Ok, one more time...

On the second go-around I got the chocolate to work out splendidly. I used about 1 tbls crisco per cup of chocolate chips to thin it and used the "warm" setting on my rice cooker (so much easier than a double boiler and much less risk of exposure to water!) and stirred every once in a while.
The results!

 Macaroooooons!

 Perfectly dipped! (sorry about the blurry photo--at least my messy apartment is in focus...)

The buckeyes! Or...eyes of newt maybe? Ware wolf testicles? We are still deciding.

So both these recipes are easy and gluten free! If only I can get nathan to stop stealing them from the fridge...
Buckeyes (from allrecipes.com):

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups peanut butter (I used 1 cup crunchy, 1/2 cup creamy)
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 cups confectioners' sugar
• 4 cups semisweet chocolate chips (two cups, if thinned would probably be enough)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, butter, vanilla and confectioners' sugar. The dough will look dry. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet.
2. Press a toothpick into the top of each ball (to be used later as the handle for dipping) and chill in freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.
3. Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler or in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir frequently until smooth.
4. Dip frozen peanut butter balls in chocolate holding onto the toothpick. Leave a small portion of peanut butter showing at the top to make them look like Buckeyes. Put back on the cookie sheet and refrigerate until serving.

This makes a lot of buckeyes! Which is good because I think they'll be popular. 

I also made these SUPER EASY macaroons which were a lot less fussy than some recipes I found that required egg white peaks and certain temps, etc. I had extra ingredients, so I ended up making a second batch. And I had extra chocolate from the buckeyes, so some are dipped!

From joyofbaking.com:

Coconut Macaroons: 

2 large eggs
1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar
1/8 teaspoonsalt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 cups (300 grams) sweetened shredded coconut



Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 
In a large stainless steel bowl whisk the eggs until well beaten. Stir in the sugar, salt, and vanilla extract. Finally, stir in the coconut, making sure that all the coconut is completely moistened.
Place small mounds (about 1 tablespoon) of the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing several inches apart.  Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes and then place on a wire rack to cool.

In other news, we have had a really lovely october, and people in seattle are very dramatic about their weather, and each nice day they would say "This is it! This will be the last one! One day it will just start raining and won't stop!" and then we continued to have weeks more of perfect weather. However, it has been raining the past two days, so perhaps we have come to the time of no return...