Teddy Teacakes

For long afternoons when it’s too rainy to play outside, and the bears are hungry.

Cream 1 cup softened butter with 1 ½ cups sugar. Add a tablespoon vanilla extract and 3 lightly beaten eggs. Mix very well. Sift 3 cups all-purpose flour with a tablespoon of baking powder and a teaspoon of salt.

Using your favorite wooden spoon, mix flour with butter and eggs. Chill, roll out on a lightly-floured board, and cut into small rounds.

Bake on a lightly-oiled cookie sheet in a medium oven for somewhere round 10 minutes.

Atomic Brownies

After WWII, “atomic” was a synonym for “great” or “super.” Even strippers billed themselves as “Atomic Bombs.” Recipes for atomic brownies started appearing in cookbooks at the same time, but they’re about as atomic as a stripper.

Brownie Base

1 cup unsalted butter
14 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
5 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
¼ cup milk
1½ cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1½ cups coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted

Chocolate Drizzle

1/3 cup heavy (whipping) cream
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the butter and chocolates in a large saucepan over low heat, stirring until mixture is melted and smooth. Whisk in sugars, eggs, vanilla extract and milk, blending until smooth. Add flour and salt just until mixture is combined, stir in nuts and spread into 13 x 9-inch baking pan lined with greased parchment paper. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or so. Cool pan completely on a wire rack. For the drizzle, bring cream to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Remove pan from heat and add chocolates, whisk until smooth and cool until thickened. Pour over brownies, and cool in the refrigerator until firm before cutting into bars.

Cracker Jacks

People had probably been eating a mix of peanuts and popcorn for at least a hundred years before the Rueckheim brothers created a magical mix with molasses at the 1863 Chicago World’s Fair. Soon they began marketing Cracker Jack nationally, unintentionally becoming the fathers of American junk food.

Junk food it very well is, but crackerjacks are also a great snack, as junk foods tend to be, and fun to make at home for a party

Mix 10 cups popped corn and 2 cups Spanish peanuts in a roasting pan. Place in oven at 250. Bring a half cup dark corn syrup, a half cup butter, a quarter cup brown sugar, and a teaspoon of salt to a rolling boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in a teaspoon vanilla. Working quickly, pour over warm corn and nuts while tossing until well coated. Spread on a  lightly oiled sheet pan and return to oven, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes. Don’t let it stick. Turn onto foil to cool. Salt lightly before serving.