This time of year, I’m usually basking in summer with not much to do. But thanks to a recent job promotion, I’m burning the candle at both ends. I wake up, work, work some more, and that’s kind of how it is. But at least the sun is shining!

And I have these to sustain me. The base is my favorite flourless peanut butter cookie dough filled with my even more favorite candy aisle choices: patriotic peanut M & Ms and Baby Ruth bars. Heck yeah!

Here’s the thing about holidays: baking bloggers LOVE them. You see, it’s hard to get constant inspiration from just life itself, so holidays provide a lot of ideas. Or at least, they provide a lot of candy with color schemes. I can’t tell you how excited I get every time the candy matches the season. It’s so darn cute.

Now that I’ve been blogging for two and a half years, I sometimes sit back and take stock of what I’ve accomplished so far. You see, I’ve been teaching for much longer, so compared to the time I’ve been in that profession, my time here on JAB is a drop in the bucket. Even so, I’m happy with where I’ve gotten so far with this little blog, and I try and take time to enjoy it.

Just a few days ago, I was texting back and forth with an old friend of mine. He had a rough day and wanted to know if I had “baked anything for the pain.” I immediately let him know that I’d just been paid to buy lots of ice cream and bake something to go with it, and that he should come on by with a huge spoon. In that moment, I felt very lucky. Lucky to be paid to work with ice cream, and lucky to have good friends to come over and share it.

They say that it’s super healthy to keep your brain active by trying new things and doing crossword puzzles. In theory, I love crossword puzzles, but my house is too hectic for me to sit back with that cup of tea and enjoy one on a regular basis. So instead, I’m a big fan of trying new things. This blog pushes every ounce of my creativity, and I’m so happy it’s here. Even though my day job is about to get a lot more hectic, I still want to hold on to what I’ve created here on JAB.

One of my favorite discoveries this season has been transferring flourless peanut butter cookie dough into bars. It’s even better than regular cookie dough. Wanna know why?

It’s the most intense peanutty flavor ever. When you reduce a cookie dough to mostly the star ingredient (peanut butter, in this case), it’s amazing. The flavors are so good. Add in peanuts and candy and the happiness overflows.

Another good thing about this cookie base? No mixer. About five seconds and no chill time is pretty much the situation! Feel free to thank me later.

It’s summer and things should be quiet, but they’re not. I’m cool with that, since we only go around once. Trying new things is important! Well, as long as we take our dessert breaks in between. We all need a moment here and there!

If you have, you probably love them as much as I do. They’re an old-school candy bar with a peanut and a molasses-like chewy center covered in chocolate. They’ve been around for quite a long time. I happen to know that because my ancestors were chewing down on them back in the earlier part of the 20th century. There are some family stories that center around these candy bars.

Like, back in the day, they were apparently very hard to actually chew. Nowadays they’re softer, and I’ve always loved them. So I had to put them into a soft, dense, thick peanut butter cookie bar! These peanut chew bars are full of the candy and peanuts, too!

Another reason my parents and grandparents enjoyed these candy bars is that they’ve always been certified kosher. I might have mentioned this before, but every single recipe on this blog is 100% kosher. That’s because I keep strict kosher in my home, so I only bake with products that have the certification.

When I was a kid, so many products that are now kosher weren’t. I didn’t try my first Oreo until my 20s, when Nabisco finally made them kosher. My first taste of M & Ms was in my late teens for the same reason. And when my dad was growing up, Hershey bars weren’t kosher. So all he had by way of chocolate bars were Goldenberg Peanut Chews.

One of the reasons I’m so passionate about food as an adult is that I had limited options as a child. I grew up in Indiana, where there isn’t a kosher grocery store. Treats were hard to come by. We either went to Baskin-Robbins or bought Entenmann’s. Man, I have a lot of happy associations with those rich frosted chocolate donuts that come in the blue and white box.

Keeping kosher is much easier on the east coast, where there are a lot more food options. My children have no idea what it’s like to drive three hours to Chicago just to stock up on a couple of months’ worth of fresh meat. They don’t see anything special about ordering a pizza for takeout because there’s a kosher pizza place two minutes away from our house. And they absolutely don’t understand a world where nobody else is like them, where they have to miss out on soccer games or birthday parties because they take place on the Sabbath.

I’m so glad they have no idea that it’s harder in other places. Someday, they might appreciate that we live in a place where it’s easy to observe our laws and customs. But as someone who grew up in a place that didn’t have everything we needed, I take special pleasure in making sure my kids have the things I didn’t.

Isn’t that what every generation wants, after all? For the next one to have it a little easier? I don’t know if we’re really succeeding in that, but I’m sure my dad was happy that my only candy bar option growing up wasn’t a Peanut Chew. Even though they’re completely delicious.

So much so that when I saw them sold in unwrapped bites in the store, I had to buy them and bake with them immediately. These are the softest peanut butter bars ever, and with the chewiness of the candy bars plus the crunch of the peanuts, it’s a perfect texture combination.

If you’re a fan of chocolate bars baked right into your dessert bars, then this is a must-try. I just ate two in a row. Not sorry. And maybe if my kids are good, I’ll let them share. After all, heaven forbid they ever feel deprived of a peanut chew bar.

Last week I was driving around and suddenly it occurred to me that I just don’t bake with Snickers very much. And why? No good reason! Seriously, folks. What is wrong with me?

So to make up for this gross error in judgment, here’s a whopper. It’s a peanut butter blondie filled with Snickers and peanuts. It doesn’t get any better than this for you lovers of all things chewy, caramel, peanut, and chocolate. And it’s all made in just one bowl, no mixer involved!

As I write this, I’m on the couch with some kind of summer cold from hell. It’s affecting everything, from my stomach to my limbs to my sinuses. It’s kind of like a light flu. But if you think I’m complaining, think again. I love being sick, because then Kenny takes the kids out of the house and I get to watch Netflix in bed.

I’m definitely on the lookout for new shows to get addicted to, so if you have recommendations, fire away. And yes, I’ve seen Orange is the New Black. No, I didn’t like the latest season. Slow, slow, slow. I miss Vee. And all the fighting.

The problem with so many TV shows is that they start off amazing and then somewhere between seasons three and seventeen, they turn bad. The writing is less snappy, the characters change, the plot lines get recycled. And when the guy and girl finally do get together, they have to break up a million times to keep the show going or else have a baby, which kills the show for good.

Don’t get me wrong. I realize how hard it is to be consistently creative. Jeez, I’m a food blogger. I can never bake the same thing twice, and those of us who do this for any length of time are in constant creation mode. I’m not sure if anyone else is afraid that the ideas will one day run dry, but I certainly wonder.

But that day hasn’t come yet, my friends. These Snickers peanut blondies are absolute proof. The base is a simple blondie with peanut butter subbed in for some of the butter. Some Snickers bites and salted peanuts later, poof! A truly memorable and easy bar.

If you’ll excuse me, I have to hop off to replenish my Kleenex supply. But I’ll be eating these when I feel better, and that’s a promise. In the meantime, I need shows to watch. Recommend away!

Once a year, my parents (who are the most awesome parents in the history of the world) give my husband and me a little chance to get away from it all and recharge. You’d be amazed at what a two-night, two-day vacation can do for exhausted parents!

We try to go somewhere new each time. This time, we went to Williamsburg, VA. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this spot, it’s in the wilds of Virginia, but there’s a lot going on! The day we arrived there was a Shakespeare Festival. Colonial Williamsburg is also a huge draw, with its historical tours and real live people dressed like they lived a long time ago. There are also some great restaurants and a beautiful winery. Which I took full advantage of!

Oh, wait. That’s me confronting a chocolate chip cookie at the winery I’m not so sure about. Trust me to go to a place that makes wine and order the cookie. It just looked a little overbaked to me, but it was good! See?

Went really well with the wine, actually. I mean, I know a cheese plate is more traditional, but cookies and wine is a combination that is highly underrated.

I just kept finding baked goods wherever we went. Like in the actual colonial town, there was a baked goods shop. I thought it would sell things like molasses cookies or gingerbread, or whatever people were chowing down on for dessert in 1760. I mean, the place has a well outside. Turns out, they don’t sell ye olde baked goods. But you can get a really nice peanut butter cookie wrapped in cellophane, just like our patriarchs and matriarchs enjoyed the night before they fought the British!

And it was also delicious. But really, it’s hard to find a peanut butter cookie that I won’t finish in one bite. Or peanuts in any form, for that matter, which is why I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Virginia is a peanutty state! They literally have peanut shops all over the place. I was in heaven. And they let you try free samples! I was actually pretty restrained and only tried two of everything. But I did buy some peanuts. And how wonderful they were! It was with much regret that my better half and I left this marvelous land of wine and peanuts, but we did really miss our kids. And I think my parents couldn’t take any more of the constant chaos.

Back home, I set about making some treats out of whatever we had in the kitchen. I always have chocolate cake fixings, so that called for more adorable little bundt cakes! And I also had some leftover cookie dough in the fridge, both M & M and chocolate chip. So I mixed them together, pressed them in a pie pan, baked  the while darn concoction and, presto! Some kind of cookie pie thingy! Mmm.

No recipe required, people. Seriously, you just press the dough into the pan, bake for about 25 minutes, and presto! A happy little treat. Which you can then slice into pieces and impatiently place on your kid’s Babar plate because you want to inhale it RIGHT NOW.

And there you have it.

Suffice it to say that it was really nice getting away. But it’s always lovely getting home and baking a giant cookie pie thingy.

If we ever travel again, I’ll let you know! But in the meantime, here’s to home. It’s a great place to be!