After eating a few blondies at the Johnson and Wales cafeteria a few months ago, I've become obsessed with finding a similar recipe. These butterscotch-studded blondies had great chew and a buttery flavor, and they weren't dry and crumbly. After searching far and wide in the Googlesphere, I've finally found a recipe to satisfy my blondie mania.

If you have 10 minutes to spare this weekend, I highly recommend you bake a batch of these. The secret ingredient is graham cracker crumbs. The graham adds flavor and makes the blondies chewy. I've tweaked the recipe a bit from the original, which therefore allows me to change the name and claim them as my own, right? I should give the recipe a Bennifer name and call these "Chocoscotch Blondies" or maybe "Butterlate Blondies."

Chocoscotch (or Butterlate) Blondies

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup fine graham cracker crumbs
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup butterscotch chips
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans, optional

Preparation:

Grease and flour a 9-inch or 8-inch square baking pan. Heat oven to 350°.

Beat melted butter and brown sugar together until smooth; beat in egg and vanilla extract until well blended.

Slowly beat in the flour and salt until blended, then stir in the graham cracker crumbs, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and nuts, if using.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until set in the center but still soft. Do not overbake. I repeat: Do not overbake. (I baked mine for 22 minutes and they came out perfect.)

In honor of Mother's Day coming up (Did you remember? It's Sunday!), here's a compilation of cooking videos featuring moms and grandmas.

Here's one that reminds me of MY mom: A young woman films her mom making Mul Kimchee. 2 minutes and 40 seconds of Korean pickled veggies. (My initial reaction is to end this with a "Yum," but I don't like mul kimchee.)

For all the poor piggies being slaughtered in Egypt as we speak.

When the temperature outside rises above 80, warm desserts just don't cut it. Looking for a cool frozen dessert recipe online, I found this recipe for Poogan's Peanut Butter Pie on the Americas Cuisine web site.

This "Poogan" is the Poogan of Poogan's Porch, the famous Charleston restaurant known for their delicious low-country foods. Their Peanut Butter Pie has been described as the best thing of the menu.

The pie is easy to put together, and the only thing that needs baking is the pie crust. I took a short cut and used a frozen pre-made crust. Make sure you buy whipping cream or heavy whipping cream -- not the light whipping cream (it won't whip up easily).

If you want to cut some calories, opt for the 1/3-less fat cream cheese. Feel free to garnish the pie with chocolate curls (take a vegetable peeler to a bar of chocolate) and piped whipped cream along the border.

I served the pie for dessert after dinner with friends last night. The pie was a hit so I think it's a keeper. They described the pie as "rich frozen peanut butter fudge," and a "peanut butter cheesecake."

Poogan’s Peanut Butter Pie

1-8 oz Package Cream Cheese

1 cup Powdered Sugar

3/4 cup Creamy or Chunky Peanut Butter

1 t Vanilla

1/2 cup Whipping Cream, whipped

1-9 inch Baked Pie Crust (the pastry type, not the graham cracker crust)

* Beat cream cheese until soft and fluffy.

* Beat in sugar, peanut butter and vanilla.

* Slowly fold in whipped cream until well blended.

* Pour into baked pie crust and freeze until ready to serve.

* Remove from freezer and let soften 20 to 30 minutes before serving.

Bran muffins make a great breakfast because they contain 3 grams of fiber, which will keep you full. The star ingredient is bran, which is the hard outer layer of grain, a by-product of processed wheat and oats. Wheat bran is high in protein, magnesium, manganese, niacin, phosphorus, zinc and vitamin B6, and is low in fat, with no cholesterol, and no sugar or sodium.

Store-bought bran muffins taste good but are loaded with oil and calories. When so-called healthy muffins leave grease on your fingers, that's never a good thing.

I got this recipe for Top-Notch Bran Muffins from the back of the Kretschmer Toasted Wheat Bran jar. (You can find bran in the cereal aisle of your grocery store, usually on a top shelf.) I made them on Monday night and they are so tasty, I've already eaten three (today is Wednesday!). Oops. The best part is that these muffins contain only 170 calories and 5 grams of fat per muffin. And they don't leave grease on your fingers.

Top-Notch Bran Muffins

1 1/4 cups flour

1 cup toasted wheat bran

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1/4 cup molasses or honey

1/4 cup oil

1 egg

3/4 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease or line muffin tins.

Combine dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients. Add wet to dry until

moistened. Stir in raisins.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 20-22 minutes or until brown. Makes 12 muffins.

These suckers only took me 30 minutes to make from start to finish. I got the recipe from the web site of one of my fav bloggers, The Pioneer Woman. When I saw that the ingredient list included marmalade, I was prompted to make these muffins because I have had a jar of marmalade in my pantry for months, er, maybe a year, now. (Sorry to my co-workers who might have ate the muffins in the office kitchen, if you find this gross. It's jam though so it doesn't go bad -- it's meant to be preserved.) This recipe served as the perfect way to use up this marmalade and free up some highly-coveted pantry space.

I'd say the muffins are ok, but not mind-blowingly awesome. Since they don't have any berries, chocolate chips, nuts or any other chunks in them, they are slightly blah. The muffins have a true hardy muffin texture and would be probably be excellent with some cranberries tossed in. If you love orange flavor and marmalade, try these out.

* I skipped the buttery topping portion of the recipe and used a sugar/cinnamon/salt mixture on top of the muffins instead.

Good Morning Muffins

Makes 18 muffins

4 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons baking powder

1/2 cup shortening (can use 1/4 cup shortening with 1/4 cup butter)

2 cups orange marmalade

1 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs, beaten

Topping:

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon melted butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

wheat germ (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Sift together flour, sugar, and baking powder. Place in a mixing bowl.

Use a pastry cutter to mix in shortening (or butter/shortening if desired).

Mix marmalade, orange juice, and vanilla in a small bowl. Pour into dry ingredients.

Beat eggs and pour into the bowl.

Mix all ingredients together gently, using fewer than 10 large strokes.

In a small bowl, mix topping ingredients.

Fill muffin pans with batter. Sprinkle 1 heaping teaspoon of topping ingredients over each muffin.

Sprinkle wheat germ over the top for extra crunch.

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes until done. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack. Eat warm or at room temperature.

• Photo from Baking, by Dorie Greenspan.

Dorie Greenspan is so badass. I bought her baking cookbook Baking: From My Home to Yours a year ago, and so far everything I've made from it is amazing. This Dorie lady even has her own cult following in the blogosphere! Her Mocha-Walnut cake is one of my favorites. It looks like nothing fancy -- no layers, frosting, sprinkles, roses, or glaze. But don't be fooled. This cake has sophisticated flavors of walnut and chocolate and a beautiful ginko-pattern marbling. Slice yourself of hunk of this cake and you'll see why it's so good.

Before you start, a couple tips: Make sure to butter and flour your bundt pan REALLY well. If you don't, the cake won't come out of the pan pretty. Also, when marbling the batter, go easy with the knife swirls and zig-zags. If you mix the batters too much, you won't get the pretty black and white look. Ok, that's it. Get baking.

Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake

* 2 1/4 c flour

* 1/2 c ground walnuts (I used a food processor)

* 1 tsp baking powder

* 1 tsp salt

* 2 sticks plus 2 T unsalted butter

* 3 oz (a scant half cup) bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (chocolate chips work fine)

* 1/4 c coffee, hot or cold

* 1 tsp finely ground instant coffee

* 1 3/4 c sugar

* 4 large eggs

* 2 tsp vanilla

* 1 c whole milk

1. Butter and flour your bundt pan, or any 12-cup cake pan (you could also use 2 loaf pans, or other pans). Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, walnuts, baking powder and salt.

2. In a double boiler, put the 2 T butter (cut up into pieces), chocolate, and two kinds of coffee. Heat on low and stir to combine. Remove from heat.

3. Beat butter in mixer. Add sugar and blend. Then add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla. Mix well.

4. Add the dry ingredients and the milk alternately, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients and with 3 total portions of dry and 2 of milk. Think: dry, milk, dry, milk, dry. Mix.

5. Scrape a little less than half the batter into the chocolate mixture. Mix to combine.

6. Scrape all of the white batter into the bottom of the bundt. Top with the chocolate batter. Run a table knife SPARINGLY in a zig-zag pattern through the bundt for a chocolate-in vanilla pattern. Alternatively, for a real marbled effect, alternate large spoonfuls of white and chocolate batter in the pan, then swirl with knife.

7. Bake for 65-70 minutes (mine took just 60 minutes, so go easy here; don't overbake!). Transfer to rack to cook for ten minutes. Then unmold the cake and cool completely on the rack.

Today is National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day. PB & J are one of the best combos in the culinary world so celebrate with these Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars from Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten:

• Photo from www.cafemom.com

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

Ingredients

* 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

* 1 1/2 cups sugar

* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

* 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

* 2 cups (18 ounces) creamy peanut butter (recommended: Skippy)

* 3 cups all-purpose flour

* 1 teaspoon baking powder

* 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

* 1 1/2 cups (18 ounces) raspberry jam or other jam

* 2/3 cups salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch cake pan. Line it with parchment paper, then grease and flour the pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light yellow, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter and mix until all ingredients are combined.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture. Mix just until combined.

Spread 2/3 of the dough into the prepared cake pan and spread over the bottom with a knife or offset spatula. Spread the jam evenly over the dough. Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the jam. Don't worry if all the jam isn't covered; it will spread in the oven. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and cut into squares.

It's a winner! The SPS's (Wow. I'm becoming like Rachel Ray with my annoying abbreviations, huh?) were a hit among friends at a dinner potluck last night.

Tasting a bit like strawberry cheesecake, these squares provide an interesting twist on the usual strawberry/cream/graham cracker crust desserts out there because the crust is made of pretzels instead of graham crackers. The saltiness of the pretzels complements the sweetness of the strawberries and cream cheese layers.

I made a few tweaks to the recipe, though not all were smart. I had large sourdough pretzels on hand, so I just used those. Next time I will use normal thin pretzels. These were much too hard! Also, to lighten up the recipe I used sugar-free Jell-O, reduced calorie Cool Whip, and reduced fat cream cheese. Now I can eat double servings without the guilt. Ha.

Strawberry Pretzel Squares

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups crushed pretzels
• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 2 (3 ounce) packages strawberry flavored gelatin
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 (10 ounce) packages frozen strawberries

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Stir together crushed pretzels, melted butter and 3 tablespoons sugar; mix well and press mixture into the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until set. Set aside to cool.
4. In a large mixing bowl cream together cream cheese and 1 cup sugar. Fold in whipped topping. Spread mixture onto cooled crust.
5. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Stir in still frozen strawberries and allow to set briefly. When mixture is about the consistency of egg whites, pour and spread over cream cheese layer. Refrigerate until set.

It usually ain't my thing to do such low-brow recipes that require pre-made packaged mixes and a can of this or a block of that. But this recipe for Strawberry Pretzel Squares has me intrigued. Some recipes call it Strawberry Pretzel Dessert, or Strawberry Pretzel Salad (salad?! I have no idea how this qualifies as a salad...). A crust made of pretzels, sugar and butter is topped with a creamy cream cheese layer, which is then topped with a layer of strawberry Jell-O and strawberries. So strange! Yet the salty/sweet and creamy/crunchy combos sound so good. I think I shall give this a try this weekend.

Here's the recipe if you want to try it too:

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups crushed pretzels
• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 2 (3 ounce) packages strawberry flavored gelatin
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 (10 ounce) packages frozen strawberries

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Stir together crushed pretzels, melted butter and 3 tablespoons sugar; mix well and press mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until set. Set aside to cool.
4. In a large mixing bowl cream together cream cheese and 1 cup sugar. Fold in whipped topping. Spread mixture onto cooled crust.
5. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Stir in still frozen strawberries and allow to set briefly. When mixture is about the consistency of egg whites, pour and spread over cream cheese layer. Refrigerate until set.