Quiet as a Christmas Mouse

Hershey's Christmas Meeces

No mice in the house!  I've waged some pretty infamous battles against the mice that seem to make their way in when the temperature starts to drop.  But I think I'll make an exception to my rule for these cute little meeces!

J. and I are busy finishing up cookies to take to his mom's house tomorrow afternoon and we decided to make some of these.  They were a big hit at my office Christmas party a couple of years ago and get eaten up wherever we take them. This is a great project for kids, as they are insanely easy to make and irresistibly adorable! 

Want to make some of these?  Here's how:

Ingredients:

• Sliced almonds
• Hershey's kisses (any flavor, I used Cherry Cordial Kisses this time)
• Milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate (chocolate chips melt better than baking bars)
• Maraschino cherries with stems
• White and red icing in a squeeze bottle
• Parchment paper (or wax paper)

Directions

1. Place a square of parchment or wax paper on the counter as your work space.
2. Unwrap as many Hershey's Kisses as you need.  Don't forget to add at least 5 to the number, because you KNOW you are going to eat some of them while you're making these.
3. Wash and drain the cherries and carefully pat dry.
4. Melt the chocolate in a dish small enough to dip the cherries into.  This usually takes about 15 to 20 seconds, depending on how powerful your microwave is.  Stir it so that it's nice and creamy.
5. Holding the cherry by the stem, dip it in the chocolate until the entire cherry is covered.
6. Place the cherry sideways on the parchment paper.  I like to turn the stems different directions so that each mouse is different.
7. Immediately attach a Hershey's kiss on the opposite side of the stem.  The kiss is the mouse's head.  You may need to hold them together for a couple of seconds until the chocolate cools and attaches the two together. 
8. Dip the ends of two sliced almonds in the chocolate and place them between the kiss and the cherry.  Again, hold until attached.  These are the mouse's ears!
9. Use the white icing to create two little dots for the mouse's eyes.
10. Use the red icing on the end of the kiss to create the mouse's nose.
11. Repeat until you're tired of making these.  And if a few should get eaten, well.....we won't tell, will we?  That's called quality control.
12. Let the mice sit until the chocolate is set up. If you're in a hurry, you could pop them in the frig.

Oh, and one last thing.  If the chocolate starts to seize up while you're making these, here's a trick:  put a drop or two of vegetable oil in it and it will smooth out again.

At the Christmas party, I served these on a bed of coconut, which looked alot like snow.  There are all kinds of fun ways that you can serve that and, actually, there's no reason why you can't make these all year round.

I hope you enjoyed seeing our latest project.  Squeak, squ-EAK! **

** Merry Christmas in mouse-speak.  Or maybe it's "Don't eat me!"

I've shared this recipe as part of this week's Simple Living Wednesday, Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Farm Girl Blog Fest, Farmgirl Friday, and Clever Chicks Blog Hop.