The Christmas season crept up on me quietly this year. Yes, as quiet as a mouse, you might say. Which brings me to the first of several Christmas recipes I’ll be sharing within the next couple of weeks.  This week I bring you Cherry Chocolate Mice. What have mice got to do with Christmas, you ask? I’ve often asked the same thing. The best I can do is to recall that in the poem “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” “not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.” Also, you’ve got the Mouse King in the Nutcracker, so that’s something. Regardless of the legitimacy of their seasonal significance, my sister makes these things every year at Christmas time, prompting my kids’ strong desire to visit Aunt Margie during the holidays. I guess that makes them an official Christmas tradition in my family.

These little critters are great for a number of reasons. To prove it, I shall number them. 1- Only five ingredients. 2- No baking or stovetop use required. 2- They are easy and quick to put together. 3- They actually taste quite wonderful. 4- They’re cute. 5- The biggie: It’s a great recipe to make with kids! Coming from one usually driven nutso by too many little hands helping in the kitchen, this is truly a stress-free activity to do with children, and they think it’s great. I know many people who are in search of advent activities to do as a family. Throw these mice into the mix!

You’ll Need:
A bag of Hershey’s Kisses
Milk Chocolate Chips
Peanuts
Maraschino Cherries WITH STEMS
Any type of white icing

Drain the cherries, but don’t rinse them.

Pop about 1/2 a bag of chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and microwave on a low setting for 30-60 seconds. Remove and stir. Repeat this step until your chocolate is melted and smooth, but not scorched.

 First, unwrap a bunch of the kisses. It helps to have them handy.

There are several methods for getting the chocolate on the cherries. My favorite is to grab a cherry by the stem, dip it deep into the melted chocolate and then use a spoon to cover any exposed areas near the stem. Then, gripping the cherry stem (preferably by your dominant hand), remove the dipped cherry and stop up the dripping chocolate with the flat surface of the kiss. With the kiss beneath the cherry as a support, transfer the pair to a waiting plate or waxed paper, lying it on its side. The “tail” should be lying parallel to the surface, the kiss on its side.

Place peanut halves in the chocolatey crook between the kiss and the cherry to resemble ears.

 Normally, I would just place my icing in an icing bag, but in case you don’t have one, I demonstrated how to use a Ziploc baggy instead. Using scissors, clip a very small corner off your baggy. Fill  your baggy with icing and twist the opening, squeezing the icing to the corner. Use this nifty tool to create eyes and noses on your mice.