Oreo Truffle Tease

On Sunday night, I turned my little kitchen into a sugary chocolate zone and made the always fun, always easy, always sticky and slimy Oreo Truffles.  You know 'em - the little round treats made of three ingredients that will make just about anyone's day: cream cheese, oreos, and Baker's chocolate squares.  I got artsy, my husband got a little worried, but in the end my truffle photo shoot turned out well.  

You might need a nice cup of coffee to go with this post - get ready to eat your computer screen!

Oreo Truffles:

1 8 oz. package of softened Philadelphia Cream Cheese

2 pkgs Baker's semi-sweet chocolate squares (16 squares total)

1 pkg  Oreo cookies

assorted sprinkles and fun things :)

Toss all cookies but 9 into blender; chop into a fine oreo "dust".

Pour into large mixing bowl, mix together with softened cream cheese.

Continue to stir/fold/mix until oreo and cream cheese are throughly blended.

Melt chocolate squares in microwave, a few seconds at a time - take out between intervals, stir, replace in microwave.  Continue doing this until chocolate is completely smooth, but be careful not to "cook" it!

Roll oreo/cream cheese mixture into 1" balls and coat with melted chocolate.  Place on wax paper. Do a few at a time, decorate.

Refridgerate.  (Makes 3-4 dozen.)

*Try to wait at least a couple of hours before devouring all of them - they're way better cold.

Oh, and don't forget to clean up (why do i enjoy running soapy water through my blender?):

Ok, you got me.  I just wanted to show off my awesome blender and lime green toaster!

Fancy Jelly-Filled Thumbprint Cookies (thank you, may I have another?)

Today, I'm sharing my favorite Christmas cookie ever. Like, forever ever. Forever and ever and ever.  They're beautifully sweet, light and buttery, bite-sized treats sent straight from cookie heaven.  My mom was generous enough to share this recipe with me, even though she knows it's one of the reasons I come home for Christmas every year! I enjoy making and giving these cuties. They are perfect for cookie swaps, and look gorgeous resting on a bright platter!



Fancy Jelly-Filled Thumbprint Cookies

Cookie Dough/filling:
3/4 C. sugar

3/4 C. butter (softened)
2 tsp. grated orange peel
1  3oz. block cream cheese (not the full size (8 oz.) package)
1 egg
2 1/4 C.  All-purpose flour
3/4 tsp.  baking powder
1/2 C. seedless red raspberry preserves (or seedless jelly/preserves flavor of your choice)

Glaze
1/2 C. white chocolate chips (melted)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat cheese, sugar, and butter together; add egg and orange peel, blend.  Add dry ingredients; blend well.

Cool cookie dough in refridgerator for easier handling.

Shape into 1" balls and place 2" apart on cookie sheet.
Using the rounded end of a wooden spoon handle, gently press a "hole" into each ball, being careful not to poke all the way through to the surface of the sheet.

Fill "holes" with 1/4 tsp. preserves

Bake 11 to 13 minutes or until firm to touch.Melt white chocolate chips; drizzle glaze over cooled cookies.

Makes 2-3 dozen. Enjoy!

My childhood obsessions

Back in the early 90's, my cute little french braided, teased-banged, rosy cheeked, purple stirrup pant-wearing self was obsessed with the following stuff:

Lisa Frank (not surprising):

My favorite was Panda Painter, I was an "official member" (whatever that meant) of the Lisa Frank Club, and I totally wish I still had some Lisa Frank stationery now! I can still taste the lemon fruit dip that was a featured recipe in an issue of the Lisa Frank newsletter (confectionary sugar, lemon juice, plain yogurt, i made it every day!) I remember the $50 rainbow-striped sweater that I obsessed over when LF came out with a clothing line. Ohhh... Lisa Frank. How I miss you!

Twinkies (a little strange for me, but I hadn't made it into the Chocolate phase yet):

I couldn't stop eating these things!  It all came to an abrupt end, though, when the asbestos-laced Twinkie recall hit the news.  That's when I first learned how inconvenient food recalls can be!

Beavis & Butthead (strange obsession for a cute little girl with french braided hair):

I watched the show religiously. "Buuut it's a cartooooon!" I would say to my friends' parents, who disapproved of the show and were probably terrified of me, the straight A student who seemed like the perfect influence but really destroyed their childrens' lives by introducing them to the ultra-vulgar animated series.  My mom  let me watch it, but didn't really like it at all - she disliked it enough to make me feel guilty about what I was doing. Sometimes I would sneak off to grandma's house to watch it, so mom wouldn't have to hear the never-ended "uhhh huh huh huh"'s and all of the craps, asses, bungholes, and cornholios.  Sidenote: this past summer, I finally sold my copy of "Beavis and Butthead Do America" at a yardsale I had back in my hometown.  One of my old friends stopped by, saw it on sale for $2, and almost cried - and died.  She couldn't believe I was parting with it! Heh Heh-Heh

Meatloaf (the singer, not the food - and this is the strangest obsession of all!)
"I Would Do Anything For Love" was my favorite song in 4th grade.  My dad was a Meatloaf fan, I thought my dad was cool, so I became a Meatloaf fan, too.  I still know all of the lyrics to every track on the Bat Out of Hell II album.  I'll never forget the MTV Top 20 Video Countdown back in those days - it was always a battle between Dr. Dre's "Let Me Ride", Salt-n-Pepa's "Shoop", Aerosmith's "Crazy", and Meatloaf's 7 minute long video, for the #1 spot.  Man, whatever happened to music videos actually being aired on MTV?




A special thanks to the amazing Mama Kat for her awesome weekly writing prompts! Head over to Mama Kat's Losin it to get rid of writer's block! She is every blogger's knight in shining polka dots!

Dear Chocolate

It's Wednesday!  Which means... it's time for some Mama Kat Writing Prompts! I've selected the following topic from Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop: 

"Write a letter to whatever is stopping you from losing the extra weight you'd like to lose."

After crap-tons of hard work, I'm in pretty good shape - but the one thing that has always kept me a little "soft" is sugary treats.  And my favorite sugary treat is (you probably guessed it): chocolate. 

Dear Chocolate:
     You have a special place in my tummy... that little pouch I've had underneath my belly button nearly my entire life is for you and only you. 
     Chocolate, you are what's been keeping me from having the perfect stomach for years.  You in your many forms... completely destroying any progress I make at the gym.  I try to sweat all of you out but I take you back at the end of the day - most recently in the form of those new Cheerios or lovely little Dove pieces.  
     I fell in love with you as I grew in mom's womb - her cravings of chocolate mini donuts with chocolate milk sealed my fate.  I'm just going to have to accept that your extra baggage is never going away.  I have to have you - loving you is dangerous, but I can't resist your m&ms, your Applebees Triple Chocolate Meltdown, your Ben & Jerry's Fudge Brownie Ice Cream, your Starbucks Iced Mochas... you make life so much better.  I will continue to try and get rid of you each day that I spend with the Arc Trainer and the Elliptical Machine, but I know that we'll keep crawling back to each other no matter what happens.  One thing is for sure - you will always have a special place in my chocolate pouch.