Happy Easter Everyone! Here are two recipes I tried from Pinterest

I love Pinterest but it is a bit addicting and if you're like me you end up in what I call "Pinterest Hell" where you just can't get out and waste a big part of your day.  On a slow day it is not so bad but when you have things to do you wish you just wouldn't have went there.

So with this trip down Pinterest lane I started looking at Champagne Punches and then segued into Easter since I was doing the punch for Easter Brunch and then I headed into party ideas before I was finally able to surface again.

What I ended up making was the Pretzel Flowers.  They were adorable but way more time consuming than I thought, you need to relax, don't rush and breath.  I cursed a few time when I started the process.  The 50 second microwave method didn't work at all.  The white candy disk did not melt enough so that the candies would adhere, so I did another minute, still not enough, then more time until I figured that the pretzels texture was being compromised.  Then I tried melting a few of the chips in a bowl and using it as a paint to stick the candies to each other but this was even more painful and the flowers didn't sit flat (you can kinda see that in the close up pix of the purple flower.  Then I put them in the oven, 6 pretzels at a time for 5 minutes on 200°F.  This was perfect.  You can do more than 6 unless you have help otherwise the white candy begins to harden and the colored candies (In case you don't know, they are M&M's) don't stick.  Also be sure to put the M on the M&M's down so it is a cleaner looking flower.  You will have leftover pretzels and chocolate candy disks unless you want to buy more M&M's but frankly I had had enough so doing more didn't sound fun at all.  The tray here was what one bag of M&M's made, minus a few casualties and a few tastes.  Give it a try as is or change up the colors and do them for another holiday, birthday or shower.  They may look large in the photos but M&M's are small so the flowers are too.

CHOCOLATE PRETZEL FLOWERS

16 oz. bag Snider Butter Snaps (square waffle pretzels)

12 oz. bag white candy melt disks

9.9 oz. bag pastel M&M's

Preheat oven to 200°F.  On a small baking sheet add 6 pretzels, top each pretzel with a white chocolate baking disk.  Place in oven for 5 minutes.  Remove pretzels from baking sheet and lightly place one M&M in center, M side down, and 6 M&M's around center one to make a flower.  Gently press all M&M's so they flatten slightly and press into the melted chocolate but not too hard or the chocolate will ooze out the pretzel.  Makes about 50 flowers with 350 M&M's.

Note:  If you press them all into the chocolate at the same time they will create a more uniform flower. 

The other thing I tried was Peep Pops, another winner and much much easier.  You can make them more uniform by cutting off the sides and squaring them up or by using a pan with straight sides.  I didn't want to eat the extra pieces so I kept them whole so the shape is the shape of my meatloaf pan.  I also could have cut off less and put the stick in the short side so the stripes would go vertically vs. horizontally.  Next time I'll separate the blue and the green, they were too close in color.  To get brighter colors you could add food coloring.

Easter Peep Pops:  Instead of marshmallows use 10 Peeps (2-3 oz. trays) and 1 T. butter, melt in microwave for 45 seconds.  Add 1 C. rice cereal for each color layer.  Layer in a loaf pan, let cool. Slice and make lollipops.