Crave Wednesday: Peanut Butter Cup Blondies

IT'S FINALLY PICNIC SEASON!  'Tis the season for outdoor concerts, movies, and theater!

Except Mother Nature didn't get the memo.

Friday night found us bundled up at Moonlight Amphitheater to watch Classic Albums Live perform Abbey Road.  The band, who hailed for Canada, remarked that it's warmer where they came from than here in San Diego.  Yay May Gray!

I thought this would be a good concert for the boys since they already are REALLY familiar with Beatles music.  In fact, for a while Fool on the Hill was Thatkid's favorite song.

And I was right.  They had a great time dancing along to the music and singing bits and pieces they knew.  Like Maxwell's Silver Hammer.  In fact, I was planning on leaving during intermission, after they played the album, but Thatkid begged us to stay for the second half when they were going to play other non-Abbey Road songs.

The night ended with a resounding version of Twist and Shout, and Thatkid was thrilled to join in on the shouting part. And the twisting part.  Both boys fell asleep on the way home.

This was a pretty successful picnic as well.  The thing that I love about Moonlight Amphitheater is that they open early so you can grab a spot of the grass and eat before the show.  I've upped my game since last year - Thatboy and I munched on salad with lemon garlic shrimp and I cut up a watermelon for snacking.  The boys were less impressive with their selection of peanut butter and jelly and Gusher fruit snacks.  And of course, dessert is a necessity for every picnic.  Thatboy asked me to pick up some chocolate for snacking a couple weeks back, so naturally I grabbed the dark chocolate peanut butter cups from Trader Joes which are some of the best things on Earth.  But apparently not for Thatboy who said they weren't exactly what he wanted.  No problem, I can turn those things into cookies - or more specifically blondies.  The recipe calls for 4 regular sized peanut butter cups, but I doubled it for the mini guys.  Then threw a couple more in for good measure.

Peanut Butter Cup Blondies (From Cooking Light)

1 1/4 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 Tbsp 2% milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

4 peanut butter cups, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
2. Combine peanut butter, butter, milk, vanilla and eggs in a separate bowl.
3. Add peanut butter mixture to flour mixture and stir until combined.
4. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Scrape batter into a 9-inch square metal baking pan coated with cooking spary.  
6. Arrange peanut butter cups over batter.  Bake for 19 minutes or until cooked through.  Cool on a wire rack.  Cut into 20 bars.