More of the Garwood Family Christmas

Last night I made peanut butter fudge — a traditional Christmas treat from my family.  My mom always made both chocolate and peanut butter fudge when I was growing up, and she still does.  The peanut butter fudge was a tradition from my Dad’s side of the family.  I have always loved peanut butter, and I like peanut butter combined with chocolate even more.  I love Reese’s peanut butter cups.  I really love Lindor peanut butter truffles!  You get the picture.  So, anyway, was asked on Twitter to share my peanut butter fudge recipe.  I actually use the same recipe that I use for chocolate fudge, except that I substitute peanut butter chips for chocolate chips.  So, you could probably use any chocolate fudge recipe that uses melted chocolate chips, but substitute just like I do.  Here is mine:

4 c. sugar
1 1/3 c. evaporated milk (2 5oz. cans)
1 c. butter
2 c. peanut butter chips (you could also try 1 c. peanut butter, and 1 c. chocolate chips, yummy!)
7 oz. marshmellow creme
1 t. vanilla

1. Line a 13 x 9 in. pan with foil and butter the foil.  Butter the sides of a heavy saucepan.  Combine sugar, evaporated milk, and butter in saucepan. 

2. Cook and stir over med-high heat until mixture boils.  Turn temp. down to medium and continue to cook and stir for 10 minutes.

3. Remove pan from heat.  Add peanut butter chips, marshmellow creme, and vanilla.  Stir until chips melt and ingredients are combined.  Beat by hand for one more minute.  Poor into foil-lined pan.  Score into 1 in. squares while still warm.  Once cool, use foil to lift out of pan, cut into pieces.  Store in airtight container in the fridge.

4. Enjoy!

Let me know if you try it and how it goes!  I also wanted to share our family’s Christmas stockings with all of you.  Here is Mr AC’s

He and I met at The University of Oklahoma when we were both working on Bachelor’s degrees.  His is in Mechanical Engineering, mine is in Microbiology.  He loves the OU sports teams.  I enjoy watching the football games, but don’t get very interested in the other sports.  So, his stocking is an OU that I made from fleece, felt and flannel.

Here is my stocking

Mine is made from fabric that I recycled from an old formal dress that I wore a few times in high school.  There is ice blue satin and velvet.  The frog closure has beads and sequins on it and is just appliqued here for decorationg.  It doesn’t actually close anything.  The white band on top is flannel.

Here is Drama Queen’s

This is made from a kit that I got at Hobby Lobby.  All of the girls’ stockings are made from kits I got there.  You can usually find these at the craft stores beginning in the summer so that you can get them finished in time for Christmas.

Here is Princess’s

This stocking suits her perfectly because she is my girly girl.  I’m sure you can see what I should have seen from the get go…that’s a lot of little pieces!  It’s adoreable, but this stocking was a lot of work!  So, when I made the next one…

….for Lady Hops-a-lot…

I chose one with many fewer, and lots bigger pieces.  It is still adoreable though, and fits her cheery personality really well.

Here is the partially-completed stocking that I am still working on for Baby:

I’ve finished two snowmen and a little bluebird.  I’ve started a penguin.  I still have to finish the penguin and do one more snowman.  So, I could still finish it in time for Christmas, but I probably won’t.  At her current age, she won’t notice.  It will definitely be done in time for next Christmas, when she will be old enough to notice.  This year I have an extra stocking for her to use.

I’d love to hear about your crafty Christmas traditions too!