Keeping It in Stitches

By Diane K Clow

Keeping It in Stitches

Holly Jolly Christmas

It’s almost Christmas! After the shopping, wrapping, decorating, and all the other traditional stuff is taken care of, it’s time for some Holiday Survival. So, here’s my gift to you. It’s time to make Holly Candy!

My first memory of Holly Candy was when I was about ten years old. My Aunt Esther brought a beautiful plate of what looked like a plastic greenery wreath with red berries. Only it wasn’t plastic and those weren’t berries. It was a delicious recipe of corn flakes and marshmallows topped with cinnamon red-hot candies. And I fell in love.

Now with the help of a handy-dandy microwave oven, you can melt the marshmallows and margarine in seconds, pour in the green food coloring, and stir and coat the corn flakes in minutes! (It’s hard to believe, but the first home microwave ovens came out when I was a teen. They were big, heavy, and dang expensive. We only used ours to warm up hot dogs.)

My daughter’s birthday is nine days before Christmas. As a child, she requested a Barbie cake for her birthday. The cake was a domed shape to make the skirt, and then Barbie was shoved in the middle up to her belly. The whole thing was covered with piped frosting stars in pink and white, and Barbie would have a magnificent confection ball gown. Then we would surround her skirt at the base with Holly Candy!

In my previous work life, I had a co-worker who loved Holly Candy so much she would request it for her birthday. In February. Instead of using green food coloring, I used pink and made heart shaped Holly Candy.

When my son was a young teen, his friend Joe and I had something special in common. We both loved the

movie, “Twister”. While watching “Twister,” I casually mentioned Holly Candy. My movie watching buddy had never heard of Holly Candy (gasp!), so we made some. In July. He loved it!

It wouldn’t be fair to share all these great Holly Candy memories without sharing the recipe, so you, too, can create your own special Holly Candy tradition just like Aunt Esther did. So, get out the marshmallows, margarine, and corn flakes, and here we go!

Holly Wreath Candy

Melt together in microwavable bowl – 1 Stick (1/2 cup) margarine and 40 large marshmallows.

Stir in – liquid green food coloring a few drops at a time until you reach desired color.

Stir in – corn flakes cereal – start with 6-8 cups until coated, add more until no longer sticky.

Drop in small clumps on waxed paper, then sprinkle with cinnamon red hots candies. My family is not a big fan of the red hots, but I don’t care. I like them and they end up leaving them all for me!

Let the clumps dry and then place in a “wreath” shape on a plate. I like to fill the “hole” in the wreath with peanut butter balls – but that’s a whole other Christmas holiday tradition.

Thank you for letting me share our family tradition. Plus, as a bonus, to provide the article photo banner I had to make a batch of Holly Candy! In September!

Keeping It in Stitches – and, I hope, YOU in Holly Candy!