Haystacks

I cannot believe that Christmas is over. It always comes and goes too fast! Fortunately, I come from a large family and we extend Christmas- we celebrate with 4 days festivities.

We start on the 23: Festivus. Yes, this is from Seinfeld. Yes, my family does celebrate this. No, we do not have a pole. Yes, we air grievances and have feats of strength. (We actually give the option of airing a grievance or performing a physical feat but most of us just air a grievance- it’s faster and more therapeutic.) Actually, with the exception of my 8 year old cousin, our grievances aren’t really grievances. Anyway, this is also our annual fry night. Yes, that is correct, my family dedicates one night a year where we fry a variety of foods and eat them. My favorites this year were the mini corn dogs and the jalapeno poppers. Yum!! We also open one small gift. Festivus is really a festive evening… see what I just did there 🙂

Next is the 24: Christmas Eve. My aunt and uncle host Christmas Eve and this the most formal of the four days. We typically have a Mexican food feast with fajitas, enchiladas, and salads. This year, however, it was tasty ribs, chicken and salmon. A pleasant and delicious change. On Christmas Eve we gamble (we play a game called Left, Right, Center), drink (Cran-Cham!) and sing Christmas carols. What we lack in singing ability, we make up for in enthusiasm. Christmas Eve is always a blast!

Third is the big day on the 25: Christmas! We have a pretty typical Christmas with gobs of food, games, and a giant gift exchange. One of the signature desserts at Christmas are Haystacks with all their chocolate-ty, peanut buttery, coconut-ty goodness. These treats never disappoint!

The fourth and final day is the 26: Leftovers. We have a large family and, therefore, we typically have a quite a few leftovers so we gather at our house on the 26 and eat them! This year we had an abundance in leftover Haystacks. Very unusual for our family but I was happy. These are definitely a Christmas staple and are so easy to whip up. The best part, no baking involved! I hope you enjoy them as much as my family does and that your holiday season was wonderful 🙂

-Kelly

Ingredients:

• 1 stick of butter
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 3 cups Quick Quaker Oats (the instant kind)
• 1 small package of coconut
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Boil butter, sugar, cocoa powder and milk in a saucepan for one minute.
2. Remove from heat and add peanut butter, oats, coconut and vanilla.
3. Drop on wax paper and let cool. Enjoy!