The Sweet Tooth is Satiated; We Feel Virtuous

Yesterday evening Pipsqueak made these. They are divine. If you like toffee you will be addicted. I'm not sure Pip let them boil quite long enough. OUrs are a little sticky. I suspect she did not let them get to a truly *full* rolling boil. But no matter- they are delicious. We did without the nuts. With Saltine crackers as a base, this recipe requires only four other ingredients, all of we always have on hand (the HM is a drinker of VietNamese style coffee, which requires the Sweetened Condensed milk). I can't stop raving about these. In a fallen world anything this easy should not taste so good. Kim C. at IN a Shoe has a lot to answer for. She's forcing us to overload on sugar and upsetting our theology all in one little recipe. What's that you say? What about personal responsibility? Ask me again in January.

Today Jenny Any Dots has been dipping pretzels in melted almond bark. These are delicious as they are, and we need about three cups of them for the next holiday recipe we will be making. In our small town pretzels dipped in almond bark are sold as 'yogurt covered pretzels.' I have only found them in one store. The cost is about $3.00 for a tiny bag that might contain 20 pretzels. We can buy the almond bark for closer to $2.00. This is enough to do almost entire pound of pretzels, which we can buy for .99.

JennyAnyDots is very good at this sort of detail work, which is one reason JennyAnyDots is her nickname. She has the patience and coordination to see it through to the end. I get fed up at the melting stage and overheat the almond bark. Even when I do manage to melt the bark at a low enough temperature, I am tired of dipping pretzels by about the second cup. I end up dumping the rest in the melted coating, stirring, and pouring it all out on a cookie sheet of waxed paper, where it looks like some sort of fossilized gloop when it hardens. Jenny carefully and meticulously dips the 182nd little pretzel (that's how many it made) with precisely the same care she gave to the first one. I admire that. When I grow up, I hope to be just like my daughters.

Those pretzels we don't just eat will be used to make The Holiday Party Mix on Nestle's website. We made this last year and it is very pretty- suitable for gift giving- and quite tasty. We tried substituting chocolate covered pretzels for the almond bark coated version, and the taste was fine, but it just didn't look nearly as pretty without the white pretzels. The white pretzels make such a significant difference to the appearance that it's worth the extra trouble, especially if you're giving these as gifts.

The party mix requires a 10-oz. pkg. of NESTLÉ TOLL HOUSE Holiday Shapes & Morsels, which are more expensive than ordinary chocolate chips, and prettier, too. We can get ours at the discount grocery store for 1.99, but we have to send the HG to the Super Wal-mart in the Big City where she goes to school to pick up our 'oven toasted corn cereal squares' (a generic chex cereal type) for the best price. They are 3.29 at the local discount grocer's, 2.50 at the local upscale grocer's (because they are on sale this time of year), and 1.99 for the generic brand at Wal-mart.

I'm sure this is exactly what the verse in Proverbs is talking about when it says the Virtuous Woman is 'like the merchants' ships, she bringeth food from afar,' aren't you?

P.S.

Updated to add a link to a recipe for the HOliday Party Mix, which no longer seems to be on their website.