If I don’t want to chat, I pull out a jar of peanut butter.  Is that an introvert thing?

 I am thinking, yes. It must be since it started at a young age with me.

Something about having a mouthful of peanut butter as a kid made it okay, in my mind to not answer adults questions. 

Like, where did you get that wood to build your fort? 

Uh, what wood?

Usually came out as "Wart Word"?

And since the comprehension seemed to ensue lack of communication the questioning stopped.

  Not that the peanut butter eating stopped.  

It just got dragged out until a glass of milk was nearby and handy.  

The fort, as it was known to us but might have looked more like the few pieces of wood nailed to one side of my best friend's house was our containment area. 

The wood was free. Right? I think that was the real question pondering the adult's mind when we mentioned building a "fort." 

 But, who leaves out wood near a giant trash bin for the day and wants it back? So what if it was exactly the size of a perfect 2x4 and had no cuts or slashes or saw marks.  

My story stands.  The wood was free...

 Guilt feelings make my stomach curdle around in my tummy for the construction crew that came out and couldn’t find the extra "wood" that they had left outside those 30+ years ago.

 But, we needed to build our fort and we needed wood.

Where else do you hide a time capsule to be opened in one month.

  A month?!

 My goodness, a month!  They say dog years are short imagine pre-teen time?

Might as well have said, forever.

At  least 4 episodes of Cheers would have passed by then.

By the way: if you remember Cheers, sorry to be age dating. It was a good show, don't be sorry. Keep smiling, I am.😊

Time capsule⌛️ questions like:

 Who’s your best friend?  Obvious answer. You buried it with her.

What’s your favorite animal?  Dogs, whales, and horses. The question just wasn't precise enough.

What color do you love?  purple or maybe pink These were pre-teen required favorites.

What do you wish you could have? A car or a house for my Barbie.  This was way before pre-teens today who are no doubt asking for a smart phone. I was a bit behind schedule, what can I say?

  I am sure the list was at least that interesting.  

Then again making a time capsule was not quite as self fulfilling as hauling the "load" up the hill and pounding the nails with all the force one could muster into the wood.

Imagine being ten, a girl and banging  the crap out of wood.  Every nail had a bit of a twist.

  Yeah, a carpenter.  I now know the feeling.

 Of course the advantage of not needing to worry if it would collapse was,  a giant benefit. Benefit two, was, after working hard sweating in our bathing suits, (typical carpenter safety outfit)  

 splashing and jumping in the doughboy pool for the ultimate cool down

 after at least 15 minutes of work.

 I never said we were go-getters, just hard working thieves.  

And as every wood worker knows lunch is always around the corner and that might have meant   peanut butter cookies had been made. 

Or maybe cream puffs? 

Or chocolate cake?

  It didn’t matter, it all tasted good and went down with a glass of ice cold milk.  I swear we ate a sandwich first.😉 Maybe even a few cut up carrots.

 Either way the lopsided fort got built.

The builders found more wood.

And the time capsule got opened before the autumn leaves came down.

 All in a hard day's work as a kid because I stuck peanut butter in my mouth and stopped answering questions.  I think it's safe to say I like peanut butter.

 These cookies are just a testament to how much.  Thanks Dorie 😊 for the peanut butter cookie recipe.

Sorry builders for any wood that went missing 😖...I promise to bake you a batch of cookies if I ever meet you. 😉

 

Dorie Greenspan's Peanut Butter Cookies (with a white radish twist of Reese's peanut butter chips)

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• pinch of grated nutmeg
• 2 sticks unsalted butter (room temp)
• 1 cup smooth peanut butter (room temp)
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs (room temp)
• 1/2 - 1 cup of reese's peanut butter chips
• extra sugar for rolling

Instructions

Step 1

Position racks in the oven into thirds and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Step 2

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and nutmeg.

Step 3 

With a mixer, beat the peanut butter, butter and salt together on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.  Add both sugars and beat for another two minutes. One by one, add the eggs, beating for a minute after each egg goes in.  Turn off the mixer, and add all of the dry ingredients and pulse the machine a few times to start blending.  Next mix on low speed until the flour has almost disappeared into the dough.  Add the peanut butter chips and mix by hand to incorporate into the dough.

Step 4

Scoop out a level tablespoon of dough, roll it between your palms into a ball and dredge in sugar; place the cookies 2 inches apart on the baking sheets.  Dip the fork in the sugar and press against each cookie one way then the opposite way flattening the cookie and making a criss-cross pattern.

Step 5

Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes, until they're lightly colored but still soft.

Tips

• weigh the dough of the first cookie ball if you want to have exactly all the same size of cookies
• you can use any brand of peanut butter chips you like, I just prefer Reese's
• You can freeze them individually and then place in a ziploc bag to bake another day.  Don't defrost just bake a few minutes a longer.

Enjoy with a glass of cold milk, dunked in some hot chocolate, tea or coffee.