“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”  

Hamilton Wright Mabie 

Hi there,

Today it is my great pleasure to share with you my friend Diane’s, https://indianeskitchen.com, post talking about her beautiful family Christmas traditions. Diane, who is from Ohio, also is sharing with us a traditional treat from Ohio – Buckeyes.

When my husband and I were married 32 years ago, we were in our 30’s and we both had our own traditions. My favorite one my husbands family has is a “Happy Birthday Jesus” cake. They said it didn’t need to be fancy, which I loved, with all the other cooking there was to do.

Living in Ohio, the “Buckeye State”, has made these delicious Buckeyes very popular. When I make them for Christmas I have to hide them or they disappear before Christmas. The first thing my family asks on Christmas is “Where are the Buckeyes?”.

Ingredients

1 cup of creamy peanut butter

2 sticks butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 – 12 ounce bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 lb. of powdered sugar (approximately)

½ block of paraffin wax

Preparation

1. In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and the peanut butter (I use a mixer). Add vanilla and mix until combined. This can be done in a mixer or by hand.

2. Sift the powdered sugar and add it to the peanut butter mixture 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well each time you add it. You will know you have added enough powdered sugar when you can pick up a clump of the mixture and it does not stick to your hand and it can be gently rolled into a ball. Roll the mixture into 1 inch balls.

3. Place the balls onto a waxed paper covered baking sheet making sure they do not touch. Cover the cookies with plastic wrap and and place the tray in a cold location like the refrigerator for an hour or two.

4. In a double boiler over medium low heat, melt the paraffin wax. Add the chocolate chips, stir until melted and the chocolate is creamy smooth.

5. Put about 10 cookies on a plate for each cycle of dipping. The rest of the cookies need to be kept cold and firm in order to dip into the chocolate. If the toothpick doesn’t stay in the cookie to dip, they aren’t cold enough.

6. Lay a long sheet of waxed paper on the counter.

7. Using a toothpick, stab the cookie and hold the toothpick to dip the ball into the chocolate, leaving a round circle uncoated at the top of the cookie to look like a buckeye. Place the chocolate dipped Buckeye onto the waxed paper on the counter. Repeat with the rest of the cookies. Let the cookies sit for 1/2 hour to set up.

8. Place the chocolate coated cookie onto a clean waxed paper covered baking sheet. Place the trav back into the cold area to set up for about 1 hour.

9. Store the cookies in an airticht container (with waxed paper between the lavers) in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

From the time I was a child we have always hung candy canes on the Christmas tree. Once Christmas was getting close I would let the kids eat one a day. 

Since having grandkids we began hiding the pickle ornament on the Christmas tree. My oldest granddaughter gets the honor of hiding it every year. On Christmas morning the person that finds the pickle gets a small gift. 

We decided we were going to cut down our own live Christmas tree from a tree farm, with the kids, every year. I really enjoyed the smell of pine in the house. After the first year or two, we cut a Blue Spruce tree from our yard instead, we had planted a lot of them when we bought our house. A few days after decorating the tree, with my brand new angel on top of the tree, I looked up and my ceiling was covered in tiny black things. My angels skirt was also covered on the inside. Well, our tree must have had a huge spider nest and due to the warm house, had hatched! That was the end of that tradition. We now have a beautiful artificial tree.

Thank you for inviting me to participate Bernadette. I can’t wait to see what you do with it. My husband loved that you asked me as he got chocolate cake today. Lol 

Diane 🥰

Don’t you just love these traditions. Years ago, we had some friends who went to Ohio State. The enthusiasm they had for the candy and the football team was contagious. I know I can’t wait to try those Buckeyes. I hope you will stop over and read some more of Diane’s recipes (https://indianeskitchen.com). I have never been disappointed with any of Diane’s recipes.