Friday, December 8, 2017

Homemade Buckeye Candy

Put on your elastic waist pants because DAY EIGHT is here with lots of cookie recipes!

Welcome to the third annual 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop!

Stop by every day from December first through the twelfth for new ideas you can use to make your season brighter!

Meet Your Hosts

They have all been busy as Elves creating, decorating, cooking and crafting tons of new ideas for you to try this holiday season!

Having grown up in Ohio, I was raised on Buckeyes but you don't have to be from Ohio to enjoy this delicious candy and they're so easy to make.
As kids, we used to collect these by the baskets full, polish them and then . . . they would eventually get moldy and get tossed out.  As pretty as they are, they really aren't good for much although I do see people selling them online for craft projects.  You CAN roast them but they are slightly toxic so even though they say you can eat them roasted, no thank you. Now the Buckeye CANDY -- well, that's another story!
Start with a stick of butter and 2 cups of creamy peanut butter.  Now HOW can you go wrong with that??  Blend those together with a mixer then add 1 1/2 t vanilla and 2 T brown sugar.  Gradually add in 3 1/4 cups of powdered sugar. Initially you can beat with the mixer but as you add more, you'll have to switch to a wooden spoon to combine it all.
I use a small cookie dough scoop so that the size of the buckeyes is uniform.  Once I scoop it out, I drop it into my hand and roll it into a smooth ball, placing on a silicone mat on a cookie sheet.  These go into the freezer for about 1/2 an hour to firm up.  While those are setting, you will get your dipping chocolate ready.
I like to use chocolate chips although a lot of recipes call for semi-sweet.  I just feel these taste more like a Reese's peanut butter cup if you use the milk chocolate but it's totally up to you.  The 'secret' ingredient here is paraffin wax.  Again, a lot of recipes call for shortening.  I've found that the wax works much better in helping the chocolate to 'set' and harden as opposed to shortening.  You can find boxed paraffin in the canning section of your store or at most any hardware store.  Do you see these three pieces?  This is what is left from my first box of paraffin purchased when I got married . . . 33 YEARS AGO!  Don't freak out -- it's just WAX.  I literally only use it once a year to make buckeyes and you only need a 1" piece so . . . it lasts a LONG time haha!
The toothpick will leave a hole in the buckeyes so all you do is use the back of a spoon to smooth it over.
I make these at least a month in advance (you could even make them earlier) and freeze them.
Give them a try -- they are easy and everyone loves them!

Buckeye Candy
1 stick of butter, softened
2 c creamy peanut butter
3 1/4 c powdered sugar
2 T brown sugar
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 large bag milk chocolate chips
1" square of paraffin wax

With a mixer, combine butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add in brown sugar and vanilla.  Gradually begin adding powdered sugar, moving to using a wooden spoon to combine as mixture becomes thicker.  Form into 3/4"-1" balls and place on lined cookie sheet.  Chill in freezer for 1/2 hour or until firm.  In a double boiler, melt chocolate chips and paraffin until smooth.  Using a toothpick, dip peanut butter balls 3/4 of the way into the chocolate.  Set back on lined sheet to firm up. Using the back of a spoon, smooth over the hole created by the toothpick. You can speed the hardening process by returning to the freezer or refrigerator until the chocolate is set.



Be sure to visit our fellow 12 Days of Christmas Bloggers below for even more creative ideas this holiday season!
12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop 2018. Intelligentdomestications.com




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Thursday, December 7, 2017

Winter Hot Cocoa Bar

There aren't too many things I like about Winter.  At all.  BUT, I do love me some hot chocolate and apparently we all do! Take a look at these fun ideas for creating your own cocoa bar.

Welcome to the third annual 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop!

Stop by every day from December first through the twelfth for new ideas you can use to make your season brighter!

Meet Your Hosts

They have all been busy as Elves creating, decorating, cooking and crafting tons of new ideas for you to try this holiday season!

  I don't have a lot of space to set up a designated hot chocolate bar so creating a small, 'mobile' one was a good solution.


A wooden cigar box, one of many scored for 25 cents each at a yard sale makes a great container.  The metal tins were left 'as is' but dressed up a little with some yellow pom poms. A few coats of glossy yellow spray paint and it was ready to go. Since this will mainly be in the kitchen I used my colors of yellow, red, teal, white and black.


The diamond pattern paper mimics my floor so that was perfect to line the lid of the box.


I purchased the hot cocoa, tiny spoons, cups and little milk bottles all at the dollar store.  The bottles didn't have lids so I decided to make some.


These work really well to protect my 'toppings' of chocolate chips, marshmallows, peppermint sticks and peppermint bark.
The labels for the bottles are Formica sample chips, painted black. Using a chalk paint pen I added the words. You could also just use chalk so you can change up the labels.  
I thought it would be fun to add a little sign.  I like little signs. And fun quotes. 
A nice, hot cup of 'dressed up' cocoa can certainly go a long way toward making me feel a little better about winter!

Did you know you can freeze whipped cream and then use cookie cutters to make fun shapes?
Simply spread your whipped cream on a non-stick silicone sheet and freeze.  Thaw slightly and then cut out shapes with a cookie cutter.  You can store these back in the freezer until you're ready to serve them!  I made up a bunch and have them in zip lock bags in the freezer, ready to pull out when I want them.
Be sure to visit our fellow 12 Days of Christmas Bloggers below for even more creative ideas this holiday season!
12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop 2018. Intelligentdomestications.com



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Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Holiday (or anytime!) Party Games

DAY SIX brings us lots of game ideas to play when you're NOT eating at your holiday parties!

Welcome to the third annual 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop!

Stop by every day from December first through the twelfth for new ideas you can use to make your season brighter!

Meet Your Hosts

They have all been busy as Elves creating, decorating, cooking and crafting tons of new ideas for you to try this holiday season!


Our family (no, that's not us!) has always loved playing games.  Board games, card games, 'parlor games' . . . it doesn't matter.  Holidays simply lend themselves to playing games. I remember as a kid that once the dishes were cleared and before we all slipped into food comas, out would come the board and card games. Some games were clearly kid-oriented and others, like Uno were fun for any age group.  Some games like LIFE and Monopoly just never seem to go out of style.  But here are some games you may NOT know about.  The Victorians were famous for "Parlor Games", games that took little or no use of props or any special items yet could entertain groups of people for hours on end.  



 (Apparently, this family has little or no furniture on which to observe their children playing a game except for one, small chair in the middle of the room.)

Look-a-bout
Choose one item in the room and show it to everyone.  All your guests have to leave the room and you hide it. When they return, they are looking for the item until they spot it. When they do, they can quietly take a seat.  Wandering around a bit after you spot the item is a good way to throw everyone off.  The last person to find the item and sit down loses. This would also be a fun game for kids. Here's my variation:  Have numbered pieces of paper laid out on a table, the number of players MINUS 1. So if you have 10 people playing, you would have pieces of paper numbered 1-9. The first person to spot the item would walk over, take the number 9 and sit down and so on. Points can be tallied after multiple rounds to choose a winner.
(Apparently, dad is calling the shots on this game. Mom just has to look pretty.)

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button
We used to play this as kids at holiday parties so I don't know where it originated but it sounds similar to a Victorian game called Pass the Slipper.
String a large button onto a long piece of string that you will join into a circle.  The length of the string/size of the circle will depend on how large your group is.  When standing in a circle, the string is held in front of everyone and one person is standing in the middle of the circle.  At the start, everyone will begin sliding their hands back and forth on the string, while at the same time, moving the button around the string. The trick is to do this seamlessly as the person in the center is trying to guess where the button is.  You can use a timer and when the timer goes off, they have to guess where the button is.  If they guess correctly, that person holding the button moves to the middle.  If they are wrong, they stay in the middle.
(Okay, so apparently, not EVERYONE enjoys family game time)

Dictionary Game
We STILL play this when we get together with large groups and it never fails to bring on lots of laughs.  Now a few years ago, one of the game makers came out with a board game that is very similar to this called Balderdash.  I do recommend the board game but you can easily play it and all you need is a dictionary (or these days, your IPhone and dictionary.com!), pieces of paper and pencils.
One person chooses an obscure word that they think no one will be able to define.  They read the word, give the spelling and that's it.  The reader writes the CORRECT definition on their paper.  Everyone else comes up with THEIR definition of the word.  All of the papers are collected by the reader and read out loud in random order, including the correct definition. Everyone then votes on which they think is the correct one. The reader earns points for everyone who DOESN'T guess the correct word.  The other players earn points for everyone who chooses THEIR definition.  It's a hilarious game!
(It's no flaming raisins - be sure to read about Snapdragon below . . . but Scrabble still remains a favorite game for all ages)

Okay, so I couldn't believe this was a real game, but it is/was. The game was called Snapdragon and I would NOT recommend this one but it sure sounds funny!

Snapdragon
You would pile raisins into a bowl of brandy, turn off the lights (are you ready for this???), set fire to the brandy and try to grab the raisins out of the bowl and eat them while they were still lit.  Those crazy Victorians!

And finally, here's a bit of interesting Victorian Parlor Game Trivia:  You'll often hear mention of "forfeits" in relation to the games.  Just what does that mean?


Many of these games involved the loser paying a forfeit. Victorian forfeits could be quite elaborate, but often were just a thinly veiled way to do things that probably were not socially acceptable. Usually, everyone accumulated their 'forfeits' until the end of the evening when the host would shout "Cry the forfeits!". At this, all the forfeits would be redeemed.  So what kinds of forfeits were redeemed?

For the men:
  • To make a Grecian statue. The victim stands on a chair and has his limbs put into whatever pose the company chooses.
  • To say 6 flattering things to a lady without using the letter "L"
  • To go around the room blindfolded and kiss all the ladies. However, once the man was blindfolded, everyone switched places (Use your imagination on that one! Again, those crazy Victorians!)

For the Women: (And it should be observed that most of these involved kissing?!)
  • To kiss a gentleman "rabbit fashion". The lady is allowed her choice of gentleman, then they each put one end of a piece of cotton in their respective mouths and nibble towards each other till they're kissing. Cotton, really???
  • To kiss the gentleman you love best in the room without anyone knowing who that is.  Well, to do this, she must kiss all the men. Wow.
  • Stand in the middle of the room and spell "opportunity". If one of the men can catch her before she manages to sit down, he gets the 'opportunity' to kiss her.  Eeeeewww.
The Victorians may have come up with some good games but it appears the losers were always going to be the ladies! 
Be sure to visit our fellow 12 Days of Christmas Bloggers below for even more creative ideas this holiday season!
12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop 2018. Intelligentdomestications.com

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Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Dollar Store Garden Decor

Welcome to DAY FIVE! Who doesn't love the DOLLAR STORE?  Well we all do and here are some great holiday ideas using our Dollar Store finds.

Welcome to the third annual 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop!

Stop by every day from December first through the twelfth for new ideas you can use to make your season brighter!

Meet Your Hosts

They have all been busy as Elves creating, decorating, cooking and crafting tons of new ideas for you to try this holiday season!

Using a few simple items from the Dollar Store, I was able to create this garden light. 

A metal trellis
Battery-operated Lantern
Decorative Mesh
Plastic snowflakes
Diamond wrap beading
(small clothespins which I already had)
I wanted the lantern to be white so I used white spray chalk paint on it after taping off the clear globe part.  Using hot glue I added the turquoise beading.  I have to say I LOVE this beading ribbon!  It's soft and flexible and so easy to work with. They had it in several colors and I think I'll be grabbing more of that on my next trip.
The snowflakes are clipped onto the trellis with small clothespins.  I just used hot glue to attach the beading to the pins.
I created a fluffy bow with the mesh and secured it at the center with more of the beading ribbon.

Be sure to visit our fellow 12 Days of Christmas Bloggers below for even more creative ideas this holiday season!
12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop 2018. Intelligentdomestications.com


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Monday, December 4, 2017

Festive Cranberry Onion Cheeseball

Welcome to the third annual 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop!

Stop by every day from December first through the twelfth for new ideas you can use to make your season brighter!

Meet Your Hosts

They have all been busy as Elves creating, decorating, cooking and crafting tons of new ideas for you to try this holiday season!

This recipe is easy, you can make it days ahead (in fact it's better that way!) and looks so pretty too.

One of the things that makes this stand out is that it uses cream cheese and sharp, white cheddar. The cheddar really makes the difference.  There is such an explosion of flavors here:  The sharpness of the cheddar, the nutty, smoky toasted pecans, sweet cranberries and green onions -- heavenly!
 It's also therapeutic -- forget the mixer and the spoons, just dig in and combine all the ingredients (except the pecans) with your hands to distribute everything evenly before forming into a ball.
 Roll in your toasted pecans, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours so the flavors can meld together.
 I suggest getting it out of the refrigerator at least half an hour before serving so it can soften a bit.
 Serve with your choice of crackers -- YUM!

Here's the recipe:
Toast 1 c chopped pecans (don't skip this step - it really DOES make a difference to toast the nuts) and let cool to room temperature. Combine 8 oz. softened cream cheese and 2 c shredded sharp, white cheddar cheese.  Add in 1 c dried cranberries and 1/2 c finely chopped green onion.   Form into a ball and roll in the chopped pecans. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 24 hours.  Remove from refrigerator at least half an hour before serving.  Serve with your favorite crackers.

Be sure to visit our fellow 12 Days of Christmas Bloggers below for even more creative ideas this holiday season!
12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop 2018. Intelligentdomestications.com
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