When I was young, Christmas signaled a break from school, gifts under the tree, and mom’s snowballs.  Every year I’d look forward to snowballs at Christmas, eating them as quickly as mom would make them.

One year during Christmas break, I came home to a house suspiciously devoid of snowballs.  I had a glass of juice, and since mom had cleaned up the house, I went to the dishwasher to put it away instead of leaving it in the sink.  When I opened up the dishwasher, I found a platter of snowballs! Mom hid them there, thinking there’d be no reason for me to open the dishwasher.  If she hadn’t done such a thorough job cleaning the house that day, I never would have.  After that day, it was a lot easier to get me to put the dishes away.

Snowballs

Ingredients 1 cup butter 2/3 cup sugar 1/2 cup milk 6 Tbsp cocoa powder 3 cups rolled oats 1/2 cup  shredded dry coconut 1/2 cup shredded coconut (for coating)

Melt the butter in a saucepan with the sugar, cocoa, and milk. Bring it to a boil and turn the heat to low. Mix in the oats and coconut and remove from heat.  Let the mixture cool until it is warm to the touch.

Place the extra shredded coconut into a bowl. Scoop up a small amount of the oat mixture and use your hands to form it into a ping-pong sized ball. Roll the ball around in the bowl until it’s coated with the coconut.  Continue doing this until the oat mixture runs out.   The snowballs are good to eat right away.  Store them in a closed container and keep them in the fridge.