YUM! Chocolate

The first thing I want to tell you about is Woody's Candy Company.  He is located east off of North Western on 72nd.  Check the address before you go over but I think it is 72nd.  He has been in business for years.  My best friend's mother in grade school worked for him and she always had tons of candy canes at Christmas time.  Then for years, the old Farmer's Market carried all of his candies during the holidays as well as privately owned grocery stores.  In the past two years, he stopped supplying the grocery stores with his candy and the old Farmer's Market has closed their doors.  So believe me when I say," it is worth a trip to his candy store." You will be so glad you took my advice. He also sells candy for Valentine's Day and Mother's Day.

He makes the best chocolate peanut clusters I have ever eaten and his almond chocolate toffee is out of this world.  All kinds of brittle, peanut, cashew and pecan.  All kinds of hard candy - peppermint and old fashioned lemon drops just to name a few.  Chocolate covered raisins, white chocolate covered pretzels and I could go on and on.  Everything is beautifully packaged and these candies make wonderful gifts. For the person who has everything.....they will love these candies.

Now for Katie's (our daughter) wonderful peanut butter balls.  This is a recipe from my beloved aunt.  I used to get with her every holiday season and we would make these peanut butter balls. This is one of those candies that our family loves and I haven't made them in a long time.  Katie came down Sunday and brought us a container full of some she had made.  They were wonderful.  I had forgotten how good they are.  I couldn't stop eating them :(  

I wanted to share the recipe with you.  If you have never tried these and you like peanut butter and chocolate....you'll love them.

Peanut Butter Balls

1 pound 14 ounce jar crunchy peanut butter, 1 box powdered sugar, 1 stick butter, 3 cups rice crispies.
Mix the peanut butter and butter together then add the powdered sugar.  When the powdered sugar is incorporated well then stir in the rice crispies. Then form walnut size balls. 
Melt one slab of paraffin over low heat the it is melted add one 12 ounce bag of chocolate chips.  When the chips are melted, dip the balls into the chocolate and let the balls set on wax paper.
My daughter used just chocolate chips this year because she didn't want to use the paraffin and they turned out great.  If you do not use the paraffin, they cannot stay out at room temperature for a long period of time.

Hope you are having a wonderful holiday season.  Try not to get so busy that you need a holiday from the holiday. Keep it simple and enjoy the people you love!