelly in there. You know, because this is totally healthy. Uh huh.

This is my first day back on the job, and I’m excited about another school year. Every year, I meet tons of really cool kids and learn even more about how to be the best possible teacher. The only part I’m not excited about is grading papers.

If you have any friends who are teachers, they’ll pretty much agree that the job is rewarding and fun, except the grading. During a typical week, I’m bringing home about 200 essays or short stories to grade, and that’s when things are running about average. On a heavy week, it gets a lot worse. I’ve been known to grade papers in traffic jams, in grocery store lines, and yes, on exam tables in the doctor’s office when he’s making me wait for 45 minutes in a giant paper towel that the medical industry has the audacity to call a “gown.”

While I’d love to keep complaining about grading papers, that’s a lot more boring than complaining about those paper gowns. Has anyone worn them? Seriously, they’re not big enough to cover squat. Nothing is worse than desperately trying to cover your rear end while the gown tears in 17 different places. So if you’re tired of shivering away in a giant paper mat while all of your body parts pop out into the wind, join me in a protest. Seriously. Let’s organize and get rid of those pieces of crap.

Can you tell I get really annoyed about really little things? But you know, it’s the little things that sometimes resonate the most. The big stuff is much easier to pay attention to, while life’s little irritants just kind of pile up unnoticed until you kind of explode. Or that’s how I feel.

I’ve said it before, but it’s a dang good thing that I have baking to distract me from the paper gowns and paper grading. Oooh, both paper. I sense a trend!

This banana bread is in a pretty happy place, and that’s from a person who feels very meh about bananas. The batter is free of butter. Instead, peanut butter and canola oil do that job quite nicely, and in a much healthier way. Anyone who has ever had bananas and peanut butter must realize how well this combo works. Add the peanut butter chips in there along with a strawberry jelly swirl, and even I’m a banana bread convert.

Tomorrow I’m back to the grind, and I need a healthier dessert to get me through. This is a good way to start! I’m not sure if a good dessert will ever fully distract me from the humiliation of a paper gown or the piles of grading, but there’s only so much we can do. Unless you’re with me on that petition. Let me know, people!