CROCK-POT CHOCOLATE CANDY

This is not my recipe. I found it over at Southern Hospitality who found it in Patricia Yearwood's Cook Book.

CROCK-POT CHOCOLATE CANDY

Layer the ingredients in the order listed.

2 lbs. (36 oz.) salted dry-roasted peanuts
4 oz. (4 squares) German's sweet chocolate
1-12 oz. package semi sweet chocolate chips (about 2 cups)
2 1/2 lbs. white almond bark

1. Put the peanuts in the bottom of a 4-quart slow cooker. Layer the chocolate over the peanuts, beginning with the sweet chocolate, followed by the chocolate chips, and then the almond bark. Set the temperature on LOW and cook for 3 hours. DO NOT stir the mixture.

2. After 3 hours, stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until smooth. Drop the candy into mini cupcake liners, using just enough mixture to fill the mini cups liners. (The recipe called for regular cup cake liners and 2 tablespoons mixture, that is a big piece of this candy.) Allow the candy to cool completely before removing the cupcake liners. I was able to get 92 pieces of candy out of the mini cupcakes liners and I left the liners on the candy they are easier to store. The method using 2 tablespoons of mixture makes 30 to 40 pieces.

This does require a 4-quart slow cooker and it will be almost over flowing by the time you place all the ingredients in it.

Enjoy.

A LITTLE CHANGE IN THE UPSTAIRS

We have lived in our house almost 35 years and I have made very few changes to the arrangement of the furniture and not many changes to the accessories.

One of guest bedrooms has looked the same since about 1987. I bought a Martha Washington type bedspread in Asheville, NC and it has served us well, but I wanted to update the room.

This past spring we stayed in a bed and breakfast, The Pond House Inn in Elizabeth City, NC and it was a beautiful traditional house with lovely furnishings. The room we stayed in was very comfortable, except I couldn't get in the bed because it was so high and required a chair to get up in that beautiful four poster bed. I loved the coverlet and bed skirt on our bed. The bed skirt was white and the coverlet was yellow. I knew that was what I wanted to do in our circa 1987 guest bedroom. The innkeeper was very innovative when she couldn't find a bed skirt for her very high bed, she used a coverlet and it worked well and looked really nice.

I knew I wanted a white, tailored bed skirt and a yellowish coverlet. I found a coverlet but wasn't sure if it would blend with our trim. It didn't, it was too yellow. However, I didn't give up and kept shopping until I found a coverlet that did blend with our yellowy trim. All the colors in our house are Williamsburg colors and they are hard to match. After searching the internet high and low, I found a bed skirt that I liked and thought would work well.

I wanted to keep the room very traditional in keeping with our 18th century house, but a bit updated. Only thing Hubby is highly distressed that those blue pillows with the ruffles are still on the bed. I can assure you they are staying, but I think I'm going to remove the ruffle and replace it with some piping. That is a project for another day, but for now the ruffled pillows are staying.

The room is ready for our next guests, hopefully our friends from Tennessee or Virginia. Don't know who will be our first guests, but we will be ready, unless I go to jail for removing the tags off the new pillow. Oh, that does say, "...tag is not to be removed except by the consumer." So I'll be here awaiting our guests.

Thelma and Louise

We have lived here almost 35 years and we have never seen any deer.

A couple of weeks ago we were at our kitchen table and there were two young does eating away at our neighbor's flowers and then moved into their turnip green patch.

They had a feast. Then they strolled over to our yard and we ran to the living room and watched them through the blinds. They sniffed at our garden, but I think our fence will keep them out. I sure hope so because our neighbors said they love lettuce as well.

So now we watch them most mornings. They arrive between 10:00 and 10:30 a.m. Oh yeah, we have named them Thelma and Louise.

Thank You 11 Alive News

STATELY OAKS c1839

About four weeks ago we received a phone call rather early on Sunday morning. It was one of the docents at Stately Oaks wanting to know if the air conditioners were being repaired because AC parts were all over the yard. Immediately Hubby knew copper thieves had destroyed three air conditioners at the 1839 home. I heard him say, "call the police immediately."

The following day was terrible. Lots of tears and statements like, "this is the worst thing that could ever happen." Actually, it could have been must worse, because the house and other buildings on the ground were not damaged.

At the insistence of Hubby, the president of the historical society call the news media. All three local networks came out and did a story about the cooper thief and the financial hardship this would place on a non-profit organization.

As a result of the story on 11 Alive by Reporter Kevin Rowson, Cool-Ray Heating and Air stepped up to the place and donated three new air conditioners to replace the ones destroyed by the low-life thieves. Then an iron fabrication company, TMC Iron and Steel Company donated iron cages to cover the new AC units.

It was an absolute dream for the entire staff and volunteers at Stately Oaks. These people were a God send to a non-profit organization that operates on a very limited budget.

Some of the docents decided something special needed to be done for the people that made this miracle happen for Stately Oaks. So, today several of the docents and volunteers had a reception for Kevin Rowson from 11 Alive News, Britt Bagwell from Cool Ray Heating and Air and Jeff Guthrie from TMC Iron and Steel Company.

Hubby presented each of the gentlemen with plaques in appreciation for their community service and contribution to the non-profit organization. Afterwards two of the docents gave the honorees and their families a tour through Stately Oaks.

I turned around and Hubby was being interviewed by Kevin Rowson and this evening there it was, right on the evening news.

So for all of you that live in the Atlanta area if you have any heating and air conditioning needs and a need to protect your air conditioners from copper thieves or any other iron fabrication we want to recommend to you

COOL RAY HEATING AND AIR CONDITIONING, Marietta, GA
TMC IRON AND STEEL COMPANY, Lawrenceville, GA

To 11 Alive News and Kevin Rowson, the people at Stately Oaks will forever be grateful for your help during a time of devastation. This is positive news at its best.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Our dear friend, Kenny, one of our adopted sons, had a birthday, Hubby and I took a bag of Chick-fil-As and Kenny furnished the southern table wine (sweet iced tea) and I made a pound cake. We headed up to the deck of his condo complex where we had dinner, commonly called supper in the south.

It was a very pleasant evening. The weather was perfect. It was fun just talking and watching all the activities at ATL, the world's busiest airport. Kenny provided a wealth of information about all the activities on the ground and the goings on at the airport since he works directing airplanes around the airport all day long.

A GREAT DAY AT THE LAKE

I thought this would be a great reminder of the warm summer days which are now history as the gray cold days are here for a while, even a bit of sleet and snow yesterday and it is only the end of November.

I picked the wrong day to stay home and clean house. Hubby and our next door neighbor caught all these fish in about an hour and one-half this morning at Lake Oconee. The lake is way down and it must have been easy to find the good fishing holes.

This is the reason I will never fish with artificial bait. Look at those fish, they are slabs. Oh yeah, they were fishing with cane poles, not fancy rods and reels.

We fished in Lake Sinclair last week with friends using artificial bait and we never got one single bite.

Happy Anniversary

Today we have been married 45 years. In a way it does seem like a long time, but yet it doesn't seem like 45 years. I would marry my sweetheart all over again.