Little Girl's Christmas

So we went to the Christmas Tree Shop today to try to find some cute stocking stuffers, but Phoebe found something for her room that I couldn't refuse...

It's a 32inch pink christmas tree. It was 12 bucks and came with the pink beaded garland, a TON of pink ornaments and even the little pink star tree topper. She's in heaven!! As you can see, she found all of her pink toys and placed them underneath, because it's their "new home". hehehe

Little Girl

Muffin Tin - Christmas Theme

I've been so stressed lately, trying to get everything done. Unfortunately, then I try to conquer it all at once and never actually make any head way. The other day I popped over to Her Cup Overfloweth and saw the Muffin Tin Challenge of the week... Christmas! We do muffin tins all of the time in our house, but haven't participated lately due to time or lack of creativity, but I was up for this one! I put the gate up to keep the kids on one side of the house and I told them I was making a special lunch. They didn't try bothering me once!! Gonna use that again... lol!

Anyway, this is what I came up with:

Ham cut into stars, grape "ornaments", carrots (reindeer food)

tree and star marshmallows, snowmen, cinnamon sugar gingerbread man waffles

Oh well, it was fun, they loved it and I actually settled down a little. Phew... for a minute anyway! Back to the run around today. Wish me luck!

Cherry Garcia Truffles...

From back to front:

Cookie Dough Truffles in milk chocolate coating

Carrot Cake Truffles in white chocolate coating

Homemade Marshmallows dipped in milk chocolate and rolled in crushed graham crackers

Cherry Garcia Truffles in dark chocolate coating

So I found that I love making truffles. They are so easy and I'm starting to get pretty good at it! Last year I made cookie dough truffles from a recipe that I got from Taste of Home magazine. It was so yummy and a serious hit! This year I decided that although it was pretty amazing, I needed to make it even better.

I decided that I love Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia Ice Cream and seeing as though it has been in the top 10 since it came out, a lot of other people must really like it too, right? Well, I took the perfect cookie truffle recipe and added some dried cherries and cherry flavoring, dunked them in dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate and OMG... it was awesome!!!

Here is the recipe:

Cherry Garcia Truffles

1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
1-1/2 pounds dark chocolate candy coating, chopped
5-7 drops of cherry flavoring (not extract)

In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Gradually add flour, alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Stir in the chocolate chips. Shape into 1-in. balls; place on waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Loosely cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until firm. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt candy coating; stir until smooth. Dip balls in coating, allowing excess to drip off; place on waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes. If desired, re-melt remaining candy coating and drizzle over candies. Store in the refrigerator.

Note: I used a candy making kit to melt the chocolate so I didn't have to worry about it hardening, but last year I used a crockpot on high to melt and then put it on low to dip. This allowed me to dip all of the truffles without having to remelt the chocolate.

Almost Done...

So I made it through the Holiday Open House!! We had so much food and not so many people. I don't know what happened. I think it was a big flaw in our invitation send outs. Chef Hubby sent some invites inside with Christmas cards that he sent out, BUT then when I went to send out the rest, he wasn't sure exactly who he had invited with the Christmas cards - ugh!! So anyway, we will have a new system in place to remedy this problem prior to next years event!

Come back soon though to see all of the stuff we made!! I will have lots of recipes and pics of the items. Everything was so yummy!! I was going to do it today, but I've wanted to eat it all so I've been avoiding it today. I hope that I have more will power tomorrow! Wish me luck... you have no idea how much stuff I am talking about. Chef Hubby even made a homemade (edible AND palatable) Fruit Cake. He used dried fruits instead of candied and to keep it super moist used a spray bottle filled with Brandy to mist it after it cooled. mmmm

OK... gotta go to sleep so that I don't attack the goodies - AAAaahhhh!!

Craving Chocolate??

OK, so I decided to make a recipe my mom used to make many years ago. If you have a chocolate craving, this is the perfect fix! It's one of those pies that say to divide it into 16 pieces, and trust me, you can. It's that chocolatey!!

Chocolate Delite Pie - No Bake

2 pkg Baker’s Sweet Chocolate
1 8oz pkg cream cheese
1 8oz cool whip
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
½ cup milk
1 Chocolate pie crust

Put aside 3 squares of chocolate. Melt remaining chocolate with ¼ cup of milk. Beat in cream cheese, granulated sugar and remaining milk. Fold in cool whip and pour mixture into pie crust.

Shave the remaining chocolate squares over the top. Freeze for at least 1.5 hr. Serve.

I took this one out of the freezer to get a pic, so don't mind the little crystals... lol! It's perfect after about 10 minutes at room temperature... mmm mmm

If you end up trying it, let me know what you think!!

Holiday Cooking...

So I'm still cooking for the holiday swap, more recipes to come soon - I promise!! I'm so behind on everything right now though!! I have to pull it together! Wish me luck, but in the meantime, feel free to check out Talk About Tuesday over at the Lazy Organizer today. It's pretty cool some of the things people come up with; maybe you even have something to add!