Christmas Balls. Christmas Balls. I've got great big Christmas Balls.

Until such a time as I get my shit together and finally finish projecting the costs for all my appliances utilizing the Killa-Watt meter thingy, I don't really have anything vaguely frugally/parenting/financial to write about.

I was really entertained with the whole process until I checked out my fridge and the meter told me it was costing me approximately $60 a month for my fridge and I knew I had to be doing something wrong. It turns out I was. I forgot to put a zero in the appropriate place. Details. Details.

But don't worry, I'm not going to measure my electricity usage down to the penny. I do have some shit to do. Using this has made me aware of a couple of things, such as the fact that I always forget to cut off my computer speakers. They're kind of shoved to the back so I tend to forget about them.

Also, I'm going to attempt to cut back on the furnace use. The main reason I've entertained such a high bill all these years is because Wild Boy had reactive airway disease (RAD) the first four or five years of his life and extreme temperature negatively affected him. So I paid the bill to keep him comfortable.

Luckily, he seems to have finally outgrown it so while I'm not going to spend my life freezing in the winter or sweating in the summer, we can pull back on it a little more since weather and temperature changes do not affect him as they used to. 

Anyway, I'm going to post the Christmas Balls recipe. Technically, they're called buckeyes, but no one around here calls them buckeyes. I suppose maybe it is a little odd to name a candy after a nut that can kill you.

Every year for the past eight or so years,  people call me up around the beginning December to ask me shit like, "Hey! You gonna make me sumathem balls this year?" So they're just Christmas Balls.

I don't know how I got to be the official Christmas Ball Maker, but I am. Maybe it's because the balls/buckeyes don't require a whole lot of indepth cooking skills. They're relatively easy to make; just time consuming.

Technically, you can search "buckeye recipe" and find a thousand different possibilities. I didn't make the things up. I don't possess that sort of creativity.

Here's a basic recipe with no picture because I am not going to start making them tonight and I don't having a functional camera that isn't attached to a phone. One who reads this blog has to be someone not horribly bothered by visual aesthetics. You are appreciated.

Buckeye Recipe

• 2 lbs. powdered sugar (This recipe is not diabetic friendly.)

• 3 cups peanut butter (Smooth or crunchy. I just prefer crunchy peanut butter.)

• 2 sticks of margarine (You could use butter, but that's some expensive shit when you make as many as I do every year.)

• 1 tsp vanilla (It really is best to buy pure vanilla. I'm going to make some from scratch one year if I can just quit drinking all the vodka.)

• 1 package of Almond Bark (You could use some chocolate chip/paraffin concoction, but I don't like to add to my issues.)
  
• wax paper and toothpicks 
  

1. Cream the butter or margarine or whatever the hell you're going to use with the peanut butter and vanilla. (This actually requires a mixer.  Just spend the ten damned dollars because everyone needs a mixer. Now personally, I want a blinged out KitchenAid stand mixer. This is not a passing phase. I've been waiting on one to magically appear in my kitchen for something close to 12 years. One day, it will be mine. Oh yes.It will be mine.)
2. Add confectioners sugar until a desired consistency is mixed. This is somewhere around the point where you can touch it with your fingers and it's not gooey, but not so full of powdered sugar that it crumbles. (Also, if you're going to try to double the recipe, don't do this with a hand mixer. I burned out a moter that way. See? That's why I need a KitchenAid.)
3. Roll the peanut butter/powdered sugar mixture into one inch balls. 
4. Lay the wax paper across the counter.
5. Melt the almond bark on a double boiler. Be careful, stir constantly over medium low heat. Do not let boil! 
6. Using a toothpick (or cradle the peanut butter balls using two forks) quickly dip the balls into the chocolate mixture, covering the balls about 3/4 of the way up. Work quickly before the bark begins to harden in the pot.
   
7.  Lay on wax paper to dry.

So that's the Christmas Balls recipe.  I think I made somewhere around 1500 balls last year. This, along with peanut brittle, are my two main requests.