gourmet in a hurry- raspberry chipotle cream cheese dip

I throw a lot of parties - it's kind of a hobby I have that makes me happy. I have one such party coming up, and I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite appetizers that is so easy to put together, I hesitate to even call it a recipe.

There are three ingredients:

1. One 8oz block of cream cheese

2. Fischer & Wieser Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce {find it at Costco}
this stuff is GREAT because one bottle is good for FOUR parties!

3. Crackers or Pretzels {any type of your choice}

So to put it together, all you do is place the cream cheese on a small serving dish, and then pour about 1/4 of the bottle of sauce on top of the cream cheese. Once that is done, take that serving dish, and place it on a large serving platter. Place pretzels or crackers on the platter surrounding the dish with the raspberry chipotle cream cheese dip. Serve it to your guests!

I have served this appetizer several times at parties, and I always get comments on how "gourmet" it is. If they only knew that putting it together took about two minutes total! Also, the color is beautiful. I love colorful food. Enjoy!

peanut butter bars

What's the one cafeteria food from your grade school days that you actually looked forward to? Probably peanut butter bars, right? Well, straight from the lunch ladies mouth, here's the most popular, most famous, exact lunch lady recipe:

Cookie Layer:
3/4 c margarine
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
3 eggs
1 c creamy peanut butter
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 2/3 c flour
1 2/3 c rolled oats

Peanut Butter Layer:
1 c creamy peanut butter, whipped

Frosting Layer:
1/2 c margarine
2 tbsp cocoa
2 c powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 c milk

Preheat oven to 300. Mix all "Cookie Layer" ingredients except flour and oats. Once mixed, stir in flour and oats. Spread evenly on sprayed cookie sheet. Bake at 300 for 12-15 minutes. DO NOT OVER-BAKE!

Remove from oven. Place dabs of whipped peanut butter on top of hot cookie layer. When melted, spread whipped peanut butter evenly over entire pan.

Cool completely.

Mix all frosting ingredients, frost over the peanut butter layer. Enjoy!