After I made Maureen’s Moxie Crinkle Cookies, I was on a sugar high.  I needed another fix.  I started sorting through last year’s recipes to find one of my own personal favorites, Leanne Pinkham’s “Peanut Butter Caramel Moxie Ice Cream Topping.”  After last year’s contest ended and we cleared away the debris, there was half a jar left and since Leanne hadn’t picked it up, I took it home and ate it straight as a snack.  Oh, not in one sitting, of course…

I looked at the recipe and like a junkie, I zipped down to Food City and picked up the ingredients for some ice cream topping.  Between measuring and stirring, I sent Leanne an e-mail and asked her to give me her Moxie credentials.  She happily obliged and right out of the gate she said “First, I love Moxie!   I have ever since I was a little girl.  My father used to work at Ruth Jackson’s store in my hometown of North Anson.  I would go there to hang out with my father and the old folks would pay me to drink Moxie…”

(A promising beginning!)

Leanne entered her first Moxie Recipe Contest about ten years ago with her Moxie Cream Puffs with Moxie filling.  She still has her second place ribbon and so inspired, she entered the following year for her Moxie Bar-B-Que Sauce.  Narrowly missing victory, she again took home the second place prize.

She put her Moxie cooking career on hold for a few years when she got married and had a daughter.  Allison is now 7 years old and Leanne says “she is a true Maine gal.  When she was 5, she left Santa a can of Moxie and a PB & J sandwich!”

(No one needs to pay Santa to drink Moxie!)

She and her sister Kathy (who entered her Smokey Moxie Pork Wings in 2013) have a day planned to work on their entries for this year’s contest.

(They’re planners…I like it!)

Speaking of “true Maine gals,” Leanne has lived in North Anson all her life.  She works in town, too; she, her husband Redmond, and daughter Allison now reside in the house she grew up in.

When I asked her if she had any “little Moxie secrets” she confessed that her favorite way to drink Moxie is at room temperature and “Allison isn’t given soda as a general rule, but I do let her sip Moxie from time to time!”

Peanut Butter Caramel Moxie Ice Cream Topping

1 ½ cup salted peanuts
2 cups sugar
1 cup milk
½ cup light corn syrup
1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup peanut butter
1 cup of Moxie

Mix sugar, milk, Moxie, corn syrup, and peanuts in a pan. Bring to a boil and boil for 2 ½ minutes. Remove from heat and add butter, vanilla, baking soda, and peanut butter. Mix well. Store refrigerated, but bring to room temperature before using.

I’ve got only one modification to this delicious Friday Moxie snack. Add pretzels! Salty, sweet, and Moxie, the way food should be.

Special thanks to Leanne Pinkham for sharing her Moxie story with blog readers.  Memo to Leanne’s sister Kathy…start working on your Moxie biography because I’m going to make some Smokey Moxie Pork Wings next week!

The Moxie Recipe Contest will be held on Friday evening, July 11, 2014, at Chummy’s Restaurant in Lisbon Falls, Maine.  The judging begins at 5:00 p.m.