Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies

Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies via my lovely friend Carolyn

Ingredients

1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter (I probably could have added a little more for a stronger peanut flavor)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 egg
1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Mix thoroughly shortening, peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and egg. Blend in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Cover and chill.
2. Heat oven to 375°. Shape dough into 1-inch balls, coat with sugar and place 3 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set but not hard.

*Note: don't press these down with a fork!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies

To continue with our patriotic theme this week of 4th of July Fashion and America's favorite pastime, I thought the beloved All-American Whoopie Pie would be an appropriate addition to the lineup.

And while the traditional whoopie pie features a chocolate cookie with a vanilla creme center, I thought this recipe with peanut butter filling seemed like a decadent twist on an old classic.

After all, there is no combination more American (or delicious) than peanut butter and chocolate, right?

These little heavenly sandwiches would be a welcome inclusion at your weekend BBQ, and a perfect last-minute dessert to wow your friends and family for the 4th.

Toll House Cookie Pie for Colgate Day!

Where I go to college, we have a special tradition where we are obsessed with the number 13. As the tradition goes, the school was founded by "thirteen men with thirteen dollars and thirteen prayers." The first two numbers of the zip code are 13, and the rest add up to 13. The president of the school encourages us to get over our "triskaidekaphobia" (the fear of the number 13) because as a student, the number will be lucky for the rest of our lives.

And today, Friday the 13th, is the luckiest day of the year. (Unless, of course, there is more than one Friday the 13th).

There are a number of ways to celebrate Colgate Day. Alumni and students alike wear Colgate gear wherever they are, students held a dancing flash mob in the dining hall, and 13 members of the Colgate community even rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on a Colgate Day in 2010.

One tradition that is especially exciting to people with a sweet tooth (hint: me) is that the Colgate Inn serves its famous Toll House Cookie Pie at a discounted price of $13 a pie.

Although I am over 1,000 away from campus today, I decided to make my own Toll House Cookie pie to celebrate Colgate Day.

If you're a Colgate alum or student, you can use this same recipe to help celebrate your love for Colgate. But even if you have no idea about Colgate, Adam & Eve, Willow Path, or triskaidekaphobia, you can still make this gooey, chewy, chocolatey treat for your own celebration.