easy cashew kisses and red apple lipstick winner

Kinder, gentler candy kisses

After years of dreaming, scrutinizing, researching, comparing and contrasting, about 2 months ago, I finally broke down and bought a cherry red Vitamix. I am in love with it and have already put it to good use. I plan on doing a more thorough Vitamix post and review later on, but for now I'd like to share a quickie recipe that I accidentally discovered – Cashew Butter Kisses.

M-wuh!

As you probably already know, you can make nut butter in the Vitamix. This turns out to be a huge money saver, especially when it comes to more costly nut butters. For example, cashew butteraverages about $12 a jar in my neck of the woods right now, but I can make almost 2 jars of cashew butter for about $8 based on the cost of bulk raw cashews. Besides tasting better, when you make your own nut butters, you have control over added sugar and consistency, and you can add in ingredients to make gourmet nut butters. Which brings me to this serendipitous photo recipe for Cashew Kisses.

Cashew butter, pressed into the mold, ready for the 'fridge

My first batch of homemade cashew butter was a tad on the thick side [easily remedied with a few drops of oil]. Before thinning, on a whim, I pressed some of the thick cashew butter into my candy kiss mold, popped it into the fridge and in a few hours, I had tasty Cashew Kisses to snack on. Healthier and tastier than store-bought candy. No foil required.

Contest winner
Thanks to everyone for entering the Red Apple Lipstick Giveaway The lucky winner is ....drumroll.... Tanya! Congratulations, girl! Email me your address so we can send out your prize.

Watch for more giveaways in the future. I have a couple of good ones coming up.