Peanut Butter Brownies

My grandpa has long touted the healing powers of peanut butter. In fact, just the other night, he entertained us with his historical love of the crunchy stuff, going so far as to call it a "pillar of life." My dad inherited this love, and truthfully, so did I.

Flash forward to this past week: Sarah and Ben were coming for dinner on Friday, and I was as excited as could be to put my baking gloves back on and get all floured up in the kitchen. I search recipes high and low until I settled on a new treat: chocolate whoopie pies with espresso icing. Thursday night, I get the kitchen all cleaned up and pull out my mixer, only to find that when I grab the sugar from the pantry, I am actually grabbing a 5lb brick. (This sounds dramatic; I assure you it's not.)

Scratch plan A. Go to sleep. Wake up on Friday with full-fledged plans to leave work early, go to the store, and start baking in plenty of time to be ready when S&B come. Reality check: no leaving work early. Resort to plan C: brownies.

Whoever invented brownies, I am forever in your debt. They satisfy nearly every tastebud in the world, and you can tailor them to your liking. I always use my tried and trusted recipe, and this time, I think I've found a way to make them even better.

Yep, that's right. Add peanut butter chips. Hellooooooo, delicious. Goooodbyeeeeee, willpower.

The night turned out to be a blast! So much fun that even an 11pm power outage didn't end the party. We made it another two hours before throwing in the towel (and power did get restored that evening--which is more than many of our neighbors can say!). Fun night, friends!