Oreo Truffles

Oreo Truffles. If you're on Pinterest like I am you'll have seen the Oreo truffle recipe everywhere lately and you've drooled...Well my drool puddle was found out and my dear husband added to the drool puddle then begged for me to make these tasty, oh-so-naughty Oreo balls.

So, here are my horrible looking photos of the Oreo Truffles I made this last week for my husband's office potluck. (Someday I will have a better camera that will actually focus on food items.)

 I made three packages of Oreos worth of truffles trying to make the perfect consistency and method of dipping...No wonder I had a three day migraine after all the sugar and dipping madness. Along with gaining the two pounds I had lost the week before...

But not to worry, it was totally worth the weight gain. Maybe not the three day migraine...
Here is what I ended up with:

Oreo Truffles/Balls

1 package of chocolate cream oreos (I was cheep and used walmart brand oreos)
6 oz of Cream Cheese
6 squares of white or chocolate Almond Bark

Take the whole package of oreos and pulverize in food processor. You want crumbs, no chunks, no lumps, you're looking for cookie dust.
In a big mixing bowl put in 6 oz of cream cheese and your cookie dust. Mix together with your hands until you make a big ball of dough like madness. :)
On a cookie sheet covered with tin foil roll mixture into 1 inch balls.
Freeze balls on cookie sheet for 30 minutes. While balls are freezing milt almond bark on very low heat. Follow instructions on almond bark for correct times and etc.
I used my deep small sauce pan to milt bark and to dip my truffles, less dishes to do in the end.

I found that when dipping balls if you use a fork to pull truffle out of the milted bark it will not be as bulky on the truffle. I also used a toothpick to take off any excess chocolate while ball was still on fork after pulling it out. Then returned the chocolate covered oreo ball back onto tin foil covered cookie sheet to set.

When all done put into the fridge to set fully and to keep them fresh. They do have cream cheese and from my understanding cream cheese needs to be refrigerated at all times, I may be wrong but better safe than sorry. Just as warning, if you're anything like me, you will grab one every time you open the refrigerator. They are just that good and totally worth the time and effort to make.

If you would like more info or to try the recipes that I based off of I will link them below.

BAKERELLA

CHEF IN TRAINING






 

Happy New Year!

Happy 2012 to everyone! Yes, I know it's the 17th of January. New Year happened a while ago now but I've been a busy Momma!

We welcomed our new addition to the family on December 12, 2011

It's been one wild ride with this bundle of joy and his soon-to-be two year old brother. Nothing, but mom's sanity, has been damaged.
But! My one moment of zen was this morning when my toddler came up and asked for a paper towel and when given said towel ran over to where his sippy cup had spilled a bit of milk and cleaned it up. If nothing else is getting though at least cleaning up after himself is.

In baking projects this month I've tried out Oreo Truffles. They were so good they got eaten before I could take pictures but we will be making more and trying to perfect our chocolate dipping technique. Will take pictures and tell more later on.

This blog is going to be cut short. Nap time is officially over today with my toddler crying at his door.."mommy....mommy...mommy!"

Check out the Oreo Truffle recipe here:
http://www.bakerella.com/grocery-item-goes-gourmet/

First Etsy Sale

We have had our first sale on my etsy store. I recently put some items on clearance on my lil' shop and have gotten a bit more traffic along with my Christmas themed burp rags. I guess it takes getting your holiday gear up to get traffic, also getting labeling correct. I'm still trying to get the hang of it all. Putting the right kinds of tags on my products I think has been the hardest thing for me.

But yes we had our first sale this last Thursday. Someone actually bought something from my shop! It seems crazy for some reason but then again isn't that the goal to sell things? Not just have etsy be a site you check every time you get on your computer?
It was the most excited I've been in a while and I hope they enjoy the burp rags I made. I really enjoy the burp rags because of they're size. It seems that a lot of other burp cloth shops do a small version with chenille fabric on the bottom, though they are really awesome, I just don't see how this little thing will do you any good if you've got a projectile vomit baby. For the sake of mom's clothing is another reason I make the bigger burp rags.

Cooking this week has been a na-da...I'm in serious need to clean my kitchen yet again but no energy to do it. Which is bad when I cook every meal we have. Dishes just pile up more and more.
But today's project will be making some sandwich bread. We've eaten a lot of sandwiches lately and my bread supply is very tiny now. So, I found a recipe for Classic Sandwich Bread and I'll be trying that out today. Most of the bread recipes I've tried end up being too dry and crumbly. It's hard to eat a sandwich made out of bread that crumbles everywhere. I'll tell you how it goes next time I blog.

Happy November, everyone! Just that much closer to Thanksgiving! So excited, its the one holiday that's totally great because it's all about food.

Cookie Madness

Well here we are again, another Monday...This weekend was awesome though! Our good friends came over on Saturday and helped me clean my house to get more baby ready. It was so fast and nice to have the help. Now to just magically have my toddler know to keep everything clean and not throw his food on the floor, that would be a totally cool!
But this momma still over did on all the projects and ended up all swollen and unable to walk the next day. HAHA I skipped church! Yeah I know I'm going to hell. But anyway...I stayed in bed all day until my swollen legs and feet went down properly and by evening time I was in the mood for cookies.

Earlier in the week I had made peanut butter cookies from the JIF peanut butter cookie recipe you find on the back of the jar. I have yet to perfect it. They totally bombed and were not tasty at all. So yesterday I decided I wanted something I knew wouldn't go nasty on me and be the yummy in my tummy bliss I was looking for.

A big thank you as well to my husband who let me be lazy and sit in a chair so my legs wouldn't swell up again and tell him everything he needed to do in order to make these lovely cookies!

So without further ado, here is my version of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

1/2 cup of shortening
1 stick of butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 bag of chocolate chips
1 cup of chopped pecans

Preheat oven 375 degrees F.
Beat shortening, butter, sugars, vanilla, and eggs until creamy.
Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix altogether with mixer.
Then mix in chips and nuts by hand.
Cookie dough should be a dull, non-sticky texture. Not wet looking nor super sticky.
If you do get a wet looking texture add a bit more flour and mix it in with your hands
so you can judge the texture better.
Drop tablespoon sized balls of dough onto a very lightly sprayed cookie sheet. Bake for 9 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.

If you would like the original recipe I will link it here and up above.

If you have any ideas or requests on different recipes to try please don't hesitate to leave a comment below or email me!

Breakfast for dinner-

One of my fond memories growing up was always that every Saturday morning (well almost every Saturday) my Dad would make his old fashioned pancakes. This recipe has been in my family for quite awhile and I must say was the first recipe I made sure I had a copy of when I moved out on my own.

It is a tummy filler and budget friendly!  Nothing simpler than pancakes and eggs.
A great thing about this recipe as well is that it makes a big batch of pancakes. Great for big families or if just for a little family like ours, I like to freeze the leftovers and then we have homemade ready made for the next pancake and egg meal. Which is always an awesome time saver for days when you just don't feel like doing anything or just wanna sleep in.

Here is tonight's dinner adventure: breakfast for dinner!

Dad's Pancakes
 2 eggs
1/3 cup of veggie oil
1/4 cup of lemon juice
2 1/2 cups of milk
3 cups of flour
1 tablespoon of baking power
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt

You will have lumps, but you want lumpy! We always have fried eggs and I make homemade maple syrup as well. Make for a cozy full feeling. Comfort food at it's best, I think. So if you're looking for that old fashioned cozy feeling it's all right there.

*next cooking project: Apple Butter

Apple Pie

Betty Crocker possessed me and I got all the energy this pregnant lady could muster and made apple pie from scratch. The pie dough actually worked out for me for once. It was flaky and uber yum. But the apples did not quite do what I was plannings on. It all turned out pretty dry but very lovely to behold. At least my sweet and sour chicken (which I made from a sweet and sour pork recipe just pan fried chicken breast instead of deep fried pork) that I made for dinner that night was fabulous! Even if the was pie wasn't up to snuff.

There are still many adventures to be had in cooking and baking for me. I might know how to make it taste or look good but sometimes it doesn't turn out with both. Like my potato soup. If I had bacon or leeks it would have been not as boring as just potatoes and onions but what can you do when all you have is potatoes and onions?

Which brings me to my greatest depressive. The lack of money and ability to have on hand those awesome things that make a meal spectacular.  With being positive for gestational diabetes not only is more money going out for pre-natel cares, but now diabetes office visits, diabetes supplies, and now diabetes medication. Our paycheck is being eaten alive by medical woes that seem to just become worse. If only...And that is what is depressing most of all. If only...
But one happy thing, we did get Bubby payed off today. All of our hospital debt from Bubby is payed off. So there is $120 extra a month that is going to be going to diabetic stuff. :P
Only 10 weeks more of pregnancy, if we last that long that is.

Hopefully next paycheck we can get Bubby a pumpkin to carve for Halloween. We're still working on his costume. Trying to figure out how to make a sonic screwdriver out of things we already have. It's becoming quite hard to figure out what to do, but I'm sure we'll figure something out. We're still really excited for Halloween! I sure if Bubby knew what it was all about he'd be super excited too.

TARDIS Treat Bag

Our wee lil' Doctor has his TARDIS and is all (well almost) ready! Just need a sonic screwdriver now!

This weekend was TARDIS weekend. So, we got up this morning and ran over to my husband's parents house to use their printer to print out awesome police box iron-on slips then! we ate a $5 lil' cesars pizza(It was a high blood sugar kind of day.)...then!  We had naptime....
then! I cut out and sewed our awesome TARDIS together.

It turned out way better then I thought it would and my sewing machine was actually good today and did all that I wanted it to. Most often it will be a pain and mess up everything I'm trying to do.... It has nothing to do with me...it's the machine's fault....really...

If you're interested in the tutorial that I used I'll link it here. I did change it up and added things to it. We figured the add ons that we put in would help with the costume to make it have more of that nerdy awesome factor.