In honor of Mikey – Creamy Peanut Butter Pie Recipe
Today, Jeff and I sent Dana off to Italy with lots of hugs, kisses, and a few tears…a long goodbye. We honored her leaving us this way because when you travel you know that you aren’t going to see your loved ones for awhile and you know how much you are going to miss them. But when you leave to go to work, or to the grocery store for eggs, you don’t say a proper goodbye…you just say “see you tonight…have a good day,” or “I’ll be back in a minute.”
I think that is why the sudden death this week of fellow blogger, Jennifer Perillo’s young husband Mikey has resounded so deeply and affected me in such a big way. You see, my dear Uncle Jack died suddenly and I didn’t get a chance to say “goodbye” to him. My beloved father was also taken away from me in an instant and I didn’t get the chance to give him that last big hug and tell him how much I loved him. I was just left with this jagged big tear in my heart. My loved ones were gone….and not only was I left without them, I never got to say “goodbye.”
Even though I don’t know them personally, when I read about Mikey, all of this came flooding back to me. That, and the fact that they have two beautiful, young girls who will now be growing up without their daddy, and daddies are so important to young girls… believe me, I know how important Jeff is to Dana and how important my dad was to me.
I cried for Jennie, and I cried for the girls, and maybe I cried a bit for me too. I hugged my family closer this week, told them that I loved them more and said “goodbye” with a deeper sense of meaning.
Later in the week, I read this post on Jennie’s blog, In Jennie’s Kitchen about honoring Mikey by making his favorite pie this Friday. It was on her list of things to do….but she didn’t get around to it. How many times do we do this? We really want to do something special for our family, but life gets in the way…so we put it off till tomorrow and sometimes tomorrow never comes.
Is there a special recipe that your family loves that you haven’t made in awhile? Maybe for this week’s Sunday supper you can surprise them with that dish, or perhaps make this pie in honor of Mikey.
So, this special post is for Mikey, Jennifer and their two girls…I’m proud to honor you!
The recipe is adapted from Jennie’s site, I had to use a regular pie pan because I didn’t have a spring form pan, other than that, it is true to her recipe for Mikey’s favorite pie.
Creamy Peanut Butter Pie
Yield: Yield: 10-12 servings
Prep Time: 45 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Total Time: 55 min
Ingredients:
8 ounces chocolate cookies
4 tablespoons butter, melted
4 ounces finely chopped chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup creamy-style peanut butter
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 – 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juiceDirections:
You can either do the first part of the recipe by hand (as I did) or use a food processor.
Put the cookies into a medium plastic bag, using a rolling pin, roll them until they have become fine crumbs. Or you you can put the cookies into your food processor and pulse them until they are fine crumbs.Put crumbs into a bowl and add the 4 tablespoons of butter and stir till well combined.
Now press the crumbs into your 9 inch spring form pan and 1 inch up the sides, or you can do as I did, and press the crumbs into the bottom and up the sides of your pie pan.
Next, either melt the chocolate in your microwave or in a double boiler. When the chocolate is melted, pour it over the pressed crumb layer and smooth it out with a small spatula.
Then on top of the chocolate layer, sprinkle on the chopped peanuts. Now pop the pan into the fridge while you work on the remainder of the recipe.
Add the heavy cream to a mixing bowl and using a mixer (either a standing or hand mixer) and beat until it forms stiff peaks. Put the whipped cream into another bowl and put it into your fridge for later use.
In a mixing bowl, add cream cheese and peanut butter. Beat, using the medium setting till mixture is light and fluffy. Reduce the speed of the mixer to low and gradually add the confectioner's sugar. Then add the lemon juice, vanilla extract and sweetened condensed milk. Increase the speed of the blender to medium and beat until your mixture is well combined and smooth.
Remove the whipped cream from the fridge and gently stir about 1/3 into the filling mixture (doing this will help lighten the batter so that it will be easier to add the remaining whipped cream). Gently fold in the remainder of the whipped cream.
Remove your prepared pan from the fridge and pour the filling into the pan. Next it's time to add the garnish if you like. I used some of the chopped nuts and the semi-sweet chocolate morsels, but Jennie also suggested you drizzle some melted chocolate of the top.
Pop the pan back in the fridge and let chill for at least 3 hours or even overnight before serving.
Enjoy! This week, please do as Jennie suggests “share it with someone you love. Then hug them like there’s no tomorrow because today is the only guarantee we can count on.”
In our hectic world, most of us can't commit to having dinner with our family/friends every night, but maybe we can start to put aside Sunday to be together and share our lives and good food. Let's join together to inspire others to celebrate our old traditions and create new ones. 
