mint oreo truffles

I have finally discovered Picnik.  I know, I have been under yet another rock.  This was a necessity in order to fix the hideous background color of my kids’ Christmas picture.  Long story.  But thankfully, our babysitter is much more savvy than I in this department and showed me how to make the alteration.  Now I have seen the light and am pretty excited to doll up my pictures for the blog.  I also have my digital camera back, which means suddenly, my pictures will (hopefully) look much better.

Now, to the business at hand.  Mint Oreo Truffles.  I was not going to make these this year, but they kept popping up everywhere.  I decided that the ingredients must actually go together better than it seems and gave them a spin.  I am glad I did.  They are really easy, crazy good, only have three ingredients and require zero baking.  Brilliant.

Mint Oreo Truffles (loosely based on AllRecipes version)

1 package               Mint Oreos

1 (8 oz) package  softened cream cheese

1 small bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

*Crush Oreos and mix with softened cream cheese.  Place in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to chill.

*Roll cookie mixture into bite-sized balls and place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.  Place into the freezer for 20 minutes.

* Place chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 2 minutes (or until melted) and stir.  Remove cookies from freezer and dip into chocolate, placing them on a cooling rack to set.

**All of the chilling steps can probably be skipped, but I found that they made things very easy and I had to make these in steps anyway.**

These are dangerous, people.  Enjoy.

I am still planning on making those sugar cookies, but it will be a last-minute project due to our schedule this week.  Hope you are enjoying the season and thanks for stopping by!

 

cranberry coffee cake

Thanksgiving may be over, but that doesn’t mean cranberries need to be left behind until next year.  I love cranberries and think that they make a wonderful addition to Christmas tables as well.

My mom made this coffee cake when I was a kid and my husband and I have had it for every Thanksgiving breakfast since we have been married.  I took one to work once and received glowing reviews and once made it for my husband to take to school and one of his colleagues ate half of it all by himself.

I do not know where this recipe originated… as usual.  What I can tell you is that it is really, really good.

 

Cranberry Coffee Cake

Cake:

1/4 lb.      butter

1 c.            sugar

2                eggs

1 t.             baking soda

2 c.            flour

1/2 t           salt

1 c.             sour cream

1 t.              vanilla

1 can         whole cranberry sauce (I actually use about 1 1/2 cans, but I really like cranberries!)

1/2 c.         chopped walnuts

Sauce:

3/4 c.        confectioner’s sugar

1 T.             water

1/2 t.          almond extract

* Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated.  In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients.  Alternate adding dry ingredients and sour cream to the butter mixture.  Add vanilla and nuts.

*Pour into a greased 8″ or 9″ tube pan (I use a Bundt pan), layering 1/2 cake mixture, then cranberry sauce, then the rest of the cake mixture.

*Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.

*Cool 5-10 minutes, loosen with a knife and remove from pan and let cool.  Mix sauce and drizzle over the top prior to serving.

 

featured on the girl who ate everything!

Ohmygosh.  I am dying right now.  I was minding my own business… flipping through my Google reader when I came across MY recipe for Peanut Butter Popcorn posted on The Girl Who Ate Everything!   Holy cow.

If you have read this blog for any period of time, you know how I feel about The Girl’s site.  Love.  It is my cookbook.

This is a high honor and I am on cloud nine.

If you are visiting for the first time today, welcome!  Please say hello and look around  bit.  I’d be honored if you subscribe as well.   And try the popcorn… it’s super yummy.

(… and my Mom just told me that this was originally a Better Homes and Gardens recipe… to give proper credit.)

 

peanut butter popcorn

 

When I first tell people about this recipe, I think they imagine plain popcorn smeared with peanut butter.  While I am not doubting that that would be a nice combination, this recipe is so much better than that.  This is not caramel corn… it is not popcorn with peanut butter on it.  The coating is of a consistency that I cannot quite describe.  It’s warm, smushy, a bit chewy and completely wonderful.

My first memories of peanut butter popcorn are as a young child.  My Mom would make it every once in a great while.  I remember her putting it out in the garage on the hood of the car to cool once.  We had popcorn a ton when I was a kid… the sound of the hot air popper makes me all warm and fuzzy… but those special occasions of peanut butter popcorn stand out.

My High School BFF, Heather, and I (holla, Feesh!), would make this and eat it until we were sick to our stomachs.  Then we would watch a little SNL (circa Wayne’s World and Dennis Miller) or Heathers, imagine ourselves married to Christian Slater and then eat some more, finally falling into a sugar coma.  Good times.

I have never heard of someone eating this and not loving it, except for my sister-in-laws’ friends in Australia.  Apparently, Australia has unusual peanut butter and no corn syrup, so as much as I love Aussies, their votes don’t count in this instance.

 

Peanut Butter Popcorn

1/2 c.           unpopped popcorn

1 1/2 c.        peanuts (I prefer dry-roasted peanuts… always, but esp. in this recipe.  If you don’t have them, make it without and it will be fine)

1c.                 sugar

1/2c.             honey

1/2c.             corn syrup

1c.                 peanut butter

1t.                  vanilla

* Pop corn into a 9X13″ pan.  Remove any unpopped kernels, stir in peanuts and keep warm in a 250 degree oven.

* In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar, honey and corn syrup.  Bring mixture to boiling, continue boiling for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.   (Please do not go crazy with the boiling.  You will end up with a rock-hard mess.  And remember that boiling sugar is squirrelly and keep an eye on it)

*Stir in peanut butter and vanilla.  Immediately pour over popcorn and stir to coat.

Try not to burn the daylights out of your fingers as you dive in.  ( :

 

homemade laundry detergent recipe

I posted about making my own detergent here, but did not provide the recipe that I used.  Silly me.  There are many variations on this recipe and if you simply Google it, you will find a ton.  Mine actually came from a post on my number 1 favorite site, Hip2Save during You in Bloom month.  After using this detergent for quite a few loads of laundry, I can say that I really do like it.

There are powder versions of this is that is what you prefer to use, but I will be providing the recipe for the liquid version only since it is the only one I have tried.  In order to make this, you will be purchasing a lot more Borax and Washing Soda than you need, but since they are great laundry additives anyway, they will likely get used.  And surely they store well, so they will be there when you are ready for your next batch!  The ingredients cost me about $7.00 total… I would say that the cost is easily under $2.oo per batch of detergent.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap

High efficiency machines use 1/8 cup per load, therefore, one batch does about 640 loads.
Top load machines use 3/4 cup per load, so one batch does about 180 loads.

1-bar Fels-Naptha soap (I found mine at Kroger)
1 cup Borax (I bought mine at Target, but I think this is pretty easy to find)
1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (I finally found this at Meijer)
Hot tap water
5 gallon bucket with lid
2 gallon plastic beverage dispenser (optional)
Light colored essential oils (optional)

Grate bar of soap with a cheese grater. Fill the 5 gallon bucket 1/2 full with hot tap water. Melt the grated soap slowly over med-low heat in a large saucepan with 2.5 cups of water. Once the soap is completely melted, add this to the water in the five gallon bucket. Now add the Borax and the Super Washing Soda and stir. Now top the bucket off with more hot tap water. Loosely put the lid on the bucket and leave over night to thicken.

Fill dispenser half full with soap and top off with water.
You can add 15 – 20 drops of essential oils to this if you like. (Lavender, Lemon, Peppermint, etc.)

It is essential that it be shaken up a bit before each use to ensure that you are using detergent and not just slightly soapy water.  This recipe will make 10 gallons of detergent, but the most you will be storing at a time is just over 5 gallons as you add 50% water each time you fill your desired dispenser.  Again, I used a 2-gallon beverage dispenser (shown in original post) and it works really well.  It is one way to ensure that I have shaken the detergent enough because it will not dispense properly if it is too gloppy.  I did not use the essential oils.  Without them, the detergent smells like the Fels-Naptha soap, but a bit milder.

 

simple blankets

I threw these together last summer so that the kids had something light to cover up with in the car on long road trips and on summer nights when they needed just a little something to keep the breezes off.  They were super easy.  I purchased a yard or so of flannel and some quilt binding in complimentary colors… oh, and thread. ( :  Since the binding is already folded into quarters, I just pinned it around the edges of flannel after it was washed and squared off, then sewed it on.  It is not the way binding is supposed to be sewn on, but the kids don’t care, I really don’t care, and it was super fast — which is what I needed it to be the night before leaving town!