Happy Friday everyone! Okay, I know I’ve done a terrible job of posting regularly. I refuse to feel guilty about it though because one of my new year’s resolutions is to feel less guilty, less often, and since it’s only February, I’m still stickin’ to it (give it a couple of months). I’ve said it before, I blame it entirely on the Catholic guilt gene that I inherited from my mom. I’ve never even visited a Catholic church in my 38 years of life, but have been plagued with Catholic guilt…. God does have a sense of humor.

I’ve compiled a whole list of excuses for not blogging, first being the fact that my real job takes up most of my time (whine, wine, I know!). Secondly, I’ve come to the recent realization that the boy is never going to be 10 again, and I don’t want to look back and wonder where the time went. Then, there is the Naughty One who barks incessantly at me when I get on my laptop. I have to video it so you get the full effect. How did I end up with a blog-hating dog? It’s bizarre.

But I’ll stop here with the excuses because really they’re just excuses. Don’t you agree that even when life’s crazy you make time for what’s important? So here is the honest truth, I’m struggling with the whole blogging thing right now. I don’t do this for money (see, there are no ads), I don’t try to market myself; I’m terrible at networking, and I don’t have time to worry about my blog stats,…that’s not why I started this blog. I started this blog because I love to bake and learn from people who know what they’re doing. As things unfolded,  I realized that there is more to this than baking. It’s about trying to find the humor in my crazy life, and discovering the blessings that often come out of the insanity. It’s also been about connecting with other people who share my passion and finding people who have lived paralleled lives. You’ve given me hope for the next chapter of my life!

If you know me personally, you probably know way too much about me… Really, I’m sorry! I live in the details. Recently, I was with a group of friends and one alluded to the “back story” of my blog. Being the all-American girl that I am, I just don’t believe in censorship. In the blogging world, you can’t control who reads what you write, and that is a HUGE struggle for me. I don’t like feeling like I have to hold back. Hmmmm…. maybe one day, I’ll make the back story, the published story (wouldn’t that be fun?).  For now, I’ll try to work through my blogging issues and get back to baking!

There are sweeter things to discuss today… these Peanut Butter, Pretzel, Chocolate Chip, M&M bars.

I completely screwed up the recipe and added the peanut butter to the batter. The original recipe has you mix the peanut butter with the melted chocolate to drizzle on the bars. But you know what…. these turned out awesome! LOVE when that happens! One day I will learn to read a recipe in its entirety before jumping in.

One of the best parts of this is the pretzel, chocolately, topping! I cut these into bars and put all of the topping pieces that had fallen off in a bowl and left for work. When I came home, my mom confessed to eating it and asked me to make a batch of just the topping for a Sunday football party she was going to. We used yellow and green m&m’s because these were big Packers’ fans. We also added a cup or so of salted peanuts.

These would be fun to make with M&M team colors for a Super Bowl party, or an end of season kids’ party. Definitely a recipe worth repeating!

Happy Weekend Everyone!!

Peanut Butter, M&M, Pretzel Bars

Adapted from Food and Wine

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

¼ cup peanut butter

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

One 12-ounce bag semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups mini pretzels, coarsely chopped

1 ½ cup M&M’s

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a 9-by-13-inch pan with parchment paper allowing paper to hang over sides.

In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt. Using a mixer, beat the butter and peanut butter with both sugars at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. On low, beat in the dry ingredients, just until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips and ¾  cup of the pretzel pieces, and ¾ cup of the M&M’s.

Spread the batter evenly in the pan. Press the batter down with a spatula. Bake for approximately 25 minutes, until golden brown. The middle might be a little gooey but that is ok, the bars will set up. Transfer the pan to a rack. In a bowl, melt chocolate chips in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth. Sprinkle the bars with remaining pretzels and remaining M&M’s. Drizzle with melted chocolate.  Let cool until set.

Lift parchment paper out of pan. Use a knife to go around the side of the pan to loosen the bars. Cut the bars in squares and serve or store in an air-tight container.