peanut butter sauce

So many of you have asked recently for this recipe after seeing photos that I posted... I made this fabulous sauce the other day for my mother's birthday as both a gift and for the dessert! Several weeks ago she was commenting on how she wished that she could find this sauce in the stores for ice cream sundaes, but never could. So... I decided to try my hand at making some! Not sure if it measured up to or exceeded her favorite Friendly's Peanut Butter Sauce standards or not, but everyone seemed to really enjoy this!

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Peanut Butter Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (or half & half)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup light Karo syrup
2 T. butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Directions

- Combine all ingredients (except the peanut butter) in a saucepan, stirring constantly until all ingredients are dissolved.

- Let the mixture cool completely (personally, I took it off the heat and let cool, but still warm), then add the peanut butter and stir well.

- It will look messy, but keep stirring and it will turn out smooth and still have some of the grainy texture of the peanut butter!

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Time to enjoy!  For my mom's birthday, I acually made a double-batch thinking we would needs lots, but the single-batch would have served 6-12 people, with some left over.  This would be best kept refrigerated (due to the dairy), but is great warmed up for about 30 seconds (depending on the serving size), and is perfect for ice cream sundaes, or perhaps even to drizzle over a rich chocolate cupcake.  I'm sure that there are lots of other ways that this delicious sauce could be used... I would love to hear some more ideas or ways that you use the peanut butter sauce when you make it!

LIFE HACK: Freezing Bacon

I absolutely love bacon.

As a single girl, I don't fly through my food too quickly and often throw things in a freezer. Usually this works great - foods last longer, and I just pull things out as I need them. Life is all about convenience (and small portions) for this girl on the go!

But one thing that really gets me frustrated is the frozen bacon dilemma. When I buy bacon (on sale, of course!), I will throw the entire pack into the freezer. Which is fine... until I want to eat it. Then I have to spend several hours waiting for the entire thing to thaw! (slight exaggeration), or usually I find myself getting impatient and trying to pry each piece apart, using a butter knife as though it were an ice pick (a girl shouldn't have to work so hard for her bacon!).

So, tonight I decided to try something new. Rather than throwing the entire pack of bacon into a large ziploc bag and throwing it back into the freezer, I thought to myself, "self, why don't you pull each strip of bacon apart now, and then freeze it, so you can save yourself the trouble later." I don't know why I hadn't thought of this sooner! So, here is my attempt at saving the hassle of chiseling away at a frozen brick of bacon in the somewhat near future:
- bacon (key ingredient)
- gallon-sized ziploc bag
- wax paper

It's simple, really. I just pulled off a piece of wax paper, placed several strips of bacon across wax paper for the width of the ziploc bag (approx. five strips), then folded the wax paper on each side and the bottom. This created a bit of a "pocket" look with the paper. Then I repeated this step until each piece of bacon was on its own, and slid the small layered pile of wax paper + bacon into the ziploc bag, and... ta-da!

Have you ever tried to freeze bacon as individual strips? I would love to hear your thoughts... feel free to leave your own tips 'n tricks in the comments!