Peanut Butter Bars

I was sitting in church, starving because I didn't have time to eat breakfast, when I leaned over and told Chris that I was thinking about making these for dessert. I was very surprised about how excited he got when I told him. He said that this was one of the first desserts that I made for him when we were dating. On the way home he couldn't stop talking about how great these cookie bars were. Until that moment I really had no idea how much my cooking had influenced the progression of our relationship.

Of course I never considered these Peanut Butter Bars to be difficult to make; just throw all the ingredients together and bake them. What could possibly go wrong? Well, this time I pulled them out of the oven and they didn't look gooey at all on top, the way they are supposed to. They were golden brown, bordering on dark brown in places. So I looked at the dials on our oven and, uh-oh, the oven was set to broil.

Who's idea was it to make an oven like that anyway? You may not be able to read the picture, but on the left hand dial you have to tell the oven what to do: bake, broil, time bake, or clean. On the right hand dial you choose a temperature starting at warm and progressing from 200° all the way to broil. Apparently if you choose broil on the left hand dial but choose a temperature on the other, it still broils. Why do they put broil on the left hand dial rather than just on the right?

So I decided to cover the pan with foil and bake it again for another 6 minutes. The bars are still a little gooey on the bottom and completely cooked on top even though it should be the other way around, but they taste about the same as normal. My husband still likes them anyway....

3/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup flour
2 cups oatmeal
peanut butter
chocolate frosting

Cream butter and sugar then add eggs and beat until fluffy. Add vanilla and peanut butter. Mix all dry ingredients into creamed mixture and spread on greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375° (if it looks gooey but golden take it out). Spread peanut butter then chocolate frosting on top.