Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Playing With My Food

When I was but 18 or 19, I had a job working as an aide in a 24-hour daycare. The kids in my class were 2 years old, and I loved every minute of it. Often, after the teacher and I had cleaned up the lunch tables and laid everyone down for naptime, I would enjoy my lunch. I mean to say that I would really enjoy my lunch...I would hum as I peeled an orange, and savor every bite of my sandwich, then sigh contentedly as I licked the creme center from the cookies I had packed for dessert. In short, I played with my food as I ate, and I enjoyed every minute of it! 

I still enjoy food, and the making of new things, and the getting a little messy that goes along with playing with food...so it's no surprise that I ended up making these for Valentine's Day:

So yummy, and with Pinterest at my side, so easy and fun! I started with THIS LINK from Pinterest, and I used her recipe for the peanut butter filling. I'm not going to repeat that recipe here, because it's not your only option...you can use a buckeye recipe, a jar of biscoff spread, plain peanut butter, whatever you like, really! I chose to make that buckeye filling, 

and I dumped a spoonful onto some tiny pretzel knots...

Then I topped them with another pretzel, smooshing them down slightly. (At this point, the original recipe tells you to freeze the whole bunch, but I forgot that part. Perhaps that's why I made such a mess, but I'm here to tell you that you can skip that part, if you want...but it's messy!)

Then I melted some chocolate that I had on hand (because everyone who loves playing with their food has melting wafers on hand, right? no? hmmm)...and I dipped each "sandwich" halfway into the melty, chocolatey goodness, and put them in the freezer for a few minutes to set the chocolate. (Do not skip the freezing here, or they won't set up and look pretty!)

While that first dip was setting, I also melted some white chocolate wafers (look out! she's getting a little crazy in that kitchen)...because I am adventurous with food, and I like to switch things up like that...and when I took the half-dipped candies out of the freezer, I dipped the other half in the luscious melted white chocolate...

...and added SPRINKLES!!! Because, well, Hello! SPRINKLES!!! And it's Valentine's Day, and why the heck shouldn't I use sprinkles any time I want to? That's right, sprinkles rock! After the sprinkles, back to the freezer to set the white chocolate...and try not to drool.

These are amazing!

Since I was on the sprinkle kick, I also made some jewelry...some sweet, yummy, gooey jewelry (thank you again, Pinterest! Here's THE LINK)...to package up and send to some of my favorite girlies. :) 

(By the way, I didn't have exactly what the project called for on this one, so here's what I did: I knotted together lengths of twizzlers pull-n-peel, then used a drinking straw to cut holes through large marshmallows. Then I "painted" a heart with a very thin powdered sugar glaze, and dipped the hearts in SPRINKLES!, and let them dry for a couple of hours before packaging. Hopefully they won't arrive as broken hearts, or a box of loose sprinkles!)

Watch for your package Peanut and Mindy!!! It's a good one!

You know what? Standing up to make all those goodies has really taken it's toll. My feet hurt. I think I may have to sit down for awhile to recover, and look! There's my knitting, just waiting for me...YAY! Perhaps I'll just taste-test one of these peanut-filled goodies first... 

3 comments:

  1. Oh my. That looks like way too much fun. And the licorice-and-marshmallow jewelry--I've done fruit loops strung on shoelaces with my kids when they were little, but that looks way more fun from my grandsons' point of view. New ways to spoil them when they visit! Thank you!

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  2. Super cute! I may have to go play in the kitchen after seeing this...

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  3. I'm drooling here and waiting by my cd drawer for you to send some to me!

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