The Julia Childish Cookbook

The world famous chef, Julia Childish, has just published her newest cookbook, "What's That Smell?" It contains special recipes that have been Childish favorites for years. We were able to join her in the kitchen recently and after I got her to stop asking me to pull her finger, she prepared some of her favorites for us:

"There was one recipe my mother would make for us just before any marathons we'd run, delicious Peanut Butter and Jellybean Sandwiches.

"You need two slices of bread. You spread one slice with a generous portion of peanut butter. You can use a butter knife, but I prefer my little spatula. I guess that would make it a peanut butter knife. Delightful! Now, once the peanut butter is on, you sprinkle on a handful of jellybeans. Top with the second slice of bread and voila!

"We found the peanut butter was a big help in eating this sandwich. Otherwise the jelly beans keep falling out. This was a vast improvement over our jelly bean sandwiches. And they're not just for Easter anymore.

"Speaking of Easter, one of our family favorites was Easter Egg Salad. For this you'll need one dozen Easter eggs and one cup mayonnaise. So, you'll need to find Easter eggs (best time: Easter morning). Peel them and chop them up. Put in a bowl. Then add mayonnaise to the multi-colored eggs. This makes 5-6 sandwiches. Sometimes to save time, our family would simply hide the sandwiches.

"Another crowd pleaser was our Triple Stuff Oreos. Your ingredients are a bag of Double stuff Oreos and regular single stuff Oreos.

"Pry apart an Oreo. Using a little spatula, carefully peel the creme middle from the Oreo. You can use a butter knife if necessary, but I really prefer the little spatula. It's so useful for so many things. Set the creme aside a moment on the sheet of wax paper. Now, we're going to carefully pry apart a Double Stuff Oreo. I find a nice quick counter-clockwise twist does the trick. Now, place the creme you've just removed on the double stuff creme middle. Replace cookie wafer. Serve with chocolate milk. After a couple of these it becomes quite a rush. Now we have all these extra cookie wafers. But fear not. They come in quite handy with the recipe for:

Halloween Salsa
Ingredients: 1 can cake frosting
1 bag candy corn
1 small bag hot tamale candy
"We need a can of cake frosting; I prefer chocolate. You empty the frosting into a medium-sized bowl. Mix in candy corn and tamales, stir it all up with your little spatula, and OLE! Then simply use the wafers for dipping. A fun party dip. It goes great with a bottle of soda! I can feel the teeth in my head rotting away just thinking about. Unfortunately, our father has a really good dental plan. That's why we could come up with amazing recipes like:

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Sandwich
Ingredients: 1/4 cup peanut butter
1 chocolate bar
2 slices of bread.
"Spread peanut butter on bread. Add candy bar and close sandwich. Serve with chocolate chip cookies."

Sugar Rush Party Mix
"Mix equal parts M&Ms, Reese's Pieces, chocolate Kisses in a bowl. Chill. Add small chocolate chip cookies to taste."

Candy Cane-ka-bobs
"Skewer Milky Ways, Mars Bars, and Snickers on a candy cane. Serve with chocolate chip cookies."

Pretzel Fondue
"Melt chocolate bars in the fondue pot. Dip in pretzel sticks and eat warm. Or you can take your Candy Cane-ka-bobs and dunk them in there, too. Sometimes I dip my Easter Egg salad sandwich in, as well."

"Now, for you good people out there watching your calories, you can try one of my sugar-free recipes:

Mud Pie ala Julia
Ingredients: 1 cup water
1 cup dirt
Mix dirt and water. Form patties. Sprinkle with sand and garnish with grass. Serve with sticks."

So as we bade farewell to Julia Childish, she was quick to invite us back so we could learn the way to make a few other of her favorites like "Macaroni & Cheesecake, Spaghetti and Gumballs and a wonderful morning Jawbreakfast."