pieces of peanut butter candy arranged on a blue plate Have a Peanut Party
Recipes

Have a Peanut Party

DonnaLeave a comment

This past week has been strange. But even though travel, large events, and readily available toilet paper have all been cancelled by now, I’m going to suggest a Barbie-approved party you can still throw in your very own kitchen: a Peanut Party.

Barbie’s Easy-As-Pie Cookbook has an entire chapter of peanut butter recipes. I never used to think of peanut butter as a pantry staple, but last year my husband and I adopted a puppy. Cadence is a little over a year old now and is still a ridiculous vortex of limitless energy delightful little scamp who needs a variety of treats and distractions. So these days, there’s always extra peanut butter in the house.

This no-cook dessert has only 5 ingredients. The process was a bit of a mess, but the end result was surprisingly tasty.

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an open-faced cheddar and horseradish sandwich with tomato-bacon jam and a side salad Cheddar-and-Horseradish Beauties with Tomato Bacon Chutney
Recipes

Cheddar-and-Horseradish Beauties with Tomato Bacon Chutney

Alana3 Comments

I decided to go with rye bread for my take on the bacon-and-cheese beauty. I like aggressive flavors, and rye is one of the only carb-y things I ever find myself really craving. In keeping with the theme of strong flavors, I also decided to include horseradish. Bacon, tomato, cheddar, horseradish… How could you go wrong?  

Well, I managed. On our big cooking night, I put together a horseradish cheddar spread, put it on a slice of rye, and topped the whole thing with a fat slice of tomato and 3 strips of bacon. It was… soggy. Really soggy. The flavor was there, but it wasn’t appetizing. Oh well. Inventing recipes isn’t going to be a get it right the first time kind of thing. So the next day I tried again, using plain horseradish and a slice of cheese, and… meh. Still soggy. Still not worth the effort. 

The tomato was the big issue. Fresh tomato was just too wet. Could I put it on after the beauty cooked? Could I cut it up into little bits of tomato and avoid the juicy seed part? Scowling, I wrote in my journal that what I really wanted was a grilled cheese with a bloody mary on the side. Hmmm… 

Though I didn’t get a bloody mary out of it, On The Side turned out to be the answer I was looking for. I present: Cheddar and Horseradish Beauties with a side of tomato bacon chutney…

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a piece of toast topped with roasted tomato, mozzarella cheese, and bacon on a yellow plate Bacon-and-Mozzarella Beauties
Recipes

Bacon-and-Mozzarella Beauties

DonnaLeave a comment

For my take on Bacon-and-Cheese Beauties, I swapped the white bread for wheat, the American cheese for fresh mozzarella, and roasted slices of small, vine-ripened tomatoes. I also finished the dish off with some pesto, which is basically basil’s ultimate form. The result takes a bit more work than Barbie’s original Beauties, but it’s worth the extra effort.

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a wooden table with a white plate holding a slice of toast topped with american cheese and bacon Bacon-and-Cheese Beauties
Recipes

Bacon-and-Cheese Beauties

Alana4 Comments

The recipes in Easy-as-Pie are so promising, at least if you like vintage cooking. Bacon-and-Cheese Beauties are the perfect example. What could possibly go wrong with bacon and cheese? The answer to this question lies in the ingredients list, which calls for processed American cheese and white bread. When Friendship Club decided to meet for a cooking party, we agreed to make the beauties as instructed and then each try our own variation on the theme. This is the original recipe and… I don’t recommend it. But we said we were cooking through the whole book, and so in the spirit of completion, here goes.

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Girl Talk

Something good is about to happen!

AlanaLeave a comment

So it’s Julie and Julia, but us. And Barbie. 

Barbie as in her 1964 children’s cookbook. And us as in… us. Alana and Donna. We were in high school when we met. (Donna dated Alana’s best friend. We have no idea what happened to him.) We went to the opening night of The Rage: Carrie 2 together. We had a college radio show together. (It came on at 4:00 AM.) Donna is a writer, and Alana is a teacher, and as our friendship nears its third decade, we’ve officially termed it a club and plan to cook through the entire Easy-as-Pie cookbook together. Because what else would you do if you inherited a 1964 Barbie cookbook? 

We are both experienced home cooks, though Donna’s recipes tend toward gourmet Italian while Alana’s often involve meatloafs and jello salads. We both had Barbies as children but were more inclined toward epic My Little Pony adventures. We like horror movies, making things, and destroying the patriarchy. 


As Barbie says, “The kitchen is the merriest room in the house. All the little sounds come together in a chorus that says, something good is about to happen!” Come experience something good with us. (Or not so good. Barbie loves a fruit-and-milk punch, and that’s more than a little scary. Maybe we’ll add alcohol. Probably we’ll add alcohol…)