living simply + loving deeply

I love this commercial. Mostly because I could picture our future kids as chubby carrot-tops who, based on mine and Kelby’s rambunctious childhood stories, would unabashedly dig into the PB & J like this:

Anyway, I had a hankering to make something delicious this afternoon, and after seeing this cutie, I couldn’t get PB & J off my mind. Then, I found this Peanut Butter & Jelly Bar recipe by Ina Garten, kissed the laundry room goodbye and spent a good chunk of my afternoon in my favorite room of all: the kitchen.

First, I gathered my ingredients.

The star of the show: peanut butter. Clearly.

I took out my favorite toy, my buttery-yellow mixer. Thanks, mom.

After preheating the oven to 350 degrees, I started by creaming my butter and sugar, about two minutes on low speed.

Then I added my eggs, vanilla extract and peanut butter….

…until the batter looked like this.

Next I sifted my flour, baking powder and kosher salt and added the dry ingredients to the yummy batter.

And I whipped it up real good until fully combined (but no longer than that).

Next, I parchment-papered, greased and floured my 9×13 cake pan. And my dough looked like this.

I may or may not have snitched a raw spoonful… (it was fabulous)

…patted 2/3 of the dough into the pan

…covered it with jam. And not just any jam, but grandma’s homemade raspberry rhubarb jam. Oh. My. Yum.

Next came big globs of the remaining 1/3 of the dough. Messy-looking is okay because (A) it melts and flattens and (B) it enhances the classic, kid-made PB&J look. Oh, and chopped peanuts on top for some added crunch.

Forty-five minutes later and voilà!

If scents could be transported via this blog,  I would definitely send this heavenly one your way.

Note: Milk on the side is highly advised. Delicious, but very rich.

Savored to the last bite! Kind of like a perfectly sweet Sunday afternoon.

A complete, printer-friendly recipe is available here. Hope you enjoy it as much as this 24-year-old kid did!