Peanut butter mousse cake

I just use a devil's food cake mix for the cake part of the cake. You can make two layers, or you can make one and cut it in half.

Peanut butter mousse:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup peanut butter chips
1 tsp vanilla

While the cake bakes, put 1/3 cup of the cream and the peanut putter chips in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat, until the chips melt and the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and let cool 20-25 minutes until barely warm. Beat remaining 2/3 cup cream in a small bowl with electric mixer just until soft mounds form when beaters are lifted. (Don't overbeat of mousse won't be smooth.) Gently stir about 1/3 of the whipped cream into peanut butter mixture until blended. Then add peanut butter mixture to remaining whipped cream and gently stir (fold) until blended and no streaks remain.
Spread mousse on bottom layer and then top with top layer. Refrigerate while preparing glaze.

Glaze:
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp sugar
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Stir cream, butter, and sugar in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar disolves. bring to a boil and add chocolate chips. Remove from heat, let stand five minutes, then stir until smooth.
Pour glaze over top of cake and gently spread to edges, letting glaze drip down sides. Garnish with peanut butter cups cut in half. Refrigerate at least two hours until set or up to a day.

Chayote

I've joined the ranks of the hippie organic basket buyers. Or at least I've started making Monica buy them for me. This last week we each got a chayote squash (which I found out what was by googling "weird green fruit.") I found this recipe and we tried it out. It was way, way yummy. We left out the red pepper flakes, but otherwise pretty much did just what it said. Oh--we did use balsamic vinegar instead of red wine vinegar. We cut them up kind of like big french fries. I ate most of them. Peter didn't really like them. I cleaned out the pan with jalapeno bread (because that's the only kind of bread we have). You should try it. You know, if you can find chayote and it's not crazy expensive.


http://allrecipes.com/Recipe-Tools/Print/Recipe.aspx?RecipeID=140449&origin=detail&Servings=4&metric=False

Easiest Chicken Ever

You need two ingredients:

Boneless skinless chicken breasts
Salad dressing

Cut the chicken up (I use scissors) taking off all the nasty fat-like things. You want bite-sizeish pieces. Then put the chicken in a frying pan. Cover with salad dressing. Stir over medium high heat until the chicken is cooked and slightly browned. Usually takes ten to fifteen minutes. So much better than chicken nuggets, in so many ways. You can use in salads, taco or burrito type things, or as a side dish. Ranch dressing is always good, and I used a Miso Ginger today that was really yummy.