snow day: part two

One good thing about snow days is the forced resignation of your to do list.  No running to finish your Christmas shopping and mail packages, time to wear your jammie pants and relax. It is frustrating at first, but them I embrace.  Cleaning the house crossed my mind, doing laundry is what I would have been doing if I had a dryer that worked, wrapping presents would have been good, but instead we made cookies, played in the snow, and drank hot chocolate.  The perfect winter day, and when they called school off for the second day, we did it all over again. 

For a long time I never thought about making these peanut butter balls because I didn't have my grandmother's recipe.  While living in Cincinnati, my friend Kristi made me some for my birthday.  Geez, why didn't I ever think about that. Since then they have been on my Christmas have-to-have-cookie list. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls:

2 Cups Peanut Butter

1/2 cup butter

Melt peanut butter and butter on low until it melts, blend together.

4 Cups powdered sugar

Add sugar to melted mixture, a combine well.  I stir it then end up using my hands to get it all Incorporated well. However, wait until it has cooled a little.

Make the mixture into 1 inch balls, place onto a cookie sheet and refrigerate about 1 hour.  Sometimes I make the balls, stack them in a large container and freeze them until I'm ready for the next step.  You could probably keep them in the freezer for a week or two before covering them with chocolate.

Melt 1 1/2 to 2 bags of semi-sweet chocolate.

 I usually just melt chocolate in a saucepan on low, but the recipe suggests a double boiler. Dip the balls in the melted chocolate.  I use two forks to roll it around and then place it back on a cookie sheet covered with parchment or foil.  I put them back into the fridge to set the chocolate and then move them to a Christmas tin that I store in the fridge because I think they taste better chilled.

Somebody is liking himself the left overs. Yummers!