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...