Turtle Balls

[Joanna]

Turtle Balls
In honor of Uncle Dale Lawman

1 – 14 ounce bag caramels, unwrapped
12 to 14 ounces chopped pecans
1/8  cup water (more or less)
8 squares chocolate bark (about 2/3 a block or 15 ounces)
4 squares white almond bark (about 1/3 a block or 5 ounces)

•   Lightly spray 2 sheets of aluminum foil with no-stick spray (too much spray will cause the caramels to be sticky & not set up properly.  Place each sheet of foil in a cookie sheet that will fit in the refrigerator.
•   Put caramels and about 1/8 cup water in a glass bowl (4 cup size) and microwave 1 minute. Stir.
•   Microwave for 1 minute more. Stir thoroughly.
•   Pour the pecans in the caramel, stir as well as you can; heat in microwave for about 20 seconds if it's too stiff.  Stir thoroughly.
•   Wash hands, then begin putting the caramel/nut mix on the sprayed foil.  Try for a size close to a cherry or a gum ball, and a rough ball shape. 
      You can use a spoon, but fingers work better. 
      If you get the drops too large, you can go back after they are cooled and separate the larger clumps into smaller ones by pinching apart. 
     Caramel is water soluble, so it will clean up easy from your hands and dishes
•   Let them cool completely!  After they cool naturally, you can put them in the refrigerator for 5 minutes before dipping to make them easier to handle.  Don't put them in the refrigerator before they are room temp. or they'll gather moisture.
•   Break all the chocolate and almond bark into squares in a glass dish.
•   Microwave for about 1 minute 30 seconds, then stir till smooth.  You may need to microwave additional few seconds, but don't get the mix too hot.
•   Quickly, dip each caramel/nut ball into the chocolate.  If they are too large, pinch them in half and shape them into a ball before dipping in chocolate. 
•   Don't leave the caramel/nut ball in the warm chocolate coating too long or it will soften and loose it's shape.  Dip out with a fork and lightly shake to remove extra coating.  Set it on a piece of waxed paper to harden.  Be sure the caramel is completely covered with chocolate as it will run out of any small hole.
•   Let balls cool completely, about an hour.  Depending on size, you'll have about 100
•   Store in an air-tight container.
•   These are wonderful candies, but very expensive if you don't find a good deal on pecans.  You can certainly make them bigger if you wish.

Dearest ornery Uncle Dale once convinced me that I was sampling turtle meat after I'd refused to eat any of the calf fries fresh from a morning spent cutting calves.  It would have gone unmentioned, until he started his "bull bellowing" from across the room at my first bite.  I haven't eaten calf fries (or turtle) ever since!

[hhjacobs]

Oreo Bon Bons
1 package Oreo cookies
1 package Philly cheese
Almond Bark
Hershy candy bars
Seperate cookies and scrap off white centers and save. Process the cookie part into crumbs. Add the white centers and the philly cheese. Blend until you have mud. Ref until firm then shape into balls. Dip into almond bark then drizzle chocolate over them. Yummy Yummy!!!

[Janet Harrington]

Boy, you guys sure make a person that wants to lose weight hungry.

[hhjacobs]

Gve it to all of your skinny friends. When they get fat we won't look so fat!

[Joanna]

I think she's got a good idea there Janet.  When I worked at an SO, I could take any kind of food I wanted to get rid of to work with me, and it wouldn't last through lunch.  It's how I got rid of old Easter & Halloween candy!  Our school teacher's lounge was another favorite drop off...

[genealogynut]

Yes, I'm "supposed" to be on a diet, also, but unfortunately, I am a choco-holic, and that is my weakness,  As we passed thru Independence coming home this evening, we stopped off at a grocery store, and naturally I bought the ingredients for the Turtleball recipe.  So now I can quit my "drooling!" That means I'm going to have to  triple my exercising.  Just thinking about it and I've gained five pounds.

[Janet Harrington]

I took my left over Halloween candy to the Central Dispatch for Wilson County.  The dispatchers have told me that the officers that roam in and out of there all the time will eat anything.  Sometimes my officers will eat anything depending on what the kitchen fixes for lunch.  I also have a young officer with young kids and I know that he will eat anything and if I give him permission he will take it home for the kids.  That's always fun because this family struggles to live on his salary.  Now that is sad.  Anyway, you can always give it to officers.

[Bonnie M.]

I used Joanna's recipe for Turtle Balls this week, and it turned out really good!

[frawin]

Joanna, wasn't Dale Lawman married to Bernice Hunter?  Wasn't he a Farm Bureau Insurance agent at Abilene?  I worked in the Farm Bureau office in Pratt, KS. when we lived there.  Growing up, Harley Lawman was always involved in many community programs in Severy.  He was a wonderful person.  I believe he worked for KP&L.

Myrna

[Marty Hunter]

Myrna, Dale was married to Berneice.   Berneice was with Stanley Home Products until she retired, and Dale was a union electrician.   Jack Hunter was the Farm Bureau agent at Abilene.   He lives in Bella Vista.   Marty