Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter Blossoms

Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter Blossoms

by | Dec 30, 2010 | Recipes

My friend, Ashley came over so we could do our traditional Christmas baking. The practice began seven years ago, when she was a second grader and I became her mentor the fall after I left teaching. Over the years we’ve decorated Christmas cookies, made Chinese noodle/peanut/chocolate clusters, no-bake oatmeal cookies, and more. This year, she suggested peanut butter blossom cookies, which we made once before.

The recipe on the back of the bag of Hershey Kisses. They said, “Mix dough, following the directions on the back of a package of  Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix.”

Them was fighting words for Christmas baking purists like Ashley and me. So I hauled out the Betty Crocker Cookbook and found the recipe for peanut butter cookies. We made a double batch and used almost the entire bag of chocolate kisses. (Hiram and my new son valiantly volunteered to dispose of the leftovers.)

The end results were worth the extra effort. The cookies looked perfect and tasted scrumptious. They were so irresistible, I sent all but four home with Ashley. Her two teenage brothers will make short work of them, she assured me.

If you’re looking for a way to keep the kids busy during the rest of Christmas vacation, give this old-fashioned recipe a try. Maybe it will start your own baking tradition!

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

1 bag Hershey kisses or chocolate stars
1 cup butter
1 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1 /2 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream butter, peanut butter, sugars, and eggs until light and fluffy. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Cover and chill.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes. (Surface will look crackled.) Take out of oven and immediately place an unwrapped chocolate kiss or star in the middle of each cookie. Cool completely before storing. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

National Mentoring Month

National Mentoring Month

by | Jan 27, 2009 | Current Events

Six years ago I met Ashley. The G.R.I.P. (Growing Relationships in Pairs) mentoring coordinator in our local school introduced us. Ashley was a second grader when we met, and though she’s now now in seventh grade, we still get together for a half our once a week at her school while it’s in session.

We meet outside of school sometimes, too. We do things like going out to lunch for her birthday, baking treats for our families before Christmas, attending the high school plays and the Grand March before prom, watching the Anne of Green Gables videos together. One sultry summer evening, we sat through a tornado warning in our basement. We’ve attended some G.R.I.P. sponsored activities: roller-skating, the annual carnival, and our favorite an afternoon at the butterfly and horticultural garden in a nearby university town. That’s where we took the picture of the pond above. Later, when we saw our reflections in the photo, it became a favorite, too.

Because January is National Mentoring Month, Ashley and I, along with the G.R.I.P. coordinator, were interviewed at the local radio station this past Monday. During the interview, the coordinator said their program serves over a hundred children in our county and another fifty kids are on the waiting list. Fifty kids. In just one county. Take that number times the one hundred counties in my state and take that number times fifty states, and you have a crowd of kids waiting for an adult to make a difference in their lives.

If that number disturbs you, consider becoming a mentor in your town, even though you’re busy, even though you don’t think you have time. Seven years ago, I wasn’t sure I had time in my life for a little girl. Now I can’t imagine my life without Ashley, a seventh grader who maturing into a lovely young woman, being part of it.

Ashley and I aren’t mentee and mentor anymore. We’re friends for life. You need a friend like that. And somewhere, there’s a child who needs a friend like that, too. Is it you?