Snow Day!

Happy snow day, everyone! We've been cozied up inside most of the day, although we did take a walk around the neighborhood in the afternoon, and are enjoying the bonus day at home together. The extra day is good, since I can catch up on some things that fell by the wayside this weekend, like this blog post! I was originally going to write about the chili I made for our little Superbowl party, but I got too wrapped up in making it to remember to take any pictures of the process and also forgot to take any pictures of people eating it when it was done. I'll just tell you now that it was good, and unlike any other vegetarian chili I'd ever made before.

Here are some crushed pretzels.

I also made Chex mix for the Superbowl, which means I now have a few boxes of cereal lying around, as well as a bag of pretzels and a bag of bagel chips. What to do?! To be honest, I made a second batch of Chex mix yesterday to use some of the stuff up and in preparation for today's snow day. Nothing like sitting on the couch in the middle of the afternoon eating Chex mix to make you feel like you have a surprise middle of the week holiday. Neither of us are really pretzel people as far as snacking goes and whenever I make Chex mix we always end up with a half empty (half full?) bag of pretzels that sits in the cupboard for far too long. Not this year, I decided. This year I'll do something with them.

At first I thought chocolate covered pretzels. Then I found this recipe for what looks to be buckeyes with pretzels in them. Chocolate, peanut butter, pretzels - how could you go wrong? And, since the recipe only uses 1 cup or so of pretzels, I'll have enough left over to still make chocolate covered pretzels. Everybody wins!

The Before picture - ready to go in the freezer!

It's a pretty simple recipe - you crush enough pretzels to equal a cup, and add that to a sugar, butter, and peanut butter mixture. Roll that into balls, let them harden in the freezer for about half an hour, and then dip them in melted chocolate. The hardest part is the rolling into balls - the mixture is pretty sticky thanks to all that delicious peanut butter, so I had to cover my hands with powdered sugar after every two balls. The whole endeavor is kind of messy, but if you're home on a snow day, what else have you got to do except make a mess?

The After picture - also going in the freezer.

Once they've chilled, just roll them in some melted chocolate. I popped them back in the freezer afterwards to harden the chocolate quickly, but less impatient people could leave them on the counter. (Hey - I need to report back on how they taste, so this is for science.) The finished chocolate-pretzel-peanut butter balls are not particularly attractive looking, but they are pretty tasty. They are basically just crunchy buckeyes - the pretzels are in big enough chunks that you know they're in there, but not so big that it's hard to bite into or anything. They're sweet, but not cloyingly so. I've decided that Simply Jif is the best peanut butter for baking because it's got less salt and sugar than the other processed kinds and tastes the most like peanuts. It seems like the best compromise between the natural kind (which I prefer for general eating) and the processed kind that is better for baking. So anyway, if you use a sweeter peanut butter, they'll be a little sweeter. Also, the recipe calls for milk chocolate, but I used semisweet instead.

There's always leftover melted chocolate, and I'm never sure what to do with it besides just standing in the kitchen and eating it. This time, though, I stole an idea from the chocolate shop that Mom and I visited daily on our trip to Quebec City. They sold discs of chocolate with fruit and nuts on top; so simple and so delicious. I spooned the leftover melted chocolate into cupcake liners - just enough chocolate to cover the bottom - and sprinkled dried fruit on top to re-create those little chocolate candies.

Little cranberry chocolate coins! 

 Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Balls
From Martha Stewart

1 cup crushed pretzels (I guess you could use pulverized pretzels - this might make the balls easier to roll - but I didn't crush mine into powder.)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 Tbsp really soft butter
1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp powdered sugar, plus more for dusting your hands
5-6 oz. melted chocolate

Combine peanut butter, butter, and sugar. Add pretzels. Shape into 1-inch balls and place on waxed paper lined baking sheet. Freeze for at least 30 minutes. Dip cold balls into melted chocolate, return to freezer for a few minutes to harden the chocolate.