Jan D'Atri

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chocolate chips

Reese’s Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars

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All I can say is I love these Reese’s to pieces! These chewy, chunky treats really raise the bar on goodness! Reese’s Peanut Butter Oatmeal bars are the best combination of peanut butter and chocolate that I’ve tasted in a long time! It starts with delicious peanut butter oatmeal cookie dough that gets spread on a baking sheet. Then the minute you pull it out of the oven, a layer of chocolate chips gets sprinkled over top which start to melt. Then you’ll spoon a delicious smooth and creamy peanut butter topping over the melting chocolate and swirl the two to create a gorgeous marbleized coating. The final touch is to dot the topping with chopped up chunks of mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Wow! When you bite into the chewy bar, you get the peanut butter, the oats, the chocolate and the Reese’s all in one scrumptious bite. These cookie bars are great for making ahead and they hold up well for a school lunchbox. If you’re thinking about a dessert platter or cookie exchange this holiday season, I would not hesitate to add these to your line-up! If you make Reese’s Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars ahead, you can seal them well and store them in the freezer. I think you’ll love these Reese’s to pieces, too!

Watch my How To Video for Reese’s Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars here!

Earthquake Cake

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The Story

Would a girl like me, who loves to shake things up in the kitchen, pass up a recipe with a name like Earthquake Cake? Not a chance! It’s recipes like this that I hope to run across every time I buy old recipe boxes at antique stores. Sadly, more and more stores are discarding the recipes and just selling the boxes. But I’ll travel miles out of my way, hoping to find that over-stuffed, often disorganized, box of recipe treasures. Those were somebody’s go-to recipes, and many of them are now mine. It was in one of these old toll-painted, scuffed up boxes that I found a dessert that shook the earth and sent shockwaves through me… okay, that’s a little dramatic. But, actually, Earthquake Cake, I discovered, is fantastic tasting and a lot of fun to make because the center sinks and the sides rise, and in the end, it all mixes together into an ooey, gooey volcano of chocolate goodness!

In researching the Earthquake Cake, I found that it was categorized as a convenient “back of the box” cake and that had many recipes call for German Chocolate cake mix in the batter. Since the version in my old recipe box had “one rich chocolate cake mix” written on it, that’s what I opted for. But I think either a German Chocolate or regular chocolate cake mix would work just as well – it’s just a matter of personal preference. It goes together very easily – just a simple layering of ingredients. Finally, here’s your early Earthquake warning: as you watch the cake bake, it may look like a wreck as it shifts and bubbles over itself. But I can tell you one thing: you won’t find a fault with this lost and found Earthquake Cake.

Gina’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

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The Story

It’s just what you need this time of year – a simple, velvety, and moist cookie recipe loaded with the flavors of the season. Sometimes I don’t have to travel far to find a fantastic Rescued Recipe. This one comes from my own family. It was originally my sister Vicki’s special holiday cookie – the one that everyone begged for this time of the year. But Vicki’s daughter, my niece, Gina, confesses to you a family “inside job!”

“Yes, this cookie is so yummy, I stole the recipe from Mom and shamelessly renamed it Gina’s Famous Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies! We start every year in October and make them weekly through December, or until we’re “pumpkin-ed out!” Now my own four little girls start begging for them at the beginning of the holiday season. My hope is that they one day steal it from me and call it their own!”

We’ve been experimenting lately with this family favorite. We made a batch replacing vegetable oil and white sugar with coconut oil and coconut sugar for a little healthier alternative. We love it just as much!