Rum Balls  - A favorite holiday treat!

         Ingredients:
 
               1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
             1/2 cup white sugar
              3 tablespoons corn syrup
             1/2 cup rum
              2 1/2 cups crushed vanilla wafers
               1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
             1/3 cup confectioners sugar

Instructions:

Melt chocolate chips in a microwave safe dish. Heat for 1 minute to start off stir well, then heat in 30 second intervals, stirring in between and continue until smooth. Blend in sugar, corn syrup and rum. Mix in the crushed wafers and nuts and stir until those are evenly spread out through the mixture.

Cover dish and refrigerate until it seems firm enough to shape. Roll into bite sized balls between the palms of your hands. Then roll the balls in powdered sugar.

If you like more nuts you can roll them in a mixture of chopped nuts and sugar. Store in a sealed container for about a week to get the best flavor before eating and handing out these goodies.
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                           Candy Cane Brittle

Candy cane lovers are going to enjoy this delicious holiday treat! Watch for those candy cane sales.

       Ingredients:

           2 pounds white chocolate
          30 peppermint candy canes
                *(If it's not the holidays get a bag or two of the
                  red and white swirly peppermint candies!)

Instructions:

First we're going to smash up those pretty candy canes!

Put them in a large Ziploc bag and do whatever you want to do to smash them up, hit them with a meat mallet, smack them off the counter, drop them, whatever gets them broken into pieces.
  The kids will be sure to want to help with this step.

Melt the chocolate. This can be done in the microwave. Start off with 1 - 2 minutes. Stir. Heat for another minute. Stir. Continue doing this until you have completely melted and smooth white chocolate.

 Stir broken candy pieces into the melted chocolate and spread the mixture evenly into a jellyroll pan. *Tip ~ line the jellyroll pan with foil first for easy removal and clean up. Chill until set, at least one hour but probably more. Break into pieces and store in a sealed container.
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