Cake Batter Truffles

I've made Red Velvet Cake truffles, Oreo truffles, and Peppermint Brownie truffles.  But these truffles deserve a standing ovation.  They are absolutely incredible.  Seriously, they taste like cake batter cookie dough, and who doesn't like cookie dough!  I found this recipe at Chef In Training.

I made a batch of these truffles for our Christmas Eve party.  We always have family over to hang out, eat dinner, sing Christmas songs with the kiddos, make cookies for Santa and food for his reindeer.  It was a fun night that lasted long into the am, so I bet the sugar helped us stay focused while putting together tons of toys for our girls after they went to bed.

Truffle Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup yellow cake mix
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
dash salt
4 T milk
2 T sprinkles

Truffle Coating:

16 oz. Vanilla flavored white almond bark, or white candy melts
Sprinkles for decoration

In a large stand mixer, beat together the softened butter and sugar.  Add the flour, cake mix, vanilla, salt, and milk and mix just until combined.  Add the sprinkles and gently stir.  Put bowl in refrigerator to chill dough for 15 minutes.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheet.  Place in freezer for 30 minutes. 

Melt almond bark or candy melts in the microwave.  Use a spoon to dip truffles into melted chocolate and place back on parchment lined cookie sheet.  Immediately top with sprinkles.  Store truffles in refrigerator in airtight container until ready to serve.  Enjoy!

Peppermint Brownie Truffles

Let me introduce you to my new favorite truffles...these little fudge peppermint brownie bites are dipped in milk or white chocolate and garnished with crushed peppermint candy canes.  It's not too late to add these sweet treats to your Christmas and New Year's dessert trays.  Or pack them up in a cute little tin box and surprise your neighbors and friends.

Peppermint Brownie Truffles

and

Oreo Truffles

Ingredients:

1 box brownie mix plus ingredients to make, per package instructions
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 cup chocolate fudge frosting
Wilton white or milk chocolate melts or Almond Bark
Crushed peppermint candy canes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray. 

Mix brownie batter per package instructions.  Pour into prepared pan and bake per package instructions.  Let cool completely.  Use a fork to break up the baked brownies.

In a large bowl, use a large spoon to mix together the brownies, peppermint extract, and frosting.  You can refrigerate the mixture to make forming the brownie balls easier.  Form brownie truffles (2 tsp) and place on wax paper lined sheet tray.  Place in freezer for at least 1 hour to set up.

Melt chocolate melts or almond bark in microwave safe bowl.  Dip each brownie truffle in melted chocolate, use a spoon to remove, place back on sheet tray, and garnish with crushed candy canes right away (chocolate firms up quickly on the frozen brownies).

Store in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator.  Enjoy!

Apricot Brown Sugar Honey Ham

This is the ham from our Thanksgiving dinner.  It was simple and fast, which is a bonus on a busy day like Thanksgiving.  The marinade can be made ahead of time and refrigerated until ready to use.  I can't wait to make another one on a busy weeknight.  This recipe was adapted from Ina Garten.

Ingredients:

10 lb fully cooked spiral cut smoked ham on the bone
4 garlic cloves
1 cup apricot jam
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 orange zested
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place the ham in the bottom of a heavy roasting pan (don't use the rack).

In a food processor, add all marinade ingredients and process until smooth.  Pour 1/2 of marinade over the ham and bake for 45 minutes.  Pour the remaining glaze over the ham, cover with foil, and cook another 15 minutes.  Serve hot or at room temperature.  Refrigerate leftovers.  Enjoy!

Tip:  You can use the ham bone and leftover ham in homemade pinto beans.

Happy Halloween! 2011

We are having our family over to eat some soup, either

Tex-Mex Chicken Chili

Mexican Chicken Tortilla

 or Chicken Enchilada Soup

 and some Chocolate Cupcakes decorated for Halloween

Then we will trick-or-treat, come home and sort through all the candy.  

Have a fun and safe Halloween!

Happy Easter!

We spent the afternoon decorating Easter eggs...oh, what fun!  Baskets are ready for the Easter Bunny and carrots are set out for snacks.  Have a wonderful Easter weekend with your family!

My girls did an excellent job!  We tried several different techniques this year, includuing dying, rubber bands, tissue paper, crayon shavings, crayon and dye, and stickers.

Madison's Basket

Taylor's Basket

Jordyn's Basket

Crayon shavings dropped onto hot eggs so it melts

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Eggs

I made these chocolate covered peanut butter eggs as a special sweet treat for Good Friday.  My girls had early release at school so it was the perfect afternoon for making these together.  I found this recipe over at EasyBaked.  My girls lost interest around the forming into egg shapes, but I continued on, and finally finished them.  I got to decorate them all fancy since my girls were playing in the other room.  They are excited about decorating their real Easter eggs tomorrow afternoon.  I dipped some in Wilton white chocolate, and the rest in Ghirardelli milk chocolate.  I'm partial to milk chocolate because they taste just like Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs, but both are rich and delicious!

Ingredients:

18 oz. jar Jif creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
chocolate coating of choice (white, dark, semi-sweet, milk)
1/2 tsp shortening (helps thin and silken the melted chocolate)
sprinkles

In a large glass bowl, stir together the peanut butter, softened butter, and vanilla extract.  Add the powdered sugar and stir well to combine.

Use an egg shaped tablespoon to shape your half eggs.  Place them flat side down on a foil linked baking sheet. 

I also used this egg holder to form some of them, but the tablespoon worked much better.  You can also use your hands to form an egg shape.

Put the peanut butter eggs in the freezer for 1 hour to set up.  When they are really firm, you can melt your chocolate.  I placed the chips in a microwave safe bowl, and turned on high power in 30 second increments until melted.  Stir in the 1/2 tsp vegetable shortening.  

Work quickly to coat the tops of the eggs.  I tried several ways of doing this, and I found a fast and not so messy way.  Balance a peanut butter egg on the flat side of a butter knife, hold over the chocolate bowl, and spoon melted chocolate over top.  Tap knife on side of bowl to remove excess.  Place back on foil lined baking sheet by using another butter knife to help you slide it off.  Decorate with sprinkles, if using.  If you are going to decorate with colored white chocolate, wait for the milk chocolate to harden first.

These are best stored in the refrigerator as they melt easily, especially if using milk chocolate.  Enjoy!  Happy Easter!

Super Bowl Party

I just wanted to share some of the tasty food from our Super Bowl party.  My girls did an amazing job decorating our home with homemade posters for both teams.  They even made a sign for each team, and asked for everybody to sign their name to show which team they wanted to win.  It was a split decision, so there was plenty of playful conversation going on during the day.  Now if our Dallas Cowboys could show up for another Super Bowl, that would be fabulous! 

Green Bay Packers Vanilla Cupcakes

Kid Friendly Snack Table

Triple Chocolate Football Brownies

Double Chocolate Heart Brownies

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dip - from Brown Eyed Baker

Fruit Platter with Green Bay Packers Fruit Dip

I prepared the filling for these Jalapeno Egg Rolls, but ran out of time to assemble them..  There was already way too much food to be eaten, so they got scratched from the menu! 

Jalepeno Popper Egg Rolls

Also on the Super Bowl menu (not pictured):

Spinach Dip with French Bread Dippers

Rotel Dip and Tortilla Chips

Sun dried Tomato and Roasted Pepper Guacamole - prepared by Matty Jones

Fresh and Tasty Guacamole - prepared by Matty Jones

Steak and Chicken Fajitas - prepared by Matty Jones

Spanish Rice - prepared by Molly

Jalapeno Pinto Beans

Now, I need to rest up until next Football season!

Valentine Sweetheart Cupcakes

Here are some very pretty Valentine cupcakes!  I found the google image that was posted from All Recipes and just had to go see how to make these colorful cupcakes.  They start off with a simple cake batter, which is then divided up and dyed for the separate layers. 

 I used my favorite Vanilla Cupcake and Buttercream recipe.  You could also simply use a white or yellow cake mix and canned frosting.  But if you have the time, I would recommend trying out my cupcake recipe...it's the bomb!!!

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cupcake tins with paper liners.  Make the cupcake batter per instructions.  Fill the cupcake liners 1/3 of the way full with plain white or vanilla batter.  Place 1/3 of the remaining batter in a bowl and dye pink.  Dye the remaining 2/3 batter with red dye.  Place both the pink and red batter in separate piping bags fitted with a small round tip.  Pipe about 2 Tablespoons of the red batter into the middle of each white cupcake.  Pipe about 1 Tablespoon of pink batter into the middle of the red batter. 

Note:  I also piped a couple of cupcakes with pink on the outside circle, and red in the middle (pictured on the right cupcake above).  They both turned out really cute! 

TIP:  You can pipe any colors to match a theme or holiday, i.e. red/blue for July 4th, red/green for Christmas, etc. and match the frosting and decorations.

For our Super Bowl party this weekend, I'm going to make some with black/gold for the Pittsburgh Steelers, AND some with green/yellow for the Green Bay Packers.  That way, everybody can choose their team's cupcake to enjoy!

Bake per instructions of cupcake recipe.  Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 3 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Prepare your frosting and dye pink or red.  Pipe onto the cooled cupcakes and decorate with sprinkles, sanding sugar, candies, or jimmies.  Enjoy!

Linked up at:

Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helen's Country Cottage

Cupcake Tuesday at Hoosier Homemade

Recipe Swap Thursday at Prairie Story

Tip Day Thursday at Around My Family Table

Sweets For Saturday at Sweet As Sugar Cookies

Happy New Year 2011!!!

From Our Home To Yours...

Madison made this sign for our family's New Year party...

Thank you for all your support this year and for following me on my journey of food and family fun.  Hope you all have a very Happy New Year with your family and friends.

Rhondi, aka "Big Mama"

Christmas Chocolate Gourmet Pretzels

I made these chocolate covered pretzel rods for my daughter's teachers at school.  You can get creative with these.  Have you ever seen how much these gourmet pretzels sell for?  Well let me just tell you, they are about $35 for half a dozen.  That's right, you only get 6 pretzels.  Crazy!  You can use a good quality chocolate or just use chocolate bark, which is readily available in the grocery stores this time of year.

All you need to make these are:

1 package pretzel rods
chocolate bark
various toppings - I used crushed candy canes, crushed Heath bars, Christmas sprinkles

Other good toppings are mini M&M's, mini chocolate chips (any flavor), drizzle of chocolate in contrasting color, crushed salted peanuts.

Melt the chocolate and let it cool for a few minutes so it will stick to the pretzel better.  Work in small batches of chocolate as it dries quickly.  You can either put your coatings on parchment paper and roll the chocolate pretzel in it, or you can sprinkle it onto the pretzel.  Lay the pretzels on a parchment lined cookie sheet until chocolate is set.  Package them up pretty and share them with your family and friends.  Enjoy!  

Red Velvet Cake Truffles

At first glance, these look like the Christmas Oreo Truffles I recently made, but the inside is filled with moist red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting.

I found this recipe over at Bakerella while searching for some treats to make for some very special people at my daughters' school.  Lots of people love red velvet cake, and the red is so festive for this time of year.  These are so easy to make, but are a bit time consuming, so be prepared to spend some time in the kitchen.  Grab all your helpers in the house to roll the cake into balls.  This makes about 50 truffles, so there's plenty to share with the special people in your life.

Ingredients:

1 Box Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake Mix
1 1/4 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tub cream cheese frosting
1 package white chocolate bark
1 package milk chocolate bark
sprinkles
chocolate chips for decorating

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray and line a 13x9 cake pan with parchment paper.

In a stand mixer, add the cake mix, water, vegetable oil, and eggs and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.  Pour into the cake pan and bake for 35-38 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool completely.  It will cool even faster if you invert it over onto a large cutting board and break it apart with your hands after it's cool enough to handle.

When the cake has cooled completely, add it to a large bowl and break up into small pieces.  Add the cream cheese frosting and stir well to combine.  Put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. 

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Roll cake mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet.  Continue on...and on...and on...until all the cake has been rolled.  Put them into the freezer for 1 hour to chill well.

Remove one of the cookie sheets from the freezer.  Leave the other one in there for now.  Melt half of the chocolate bark at a time in a microwave proof glass bowl and work in small batches.  Use a spoon to help you dunk it in the chocolate and tap off the excess.  Lay back on the cookie sheet, using a toothpick to help you push it off the spoon.  Decorate immediately with sprinkles (if using) because the chocolate coating dries very quickly.  Continue on until they have all been coated and decorated.  You can also melt some chocolate chips and use a plastic baggie with the tip cut to drizzle on some pretty chocolate decorations.

Have fun and enjoy! 

Christmas Oreo Truffles

On Thanksgiving afternoon, our neighbors brought over a red glittery box full of white and milk chocolate covered goodies.  My daughters immediately wanted to dive into the white chocolate ones and I went for the milk chocolate.  So you probably guessed by now that one of them were Oreo Truffles...white chocolate.  The others were Peanut Butter Truffles, which I plan on making next week.  They were both delicious! 

After doing some research, I found these truffles everywhere on the internet.  It's always the same recipe, so it must be tried and true.  Sure enough, it tastes just like the ones our neighbors made.  They are so good and addictive!  I actually ended up making some milk chocolate covered Oreo truffles too since my FIL will be here tomorrow and he prefers milk chocolate.  I just had to try one and they were really tasty!

Did you know that Nabisco makes Holiday Oreos.  Seriously, they really do!  They have cute little wintery pictures and red creme filling.  See...

Ingredients:

1 package Oreo cookies
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1 package white chocolate bark
Christmas sprinkles or other decorations

Put all the Oreos in a food processor and grind into a fine powder.  Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the cream cheese.  Mix thoroughly.  Shape into 1 inch balls.  We were able to make 30.  Place on a wax paper lined baking sheet.  Place in the freezer for 1 hour to firm up.

Melt the chocolate according to the instructions.  I used the microwave and heated it for 45 seconds, stirred, then 15 second intervals until melted.

Dip each Oreo ball into the melted chocolate.  Use a spoon to roll it around on all sides.  Remove from the bowl using a fork and tap the fork on the edge of the bowl to let the extra chocolate drip back into the bowl.  Place back on the wax paper lined baking sheet and decorate with sprinkles, as the chocolate dries quickly.  You can also wait until the white chocolate dries and drizzle some milk chocolate over the tops.  These were my favorite!

Refrigerate until ready to serve since they have cream cheese in them.  Now go share some with your neighbors and friends.  Enjoy!

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was a success!  Our family and friends joined us for a day full of fun, food, and Dallas Cowboys football. I love my family! Here's what we did...

The week before, my girls made some salt dough Christmas tree ornaments to give to our family and friends on Thanksgiving day. 

The menu was finalized, and only one item didn't make it to the table...the caramel apple pie.  We already had 3 desserts, which was plenty for 12 people.  

Thanksgiving Dinner 2010

Appetizers

Spinach Dip with Tortilla Chips

Chilled Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce

Cheese/Salami/Cracker Platter

Fruit Tray with Thanksgiving Fruit Dip

Dinner

Bill’s Famous Deep Fried Turkey

Honey Baked Spiral Ham

Country Dressing

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Turkey Gravy

Macaroni and Cheese

Green Bean Casserole

Vegetable & Tomato Tian

Sweet Potato Casserole

Cranberry Sauce

Dinner Rolls

Desserts

Caramel Apple Pie

Coconut Cream Pie

Maple Pecan Pie

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Caramel Sauce

Fresh Whipped Cream And/Or Vanilla Ice Cream

 

The night before Thanksgiving, my oldest daughter helped me make all this good stuff:

Cranberry Mandarin Orange Sauce

Coconut Cream Pie

Maple Pecan Pie

Pumpkin Cheesecake (topped with caramel sauce later)

The dinner rolls were also prepared and put in the fridge to rise overnight. 

The tables were set

The Thanksgiving wreath I made earlier that day was on the front door to welcome our family and friends

And it's finally time for some shut eye before finishing up in the morning! ZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZzzzzzz

I woke up bright and early to finish preparing the rest of the side dishes for our big dinner.  The ladies in the family set up all the appetizers on the kitchen table. 

My girls were hungry and thirsty...they dug right in

The girls patiently waited at the front door for our family to arrive

Family arrived...

Bill fried up our turkey

Just look at this big moist Turkey with crispy skin!

While the ladies helped me finish up the rest of the meal. 

The girls are ready to eat

The food's hot and ready...amazingly so!

Bill's Fried Turkey

Honey Glazed Ham

Country Dressing

Mom's Cheesy Green Bean Casserole

Sweet Potato Casserole

Vegetable and Tomato Tian

Garlic Mashed Potatoes & Turkey Gravy

Bill's Pea Salad

After the big Turkey dinner, we were all stuffed. It was time to relax and enjoy some family fun time. Our girls put on a concert for us. Our Taylor wants to be the next Taylor Swift...

and Jordyn will be her backup musician...

while Madison watches with pride...

 

I'm so thankful for my family! I love them all so much!