Buckeyes

In Ohio, Buckeyes are a popular candy goodie.   There are probably a lot of variations of this recipe on the web, but this is one I use.

For the peanut butter dough:
1 stick softened butter
1 pound confectioner’s (powdered) sugar (3.5 cups)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups peanut butter (I used 18 oz)

For the dipping chocolate:
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp. vegetable shortening (like Crisco)

You can dip the peanut butter balls in any chocolate you have on hand.  The vegetable shortening makes the chocolate a little thinner and is easier to dip.

Cream butter, peanut butter and vanilla.  Beat in the powdered sugar – it will be kind of stiff.  Roll into 1″ balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.  I use my small Pampered Chef scoop (leveled off) so all the balls are about the same size.  If the dough seems too crumbly, beat in a little milk.  You want it to be the consistency of play dough.  Put a toothpick in each one and freeze at least one hour.  You don’t want the ball dropping off the toothpick when dipping.

Melt your chocolate.  Dip each ball and place on cookie sheet to cool.   I usually take about 8 out of the freezer at a time.  If the dough starts to get warm, it’s going to fall right off your toothpick which is frustrating and messy.

Remove the toothpicks and “close up the eyes”….just kind of smooth the dough over the toothpick hole.  I’m not very good at this part, but the point is to try to cover up the gaping hole.

This recipe makes about 50.   You can also use this peanut butter dough for bon-bons, filled chocolate Easter eggs or homemade Reese’s cups.   Yum!

Mint Cookies

I found this recipe for Mint Cookies  a couple years ago from DVO.  DVO is the company that makes my recipe program (Cook’n).  The cookies are really good and I have made them many times – they taste like a Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie.  These cookies will be part of  Veterans’ Day gifts.

Unwrap the Andes Mints.

The cookies will be shaped like little footballs.

You drizzle on melted Andes Mints after the cookies cool.  Yum!

Baby Bib

Here is something I’m adding to the baby gift I’m working on — these cute baby bibs from Wolves in London.

They have a flannel front and a terry cloth back.  So you can catch all the dribbles and then wipe the little face clean with the back.  So cute!  Love the zebras.  I even managed to get the snaps on.  They aren’t perfect – but as I always say, that’s how you can tell they are homemade.

Tangerine Juice and Chunky Applesauce

If you don’t make your own squeezed orange juice, you might want to think about it.  It’s so awesome fresh.  You might think you’re getting fresh when you buy it from the store, but you are most likely not.  Here is a good article on the latest lawsuits against Tropicana’s false advertising.

The article says Tropicana is in fact, “pasteurized, deaerated, stripped of flavor and aroma, stored for long periods of time before available to the public, and colored and flavored before being packaged, and then shipped all over the country.” 

That doesn’t sound very good to me!  So when I see a really good deal on a bag of oranges (especially on clearance), I like to juice them for a delicious, fresh orange treat.  This past week, Meijer had a bag of tangerines for $2.00.  So I bought two bags to try tangerine juice.  It definitely has a different flavor than oranges, but it is delicious!  I find that one bag makes one quart.  And  you definitely want to drink it cold.  Room temperature juices aren’t very exciting.

I have an awesome appliance I have had for about 30 years.  And it has this juicer attachment.

Cut all your oranges/tangerines in half.

Run the juicer.

Two nice quarts.

At the same I was doing this, I was cooking apples.  I like to buy apples on sale and then make them into applesauce to take in my lunch.  I peeled and chopped up about 7 medium sized apples, added some water to keep them from burning and sticking to the pan.

I cooked them, stirring occasionally, until they were soft.  Then I added cinnamon and cooked a few minutes longer.  I used my potato masher to mash them up a bit.

Four nice cups to take to work next week.

So the moral of the story is to buy oranges and apples by the bag when they are on sale and prepare them into something easy and tasty.   Fresh and no preservatives.  Yay!