Christmas time is here again … yay!
Except, I gotta’ keep looking at the calendar … I swear the years are getting shorter … surely we skipped a month or two …
Anyway, it’s that time when we pause life to remember God and family, and in a few weeks we get to try it all over again. So we evaluate how we did in 2023 and vow to make 2024 better.
As all you creators of children’s picture books know, many of those books teach kids life lessons by making stories about animals. We can also look at the animal kingdom for inspiration to plan our new year. So this month we’ll take a look at that.
But let's keep our priorities straight … first, let’s EAT!!
Every year the eating gets kicked off on Thanksgiving Day and we don’t have to stop until January 2nd. After that we can switch to lettuce sandwiches and water to wake up from the food coma and get the ol’ bod ready for the unveiling in spring and summer. But let’s not think about that now …
This year I’m going to give you an early Christmas present … just in time for all those holiday get-togethers where everybody has to bring a dish. By about the tenth one of those, you’ll be all cooked out and fresh out of ideas … so here’s something very, very easy and not likely to be duplicated by another guest (and also makes a good Christmas gift if you like to do that and want something different than the usual cookies) … chocolate covered peanuts made in the crock pot!
This is not my original recipe. Years ago I copied it out of a magazine in a doctor’s waiting room, so my apologies if it was yours … you can have all the credit, and thank you very much … we love these!
Our friend, Rick, loves them, too, and has dubbed them Moose Poop!
We’ve discovered that not many folks are so enthralled by that name, but if you have a Rick in your life, go for it. And for your more proper, straight-laced acquaintances, just call them “chocolate covered peanuts made in the crock pot”. Not so catchy a name, but they’ll be intrigued, which is a lot more appetizing than getting grossed out.
And here it is, 4 ingredients, 4 steps:
1. In a regular-size crock pot:
- Pour an even layer of a 16 oz. jar of dry-roasted peanuts
- Layer on top of that a 12 oz. bag of milk chocolate morsels
- Layer on top of that a 12 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate morsels
- Layer on top of that a 12 oz. bag of white chocolate morsels2. Cover and cook on Low for 4 hours. Go watch a movie. Wrap some gifts. Don’t you just LOVE crock pots!
3. Stir to mix well, and spoon out bite-sized portions onto foil, waxed paper or just some glass plates.
4. Stick them in the fridge to cool and harden – I like to do it overnight. When they are cool and hard, transfer them to a covered container. They tend to get too soft for us on the counter, so we store ours in the fridge.
And be prepared … they are really, really rich …
But no worries! We’ve got till January 2nd!
If you try this recipe, Rick is our official taste tester.
We don't want to endanger innocent lives ...
When you make Moose Poop for the first time, before allowing anyone else access to it, it must pass Rick's inspection first!- Sherry A Mitcham