Chocolate Peanut Butter Acorns

So, a little over a month ago my aunt Jackie posted a link to her Facebook page.  I've been wanting to do these little guys ever since:

Today, I finally got my chance.  I assembled the three ingredients:

And got to work unwrapping those Kisses.

Now, I should point out, that this is not a milk-free recipe.  But it was so cute, I had to do it anyway.

As a side-note, you may want to hide the ingredients until the day of the craft, if you have husbands (or kids) that will snack on your blogging materials.  (This is the second bag of Hershey Kisses I've bought for this purpose.)

Slowly my plate filled with unwrapped chocolates.  (Not as slowly as if I could have been snacking on them though.)

Next I poured a small amount of mini chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl.   The Six in the Suburbs blog where I first saw this recipe says half the bag, but that seems excessive.

You microwave them for 10 seconds or so at a time, stirring well in between.  When they start to get melty like this:

Stop heating them, and just keep stirring till they look like this:

Now dip the flat end of one of your unwrapped Kisses into the warm chocolate, and attach it to a Nutter Butter Bite (or a half of one, depending what look you want).

Repeat:

Now you are ready for the finishing step.

Dip the flat end of one of the un-melted mini chocolate chips into the melted chocolate (you may have to reheat it, depending how long the last step took.)

And place it on top to finish your acorn.

Keep going until they all have toppers.

You are done!  Congratulations on your very cute acorns.

Enjoy!

Crispy Homemade French Fries

So, I wanted to make up some homemade french fries for my friends the other day.  I went to my trusty blog (which mostly functions as a handy recipe book, these days) and searched "fries."  Unfortunately for me, it turns out I never did that post I meant to about how to make the perfect, crispy, delicious batch of homemade fries like I thought I had.  So here it is now, for all of you (and me, next time I want it -lol).

First take the potato of your choosing.  Yes, the humble spud.  My husband is partial to Yukon Golds, so that is what I will be using in this post.

Cut up your potatoes into thin strips.  (Leave the peels on.)  Put them in cold water, and rinse them until the water runs clear. 

Pat them dry with a paper towel.

Heat your oil to 350 degrees, and lower a small amount of potato slices in.  Make sure they are fully covered.  Stir them, if using the stove.  If using a basket and a deep fryer, give the basket a shake occasionally so they don't stick together.  Fry them for five minutes.

Bring them up and try to dismiss the visions of McMinamin's greasy, floppy fries from your mind.  We aren't done here.

Let the oil drain a bit, and then put them on a baking tray and put them in an oven heated to 200 degrees to keep them warm, while you fry up other small batches of fries.  

If you are only making 20 or so fries, you can skip this step.  But don't overfill your fry basket in order to not have to heat the oven.  You want your fries to have hot oil on all sides, not other potato pieces slapped up against them! 

Continue frying small patches of up and adding them to the tray.  Then heat your oil up some more.  Preferably 425 degrees, or if your fryer only goes to 375 degrees like mine, just crank it all the way up. Dip them in there for two more minutes.

Dab them off again with paper towels.  Add salt.

Maybe not quite this much salt:

But look how crunchy and divine these look!

A little ketchup, and you are good to go.

If you are the skeptical or scientific type, take a look at The Burger Lab's post about why we double fry them.  Also, the recipe is from the same guys, and can be found here.

Enjoy!