Mint Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

Kelly Kapowski serving up a delicious, chocolatey treat

Ever wonder what happened to Kelly Kapowski?

Well, she (and by she, I mean the actual actress who played her, Tiffani Thiessan) has her own cooking show now on Cooking Channel. It's called Dinner at Tiffani's (good, right?), and I believe the whole concept is her inviting celebrity friends over for a dinner party and serving the delicious meals that are explained to the viewers.

I have to admit that I haven't actually watched the show, but I did find one of her recipes online for peanut butter chocolate bites, and I will forever thank her.

I made a few modifications to it and turned peanut butter chocolate bites into...

... MINT CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER BALLS.

That's right. And THEY. ARE. DELICIOUS.

They're one of my favorite treats ever, and it's a no-bake recipe.
Make them. Make them twice.

Here's how.


INGREDIENTS

Peanut Butter Filling:

• 2-½ cups peanut butter (smooth or chunky is your choice)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (aka one stick of butter)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar

Chocolate Coating:

• One 12 ounce bag of dark cocoa mint candy melts*
• 2-½ tablespoons of coconut oil

*You can use whatever kind of chocolate in candy melt or chip form, but once I discovered that Wilton made dark cocoa mint melts, I knew that was the only way for me to go. You can get them at Michael's Arts and Crafts stores. In fact, go to their website, click on the coupons link at the very top and use the 40% off any regular priced item that they almost always have.

UPDATE (5/2018): Michael's does not seem to carry the mint chocolate candy melts anymore. While plain chocolate is fine and good, I recommend adding peppermint extract to the melted chocolate mixture (start with a couple of drops and add to taste).






INSTRUCTIONS

Mix the peanut butter, butter and vanilla together. I recommend a mixer with the paddle attachment on a low setting. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar while it is mixing.

Once thoroughly meshed, roll filling into 1–1-1/2 inch balls and place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper (or with a non-stick silicone baking mat, which is what I have and totally love).

I had to change the name from bites to balls since they're too big for one bite (and balls is funnier**)

Stick balls into refrigerator for a few minutes while you make the chocolate coating.

Melting the chocolate in a double boiler (or double boiler substitute***) is, in my opinion, the best way to do your melting. The candy melts packaging says microwaving is an option, but that's never ended well for me. With a double boiler, you can't overheat your chocolate, and you can keep it nice and warm and melty so it stays consistent and smooth while dipping stuff into it.

Shiny and ready to cool

Whatever your method, melt the chocolate and coconut oil together.

Then get those peanut butter balls out of the refrigerator and roll them in the chocolate using a spoon. Return to the parchment/silicone baking mat once they're nicely coated. If you have extra chocolate, you can drizzle it over the balls if it's just a little or chocolate-coat some other foods (large marshmallows were my choice when I had too much left over the first time I made these).

Refrigerate for an hour or so until they've cooled and the chocolate has hardened. It'll be hard to resist, so clean up in the meantime by licking any spoons and bowls that have chocolate on them. Of course, make sure they're cool enough—safety first!


Now enjoy the crap out of them. You've earned it by making them.

Finished and waiting to be devoured

**Seriously, balls is funnier. I most recently made these for a baby shower, and since she was having a boy, having something in ball form just felt extremely appropriate. Don't pretend like you're above this kind of humor. We've all laughed at it before.

***My double boiler substitute consists of a saucepan, colander that fits into it and a glass bowl that can hold all of the chocolate.

I fill the water so it's no higher than an inch up from the bottom of the glass bowl. If the water ends up getting bubbly and boily, then I don't want it to get into the glass bowl with the chocolate. Ideally, this shouldn't happen since I like to keep the heat at a low-medium setting.

Ocean in a Bottle

I never did this in school, but the internet told me about it.

You can make a cool, bubbly ocean in a plastic bottle for your kids to Ooo and Aaaah at—or stare blankly at in wonder if they're around my children's ages, which is one.

What you’ll need:

• Clear plastic bottle (I like the idea of using a mouthwash bottle or anything that has a child-safety lid. I used a 1.5 Listerine bottle, but any sized clear, plastic bottle is fine.)

• Water
• Blue food coloring
• Canola/vegetable Oil
• Funnel (optional: for easier pouring of stuff into bottle)

What you’ll do:

Oil bubbling after being poured in

• Rinse out the bottle and remove the label.
• Fill about ⅓ to ½ of bottle with water
• Mix in food coloring
• You'll probably only need about 2-3 drops. I added one drop of green to get a more blue-green ocean color
• If your water is too dark, just dilute it with more water and set the extra aside in case you decide you'd like to top off the bottle with it
• Fill the rest (or as much as you want) with oil
• Enjoy the shaking and swishing

After swishing it a few times in front of Winry and Henry, it became baby-approved.

And now some more photos I took of the process:

Swirling food coloring

The food coloring swirls, view from the mouth of the bottle

  

Close-up of bubbling ocean

Babies' First* Halloween

This was actually their second Halloween, but this was the first year we recognized the holiday. Since the kids were born in October, they were only a few weeks old when their first Halloween rolled around. And for those of you who are parents, especially parents of multiples, then you know those first few weeks are just sort of a blur of feed, burp, change, sleep, repeat.

Henry and Winry being sleepy newborns for their first Halloween, October 2014

I’m pretty sure that my husband and I were not even aware that Halloween happened until it passed us by. Do I regret it? No. Keeping my babies (and my sanity) alive were the priority. Putting that little bit of extra pressure to make sure I dressed them up and took photos probably would have broken me at that point. So my advice to all new parents is to do something for Halloween only if you really, really want to for yourself. If your family doesn’t understand why your child(ren) aren’t wearing something cute on Facebook, then you need to fire your family. Besides, there are plenty of years of adorable costumes in the future.

I had actually ordered some custom infant t-shirts in case I did need a costume for the kids but didn’t end up taking photos with them wearing it because of what I explained previously. Still, here are the cute twin outfits that I had planned and as a bonus, could be used on non-Halloween occasions. (Second bonus: I may cut the PB&J images out and sew them onto something else. I haven’t decided on this yet. But when I do, I’ll try to post a tutorial in case others want to do something similar.)

Henry was the peanut butter.

Winry was my little jelly.

So if you need something easy, this is a good way to go. Either get blank onesies/shirts and paint or puffy paint them yourself or get a digital print of what you want. I used UberPrints.com. Why? Because they have great turn around, fantastic customer service, an easy-to-use online studio, oh, and I work there, so I already knew that I’d get something awesome.

My only warning is that the Rabbit Skins infant t-shirt product seemed to run a little small, and I would recommend a onesie instead for more accurate sizing. Although, like I said, our customer service is great, and you could always call and talk to a rep about any sizing concerns in case the sizing chart online isn’t helpful enough.

This year, I went with option one and puffy painted something onto a couple of black romper onesies. My idea was to paint the Big and Little Dipper constellations on the onesies (Henry was born first and is a little bigger than Winry, so making him the Big Dipper was an easy choice). Meanwhile, Mat (the husband) and I were astronomers.

Astromomer (mom astronomer)
with her Big and Li'l Dippers, Oct. 2015

 

Big Dipper and Dad, October 2015.

Li'l Dipper and Dad, October 2015

This was an easy costume for us as well since we just wore button-up shirts and ties and lab coats that I already had. Why did I already have lab coats? My dad is a microbiologist and brought some home years ago for Halloween costumes when I was a kid. Don’t even get me started on how awesome it was that he could bring dry ice home for Halloween too. Score!

If, however, you don’t have scientist connections, then I found a couple of great DIY lab coat tutorials for the sewing and non-sewing types. These tutorials are for children, but I’m sure if you get an extra bigger-than-you size, you can make the proper modifications for an adult size. Or, like I said, just be or know a scientist, whichever is most convenient.

For those who want to sew, using a men's button-down shirt

Use a white t-shirt for a quick and easy lab coat.

I also made a couple of retractable telescopes out of cardboard tubes as an astronomer accessory for my husband and I. Since I like to think of myself as a practical crafter, my intent was that the kids could play with them when they're older.

I found the original tutorial here.

Retractable Telescope Tutorial 

Mine is decorated with paper (scrapbooking paper that you can find at a craft store is great because it's thin and comes in a variety of decorations) instead of paint, and I used buttons and those little twist ties that you can get off of a loaf of bread instead of the brads. I also added a strap by punching holes near the end and securing the strap's ends inside with tape.

My astronomer version of the retractable telescopes

My one mistake was not following the directions closely enough and putting the second sliding slit on the skinniest tube instead of the middle one. Turns out that it was important since I can't secure that last set of button/twist ties to the tube since it needs to be able to slide. It still works, but I have to slide with care.

I also couldn't help myself this year and got a couple of small pumpkins for the babies. My practical argument is that I can cook the pumpkins afterward--maybe even into some baby food, which is why I chose to paint them with water-soluble acrylic paint instead of carving them.

Shy and not-so-shy Mario Boo pumpkins, October 2015

(Helpful pumpkin preservation tip: spritz the outside of the pumpkin with diluted vinegar and wipe off with a cloth. It kills the bacteria that want to make your pumpkin moldy and sad while avoiding chemicals that would make the pumpkin inedible later.)

Why It Had to Be Two

I thought that I would start my first post with an explanation of my "It Had to Be Two" title. The quick explanation is that I am a mother of fraternal boy and girl twins.

Winry and Henry, One Day Old, October 2014

The longer explanation is that Mother of Twins (as an alternative to Mother of Dragons--because, yes, I love me some Game of Thrones) was taken. I suppose Mother of Triplets would be a more appropriate reference since Daenerys has three dragons. So really, it's better this way.

Mother of Dragons by Yama Orce, digital art, yamaorce.deviantart.com

After cursing the blogger who stole this name and then realizing it was unlikely to be available with or without Game of Thrones, I remembered a song parody that I was going to try to make for my children. During their infancy, I sang them whatever calm, melodic song that would pop into my head, including "It Had to Be You." Obviously, you then change the last word to Two, and the title is explained.

Have I made the parody yet? No. Will I post it when I finally do? Yes.



And on one final note, "It Had to Be You" has been sung by many a great artist including Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald with Louis Armstrong, but the singer I associate most with this song is Marla Hooch because I also love me some League of Their Own.