buckeyes

remember way back when, before oliver was born, and i went shopping for a bunch of goodies?

well, my master plan was to make all those goodies when i went into early labor. and i don't think i was completely out to lunch on that. i'd heard of many women who go for walks, do yoga, well - all kinds of things during early labor. a good friend of mine laughed at the idea and nik quietly agreed with her.

they were both right. i didn't accomplish anything other than watching old tv series on netflix. 

but! the night or two before we went into labor, nik and i made buckeyes together. for those of you who aren't from ohio or somewhere around there, you may not be familiar with these little treats. imagine a homemade reese's cup and you've got it. so amazing.

i thought i'd pass the recipe along with a picture so you know what little bite sized treat you can expect. and, as you can imagine, we've completely demolished the whole batch. {i'm not telling how quickly, though.}

buckeyes.

1.5 cups jif peanut butter (it really does make a difference that it's jif, so don't mess with this)

1 cup softened butter

.5 teaspoon vanilla extract

3-4 cups confectioners' sugar

1 package of semisweet chocolate chips

in a large bowl, use an electric mixer to mix the first four ingredients, adding the sugar last and simply wait until you've got the consistency you'll need to be able to roll balls. i usually end up using somewhere between 3 and 4 cups of sugar, adding 1 cup at a time. but, if you like it sweeter, add a 5th cup. or even a 6th.

roll into bite sized balls and place on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet or plates. {you can see from my pictures that i didn't use waxed paper. i had to pop them off the plate with a knife. if this doesn't bother you, disregard the waxed paper.} put the cookie sheet into the freezer and wait until they're firm - 30 minutes or so.

melt the chocolate chips either with a double boiler on the stove or in 20-30 second increments in the microwave. make sure it's completely smooth.

dip the peanut butter balls into the melted chocolate and leave some of the peanut butter showing. {you can use toothpicks, but i end up just using my fingers.} once you have all the buckeyes done, place the sheet into the fridge to cool and harden the chocolate. keep in the fridge until you're ready to enjoy.