I could pretend that I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks to give the Entrecard contest maximum exposure, but that just simply wouldn’t be true. The truth is, I just haven’t made anything worth talking about. I have the ingredients to make some cookies that I just have to get the motivation to get started on. I’m just not the kind of person who feels the need to make a brand new, never tried before dish every single time I cook. I find things that I like (and know how to make!) and make them time and time again. Generally that means I’ve already posted these dishes, and it just doesn’t make sense to post and say “Oh, I made Sausage Gravy and Biscuits, or I made Johnny Marzetti.

Today, however, I decided to share with you one of my more peculiar favorite sandwiches. The peanut butter and pickle sandwich. If you’re seriously grossed out by the thought of that, you can thank Ted Murphy from Izea because he’s the one who gave me the idea to post about them. Now, I’ve been eating peanut butter and pickle sandwiches since I was a kid, but Ted recently started a conversation about them when he started eating peanut butter and pickle wraps. It’s for that reason that when I was putting together my sandwich last night so I wouldn’t have to take meds on an empty stomach, I decided to snap a couple of pictures.

First you need two pieces of bread.

Then, you need your peanut butter. What kind you use is up to you. I tend to bake with creamy peanut butter, but I choose chunky peanut butter for sandwiches. My mom on the other hand uses creamy peanut butter for her PB & P sandwiches. So slather on some peanut butter of your choosing.

Finally, you need to add the pickles. If I’m just snacking on pickles, I prefer the high-quality Claussen variety. For a simple sandwich however, basic dill hamburger slices will do just fine! How many pickles you put on your sandwich is also up to you, but I choose to put a single layer of as many pickle slices I can fit on the piece of bread.

Then you just put your sandwich together, and enjoy! Mmm…. Now I’m wishing I’d brought another peanut butter and pickle sandwich to work with me for lunch, but I suppose I’ll just have to be satisfied with the turkey sandwich I have.

If you are a fellow PB & P lover, let’s hear from you! And if you try one after reading this, I would LOVE to hear your thoughts. The first time I saw my mom eating this sandwich, I said “Ewwwwwwwwww!” but she made me try and a bite and the rest is history!

This is probably the most “off-topic” post you’ll ever see on this blog. In fact, I’ve never posted about Entrecard at all, either here or on my other blog. So you’re getting a few firsts all in one post! I first heard about Entrecard at BlogWorldExpo back in November, but I didn’t do anything with the information until January. And even then, the entrecard widget just quietly appeared at the top of my right sidebar and I didn’t make a lot of fanfare about it.

But the truth is, adding Entrecard has been really good for my blog. I’ve gained quite a few new readers, a lot more exposure and a couple hundred extra visitors every day. I’ve also found many new blogs to add to my feed reader, and I seem to add another one every day. Many of these blogs are great food blogs, and many others are personal finance blogs– I’m trying to reduce my debt, so I’m taking in as much information as possible! So what’s the purpose of this post?

The Largest Entrecard Giveaway Ever

When Entrecard reached 5,000 active users, many people gathered together to arrange the LARGEST Entrecard Giveaway ever! The whole thing has been spearheaded by Kacie over at Sense to Save (one of the aforementioned personal finance blogs), and she’s done a wonderful job of keeping track of it all!

The whole purpose of our contest is to encourage more people to join Entrecard and get involved. As such, only new members will be eligible to win. We’ll be giving out upwards of 45,000 credits as more people are coming forward as sponsors and hosts even today. To be eligible to win, you’ll need to sign up for Entrecard, and then leave a comment below with your username. (You sign on with your email address, so your blog name will be your username. As an example, my username at Entrecard is Jenn Cooks.)

There will be one first prize of a whopping 34,000 credits. The rest of the credits will be divvied up between several new users, one for each separate category. You can earn additional entries to the contest by leaving comments on the blogs of the other hosts. I don’t want to try to keep up with the changes, so I’ll just refer you to Kacie to find the other places to comment.

Click Here to See the Complete List of the Entrecard Giveaway Sponsors!

This is a great opportunity if you’ve been thinking about joining Entrecard and haven’t done so yet. It would take a LONG time to earn 34,000 credits on your own, and you can purchase a whole lot of “free” advertising for your blog. And more advertising equals more visitors. So what are you waiting for?

I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to get this post up. I made these a week ago, and have had the pictures uploaded for almost that long! This is a dessert that is very, very good. Go ahead and tell yourself that they’re good for you. Yeah, you might be lying to yourself, but trust me. It’s worth it. I made these for a family get together for the Fourth of July last year, and I barely managed to grab a tiny little piece before the whole pan was gone. Now whether that means my family is like piranhas or the dessert is good, I’ll leave up to you to decide.

First we take a picture of our ingredients. Then we take another picture because we realized we left out one of the most important ones.

Butter, sugar, brown sugar, 1 egg, vanilla extract, salt, baking soda, flour, oatmeal, chocolate chips, powdered sugar, milk, and peanut butter.

In a mixing bowl, put 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine.

Add 1/2 cup granulated sugar, and 1/2 cup brown sugar. I tried y’alls microwaving the brown sugar advice and it helped quite a bit. Maybe next time I’ll leave it in the microwave longer, but I was kind of chicken.

Cream these ingredients together. And admire my lovely smiley face! Complete coincidence, by the way. I didn’t even see the smiley there until I was uploading the pictures!

Add 1 egg.

Add 1/3 cup peanut butter.

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt and admire my adjustable measuring spoons from Pampered Chef that I may or may not have ordered when I purchased the gift certificate for the contest.

1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and mix all those ingredients together. You’ll have to guess what it looks like because I forgot to take a picture of that step.

Finally, STIR in 1 cup oatmeal

and 1 cup of flour.

Stirred all together, this is what I ended up with.

Grease a 9×13 pan.

Spread your cookie dough in the 9×13 pan. I had to give up and use my fingers to get it to spread evenly. And then I licked them.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. Mine were probably in the oven for 22-23 minutes, and I wished I’d gotten them out a couple minutes earlier.

The baked cookie part. They were a bit crunchier than I’d have liked… next time, I’ll check them a little earlier.

While the cookie is fresh from the oven, and still very hot, pour on your chocolate chips. The recipe calls for 6oz, but there’s no such thing as too much chocolate so I probably used 3/4 of the bag.

When the chocolate chips have melted, use a knife or a spatula to spread the chocolate over the top of the cookie bar. Then it’s time to make the glaze!

In a small bowl, add 1/2 cup powdered sugar.

1/4 cup peanut butter

And 2-4 tablespoons of milk. Pay attention to that dash. That dash is very important. I made these for the first time when I was like 13… and I messed this part up. I was made fun of to no end and was traumatized for life. Maybe I should blame this incident for why I am 24 and just now learning how to cook. Anyways! Start with 2 tablespoons of milk. Mix it all up… only add more milk if your glaze is going to be too thick… if your glaze is runny, your family will make fun of you, and you won’t cook anything besides Hamburger Helper for 10 years. Trust me on this one.

But back to the glaze.

Stir it all together. This is with 2 tablespoons of milk. It felt a little thick, and I considered adding more. But then I remembered the incident above, and was too frightened to do so. It did end up being a little on the thick side when I tried to put it on, but I made it work.

Spread the glaze over your melted chocolate chips and enjoy!

Recipe
Peanut Butter Fingers

1/2 c. butter or margarine
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
Cream together.

1 egg
1/3 c. peanut butter
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. vanilla

Stir in 1c. oatmeal
1 c. flour
Spread in greased 9×13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Spread on 6oz of chocolate chips.

Glaze:
1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. peanut butter
2-4 T. milk
Pour on top of melted chips.