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If I haven't found the recipe for a creamy, smooth, perfectly-peanutty homemade Easter egg, I'm closer. This recipe is from my sister-in-law, Gloria. I modified it slightly. 6 tablespoons butter, softened 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter 1/4 cup marshmallow cream 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar (See Note) 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips 2 tablespoons shortening Note: I needed only 1 1/4 cups of sugar. I think the amount you need depends on the room temperature and humidity when you make them. If the batter is too soft and won't hold together, add more sugar. If it's a good consistency after just a cup, leave it alone. More sugar means more sweetness overriding the peanut butter flavor. Mix the butter, peanut butter and marshmallow cream together. Stir in 1 cup of powdered sugar. Add the rest of the sugar 1/4 cup at a time, mixing after each addition, until you reach a consistency you can mold into egg shapes. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for 10 ...

A parenting rite of passage has been stripped from me the same year my only child starts kindergarten. We met my daughter's teacher at an open house and received some of the paperwork we need to fill out. Among the documents was the school handbook, in which I read this little gem: Under "Unauthorized Articles" "FOOD: New state [that'd be West Virginia] policy prohibits homemade or unpackaged food items to be brought to school. Snack or party treats must meet nutrition guidelines and come in unopened." A literal reading of the first sentence would lead you to believe that you can't send chocolate-chip cookies in a lunchbag. I wouldn't be surprised since some schools have banned peanut butter because of allergies. But I think the second sentence gets at the meat of the message. Don't send homebaked goodies for your child to share with others. So I can't send cupcakes decorated like groundhogs on Feb. 2 or snack mix in plastic food service glov...

When you live in the home of the oldest Fourth of July celebration in West Virginia, America's birthday is as big as Christmas. Making homemade root beer so it's ready for the star-spangled festivities is a tradition my husband's grandmother started. Since Grandma Flossie moved from Terra Alta, my sister-in-law Gloria has tried to replicate the taste she grew up with and preserve the tradition. Through trial-and-error she tries every year to duplicate the process. "If it doesn't turn out this year, the tradition dies," Gloria said in 2004, but I didn't believe her. That year she let me watch her home-brew efforts in my mother-in-law's kitchen. It is the process as much as the recipe that makes or breaks the root beer. Leave the bottles on their sides too long and the fermenting yeast will build up too much pressure, causing the bottles to burst. Stand them up to slow the process too soon and the root beer will be flat. Gloria and ...