Caramel Chocolate-Filled Peanut Butter Cookies

Since Shaner has been in Young Men's, I have had more opportunities to bake. Apparently bribery works well in getting his boys to come to mutual :) This week, we asked one of them what treat he likes the most, and he said he's always loved peanut butter cookies. The first thing that came to my mind was the good old days on the farm when Aunty-X would have freshly-made peanut butter cookies ready when we went out to haul hay. (Her's, of course, were made with none only than Adam's All Natural Peanut Butter). So, I called her up for the recipe. She was very willing to send Mrs. Field's Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookie recipe down to me. I have included Mrs. Field's original recipe below.

The second thing I thought about was Cassie's old recipe. She said that she and her mom used to stuff Rolos in their peanut butter cookies. (And then I think they would cuddle and watch a movie together afterward...) You know me - everything is better with chocolate involved... So I took her idea! I have included some photos of the "extra" steps involved in making these perfect little cookies. A little bit more effort makes a whole lot of difference.

Instead of the 2 c. of flour that the original recipe stated, I added an additional 3/4 c. to make the dough less sticky and more formable (word?). Then I took Tbsp-sized servings of dough and rolled them in a ball WITH a Rolo inside.

After that, I rolled them in some additional sugar, just to give them a nice sweet crunch on the exterior.

Since all the good peanut butter cookies I've had have the nice criss-cross design, I did not skip that step. 

I was worried that the Rolo would melt out all over the place, but no such thing happened! They melted and formed the most beautiful, gooey interior you will ever experience :)

However, because I'm kind of a snacker...I ran out of Rolos before I was completely done! Ha, oops. So again, I added chocolate. This time, in the form of chopped up M&Ms.

You may be wondering why I chopped them up. Well, true to form, Costco has INCREASED the size of the M&Ms that they sell. Not just the bag, but the actual candy. They're humongous! As you can see, they're much larger than even my wedding band!

After rolling the dough into balls, I dipped the tops into the chunks of candy and baked them as is. They turned out looking very rustic. I liked it. 

I did not add the additional sugar to these ones, and they actually seemed to have more of a peanut-buttery taste to them, which I enjoyed. Shane, however, is not a huge peanut butter lover. He thought the Rolo-filled cookies were fantastic. And guess what? The tupperware was completely empty when he got home from Young Mens. Success.

How To: Can Tomatoes

Our tomato plants did so well this year! They are actually still producing as we speak. I have canned spaghetti sauce, salsa, plain tomato sauce, and these dice tomatoes that I will share today. Matter of fact, I have a pot of fresh tomato soup simmering in the crock pot right now. I can't wait for dinner! 

We grew some beefsteaks, Romas, and something between a cherry and a grape tomato. (That plant came from our neighbors and it was perfect! Each tomato was perfectly round and ruby red.) I like having the convenience of canned goods right in my pantry, and it makes it even better knowing that we grew the produce in our own back yard. I have noticed that I use cans of diced tomatoes in SO MANY recipes, and it's really not a hard process.

The first thing I did was prep the tomatoes. First, bring a pot of water to a boil. Drop a few hand-fulls of CLEANED tomatoes into the water and let boil for about 1 minute, or until the skins start to crack. Remove from the boiling water and place in a separate bowl filled with ice water to stop the cooking process. After all the tomatoes have been blanched, you can easily remove the skins, seeds, and inner core. Last, just chop the tomatoes up to desired sizes and continue using the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving instructions:

Add 1 Tbsp. bottled lemon juice to each pint jar, 2 Tbsp. bottled lemon juice to each quart jar. Pack tomatoes in hot jars, pressing gently on tomatoes until the natural juice fills the spaces between the tomatoes, leaving 1-inch headspace. Add 1/2 tsp. salt to each pint jar, 1 tsp. salt to each quart jar, if desired (I did). Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints and quarts 25 minutes at 10 pounds pressure (at sea-level with a weighted-gauge canner; see below for adjustment chart) in a steam-pressure canner. 

For a dial gauge canner, which we have:

• 1 - 1000 ft: pressure of 11
• 1001-2000 ft: pressure of 11
• 2001-4000 ft: pressure of 12
• 4001-6000 ft: pressure of 13
• 6001-8000 ft: pressure of 14
• 8001-10000 ft: pressure of 15

For a weighted gauge canner:

• 0-1000 ft: pressure of 10
• 1001-10000 ft: pressure of 15