Peanut Butter Brownie Graveyard: Boo Blog With Friends

Today’s post is the next in our series of Blog With Friends themed collaborations. Each month a group of bloggers get together and each publish a project based on a theme. What I love about his partnership is that it's not bloggers with similar interests or strengths but a diverse group coming up with a variety of posts. In any given month we may a recipe, sewing tutorial, crocheting, crafts project, book review, and/or technology post all related to the theme of the month.

This month's theme is Boo. Because, you know, October. And Halloween.

There will be individual project pictures and links to what everyone else has to offer at the end of my post, but here's a peek at what we all came up with:

I made a Peanut Butter Brownie Graveyard.

Peanut Butter Brownie Graveyard

I said in my first October post of 2019 that I wouldn't be playing with my food as much this year. Since the start of this blog I'd write Halloween themed posts and develop Halloween recipes through the entire month. But the fun of that was the look on the boys' and their friends' faces when I served the spooky (or gross) foods. Now, with the boys grown and mostly gone, I'm doing that less and less, more focusing on Fall flavors this month than escalating the "I dare you to eat this" game.

Today, though, is one of those exceptions. With a theme like Boo, I jumped right back into those days. And although it's more rare for me to come up with these kinds of recipes I have to admit, it's still fun.

I started by making Peanut Butter Brownies. I used crunchy peanut butter, but you can use smooth if you prefer. Innocent looking brownies, aren't they? Not for long.



While they were baking, I made the hands. I drew them onto parchment paper, then turned the paper over and piped melted vanilla bark to form the hands using the drawn hands as a template. I added "blood" and "fingernails".

I also used the melted vanilla bark to make the tombstones. 

Added eyes and some blood to the ghosts.

And made a zombie out of the Keebler Stripe cookie. 

When the brownies were done, I carved out the central grave and prepared the zombie to emerge. 

Then added the rest of the scene.

Spooky fun, right? Delicious too!

As always, any time you make one of my recipes, feel free to post a picture of it to my Baking In A Tornado Facebook Page. I'd love to see it!

Be sure to visit all of this month's other Blog With Friends projects:


 



Melissa of My Heartfelt Sentiments shares a Quick & Easy Halloween Treat craft.





 



Tamara of Part-time Working Hockey Mom shares A Little Halloween Fun in the Shower. 



 


Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares how to make your own Boo-tastic Cat House. 






 

Dawn of Spatulas on Parade shares Boo! Treats.

 

 





Kia of The Ground Beneath my Feet shares Bodie Ghost Town: The Best Ghosts are all in my Mind . 

Peanut Butter Brownie Graveyard

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup peanut butter (I used crunchy)
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup flour

1 oz vanilla bark
10 slivered almond pieces
red piping gel
4 chocolate covered peanut butter cookies
4 marshmallows
10 candy eyes 
1 Keebler Fudge Stripes cookies (your choice of color/flavor)
1 TBSP finely chopped peanuts

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 X 11 baking dish.
*Melt together the butter and unsweetened chocolate in the microwave until smooth. Whisk in the peanut butter, then the sugar, followed by the eggs. Last, mix in the flour. Spread into the prepared baking dish. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until completely set. 
*While the brownies are cooking, draw 2 hands, approximately 2 1/2 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide, onto parchment paper. Turn over so the clean side is facing up.
*Melt the vanilla bark, seal into a sandwich bag and snip a very small piece from a corner to use for piping. Pipe the outlines of the hands on the parchment paper. Pipe "RIP" onto the chocolate peanut butter cookies.
*Go back and fill in the hands, then immediately stick a slivered almond piece onto the top of each finger to form a fingernail. Dot the flat backs of the eyes with the melted vanilla bark to attach to the marshmallows and the Keebler Stripe cookie.
*Drizzle a little edible red writing gel along the fingernails, define the lines between the fingers with the tip of a knife, then carefully place the "hands" in the fridge. Use more writing gel to simulate dripping blood on the ghosts.
*When the brownies are done, cut a 5 inch slit into the center of the brownies and scoop a little of the brownie out. Very carefully, place the Stripe cookie partially into the top of the slit and sprinkle the peanuts around the edge of the slit to look like disturbed dirt. Place 2 marshmallow ghosts towards the top of the brownies and 2 towards the bottom. Refrigerate to cool and set.
*Once the brownies are cooled, gently push the "tombstones" in by the ghosts and place the hands so they appear to be coming out of the grave.

Skip That: Secret Subject Swap

Welcome a Secret Subject Swap. This month 6 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts. Read through mine and at the bottom you’ll find links to all of today’s other Secret Subject participants.

My subject is: Did you love high school? Hate it? If you could go back and change something, would you? What and why?
It was submitted by Dawn of Spatulas on Parade.

I didn't love high school, didn't hate it either, although there were moments of each. The fun moments I remember with a smile. The cringe worthy times I try really hard (still) to forget. 

I didn't really find my tribe during those days. I had friends, but I fitted into and out of different groups, never really feeling that any one of them were mine. In fact, of my three closest friends from my high school days, two of them went to the other two high schools in town. It's hard when you (later in life) move halfway across the country, but one of those friends, Mark, I stayed friends with until just a few years ago when we lost touch. Another, Billy, I'd lost touch with many years ago but he found me through my sister on FB and we're now friends there and talk on the phone now and then. The third, Laurie, I've stayed friends with since the day we met. We're opposites, Laurie and I, but I adore her. 

The high school years were tough ones for me. Would I go back and change anything? In retrospect I have to say that I didn't have the maturity to take advantage of what was available to me. I wish I had been more disciplined, willing to assess what subjects interested me or what talents I might possess. Although I had gotten some good feedback from teachers about my writing and did originally plan on majoring in journalism in college. But I was spoiled and rebellious. Very rebellious. My parents were at this point divorced, my clothing was . . . well . . . indicative of the times and my mood (that's as good a way to put it as any) and my diet were frequently dictated by the level of my munchies, usually trending towards coffee and sweets.

Espresso Chip Irish Cream Muffins

The day I got my driver's license, my dad had a convertible waiting for me in the driveway. Probably because he'd seen me drive and didn't want me borrowing his car. Either way, that car was my freedom. I had been thrilled not to have to ride the school bus ever since the day, freshman year, when I smoked a cigarette at the back of the bus with some friends and all the older boys in the neighborhood stopped my mom on her way home to tell her. As poorly as that went, all I can say is, good thing it was only a cigarette.

Like with friends, I jumped into this and that (in activities and in persona), dabbled in this and that, never really planting my feet into anything. Joined the boys' track team with a friend, quit the same day, worked on the senior yearbook for a short time. Nothing was serious or based on any dream for the future, I was all about me.

When it came to my education, I did as little as I possibly could to get by, skipped classes often, put as little effort as I could into school work, and lived by the motto "fake it till you make it." How I got good grades and was accepted to multiple colleges, I still don't know. What I do know is that my mom bribed no one. 

And I must have done something right as I neither ended up pregnant nor have I ever been arrested.

I will say this, and it probably says a lot, I am Facebook friends with my high school principal. I doubt there are many people who can say that, but all these years later and I still, as I did then, like and respect the guy. Despite the way I used him.

As I said, I skipped school a lot. Well, more like I skipped classes a lot but every now and then I'd skip a day. I loved grabbing a friend and heading out for a snack, a ride, or even sometimes in the spring, a day on Cape Cod. How did I do this without getting in trouble? I had a system. First, skip full days only a few times a semester. The number of absences on those report cards had to be low enough that Mom wouldn't look at it and know it didn't look right. I learned this the hard way when she once questioned the number and I had to explain the whole (made up) computer glitch in the attendance system. Phew. 

When it came to skipping classes, mostly, coincidentally, when there was a test or a project due, I would simply come up with a problem. Just as the class started, I'd go to the principal's office with an issue. Al cared about the students, all of us, and not just in terms of our academics. I could go talk to him about anything. And I did, real or imagined. After about 10 minutes I'd thank him, he'd give me a "late pass" to give to my teacher so I wouldn't get in trouble, I'd get lost until 5 minutes before the class period ended, arrive to class with the pass and abracadabra, passed "go" and collected my $200.

See, I did learn something in high school after all. And I bet if I asked Al now, he'd tell me that he was on to me all along.   

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

Wandering Web Designer 
Spatulas on Parade 
Our Prime Years 
Climaxed 
Part-time Working Hockey Mom 
Sarah Nolan 

Espresso Chip Irish Cream Muffins

                                                              ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe


Ingredients:

1/2 cup Irish Cream flavored baking chips
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
2/3 cup coffee flavored yogurt
1/4 cup Irish Cream liqueur
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup Espresso flavored baking chips

1 cup powdered sugar
2 TBSP Irish Cream liqueur

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place muffin cups in 12 cup tin or spray with non-stick spray.
*Finely chop (to crumb like texture) the Irish Cream baking chips in a food processor. 
*Whisk the vegetable oil with both sugars until smooth. Whisk in the egg, yogurt, 1/4 cup of the Irish Cream liqueur and the milk.
*In a separate large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in the chopped Irish Cream baking chips.
*Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Add the espresso baking chips and gently stir until just blended. 
*Divide the muffin mixture into the muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes or until the center springs back to the touch. Cool in the muffin pan for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.
*Once cooled completely, whisk together the powdered sugar with the remaining 2 TBSP Irish Cream liqueur. Drizzle over the tops of the muffins.

Holy Wholly Homophones

Before I even start this post, let me address the elephant in the room. Yes, I know it's October. And as I say every year when we start seeing pumpkin and Halloween recipes everywhere by the end of August, you won't be finding them here, not until October, then it's full out Halloween time.

Well, that was then and this is now. Gross, scary or just plain pumpkin, you'd find Halloween all over this blog for the full month. But you all know that my kids are grown, I don't make as many Coffin Cookies, Brownie Brittle Monster Pops, Black and White Brownie Bats, Spider in his Web Cakes or Jack-O-Lantern Treat Bowls. Although this month I will dabble in some themed recipes, maybe mention a witch or black cat, I won't be immersed in it, because watching the faces of the boys and their friends when I brought those treats to the table really was the fun part. Even though this month on Baking In A Tornado won't be all out Halloween, if you're looking for some really fun recipes for the occasion, I've got plenty. Be sure to check out the ones linked above, as well as this post: Halloween: 35 Baking In A Tornado Recipes.

Today, instead of playing with my food, I'm playing with words. Homophones, to be exact. You know like ones the grammar police (ask to see my badge) are always correcting, like "your" and "you're". But I'm talking about triple homophones, like if you added "yore" in there. Or, speaking of there, like "there", "their" and "they're", or "to", "too", and "two". Those are the common ones, but there are so many not so common homophones. 

Like:

I don't use doe when making my dough ,it's meatless, doh (thank you, Homer Simpson, for that one)! PS: there's not one flower in my flour either (I checked). 

No ewe either, and nor would I poison you with the berry of the Yew.

Oh and meet a vegetarian and they're really mete out the punishment if I actually did add that meat.

Since we're in the kitchen here, some general cooking advice: weigh your whey or you're on the way to disaster.

And speaking of disaster, this is for anyone who enters my home while I'm baking, if you hear me yell "fore", I've got more than four ingredients in the mixer, you'd be wise to duck.

Hubs knows this from experience, now he'll heel so later he doesn't have to heal. 

Aint no lie baby buy, by, bye. (OK, didn't use those correctly, but I took one look at those words and couldn't help myself. 
  
By way of apology, I'm sharing this delicious Fall recipe. Although to fit in the dish, I had to pare down the pairs of pears.

Butterscotch Toffee Pear Crisp

When rowing, you can put your ore in the water or, if you want to actually get somewhere, you'll need to use your oar.

That's just for lakes, though anyone who sees the waves of the high seas, had best seize a seat on a sturdier vessel.  

Lake or sea, boat or ship, if you don't want to be praying to all that is holy, I wholly recommend you make sure that vessel is not holey.
 

And though I'm no pirate, when I was angry, I'd look the boys square in the eye, and their only correct response was "aye, aye".  

Happy October, everyone. Just a bit of advice, if you meet someone named Leatherface, Jigsaw, Freddy Kruger, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers or Chucky, run. Do not go with them. It's Halloween, know when to say "no".

Butterscotch Toffee Pear Crisp        
                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pie crust
1 TBSP flour 
 
3/4 stick butter, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup quick oats 
1/3 toffee baking chips

6 Asian pears, peeled, cored and sliced
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp ginger
1 cup butterscotch baking chips

 
Directions:
*Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll your crust out to about a 10 X 13 inch rectangle so it will fit into and up the sides of an 8 X 11 baking dish.
*Spread the 1 TBSP flour over the pie crust. Flip the pie crust over into a lightly greased 8 X 11 baking dish so the flour is on the bottom. Fit into and up all sides of the dish. Fold under any excess crust so it doesn't hang over the side of the dish.
*Beat together the butter, 1/3 cup of brown sugar, cinnamon, flour and oats. Mix in the toffee baking chips. Set aside to use as topping
*In a large bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup brown sugar, cornstarch and ginger. Mix in the pear slices and the butterscotch baking chips. Arrange evenly in the prepared pie shell.
*Dollop the topping over the fruit. Bake for 40 minutes, loosely tent with tin foil and bake another 15 minutes.