Cooking With TechyDad: The PB Files, Part 6: Maple Peanut Butter Mousse

I’m a big fan of mousse, but I don’t often get the chance to make it. When I saw this recipe, I knew I’d have to make it. First, we gather our ingredients, all three of them.

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That’s heavy cream, milk and Mighty Maple Peanut Butter. If you don’t have maple peanut butter, you could always add some maple syrup to the mix. First, put the milk and maple syrup peanut butter into a blender and blend them together.

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Next, pour the egg whites into a bowl and beat them with an electric mixer until they form stiff peaks.

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Now, fold in peanut butter-milk mixture.

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Refrigerate the mixture for a few hours (or overnight), scoop into a bowl and enjoy.

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The Verdict:

NHL and B didn’t like this one. I think they might be used to chocolate mousses and so were thrown by the maple flavor. I definitely think that the taste was improved by adding some mini-chocolate chips. Perhaps next time I’ll try making this with the Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter.

Disclaimer: Peanut Butter & Co sent me the jars of peanut butter to try. The opinions about the peanut butter and the dishes I make with them are my own, though, and have in no way been influenced by Peanut Butter & Co.

Cooking With TechyDad: The PB Files, Part 5: Wonderful White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

I’ll admit right off the bat that I’m not a big white chocolate fan. I’m more of a dark chocolate person, myself. Still, how can you resist a peanut butter called White Chocolate Wonderful?

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I found a recipe online for Flourless White Chocolate Peanut Butter cookies and then went to work gathering my ingredients.

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That’s brown sugar, white chocolate peanut butter, baking soda, vanilla, white chocolate peanut butter chips and egg whites. First, we combine the peanut butter, brown sugar, baking soda and vanilla.

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Now, in a second bowl, lightly beat the egg whites. (Bad, egg whites!)

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Pour the beaten egg whites into the first bowl and mix it all together.

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Fold in the white chocolate chips.

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Now, scoop onto a baking sheet and cook at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes.

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When they come out, do NOT try to move them. The cookies will be way too soft. Instead, let them cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet before moving them to a cooling rack. Or do like I did and let them cool for 5 minutes on the tray and then remove the aluminum foil – cookies and all – to let them cool for another 5 minutes. You’ll be rewarded with delicious white chocolate peanut butter cookies.

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The verdict? Well, these were good, but to be honest, I have another peanut butter cookie recipe that I like more. I guess I like that one more due to the greater peanut butter taste. Still, this white chocolate peanut butter’s good stuff!

Disclaimer: Peanut Butter & Co sent me the jars of peanut butter to try. The opinions about the peanut butter and the dishes I make with them are my own, though, and have in no way been influenced by Peanut Butter & Co.

The Stories of My Office Toys

As you probably read on TheAngelForever.com, we saw Toy Story 3 on Sunday. It was a powerful movie and it is quite amazing how Pixar keeps topping themselves. I keep thinking "There’s no way they’ll beat this" and then they go and beat it. I won’t spoil anything but I don’t think that it’s a spoiler to mention that the movie is about Andy going to college and what happens to his once-beloved toys when he goes. The toys long for playtime and Andy just keeps them in a toy chest, forgotten and unplayed with.

A few days ago, I looked through my office. I have quite a collection of toys, momentos, pictures and other assorted items that I’ve collected over the years. Most of them have some sort of sentiment attached to them. Let’s go on a tour, shall we?

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Starting from the left and heading right is the head of Dilbert’s boss. This is actually a "silly slammer." You hit it and it says things like "I’m the boss. It doesn’t have to make sense!" Then there’s Tigger and Pluto from our Disney World honeymoon. Behind them is Humphrey the Bear who was given to us by a Disney World tour guide upon finding out we were newlyweds on our honeymoon. Behind him is a canner penguin from a trip to Montreal we took prior to being married. Behind that is a Long Island Ducks rubber duckie. The Ducks are a baseball team near where my parents live.

Moving on we find the characters from Lilo and Stitch, another Disney movie I loved. Behind them is a Homer Simpson Pez dispenser, Mickey in a car, Dilbert and Dogbert. After them is a stuffed Hershey bar from when we visited Hershey, PA. The photos are B at our wedding and B and I with Mickey on our honeymoon. Finally, there’s the M&M guys from a trip to the M&Ms store in Las Vegas just before finding out B was pregnant with NHL.

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Here we have a Mickey/Minnie wedding couple. You can wind them up and they dance. We got them at Disney during our honeymoon. Then there’s Winnie the Pooh in a cow costume. He was handed to us with Humphrey. In the back is Dr. Evil and Mini-Me along with Dr. Evil’s cat. Next to them is a box with Thing 1 and Thing 2. Besides being Dr. Seuss characters, they are also one of our nicknames for the boys. B and the boys gave me this. In the front are various snowglobes and momentos from trips to Mystic Seaport, Boston, Sesame Place, Hershey and Niagra Falls. There’s also a Disney World photo holder from our last Disney Trip (currently sans photo) and a Yoda/Darth Vader mirror toy. (You look in one end and it’s Yoda, look in the other and it’s Vader.)

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That crystal and the little "eye guys" are from our trip to Howe Caverns while B was pregnant with NHL. Behind them is a penguin keepsake from our trip to Montreal. Next to them are my Farscape guys: John Crichton, Zhaan, Scorpious (with shrunken Hynerian head), Chianna, and D’Argo. They’re joined by Gandalf and Shrek. Quite the combination, huh?

Not pictured (mainly because he hasn’t been dusted in far too long) is a Spiderman toy perched on a Gargoyle affixed to my wall.  A web head covered in cobwebs is irony not laziness, right?

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On top of my computer resides an Easy Button, Super Grover and Oscar from our trip to Sesame Place, a talking C-3PO that I picked up from a going-out-of-business KB Toys, Photographer Goofy from last year’s Disney World trip and a couple of DRDs who wandered away from the other Farscape guys.

 

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Finally, there’s the front of my desk where I have my "Judge Me By My Size" Yoda from our most recent Disney World trip, the first photo of B that she sent me (along with the note she wrote me after we were engaged) and a pinscreen.

And that concludes my tour of my office toys/momentos. Getting back to Toy Story 3, I can’t help but wonder, when I shut the lights off at night, do my toys come alive and have parties?

#DisneySMMoms 2010 – Mania, Toy Story Style (Day 6, Part 2)

After meeting up with B, it was time for our last dinner at Disney World. We arrived at the location early and waited while other bloggers began congregating. After some time chatting, it was time to go in. We got a seat right up front with Christina, Tom and TJ. We ate, enjoyed the music playing and NHL got to meet Mickey and Minnie one last time.

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I also got to catch up with DaddyDigest again and explained to him what had happened the previous night. We talked for a bit before NHL came over and told me that he wanted some dessert and it was almost time to go to the second part of the night. I went with NHL, got some ice cream bars and then returned to B and JSL so we could head to the "second part."

As you might have guessed from the title of this post, the second part was Toy Story Mania. They were opening the ride just for the Disney Social Media Moms and their families. We got on line and had a blast. I rode with JSL and B rode with NHL. After we got off, we went right back on line. Unfortunately, just as we were to board the ride, NHL declared that he needed to use the restroom. I left JSL and B to ride the ride while NHL and I sought out a bathroom.

When we got back, I decided that I couldn’t let NHL leave Disney World without riding Toy Story Mania one more time. So we waited on line, talked a bit with some folks and then played Toy Story Mania again. We got out, met back up with B and, seeing as how it was extremely late, we needed to leave the next day, and JSL was already passed out, got on the bus back to the hotel.

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