Peanut Butter Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread is an extremely versatile dish. It is great as a dessert, breakfast item or snack. It is also very easy to make. There are very few ingredients and prep time is minimal. It is a common recipe, but I add peanut butter to make mine a little extra special. This creates a unique taste unlike traditional cinnamon roll tasting Monkey Bread. The other night I had a sweet tooth but I was not in the mood to spend a long time in the kitchen. The remedy--Monkey Bread! It was great the next few mornings for breakfast too!

SERVES 2-4

Ingredients:

• 4 cans refrigerator biscuits
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• .5 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon confectioners sugar

Cookware/Utensils:

• bundt pan
• small saucepan
• medium glass bowl
• wooden spoon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add cinnamon and sugar to a medium size glass bowl. Tear each biscuit into 4 or 5 pieces. Add biscuit pieces to bowl, several at a time; coat well with cinnamon and sugar mixture. Place pieces in a buttered bundt pan.

Bring brown sugar, confectioners sugar, peanut butter and butter to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and allow to cool 10 minutes, then pour over biscuits. Bake for 45 minutes until the top becomes golden brown. Allow to cool 15 minutes before removing from pan. Cut and serve in slices or pull away and eat bite by bite.

***This will serve breakfast or brunch for 2 people, twice. For this reason I like to call it a weekender. A weekender is a breakfast or brunch item that can be eaten on Saturday and Sunday morning.

Peach Pie

Home. It is not just a house in which we are raised. It is a feeling. For me this feeling is comfort. I can travel by plane, train or automobile and physically reach this destination. I can also travel there in my mind with the arousal of one or more of my senses--a smell, a taste, a touch or a noise.

Growing up it was a summertime ritual to wake up very early in the morning and go to a flea market/farmers market/auction in a nearby town. As a little girl this meant a lot of walking, a lot of shopping, and most importantly a delicious meal on the way home. Our destination was in the heart of Amish country. The Amish are known for many things--one being their cooking.

A couple of weeks ago I was back in my hometown and wanted to take a stroll down memory lane so I decided to go to back to Amish country. Following tradition, I visited the flea market/farmers market/auction and walked a lot and shopped a lot. But the food that was to come was running through my head all day. Finally I was home. I was at Das Dutchman Essenhaus. The Essenhaus, as I call it, serves some of the best food I have ever experienced. It is standard practice by me and every member of my family to eat a meal...a BIG meal and then eat a piece of pie. For my meal that day I ate beef and noodles, mashed potatoes, cole slaw and rolls with homemade Amish peanut and apple butters. For the first time I had to ask for a box. I knew my limits and I knew that I HAD to save room for pie.

The pie. The Essenhaus offers 29 varieties of pie. Just to make your mouth water I have to list them. They offer: Butterscotch, Apple, Rhubarb Custard, Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb, German Chocolate, Red Raspberry Chocolate Cream, Fresh Peach, Peach, Banana Cream, Old Fashioned Cream, Cherry, Raisin Cream, Custard, Coconut Cream, Fresh Strawberry, Pumpkin, Fresh Blueberry, Blueberry, Praline Pecan, Peanut Butter, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Dutch Apple, Mincemeat, Chocolate Peanut-Butter-Banana, Red Raspberry Cream, Shoofly, Lemon, Black Raspberry, Chocolate Cream, Pecan. I chose fresh peach. It was melt in your mouth, to die-for, delicious. I have never tasted a dessert made of peaches where the peaches tasted so fresh. The texture of the peach tasted like it had just been sliced minutes before I ate it. The whipped topping was also extremely yummy but I have to admit that I took a lot of it off because the pie was so good that I did not want to "ruin" it with any other taste.

Das Dutchman Essenhaus--a taste sensation like no other. Proving Dorothy right once again that, "there's no place like home".

***To visit the Essenhaus online click here