In 'Merica.... we eat peanut butter!

Now that summer is in full swing, I can spend all of my free time doing what else??... baking. Tis' the season of being reimbursed for making cookies and delicious bars as "work expenses".   Since I can't bake alllll the time, I have to do other things with my time. One of those things is..... watch world cup soccer.  I completely admit that I am the ultimate bandwagon fan, but I have been all about US soccer for the last few days (today ruined it a bit more me but I am still fairly impressed how the US did in these games). So, what better way to celebrate thursday at work than to make world cup themed desserts? (since last thursday was the day of the most glorious loss in US history to advance out of "the group of death")

I spent a while brainstorming of how I could integrate soccer into my dessert without straight out making cupcakes or something.... though to be honest, I really like the sound of World Cup-cakes..... Anyways, I brainstormed everything that is black and white.  The first thing that naturally comes to mind?? Oreos. Ok, so I was going to have Oreos in my dessert.  And as great as Oreos are as a stand alone treat, I needed something a little more than that! Then I thought, what do we have in America that we do not have in Germany (our opponent)..... and then it came to me: PEANUT BUTTER.  I don't know how whole countries could live without peanut butter, so I decided that this would be the perfect ingredient to integrate into my dessert to remind every how awesome the US is (in most ways that is).  So it all came to me:  Peanut butter blondies with Oreos on top resembling soccer balls.  I used this recipe with the minor exception that I left out the milk chocolate chips and replaced that with peanut butter chips.... I wanted to keep the emphasis on the peanut butter after all. These were seriously delicious, which made up for US losing.... and the somewhat questionable looking soccer balls.  But you get the idea, right?