3 ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

This is the easiest and best tasting Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe that I have found, I've made them for so long, I don't remember where I learned it.
1 Cup of Peanut Butter
1 Cup of Sugar
1 Egg
Mix all 3 ingredients together, form any sized cookie that you'd like, I then dip the bottom of a glass, or a fork in sugar and press down each cookie, place in a 350 degree oven and bake 6-8 minutes, until just starting to get browned. Don't let get too brown, your cookie will be too dry.

Measuring Peanut Butter

When I am making a recipe that calls for Peanut Butter, I have a really slick way of measuring the peanut butter so it doesn't stick in the measuring cup. My mom showed me how you can take a large measuring cup and if you need  1 cup of Peanut Butter, you fill the cup with 1 cup of cold water, then add peanut butter until when submersed, the water measures 2 cups. You then pour the water out of the cup and drop the 1 cup of peanut butter into the bowl, no muss, no fuss!

Ever wonder about the Chemistry of making good bread?

I love bread, doesn't matter if it's white, wheat, raisin, rye, or any other type, I LOVE BREAD! What Chemists our grandmothers must have been to make the fine breads and doughs that they made by hand, I've tried that a few times, but, decided that a Bread Machine would do pretty much the same thing except my arm muscles wouldn't get the work out that my grandmas did.
I decided to do some research on how a loaf of bread comes together, these are some of the interesting facts that I found:

Yeast makes bread rise and fill it full of the little air pockets. These air pockets are what make bread light and fluffy. In the case of yeast breads, yeast is the leavening agent, Some make soda bread which uses soda and not yeast to rise. Here, in the Americas, it seems, we usually use soda and baking powder as a leavening agent when making biscuits, cookies or cakes. Simply, a leavening agent is something that makes things rise. None of these leavening agents however can work alone.
This is where the liquid comes in, all rising agents need to be mixed with moisture first. Yeast can be mixed with a warm liquid, where baking powder or soda need an acid.
In the case of yeast bread, it is most often water that gets mixed first with the yeast. So now we have our yeast in the water and it starts to bubble. What causes the bubbles in yeast? A by-produce of yeast is a living organism. As yeast grows and multiplies it releases gas. Yeast produces alcohol and carbon dioxide gas, which causes the small bubble holes in your bread.
We then need to feed the yeast to make it grow, so, we feed it flour.There is a protein in flour that when it gets wet, it produces small strands that can't be seen. This, is call protein gluten. Gluten joins together and forms long strings that get wrapped around each other. These strings are what makes bread strong enough to hold in the gasses that yeast produces. A thick heavy bread like a flat bread, don’t have these gasses. There are flours with less Gluten than others, less Gluten makes a flakier crust, and are generally called Pastry or Cake flour. There are studies being done regarding the effects of too much Gluten in your diet, and if it could be linked to problems, such as Celiac Disease, but, that’s an entire other study for another snowy day.
Now, Salt, some ask if they are on a low sodium diet, if they can opt out of using salt in their bread recipes. Actually, there is a need for salt, Salt kills some of the yeast and keeps the bread from rising too much, as well as, improving flavor. Salt strengthens gluten in bread dough, providing uniform grain, texture and dough strength.
Sugar, on the other hand, will help promote the growth of yeast, and adds a little sweetness to the bread that so many of us like.
Shortening, Butter, or Margarine oils the bread as it rises to help it rise easier, and keeps it moister.
Do you wonder why after we mix and knead the bread dough, we let it rise to only punch it back down again? Kneading presses the dough, and the more you knead the dough the more strands of gluten you create. You want the dough to hold in the gasses the yeast creates. You knead the dough, cover it and let it double in size, the dough then fills with Carbon Dioxide and Alcohol, which slows down the yeast, so we punch it to get rid of the excess gases. Some that I know, love to knead and punch dough when they are experiencing a bad relationship or having a tough time at work, seems to release pent up energy. The dough is usually allowed to rise again, and then punched and formed into whatever shape of loaves that you would like, then it is allowed to proof, or, rise one more time.
At this time you can bake and enjoy the wonderful comforting scent of your very own homemade bread! I prefer to use my bread machine, where I add the ingredients, wet then dry, and let the machine do the kneading and proofing for me.