Christmas Sugar, Sugar!

I bonded with my sisters today. We were nearly 1,000 miles apart, but there was a little part of us that was together. See, Sara, Ann, Con and Robin get together to make candy every year, and I've never gotten to be there for the fun. So this year, Sara sent me 15 pounds of candy makin' supplies! YESSS! (I just CANNOT get the good "melty" chocolate down here; I tried last year with different kinds, to no avail) Their most famous yearly candies are: peanut butter balls covered in chocolate, raisin clusters, peanut clusters and chocolate-mint Ritz crackers. So I got to work yesterday and today, shook it up a bit with some stuff I found on Pinterest, channeled my sisters, and this is what I made. A few of Alex's friends came over for dinner, then later sampled them all : ) I love making people happy with food! ♥ (apparently Al does too, since he made their dinner...duck stir fry!)

White chocolate covered Santa hats! Aren't they cute?! The Bob's peppermint sticks are covered in white chocolate also, to dip in hot chocolate. Yummm! That was yesterday's batch.

Today I made dark chocolate dipped marshmallows (some with sprinkles, some with peppermint) milk chocolate cashew clusters and dark chocolate raisin clusters. I forgot to get the daggone little candy papers at Michael's on Friday, but luckily Alex knew they had some at Publix, so I got the last two packs of mini liners in the baking aisle! Whew!

Ok, on the advise of Cliff and Bailly, I posted duplicate pics in hopes for a vote as to which is more appealing to the eye. (I have my nice Fuji, but love this simple little Kodak. I know my pictures are not good, since I see beautiful, bright pictures on Pinterest and Foodgawker, but it's all I'm willing to do right now!) The first one of course is with flash, this second is without. I'm always taking photos in the evening, too, which is definitely a minus.

I still plan to make chocolate covered mini pretzels sticks (Snyder's, of course! It's the Pennsylvania girl in me!) later this week. Can ya tell I love the salty/sweet thing? Christmas week, here we come!