Friday Pie-Day: Peanut Lover Pie

We have ourselves another family favorite! Of the 61 different pies we’ve made over the last 5 years, this makes the top 5. 

It takes a little time and effort, but it can be made in advance and frozen.

Also, there are nuts in it. Lots and lots and lots of peanuts! So don’t make or eat this if you have a peanut allergy. This pie is for those of us with a peanut obsession (aka my entire extended family).

First, the ingredients. Not too difficult. Let’s move on.

This was my first time using a food processor. I think I’m in love. If I had left it on a little longer, these honey roasted peanuts would have turned into peanut butter!

It was also (surprisingly) my first time making a graham cracker crust! It is just so much easier to buy them usually, but adding peanuts to the graham crackers was a worthwhile investment of my time.

This experience was much better than when I tried to make a crust for my Oreo pie several years ago!

I couldn’t stop photographing this gorgeous crust, and I also can’t believe how simple it was to make!

By the way, throughout the entire crust-making process, I had the chocolate ice cream carton sitting out on the counter getting soft.

These are all the ingredients you need for the filling! (Yes, I finished that jar of peanut butter.)

I worried needlessly about mixing peanut butter with ice cream – the melted ice cream absorbed its counterpart easily.

It doesn’t even look like ice cream anymore, does it? Looks more like a chocolate peanut butter milkshake…

Take the pie crust out of the freezer, where it has gotten firm for the last 30 minutes, and pour half the filling into the crust. Then refreeze the pie and the other half of the filling (still in the bowl).

Meanwhile, chop up some peanut butter cups! (These were leftover from Christmas.)

I chopped each one into eighths.

Set aside the best looking ones, about a third of them, and place all the others as the middle layer of the pie! (after it’s had an hour in the freezer)

Then while the pie is freezing for half an hour, take out the ice cream mixture bowl and let it melt a little. Spoon it over the pie, remembering that the pie will be very full and almost overflowing. (That’s the way we like it!)

This is what 2 more hours in the freezer will do to it! Note the garnishes I had ready to sprinkle on top.

Peanuts all the way through – crust, filling, and even topping!

But wait, there’s more! A little peanut butter mixed in with caramel, anyone? I heated it for 30 seconds in the microwave.

My family tried to be patient with me as I garnished each of the plates with this delicious (and sticky) peanut caramel sauce.

And then as I placed a slice of pie on each plate.

And then as I garnished each slice of pie with more peanut caramel sauce.

Some descriptive words I heard while we were all digging in were, “rich,” “delicious,” “favorite,” and “oh yeah!”

Compared with our peanut butter cup pie, I'd say this is a little more work but a lot more peanutty and delicious! Even with all the freezing times, I would classify this as an easy pie to make. I love that you can prepare it in advance. And the taste is well worth the effort!

 

Peanut Lover Pie (recipe from Taste of Home)

6 T. honey-roasted peanuts, divided

1½ cups graham cracker crumbs

7 T. butter, melted

3 pints chocolate ice cream, softened

1 cup plus 1 T. peanut butter, divided

¾ cup coarsely chopped peanut butter cups, divided

½ cup caramel ice cream topping

1. Chop 1 T. of peanuts; set aside. Place remaining peanuts in a food processor; cover and process until ground. In a small bowl, combine ground nuts, cracker crumbs, and butter. Press onto the bottom and up the sides of an ungreased 9-inch pie plate. Freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine ice cream and 1 cup peanut butter until blended. Spoon half into crust. Return remaining ice cream mixture to freezer. Cover and freeze pie until almost firm, about 1 hour.
3. Sprinkle with about two thirds of the chopped peanut butter cups. Freeze for 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, resoften remaining ice cream mixture. Spread over peanut butter cups (pie will be very full). Cover and freeze for at least 2 hours or until almost firm.
5. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and remaining chopped peanut butter cups. Cover and freeze until firm, about 1 hour longer.
6. Remove from freezer 15 minutes before serving. Combine caramel topping with remaining peanut butter; drizzle some over dessert plates. Top with a piece of pie; drizzle with remaining caramel mixture.

Friday Pie-Day: Banana Split Pie

Confession: I have never before eaten a banana split. However, THIS PIE… I have assembled and partaken, and people must be on to something. Maybe one day I will eat a banana split, but until then, this pie will have to do.

Of the 49 different pies I've made in the past 4 years, this was one of the funnest pies to put together. There were so many layers, but they were all so simple. Also, since this pie is frozen, it is easy to make in advance.

Friday Pie-Day: Peanut Butter Banana Nutella Pie

Just read the title and let your mouth water. Peanut butter. Banana. Nutella. Pie. It’s like all of our favorite things rolled up into one bundle of awesomeness! I came across this recipe through Pinterest, and I’m so glad we added it as this year’s January pie of the month. The original recipe was from Andrea Meyers: making life delicious and held significant personal meaning for her and a friend. Please check out her blog to get the full story (and she has much better photos)!

We made 2 pies, so there are more ingredients pictured here than what the recipe calls for. Lots of good stuff here, but in no way is it conducive to any New Year’s resolutions for weight loss!

Wintry Fun for Florida Toddlers

It’s been a busy 2 weeks in our classroom since we returned from Christmas break! Even though the thermometer has read 80 degrees most of the time, we’ve been learning all about winter! No, our toddlers couldn’t go out and play in the snow, but we did learn about the cold!

Our playground is in the beating tropical sun, so to cool off a bit, we usually play with water. These past 2 weeks, though, we’ve been playing with ice! The toddlers have had so much fun scooping ice into cups, placing the ice cubes back in the tray, watching the ice melt, rubbing the ice on their faces, trying to lick the ice, throwing ice, burying ice in the dirt, etc. They are talking up a storm these days, and “Ice is cold!” has become the new saying.

Friday Pie-Day: Robert E. Lee's Orange Pie

I will be honest: this pie did not turn out as yummy as we hoped. This was made January 2012, and I think the main lesson we learned is that our family does not prefer custard pies. However, I share it here to document our pies, learn from our mistakes, and to share the recipe with people who may like custards.

I was so excited for orange – I love orange cakes, orange jello, orange cookies, orange frosting. Our family greatly enjoys the oranges and nectarines we grow in our backyard, and it’s exciting to be able to make a fruit pie in the winter, because even in Florida, not many fruits are in season in January. But alas, either I did not follow the recipe close enough, or I just didn’t care for the taste.

our family with the tangerine tree in our backyard, January 1998

Friday Pie-Day: Banana Cream Pie

Another pie! 

Our family has a slight obsession with bananas. We see them as portable, self-contained, sweet bundles of perfectly-textured goodness. We buy them by the bushel because they go so fast in our house. In fact, our love of bananas is probably only surpassed by our love of peanuts. Really, we just love our food. This, for instance, is how many bananas are in our house right now.

Friday Pie-Day: Coconut Cream Pie

It all began with my dad - he loves seasons and holidays. Our family was talking about food (big surprise there) that was appropriate for different times of the year, and somehow we got on the subject of pies. Now my sister and I had made a pie before, and we had enjoyed some pies here and there throughout our life, but we were inspired to write down the different pies that my dad had assigned for each month. For instance, apple was clearly a September pie, while pumpkin pie could only be eaten in October.

 
This little list graced the computer desk for several years before we finally decided to make the pies - one for every month of the year. Since then it has continued, and we've made a different pie every month for the past 3 years. I plan to post our archived pie recipes once a week until we're caught up to the present... because the pies still continue this year!

November 2012 - the pies continue!

In January 2010, it was time for the big year of pies to begin. We started with coconut cream pie, something about which only my father was enthusiastic. (None of the rest of us like coconut very much, but we were pleasantly surprised by this pie!) Please excuse the lack of quality in the pictures, as I'm pleased to say that my photography has improved in the 3 years since these were taken.

Preparation for Winter (with "Toddlers vs. Preschoolers")

I’ve taught 4-year-olds for the past 2 years, but this year I’m with toddlers, so I’m adjusting the curriculum to fit their age. People ask me which age I like better, and I look at them like they have lobsters growing out of their ears, because how can a 4-year-old be compared with a 20-month-old? 

A messy room is a happy room! Here are some of our toddlers at play.

Every age has its advantages and disadvantages, which I have spontaneously decided to address here:

The Downs of 4-Year-Olds:

1. They’re smart and articulate enough to talk back.
2. Girl drama! (both friendships and boys)
3. It’s more stressful to prepare adequate learning activities.
4. They have more emotional “baggage” and must be dealt with accordingly.

The Downs of Toddlers:

1. Diaper changing - 12 times a day!
2. The urge to dump things on the floor trumps the clean-up song.
3. Separation anxiety is still very much in play.
4. Repetitive books and songs.

The Ups of 4-Year-Olds:

1. They say the cutest and most creative things! I love writing their words! 
2. They’re potty-trained with few accidents and little supervision required.
3. Science experiments, building complicated structures, cooking recipes, special celebration days, huge projects – they can do it all!
4. They’re learning how to write their names, sound out letters, and read words.
5. You can reason with them.
6. They’re more independent and can follow directions better.

The Ups of Toddlers:

1. They are adorable! Pretty much anything they do is cute and makes me smile! I just love photographing them, because it always turns out cute.
2. They're just learning to talk, and it's amazing to watch their vocabulary explode (and their personalities emerge).
3. Everything is full of wonder; it helps me slow down and enjoy the little things in life with them.
4. They’re much more prone to hugging and snuggling.
5. Not as much is expected, so when more is delivered parents are ecstatic.
6. They’ve had so little life experience and are incredibly easy to influence and shape them for the best.

So there you have it. I love both ages and am thankful to have experience with toddlers and preschoolers. My Christmas break continues for 4 more days, which has given me plenty of time to prepare. Here are some things I'm looking forward to doing with my little ones in the coming weeks:



This snowflake from Inner Child Fun, whose website boasts that it's "art so easy, a toddler can do it"! Indeed, we have done several fingerpainting projects with shapes strategically taped-off, so I can't wait to try this!




Painting with frozen ice a la Getting Messy with Ms. Jessi - I've done this before, but I'm anxious to try watercolor or food coloring (rather than tempera paint) mixed with water for the littles! Here's a way our toddlers can actually experience winter in Florida!





Cork-stamped snowflake from No Time for Flashcards - always such great ideas on there! I knew all those corks I've been hoarding would come in handy someday! (No seriously, I have hundreds.)



Adorable little footprint penguin from Meet the Dubiens - such a cute keepsake!




Toilet paper roll bird feeder from LDS Living - this will be fun to hang outside our window and watch the birds!




Snowman bottle from Teach Preschool... I am thinking of adapting it so the kids can stick cotton balls in the bottle instead of ice (or maybe after the ice melts), because they are obsessed with pressing small items into bottles, probably due to another project we always do together (more on that later!) Yay for working on fine motor skills!

I have so many other ideas, both on my Pinterest winter board and elsewhere, which will be shared on here in the coming weeks!