Graham Cracker House

I have lots of Christmasy recipes that I was going to try and work through them all, but it didn't happen. Things got pretty hectic, and I had to just try and make it through some of the days with the little girl I watch. These I figured would make a good activity to do with the kids.

I made icing #2. It didn't dry super fast, but was really strong once it did finally dry.

Little Chubb loved it! He really go into decorating, but still needed help putting the frosting on the house. Baby Chubb kind of wanted to sprinkle the sugar snow on, but really she just wanted to eat it once all the candy was on. The girl I watch didn't even want anything to do with decorating and just went straight to eating, so I did most of her decorating.

Secret Kiss Cookies

I made these to go on the goody plate we took around to our visiting teaching and home teaching families.

The white balls are the cookies.

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup fine chopped walnuts
1 6 ounce package of chocolate kisses
confectioner's sugar

Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla in large bowl. Gradually add flour & nuts; beat on low speed until well blended. Chill dough about 1 hour. or until firm enough to handle.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Mold approximately 1 T of dough around an unwrapped chocolate kiss and make a ball. Be sure to cover kiss completely. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 12 minutes or until cookies are set, but not brown. Cool slightly; remove to wire rack. While still warm, roll in confectioners sugar. Cool. Store.

Approximately 36 cookies.

These were also delicious, and wouldn't have lasted long had I not stored them like the directions said. They were fairly easy to make, except I needed to chop the nuts up more. They were still a little too big to get a good coverage on the cookies, but I made it work. If you keep them in the fridge, just remember that the chocolate kiss will get a hard, so take them out a little before you want to eat them.

Buckeyes

I have at least five recipes for Buckeyes/chocolate peanut butter balls in various shapes and varying the ingredients just slightly. I opted to make the recipe I got in Home Ec. in 7th grade.

2 T butter
1/2 C peanut butter
1/2 C Rice Krispies
3/4 C sifted powdered sugar
3 cubes of chocolate bark

1. Put rice krispies on a tray or cutting board and crush fine using a rolling pin (or throw them in a ziplock bag and let your kid go to town on them).
2. Stir together the krispies crumbs, peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar.
3. Blend using your hands until mixture is smooth and creamy.
4. Roll into 1/2" size balls and put on tray. Refrigerate or freeze to cool.
5. Melt chocolate bark in a 1 C liquid measuring cup. Do this in a microwave oven for about 1 1/2 min. Stir bark for complete melting.
6. Using cold buckeye balls, insert a tooth pick into a ball and dip the ball into the melted chocolate. Let excess drip into the cup and put buckeye onto a waxed paper covered surface to set up (about 3-5 minutes).


This variation is my favorite!!! I think the rice krispies break up the really rich and smooth peanut butter centers. Most don't call for the krispies. Other recipes say to use chocolate chips to cover, or to use a little less butter, etc.

Little Chubb probably would have eaten all of them if I let him, but I wanted to eat them all, so I had to hide them away in the fridge. If you want a super easy, super yummy Christmas candy, these are the ones for you!

M&M Christmas Cookies

I made these with after Christmas sale M&Ms to take to our last linger longer of the year.

My new baking mats!

1 c. shortening
1 c. b. sugar
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1 t. soda
1 t. salt
3 c. oatmeal
2 1/2 c. M&Ms


ungreased            350 degrees     10 minutes


Mom just wrote this recipe on some paper and these were all the instructions. We think they needed a little more than 10 minutes. They are just an oatmeal cookie with M&Ms in it. I thought they were really crumbly and needed something more to bind them together.