What about that sugar craving?

Ok, well, I flaked on the red beans and rice last night. There was enough chili left to mix with some pasta and cheese. I called it chili-mac and gave myself the night off from serious cooking. Maybe tomorrow I'll throw together some kind of bean salad. We shall see...

Anyway my challenge for today was to satisfy the old sweet tooth. I nursed a carton of ice cream as long as I could, which was precisely until yesterday. Back into the cupboards to see if I could come up with anything. I used all my flour on that loaf of bread, so cakes and cookies were out. But that partial bag of semi-sweet chips has been bugging me. Surely I can put those to use.

I know! Buckeyes! I've got butter and peanut butter and powdered sugar. Never tried buckeyes before but what the hell. Let's do this...

First things first. If I was gonna be short of anything, it would be the chocolate. So I measured...

Aren't the tastiest treats the simplest?

One cup. So I have to do math. Okaaay...

• 3/8 cup peanut butter (Awesome. I have to eyeball that one.)
• 1/4 cup butter (Easy enough. Half a stick.)
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract (Damn. Gotta eyeball that too.)
• 6/4 (reduces to 3/2 which equals 1 1/2) cup confectioners' sugar
• And the previously established 1 cup chocolate chips

Now the online recipe says just dump everything but the chocolate into a bowl. I decided to blend all my "wet" ingredients first, then add the sugar. I figured it would be less messy that way. And considering I didn't frost the whole kitchen in powdered sugar, I think I might have been right.

I used a fork to combine everything, but by the time I was done my aching arm was all, "Damn, lady. Didn't you buy a pastry cutter just for stuff like this?"

And my brain was all, "Yeah but that's a nightmare to clean. So shut it."

Ah, intrapersonal conflict. I stirred until I had this:

I really could eat this with a spoon... Focus, Misty!

Then I was ready to start rolling. Except, blast it I'm out of wax paper. Fine. You know what? I'll butter the baking tray. That'll work. (And it totally did.) I'd be remiss if I didn't mention, for my readers who have offspring: This step is super kid-friendly. Think Play Doh, you know?

I had another oh crap moment when I looked at the nearly empty toothpick box. I had enough, it turned out, but just barely. Add that to tomorrow's shopping list (which is exploding).

Please don't judge my well-loved baking pan.

That went into the freezer where I left it for a half hour. Then I got to melting the chocolate.

Did I mention I've never done this before?

Ok, so, this part brought an old song to my mind, the Chef from South Park classic. No, not "Chocolate Salty Balls." Though, I guess that would be appropriate. The other classic...

You wait and you wait and you wait and you wait...

(Sing along with me)

And you wait and you wait and you wait...

And you wait and you wait and you wait but she's still going to the bathroooooom...

Also stir. The recipe says the chocolate should get "smooth." For some mysterious reason I really never accomplished that. But I started to get worried after about 20 minutes that the chocolate would cook. Not okay. So out came the peanut butter and I started dipping.

Except it wasn't really dipping. The chocolate was about the consistency of cake frosting. So it was more like wallering. I kinda had to -- roll the balls around in there to get them coated good.

As a result, I utterly mangled two and badly compromised the visual appeal of the rest. Whatever, dude. I put them back in the buttered pan, then stuck it all in the fridge for about 20 minutes. Once the chocolate was set, I moved them out of the baking pan and into a storage container.

Ta-daaaa...

Yeah... I realize they came out pretty funky-looking. But you won't hear me griping, because they taste freaking awesome. And in this house? Flavor counts a lot more toward your final score than prettiness.

Sugar craving? Solved. And tomorrow? I get to go shopping again! Cue choirs of angels...

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