Guest Cook - Lee Fluty

A friend from college and I were talking on Facebook last night and he reminded me of his recipe for peanut butter bars. I have been making his recipe at Christmas since...well, let's just say...a long time ago. It struck me that this doesn't have to be made only during the holiday season, although that's when he gifted me with his culinary goodie. It would be a fun treat any time!

Lee is an accomplished musician, computer techie and it seems, quite the actor. (I never knew!) He always speaks highly of his lovely family and thank goodness for Facebook - now we can keep up with each other and reminisce about our college-days.

I'm sure you'll enjoy his humor as much as I do. So without further adieu...

Leward's Famous Peanut Butter Squares™

Ingredients:
· 1 lb powdered sugar, sifted
· 1/3 pound finely crushed graham crackers
· 1-1/2 cups creamy (or crunchy if you prefer) peanut butter
· 1/2 pound butter (margarine can be substituted, but if you’re only doing it to make this recipe more healthy, don’t bother)
· 1 pound semi-sweet chocolate chips (if you’re not a true chocoholic, milk chocolate can be substituted)

Directions:
Mix the first four ingredients in a large bowl. You can do it in any order, but here's my time-tested method: Sift powdered sugar into bowl, pulverize graham crackers (I put them in a zipper bag and use a rolling pin) and stir them in (trust me - you don't want to use an electric mixer here, as powdered sugar and mucous membranes were never meant to come in contact with each other), add peanut butter and mix as well as you can with a large spoon, melt butter on stove and pour over the mixture, then get your hands into it to mix everything together thoroughly. Pad the mix evenly into a 9x13 pan. Wash or lick hands clean.

After you have munched on a few, melt the remaining chocolate chips. I used to do this on the stovetop, but found 1:45 - 2:00 in the microwave does the job pretty well with less risk of burning. Stir the chips to ensure they're completely melted, and then spread the chocolate evenly over the peanut butter mixture, leaving enough on the sides of the bowl to satisfy any now-insatiable chocoholic cravings. Once you have licked all the chocolate off the melting bowl and washed it down with a large glass of non-lowfat milk, chill the choclified peanut butter mixture for 2-3 hours (until chocolate is hardened).

Cutting into squares is a little tricky, as the chilled chocolate will want to break along its own lines. I'd recommend scoring the chocolate a few times before actually cutting through it. You can also bring the finished masterpiece back to room temperature to cut it, but then the peanut butter mixture tends to crumble. Either way something's going to be a little messy, and of course you want your presentation to be perfect, so be prepared to eat all the broken pieces as you go, remembering of course that broken pieces have no calories, fat, or carbs.

Couldn't resist sharing his "Be Our Guest" stage picture...no picture of the food, but we caught the cook!