Peanut Butter Pie

This past week we had two very important holidays!  I bet you didn't know that January 23rd was National Pie Day and January 24th was National Peanut Butter Day!  Who knew we had such important holidays!  I am behind a few days so I thought I could combine the two and celebrate by making a Peanut Butter Pie!  This peanut butter pie has long been a favorite of mine. 

The History Behind the Recipe

Peanut Butter Pie Filling

As you know by now, I love the history behind things.  Well, there is a little history behind this pie.  Right outside my hometown of Jacksonville, Florida was a little town called Orange Park, Florida.  In Orange Park there was a little tea room that my grandma, my mother and I would regularly frequent.  It was called, "The Sisters Tea Room". The Sisters was ran by two sisters. Everything was made fresh and from scratch.  It was long known that their specialities were pies and chicken salad.  One just doesn't go to the "Sisters" without having a slice of pie! 

The Sisters put together a little cookbook and sold it.  Thank goodness someone had the sense to get me this as a wedding present back in the day and it has been cherished ever since.

Unfortunately, the Sisters Tea Room is no more.  It closed a few years back when the "sisters", Gwen and Bobbie Jo retired.  Another piece of history gone.  Fortunately a new restaurant bought all the rights to their recipes and opened a new restaurant using some of the Sisters recipes.  I have not had the chance to visit "Honey B's" the new restaurant, but I hope to next time I am back.

The Sisters Peanut Butter Pie was so good, Ronald Reagan even wrote a letter to the Sisters expressing his thanks for the wonderful pies!  Another variation of the peanut butter pie they made was the double trouble peanut butter pie which had a layer of chocolate!

Ronald Reagan's letter to one of the sisters.

Look at those peanut butter "crumbs" that is the best part of this pie!

Above is a picture of the pie I made for you today. The pie starts off as a pre-baked pie crust that has cooled.  Add a mixture of peanut butter & powdered sugar to make "peanut butter crumbs" and cover the entire bottom of the pie crust with these crumbs, saving about 2 T for the topping.

Next, make a basic homemade thick pudding mixture and cool.  Once cooled cover the peanut butter crumbs with this custard filling.

Mix some heavy whipping cream to make a whipped topping and carefully cover the pudding mixture, top with the remaining 2 T of peanut butter crumbs and you have yourself a wonderful tasty peanut butter pie!  For best results cool in fridge for an hour before slicing.

Bake a Pie Today!

Southern Shrimp & Grits

One of my favorite seafood meals is just plain ol' shrimp & grits.  I don't think you can find a more easier recipe than that.  There are so many recipes out there for shrimp & grits.  But I think I have found one I really like a lot.  

This recipe book was my mothers.  It looks like from the inside writing it was given to her by Dr. & Mrs. Johnson.  The inscription says, "Mary Jane, may you have fun trying new recipes".  It looks like my mom liked trying new recipes as much as I do!

I have taken a little here and a little there, but I think I have came up with the best shrimp & grits recipe, at least to my liking.  Give it a try!

The recipe for my shrimp & grits can be found here.

For this recipe, I used the Land O'Lakes Saute Express that I talked about in my previous post.  Instead of using 1T butter and 1 T olive oil, I just used a pat of the Saute Express Butter & Olive Oil butters.  It worked great!

Creamy Cornbread

My first cookbook

(This cookbook is mostly all I used when we first got married). 

Before I was married, our church back in Jacksonville, Florida, First Baptist, handed out these nice recipe books one year for mother's day to all the ladies.  I was fortunate enough to receive a copy.  The recipes were complied by women in the church and is filled with fabulous recipes.  I have been using this cornbread recipe for over 20 years and it is still the best.  I always get rave reviews and there is never any left!  The best part is that is it so easy!

This is the best cornbread recipe I have found!

There are a couple of modifications I have made the the recipe above.  I do not use corn oil, but 1/2 stick of butter instead.  Also, I do not use the self-rising corn meal.  Just a box of Jiffy will do.

Preheat the oven to 400 and melt the 1/2 stick of butter in the pan that you are going to be using.

While that is melting, mix all remaining ingredients together.

When butter is all melted, pour butter into the batter and stir.  Then pour the batter into the buttered pan.   Bake 25 minutes.

One reason I like this cornbread so much is that is is not dry.  A lot of cornbread I have tried is very dry and it crumbles.  This is very moist!  Give it a try and let me know what you think!