A Recipe Can Take Me Back

They say a song can take you back. For me, so can a recipe.  I can still remember (and yes, this was about 35 years ago) many of the sights, smells and sounds of a Vacation Bible School I attended as a child at my favorite church ever, the church I attended with my Grandpa and Grandma.  I would sit on my Grandma’s lap looking at all the stones in her mother’s ring, but that is a story for another time.  At Vacation Bible School that year we made one of those nifty recipe holders that you make by putting plaster in a hairspray can lid and sticking a fork in the middle of the plaster to hold your recipe. 

The memory of this recipe also takes me back to my mother’s kitchen when I was a young teenager, tearing her recipe box, books, and the cupboard she kept them in apart, looking for the recipe from Vacation Bible School that we seemed to have lost along the years.  Mind you, this was before we all had computers and Google.  Back then you didn't just hop on over to the internet and search for the recipe; you had to accept the fact that you had lost it. 

Now jump to Alturas California.  We lived there for five years and had the most amazing friends and church family.  We had a tradition in our church when families moved away to make them a scrapbook.  We would each take one page of the scrapbook and include a photo of our family; memories of times spent with them, and of course, a recipe or two.   On one of the occasions when a family was moving away, and we were all working on our scrapbook pages for them, I received a phone call from a friend asking if I would be able to help her make her page.  Of course I said yes, and soon we were sitting at my kitchen counter with all my scrapbook papers, stickers, and rubber stamps scattered around us working on her page.  When she showed me her recipe that she brought to include on her page, I just started to cry and jump up and down shrieking with excitement.  There in my hands was the recipe from Vacation Bible School that I had lost so, so many years before.  Thank you, Kelly Larsen, for reuniting me with my long-lost recipe!

Now you may laugh when you see this recipe.  The easiest, simplest, no-bake recipe you have ever seen!  So maybe this recipe is more about the story and the memories than the recipe itself.  And I am quite sure the story behind it is why I got a bit miffed when an acquaintance once asked me for the recipe and then days later posted it on Facebook as her own!  So I give this to all of you today….just remember where it came from!   Please!

~Enjoy

Peanut Butter Balls

1 c. peanut butter

¼ c. honey

½ c. powdered milk

1 c. instant oatmeal

½ c. tiny chocolate chips

        sesame seeds

Mix all ingredients except sesame seeds.  Form into small balls & roll in sesame seeds. Refrigerate until firm (about 2 hours)  I always double the recipe.  We are a divided family, my son doesn't like sesame seeds, so I always make 1/2 with and 1/2 without. 

Currently, this is the only picture I have. Every year  my dear friend Margaret helps me make 12, yes I said 12 batches of these for the 30 Robotics students I need to keep fed during a three day Robotics event.