Lagniappe - Memphis City Schools' Peanut Butter Bar

In high school, nobody in my social circle ate lunch. For one thing, lunch was at some silly time, like 10:00 a.m. Second, there were about 180 people to get through the line in the mere 25 minutes they gave you in which to eat. Third, nobody took their lunch, that was considered nerdy. And lastly, no girl wanted the chance of any boy seeing her actually, eat.

The exception was peanut butter bar day (and sometimes pizza day). Years after graduating and Jonesing for the peanut butter bar, I finally came across the recipe in the Commercial Appeal recipe finder. Eureka! And to once again prove I have yet to meet a pizza I didn't like, I still crave that horrendous MCS pizza...rectangle, virtually raw, ketchup tasting, overly salty mess. If you gave me a slice today I'd scarf it down in seconds...

The PB bar is a little hard to describe...a chewy texture and not much at all like a rice crispy treat, but then again, sort of. Just try it. If you like PB, you'll love it.

These PB bars are best eaten the day-of, actually right after they've cooled. You can maybe sneak a second day of shelf life out of them, but they need to be zapped in the microwave a bit to soften before eating. After day two, toss; as they'll be like rocks, but they won't be around that long most likely. Now, if I just had some Jungle Juice...

MCS - Peanut Butter Bars (adapted from Commercial Appeal recipe)


1 cup sugar

3/4 cup light corn syrup

1 cup peanut butter

3 1/2 cups of rice crispy cereal

Tools: 9x9 pan, 2 sandwich bags and cooking spray

Lightly spray a 9x9 pan and set aside. Combine sugar and corn syrup in a heavy saucepan. Cook, over med-high heat, stirring constantly until mixture just starts to boil then turn off heat and stir in PB till it's melted and mixture is smooth. Quickly, stir in the cereal till completely coated.

Put mixture in 9x9 pan. To make them smooth on top, I double up the sandwich bags over one hand like a glove and spray the "glove" and press down the mixture. Let cool about 20 minutes then cut into squares and serve. As noted earlier, best to eat up at this point so they are at the perfect consistency...they harden the more they sit around. But if you do have leftovers, go ahead and cut into squares and wrap each square in plastic wrap, and store in air tight container. Zap in microwave a few seconds if eaten much later to soften.