LadyGypsy.net – the blog of Kimberly Dowd of New Jersey

Email conversation, today:

Me: I’m trying to remember – do I have dumb St. Patty’s day things to wear tomorrow?

WM: Hrm. Not sure. You could always hit up Spencers or Target for props.

Me: Ugh. Not Spencers. I’d get “Ye Crust” from there.

WM: *laughs* Well, something like that, anyway.

Me: “Here’s your Shamrock deely-boppers, light up earrings, sample d1ld0 and some crabs. Can I have your email address for our mailing list?”

We went to the Collingswood Mayfair on Saturday and had a great time!

Two 1972 classics in ONE photo!

One of the businesses created a Stanley Cup out of aluminium foil as a show of support for the Flyers. And although I’m a Devils fan, I want the Flyers to win the Cup because that’ll be another Philadelphia team to win their sport’s championship before the Eagles do. And I hate the Eagles.

There were even nationally known celebrities there!

And the Courier-Post had a booth, too. I couldn’t NOT be a ham. You’ll forgive me, right? (subscribe, subscribe, subscribe, save my job, save my job…)

My kicky hat is from Eugenia Kim’s Target line.

WM and I try to celebrate Sweetest Day because it’s so quaint and obscure. The problem is that it’s so obscure that we usually don’t remember until Sweetest Day itself.

Yesterday I found a recipe online for homemade peanut butter cups, and I thought I’d give it a whirl since I had all the ingredients on hand.

Mixing the inside parts was easy enough – I didn’t even have to break out the mixer. The chocolate was more difficult. I used a bag of semi-sweet morsels and melted them using a double-boiler. Chocolate is a pain. If you melt it too quickly, it can seize up. So patience is the trick. Patience and a bit of vegetable oil to make it more liquid.

Why, yes, that is a Christmas-themed candy cup. Sweetest Day tradition. Okay, I'm lying.

Once the filling was done chilling, I rolled them into little balls and poured the chocolate over top. I THINK it was supposed to go all the way around the peanut butter, but mine seemed to glorp on top and stay there.

I don't like to call it ugly. I prefer artisan.

The only other complaint (of mine, WM loves them) is that the chocolate melts super fast on your fingers when you hold the candy.

Notes for next time:

• Make the peanut butter balls smaller to give the chocolate a fighting chance to cover them.
• See if I can find chocolate that melts better, but doesn’t melt so quickly at room temperature, if that makes any sense at all.