Yum!  These Butterscotch Peanut Butter Bars from Trisha Yearwood were delicious.  Easy to make and perfect for sharing!  I only wish I’d managed to take a picture of them.  Phillip and I both enjoyed them and they were also a hit with my Junior League group.  And, the oatmeal makes them totally healthy, right?  Right?  Here’s how they came together:

First, I creamed butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and peanut butter together in my stand mixer.  Then, I added an egg and some vanilla before stirring in flour, salt, baking soda, and oatmeal.  The batter was very thick, much more so than your typical brownie batter, and seemed to be too small an amount for an entire 9×13 pan.  But, I went with it.  Next, I sprinkled butterscotch chips over the batter and then baked.  While the bars were baking, I made a simple glaze with powdered sugar, milk, and some more peanut butter.  The batter spread and rose, so I’m glad I stuck it out with the 9×13.  If you love sweet treats, these are definitely worth a try!

We love steak at our house.  Phillip usually prefers a filet or a New York strip, but my favorite is a good ribeye.  So when this recipe showed up on the Sweet as Pie menu and coincided with the ribeye sale at Publix, I was excited to try it out.  Here’s how it came together:

First, I sauteed onions in butter until they were nice and caramelized.  Note that this takes much longer than the recipe indicates (probably close to 20 minutes).  Then I poured in some cream and added the blue cheese.  I ended up adding just a pinch of salt to season it. Phillip expertly grilled our steaks which were seasoned with a little Montreal steak seasoning.  We enjoyed the steaks alongside some baked zucchini chips (so good – see the recipe in the June issue of Southern Living) and creamed corn.This was a really yummy sauce.  Phillip didn’t really care for it since he doesn’t like blue cheese, but I thought it was good.  My only problem was that I like my steaks unadorned – if you have a good steak, you don’t need much in the way of seasonings, sauces, etc.  So, while I really liked the sauce, I probably would save it for a less tasty cut of meat or even use it to top hamburgers.  It would also be good with mushrooms and/or fresh rosemary!

This Seafood Pasta dish combined two of our favorites and made for a nice weeknight meal.  Here’s how it came together:

First, I boiled some rotelle pasta, although any type of pasta would do.  Next, I browned shrimp (for me) and scallops (for Phillip) in a little oil and butter.  After setting the shrimp and scallops aside, I sauteed some garlic before adding wine, tomatoes, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. I placed the seafood on top of the pasta and then covered it with the sauce.  The dish went into the oven, covered, for about 15 minutes.  Finally, I added some cream (don’t skip this) and some fresh basil. This meal was pretty good.  It reminded me a lot of PW’s pasta dish with tomato and blue cheese sauce, although I think I like that dish a little better.  A fine weeknight option – it was easy to make and although it wasn’t anything to write home about, it was still tasty.