It's that time of year: Pictures, Recipes, and Suggested Sneaky Snacks

 Yep, it's the time when we start dragging out the trees, putting up baubles, lighting the lights, and remembering to be nice a little more often.  I've not been doing such a great job of the "nice" part.  I've been a bit grouchy the past few days, but I've been super excited for almost the past solid month.  I haven't been on my blog nearly as much lately as I generally try to be, but I do have a valid excuse!  Really!  Just keep reading... or scrolling at least.

 Li'l bit lurking under the tree.  She has a new set of catnip toys under there.  And B and I.  Fin was nice enough to come take a picture for us.  :-)

 But THIS is the reason I've really been so absent.  Yes, wax is the culprit.  See, if you take 1/3 of one of those bars of paraffin, and 12 oz of chocolate (either chips or chunked up bars), and you use it to dip stuff in... magic happens!!!

 Like peanut butter balls!!  Graham cracker crumbs, peanut butter, and powdered sugar, rolled into balls, chilled, and then dipped in chocolate/wax goodness.  Oh yes....  I'm sorry, I can't be more specific.  This recipe isn't mine to give away.  It's my Great Aunt D's, and my cousin (her granddaughter) was generous enough to share it with me, along with a very special recipe for hard candy.

 This hard candy brings back so many childhood memories.  Unfortunately, I didn't use the right type of flavoring, so it's on the bland side.  It also appears that using a non-stick pot is bad news bears for hard candy.  Maybe it doesn't heat as even?  I don't know, but it doesn't taste quite right.  Ivy is reporting recipe tweakings to me, so that we can continue the tradition of Aunt D's famous hard candy.  :-D  My cousin ROCKS!

I don't think the paraffin/chocolate idea is proprietary, though.  And once I realized how easy it was to make dipping chocolate that would harden right... well... here's what happened!  To make anything you see below, just melt the chocolate and the paraffin wax together over low heat.  Once it's melted, just dip whatever you want.  A fork works best to retrieve things you dipped in all the way (like the cracker/peanut butter goodies).  A slotted spoon messed up the chocolate coating on the bottom.  The treats just slide right off the fork no problem.

For the drizzles, I used the same chocolate and wax mixture.  I just dipped a fork in and sort of slung chocolate onto the treats.  Amazingly, I didn't wind up with chocolate on the ceiling ;-)

Chocolate dipped pretzels, and peanut butter and ritz cracker sandwiches:  The white chocolate edition. 

 Dark chocolate dipped pretzels with sprinkles!

White and milk chocolate mixed together became a drizzle, and a medium for dipping broken up bits of the pretzel rods.  And graham crackers got dipped and drizzled, sprinkled and coated.  

The milk chocolate edition of the peanut butter and crackers, and the fully dipped grahams.

And then, of course, the Pup's present.  I turned the graham cracker box inside out and decorated all four sides.  It's got a sampling of the chocolate dipped goodies, and some smaller bite sized bits that I tried to mix together to look like kibbles and bits or puppy chow.  I also made a batch of puppy chow.

Puppy Chow
Chex (or chex like) cereal
1/2 c peanut butter
1/2 stick butter
1 c chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
Powdered sugar

Melt the butter, peanut butter, and chocolate.  Mix in the vanilla after everything has melted.  Toss the cereal in it, and then toss the cereal in powdered sugar.  Ta da!  Puppy Chow.  Soooooo good!

And he had to have something to eat all his goodies out of.  I doodled all over the sides.  Yes, he will actually play with the squeaky bone, if for no other reason than to aggravate B LOL :)

And of course we had to have cookies.  Unfortunately, the icing job was pretty shoddy.  I was experimenting with my own icing.  It's just milk and powdered sugar mixed together till it's the right consistency.  I apparently didn't have it quite right, because it sort of oozed off the cookies.  But, now I know better for next time, and it still hardened up just like it was supposed to once it sat.  

 Sprinkles!!

The cookies are Spiced Sugar Cookies.   I found the recipe HERE.  They were really easy, and taste similar to snickerdoodles.

Last, but Oh -- Em -- Gee not least:  Peanut Butter FUDGE!  Oh boy, that stuff is awesome.  It didn't turn out *quite* right.

4c Sugar
1c Milk
1/2 c Butter (1 stick)
7 oz Marshmallow Creme
12 oz Peanut Butter
2/3 c All Purpose Flour

Ok... when I read that recipe, I was thinking that there are 8 oz in a cup, so that is a cup and a half of regular peanut butter.  The fudge didn't quite set up.  It's very soft and squishy, so I am thinking that should be peanut butter chips.  However, it doesn't matter that the fudge is squishy, it is Amazing!  Yes, capital A.  So good!  I'd never made fudge that worked before.  This was too easy, and too yummy.

Sugar, milk, butter goes in the pot.  Melt the sugar and bring it to a boil.  Stir constantly while the sugar is melting, but then don't stir it anymore.

Let it boil for five minutes.  Then remove it from the heat and mix in the marshmallow creme and the peanut butter or peanut butter chips.  Very slowly stir in the flour, and pour it into a buttered 9x13 baking dish to cool.  This stuff is so good, I am only allowed to make it at Yule from now on.  We can't walk by without grabbing a piece.

The Turning of the Year: Thoughts about the Holidays

http://pyratekirk.newgrounds.com/

There's been a lot of talk about Christmas round these parts lately.  The reason for the season, Santa Claus, trees, etc.  There's so much conflict over this particular holiday.  It, quite frankly, cracks me up.  People will believe anything at all if enough people tell it to them, or if they are told the same thing over and over enough times.

Why do we think Jesus's birthday is at the end of December?   Well, because the church says so, right?  It's just always been that way, right?  Baaaaa Baaaaaaa  Good sheep.  Now go read your bible and tell me whether or not logic dictates that December 25th is the most reasonable time to plug his birthday into the calendar.  Mary and Joseph were on their way to pay their taxes, right?  Right.  Now, way back when in the days of long ago and far away, when was tax season?  It wouldn't likely have been in the middle of winter.  Taxes were often paid in stuff, not coin.  First harvest, first product of the flocks, or the stuff created after harvesting has been completed, which would mean a spring - early summer time frame.  Midwinter is just illogical.

Do you know why we have "Christmas" in midwinter right around the time of the solstice?  Because that's when the Sun/Son is reborn into the world.  The longest, darkest night of the year.  Traditionally people would stay up all night, with candles lit, yule logs burning in the fire place, singing songs, telling tales, and praying that light would come back to the world so they could have another year of crops and critters.  The earth based wheel of the year is agriculturally based.  The Christian cycle of holidays mirrors the pagan cycle on purpose.  The christians, while attempting to supersede the pagans' beliefs, took over the heathen holidays and made up stuff to justify them.  Michaelmas, Candlemas, Pentacost, Christmas, Easter...

And how about this modern take on midwinter?  What's up with the presents, and the stress, and the rush-rush-rush?  I was told that we give and receive presents on Christmas because the Magi brought presents to baby Jesus.  Mmmkay... I don't buy it.  I think our capitalist culture just wanted another way to goad loads of people into spending more money than they ought to yet another day out of the year.  I have the same skeptical feelings about Valentine's day.

People shouldn't feel like it's required to give presents.  If you like it and it makes you happy, then by all means go for it.  But don't overtax yourself.  Don't break the bank.  Don't feel like it's an absolute necessity just to keep in people's good graces.  If someone wants to be offended that badly because they didn't get a present on some trumped up holiday, then they apparently have ulterior motives for keeping you around.  That includes family.  If someone loves you, then they will love your company, or the knowledge that you were thinking of them.  They'll love a small token (like a letter or a phone call) just as much as they would love a present and possibly even more than some present that you went out and bought just because you felt like you had to because "it's Christmas".

Holidays should be spent doing what you enjoy with people you enjoy being with.  Behaving differently just because it's supposed to be a special day does not fly in my book.  If I don't like you the other 364 days a year, chances are I don't like you on Christmas either.  If I want to give you a present, I can just as easily do it any other day of the year and vice versa.  Yes, I do give Christmas presents, and I like doing it.  But no, I do not go out and rack my brains and my bank account trying to find something for everyone.  I do what I can with what I've got, and assume it will be enough because of the love that goes with it.  Not how big the price tag is.

I do admit to having  a bit of a blind spot when it comes to kids, though.  Christmas is a holiday that can be filled with all kinds of magic and memories for children.  Find ways to make the magic happen and make the memories happen.  That doesn't mean take out a personal loan so that you can afford that state of the art toy that just came out.  Make special treats that only get made once a year.  Sing songs.  Play games.  Make decorations.  They'll remember that a lot longer than they'll remember what presents they got.