Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls

April 19, 2012

Uhg, it's 12:30 am and I got hit with blog inspiration.  It developed upon finishing a batch of Buckeyes (chocolate dipped peanut butter balls) for the very first time  ; )  Sporadically, I get inspired to try things that are (in a culinary sense) outside of my comfort zone and I enjoy sharing with you how it ended up going.  So far, I've made pretty much everything I've tried to make, how it's suppose to be made, until tonight... correction, this midnight ; )  My procedure was spot on, however, my technique had a downfall... I burned my chocolate.  I have never melted chocolate and I was fascinated with the idea of using my fondue pot to dip my peanut butter balls in.  I added the edible paraffin to the chocolate at the same time, but I should have melted it first!  I quickly noticed paraffin takes far more time to melt than the chocolate which melts almost immediately.  I heard from others that adding paraffin gives the chocolate a glistening coat. I read several recipes, but chose a standard one from my Better Homes and Garden cookbook.

From the dough, I shaped little balls, chilled them for 30 min. to harden so they wouldn't fall apart when dipped

I melted the chocolate while the balls chilled. When ready, I removed the tray from the fridge and dipped each ball using wooden skewer stick

(the slotted tool I used didn't work like I hoped it would)

I covered the pin hole with a drop of chocolate on the top of these treats to hide the void created by the stick.  I placed the coated balls back on the tray covered with wax paper to set up without sticking permenantly.

When I finished all 43 of them, I divided ones for 3 neighbors and ourselves in covered dishes and returned them to the fridge for safe keeping. 

They are good for 3 weeks but even though my chocolate didn't come out perfect, they'll be gone in 3 days!  ; )

 

Split Pea Soup & Parmesan Cheese Bread

Cook 'em

Mash 'em

Mix 'em

Blend 'em

Heat 'em

Prep 'em

Toast 'em

I have been on a homemade food kick lately.  The other day it was semi-homemade Snickerdoodle cookies (the dry mix kind, out of a box) that I shared with two of our elderly neighbors across the street.  Then I made, for the first time, and from complete scratch, white bread by recipe.  And tonight I mastered Split Pea soup without recipe.  I just had dried peas I needed to use, and a bag of carrots in the fridge to accompany them.  I cooked the peas as directed (3 cups water to 1 cup dry peas), salted & steamed the carrots until fork tender and mashed them after they softened.  I mixed the cooked peas into the seasoned carrots (and also added the water I used to steam the carrots, to hold onto as much of the nutrients as possible) before blending them in my food processor. I incorporated the desired amount of milk needed, to thin it out into a creamy consistancy.  I am aware there are several variations to split pea soup, but I was just starting out with a basic goal of, well, EDIBLE ; )  {Next time I make this, I will play around with adding ham and maybe some garlic.}  Once I was content with the taste & texture of the soup I transferred it to a sauce pan to warm up & serve.  While it was heating up I sliced some of the homemade bread and buttered it so the parmesan cheese I sprinkled over it would stick well, plus it gives the bread succulent flavor.  I broiled the bread for a few minutes just to make it crusty and give it a golden brown finish. 
Dinner... was... served ; )

Messy Monday

Today has been great so far!  N, my nearly 3 year old, has had a day full of kareoke singing, fingerpainting (followed by swimming in the bath to wash off the evidence of fun), while I've been catching up on my 9 month old L's babybook off and on, and of course we've eaten x number of times too.  Hopefully they will nap soon so I can put this house back in order ; )  It's a mess but the boys are happy and I am doing things I don't focus on regularly.  I'll fix this place up in peace, without interruption, while the boys sleep ; )

The Easter Egg

It was Easter day and I was driving with my boys, to spend Easter with their grandparents and great grandparents (while My Love had to work), when it dawned on me how we are like an egg.  We are fragile.  We need God's protection in life so we won't crack under the world's pressure to conform to the mainstream.  We need Him to stay on the straight and narrow.  And the yolk of the egg is similar in appearance to our sun.  Which lead me to the thought that without the Son, we are separated from God.  But through the Son and the price he paid for our sins, we are able to have an intimate relationship with Him daily.  This reflection made me enjoy seeing Easter eggs more and I look forward to refining my idea of them to share with my kids what they can resemble and to use the egg as a teaching tool to glorify God in a world that thinks Easter is all about bunnies and candy ; )

Our 6 Year Anniversary

Phew, it has been forever since I last posted anything.  And the last thing I posted wasn't even that entertaining ; )  My Love & I recently celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary.  It was celebrated by my mom watching the boys while we ENJOYED a nice dinner together.  Just before leaving the house, we learned his sister & husband were going out to eat too.  By the time we met up, they had just finished their meal but we ambushed them as they were exiting their booth, just in time to scoot 'em back in to chat.  Since they had finished eating and we hadn't gone to our restaurant yet, we invited them to have some fondue with us.  In addition to NEVER eating out without the kids, we NEVER get to enjoy the company of others like this too!  We had a GREAT time.  After completing a round of fondue, they continued on with their date and we stayed to finish ours over dinner.  Through general conversation, My Love stated he would give me my card in the morning (since that would be our actual anniversary day).  I tried to act like I forgot to get him one but I CAN'T keep a straight face!  I told him I hid it in the garage and he laughed because he hid his there too.  He shared with me casually that he went a different route this year in shopping for one, choosing a funny one instead of a deeply sentimental one (like we typically exchange).  I laughed with relief because this is the first year I did too.  We never even talked about changing things up, but both felt like we know how much we love each other already ; )  He went on to say that his card made a sound.  I said mine didn't.  I took it as, his card played music.  He meant that his card had an animal on it that would make a sound.  I laughed real loud telling him mine had that too.  He asked what sound mine would make but I told him I didn't want to give away the card too much.  I added that my card MOVED when you opened it and he laughed hysterically (covering his mouth, almost losing his food) trying to say his did too.  We agreed to stop describing our cards for fear we bought the SAME ONE!!!  The hearty cheese & bread appetizer was slightly filling so we split a meal (at the suggestion of his sister) and left feeling full but not overly stuffed. 

On our first anniversary, we got really nice Bulova watches and we each needed batteries replaced.  We decided to try and pass through Fred Meyer on the way home and browse the store after seeing the jeweler.  He had gone home for the day already so we carried on with ourselves, nonchalantly.  We looked at sunglasses for fun and My Love said "no way, I look like a 40 year old man in these" while a lady around that age was standing next to him.  He smiled, embarrassed at what he just said and she grinned and walked away.  He didn't mean anything by it, but felt bad after he blurted it out.  We were going to get Baskin & Robins ice cream on the way to the car in the shopping square but we were having too much fun that we forgot.  By the time we realized it, we were half way home ; )  Our date didn't end when we got home.  We tucked the kids in bed and enjoyed a movie & popcorn night together.

The next morning we anxiously exchanged our cards.  We opened them with great anticipation, discovering (thankfully) that they were VERY similar but DIFFERENT.  It was amusing to us that on this particular year we both, without knowing the other would do the same, picked extremely alike cards that were not what we would habitually buy.  All together, it was an anniversary to remember ; )