Date Balls (Makes about 90 pieces.)

1 pound butter
1 pound dates, diced or chopped
2 c. sugar

Cook over medium heat 10 minutes, stirring constantly. DO NOT BOIL.
I melt the butter first, and start counting the time from when it begins to simmer after I have added the sugar and the dates.

Remove from heat and add:
4 c. Rice Krispies
2 c. pecans, chopped finely
4 tsp. vanilla

Allow to cool, then press into balls. Roll in powdered sugar.

Wearing vinyl gloves keeps my hands clean. This is a messy recipe. But worth it!

These freeze very well, even coated in powdered sugar. They are a staple at our Christmas Open House.

~~Rhonda

This afternoon, I watched two caterpillars molt their skin, which I had never been able to catch them doing before.

After they molt, they rest for a while, then turn around and eat the old skin.

Have you ever watched a caterpillar have lunch? They are eating machines! BTW, this video is in real time, no speeding up.

~~Rhonda

The ingredients list is short and it is very easy to make.

Candy Jumble

• 24 oz. pkg. vanilla almond bark
• 2 c. mini marshmallows, white (I tried the colored ones once…they tasted too fruity)
• 2 c. Reese’s Puffs (chocolate and peanut butter cereal…shaped like Kix)
• 2 c. Rice Krispies
• 2 c. mixed nuts or peanuts
• 1 12-oz. package M&M mini baking bits, milk chocolate (to be added after the almond bark and other ingredients are mixed)

Piece two pieces of aluminum foil together (the long way) to make a wide piece about 3′ long. (Fold them together to make a center seam.) Or use a 3′ piece of the wide roll of foil. You will want plenty of room to spread the candy. You do not need to grease or spray the foil with cooking spray.

Melt the almond bark in the microwave on 50% power for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes, till melted. Check with a fork. It holds its shape when melted. Don’t let any moisture get into it or it will clump. Stir until smooth.

Put all other ingredients, EXCEPT the M&Ms, in a large bowl and mix well. Pour melted almond bark over and stir till well coated. Work quickly. Add M&Ms and stir just to mix well. If stirred too long, the M&M colors begin to melt and run.

Turn out onto aluminum foil and quickly spread with a spatula or wooden spoon.

When cool, break into bite-size pieces and store in zippered storage bags or tins. It makes enough to fill one and a half one-gallon zippered bags.

Immediately plan to make more because this will be gobbled up in no time.

About the M&M baking bits. The little bits are really nice in this recipe, but we can’t find them in our small town very often. And there are two kinds…the milk chocolate and the semi-sweet. I don’t care for the semi-sweet ones at all, so I use regular M&Ms if the little milk chocolate bits are not available. DH bought a few bags of the red and green Christmas M&Ms this week, for making Candy Jumble, and I don’t think they are as pretty in this recipe. The nice mix of colors in the regular bags is better, in my opinion.

After three or four days, the marshmallows tend to harden. If I am shipping this to someone, or giving it as a gift to someone who may not eat it right away, I leave out the marshmallows and add some extra cereal to make up the difference in volume.

Enjoy! ~~Rhonda

Crush the Oreo cookies. I put them in a zippered storage bag and hit them with the rolling pin.

Stir together the cookie crumbs and the softened cream cheese until well blended. Form into small balls. Cool them in the refrigerator for 15-30 minutes.

Dip into melted vanilla almond bark. Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.

My daughter brought this recipe home from college. It’s delicious. Especially if you’re an Oreo cookie fan! ~~Rhonda

Raspberry Truffles

1 1/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 T heavy cream
1 T butter
2 T seedless raspberry jam

In a heavy saucepan, combine chips, heavy cream and butter. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. Stir in raspberry jam. Cover with plastic wrap; freeze 20 minutes. Drop mixture by teaspoons onto foil lined cookie sheet. Freeze 15 minutes. Roll into balls; freeze until firm.

Dip into melted vanilla almond bark and sprinkle with red sugar crystals. I used sanding sugar. Keep refrigerated until serving.

I found this recipe at epicurean.com. I doubled it for the open house. It made about 70 truffles, but the finished amount would depend on how large they are made. They are very easy to make. ~~Rhonda

The bodies of the mice are made from maraschino cherries dipped in chocolate. I drain and rinse the cherries and leave them on paper towels for 30 minutes to an hour, changing the paper once. They need to be fairly dry before dipping in chocolate. The stems become the tails. When dipping, totally seal the area of the cherry at the base of the stem. Don’t dip the entire stem in chocolate.

While the chocolate is still soft, add the heads (Hershey’s Kisses) or, if the chocolate hardens, you can dip the bottom of the Kiss in chocolate and stick it to the body.

The ears are sliced almonds, dipped in chocolate and set behind the head. They can be added while the body chocolate is still soft, but the timing is tricky. Too soft and the ears slip down the sides. Too hard and they don’t stick at all. I find it easier to attach all of them at the same time. I break an almond slice in half, dip the broken side in chocolate and attach it just behind the head.

To make the mice, you need:

• maraschino cherries with stems
• Hershey’s chocolate Kisses
• sliced almonds
• silver dragees (If you don’t want to use the little silver balls, you can make the eyes with cookie sprinkles or a spot of frosting.)
• melted chocolate for dipping (I use semi-sweet chocolate chips with 2 oz. of unsweetened baking chocolate added.)

In this picture you can see the set up. The pan of chocolate sits on a heating pad that has been wrapped in a towel and covered with aluminum foil. The gentle heat from the heating pad keeps the chocolate melted. The almonds are in a bowl for easy sorting. The dragees are attached by holding them with tweezers, barely dipping them into melted chocolate. They easily stick to the head (Kiss). I smear a small bit of chocolate on the aluminum foil which keeps the chocolate soft, and also gives me a perfect spot for dipping the eyes without immersing them too deeply into the chocolate. If you find the dragees do not stick well, set the tray of mice in the refrigerator for five minutes or so. When the melted chocolate touches the cold Kiss, the eyes will adhere immediately.

I make about 90 of these mice for our open house. Each jar of cherries has 27-31 cherries in it. DD#3 loves to find stemless cherries in the jar. She gets to eat those.

Do check the jar label. Some maraschino cherries have stems, some don’t. We live in a small town and can’t always find stemmed cherries locally. Larger grocery stores with more variety are an hour away. I sometimes pick the cherries up in the summer or fall before Christmas so I have them when I need them.

Try creating your own Christmas mice! They are fun to make and look cute on the cookie tray, as you can see in this picture of cookies packed for the volunteer firemen. Boxes also go to the police station, the staff at DD’s school, and others.

~~Rhonda