Food Friday-Oreo Truffles

Happy weekend dear readers! We had some NASTY storms come through our area last night, the ones that tore through KY and IN, but thankfully we only got rain in our county. Our daffodils and camelia bushes liked it and my avocado plant (Anna has named it Horace) is growing like crazy. I hope every one of you all who read this is safe and did not see any damage. I bought Tim a weather radio for Father's Day last year and it is a great investment.

I went to a mom's group lunch on Wednesday and I made Oreo Truffle balls. They were fantastic! Only 3 ingredients! That's my kind of recipe. I have a Wilton chocolate melter and I love using it. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients
•about 2/3rds of a package of Birthday Cake Oreos (1 1/2c crumbled)
•4oz Fluffy White Frosting
•white chocolate bark


Directions
1.Crumble Oreo cookies in food processor.
2.Add in frosting and combine.
3.Scoop into 2t balls and let set up in fridge for just a bit.
4.Melt chocolate bark and coat truffles (To make the chocolate smooth and easier to work with, add maybe a teaspoon of shortening to the chocolate and stir well).
5.Return to fridge to set.

YUMMY! These made 17 truffles.

I hope you all have a great weekend. We get to see one of my best friends since high school today and her 5 month old! Can't wait to meet him!

Until next time,
Melissa

S'Mores Cups

Happy Friday everyone! I have been sucked in to that wonderful timewaster website Pinterest. Such great recipes and ideas are pinned over there. I have many inspirations for teacher gifts thanks to Pinterest.

I found this recipe for S'Mores Cups on there. A rundown of the recipe with much better photos can be found on Texas Cottage. Here's the short version:

7 whole graham crackers (1 cup finely crushed)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted
4 bars (1.55 oz each) milk chocolate candy, divided
12 large marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place graham crackers into a large resealable plastic bag. Finely crush into crumbs. Combine graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar, and butter in a small bowl.

Place 1 tablespoon of crumb mixture in each cup of a mini muffin pan. Press crumbs to form shallow cups. Bake 4-5 minutes or until edges are bubbling. Meanwhile, break two of the candy bars into rectangles. Remove pan from oven; place one rectangle into each cup. Cut marshmallows in half crosswise using shears dipped in cold water. Place one marshmallow half, cut-side down, into each cup. Return to oven 1-2 minutes or until marshmallows are slightly softened. Remove pans from oven to cooling rack; cool 15 minutes. Carefully remove cups from pan. Cool completely.


NOTE: I decided not to dip these in chocolate but here's the instructions for that.
Break remaining candy bars and place in small microwavable bowl. Microwave on high 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring every 20 seconds. Dip the top of each marshmallow in melted chocolate. Turn top-side up and let stand 40 to 60 minutes or until set. Makes 24 cups (I got 18).

Have a fantastic weekend everybody! We're planning on going to the Autsim Speaks Walk at the Charlotte Motor Speedway tomorrow. A full report will follow!

XOXO,
Melissa

Father's Day

Happy Monday everybody! I hope you all had a nice restful weekend. Happy (belated) Father's Day to all the dads out there. I'd like to give a shout-out to my dad, my husband (pictured at left during our beach vacation last summer), and my father in law for being such awesome dads! We love you! We celebrated by making breakfast at home and the kids and I ate liver mush for the first time. It wasn't too bad, Tim fried it crispy and we ate it with biscuits. Camden couldn't get enough of it! Then Tim wanted to go to the flea market to look for some landscaping tools so off we went. The kids liked looking at the chickens and bunnies, I enjoyed people watching. We meandered around the small towns nearby and ate lunch with my in-laws and celebrated Father's Day with them. My dad was out of town so I gave him a call and wished him a happy Father's Day and also a happy birthday. It was a great day all around.

Speaking of my dad, he is a retired pastor so I basically grew up in the Baptist church and was there every time the doors were opened so it seemed. One of the highlights of the year was the Sunday night on Father's Day when the mens missions group (the Brotherhood for all you Baptists) would host a men's cake baking contest complete with judging by the WMU and prizes. I liked the cakes that flopped the best! I remember one cake that was a carrot cake and the man had stuck a big carrot right in the center of the cake. Another year a man baked a cake in his daughter's Easy Bake Oven and placed it on a big cake stand with a sign that said "Ooops, I think I ate too much batter!"

Dad would always bake a sour cream coconut cake the day before and it was SO GOOD by the time we ate it on Sunday night. He won Best Cake a few times with this entry.

***Cake***
3 large eggs
1 carton (8 ounce size) sour cream
1/3 cup water
1 can (8 1/2 ounce size) cream of coconut
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 box (18 1/4 ounce size) white cake mix

***Coconut-Cream Cheese Frosting***
1 package (8 ounce size) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 package (16 ounce size) powdered sugar -- sifted
1 package (7 ounce size) coconut flakes

PREPARATION:
Beat eggs at high speed with an electric mixer 2 minutes. Add sour cream, 1/3 cup water, and next 2 ingredients, beating well after each addition. Add cake mix, beating at low speed just until blended. Beat at high speed 2 minutes. Pour batter into a greased and floured 9x13" baking pan.

Bake at 325°F. for 40-45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on wire rack. Cover pan with plastic wrap, and freeze cake 30 minutes. Remove from freezer.

Spread Coconut-Cream Cheese Frosting on top of chilled cake. Cover and store in refrigerator.

For Coconut-Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat cream cheese and butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; add milk and vanilla, beating well. Gradually add sugar, beating until smooth. Stir in coconut.

The longer this cake sits, the better it is. By day 3, if it lasts that long it is "lay on the floor and scream" good.

Until next time,
Melissa

Food Friday: Teacher Gifts

Happy Friday everyone! What a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants week this has been! I'm glad it's finally FRIDAY!

The kids' last day of school was yesterday so summer vacation has officially begun. I had 11 teacher gifts to make and I needed something quick and easy. I found a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Squares from the Gooseberry Patch Christmas Vol. 9 book and I whipped up a batch. So easy and the teachers loved them!

CHOCOLATE CHIP CHEESECAKE SQUARES
2 18 oz. tubes refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
non-stick spray
3 eggs
9 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 t. vanilla extract

1. Preheat over to 350. Spray 9x13 pan with non-stick spray. Spread one tube of cookie dough out over the bottom of pan. Mix together eggs, cream cheese and vanilla until smooth. Pour over cookie dough in pan. Take last roll of dough and break up into little pieces. Drop them all over top of cream cheese mixture and bake for 30 minutes. Chill before serving.

I put two squares into a snack size ziploc baggie then I taped the recipe onto the back of the baggie. These were yummy! Definitely a keeper.




Yesterday, each class at school had an awards day. Camden won the "Future Meteorologist" award since just about every day he accurately predicted the weather with his communication device (he's non-verbal). YAY! We were so proud of him for sitting still during the awards presentation, his teachers have worked really hard to get him to sit still and not run around like a wild person when he needs to stay put.

Anna won the "Fashionista" award for her class and was also recognized for improvement in Math. Yay Anna!

It was a great school year and kind of sad yesterday since both kids will be at different schools next year. Monkey Boy will have the same teacher so that will be nice. Here's to a great summer!




Until next time,
Melissa

Pretty in Pink: Part 1

Greetings readers! What a busy, crazy weekend. Anna's dance recital was yesterday and it went really well. I'll do another blog post soon about her dance recital. This week coming up is the last week of school and I swear I have a meeting to go to or something at the kids' school every day this week.

In the midst of all the busyness, I decided to bake a Pink Lemonade Cake. What on earth possessed me to attempt this, I don't know, but I like how it turned out. This recipe is a keeper. It is Paula Deen's recipe so go out and buy some butter (haha).


Cake:
butter for coating pan
1 (18.25-ounce) white cake mix, plus any additional ingredients the package directions call for
3 tablespoon pink lemonade drink powder
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
red food coloring (optional)

Frosting:
1 lb confectioners sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3 tablespoon frozen pink lemonade concentrate
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon milk to thin icing if needed
red food coloring (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottom with parchment or waxed paper; set aside.

For the cake, in a large bowl, stir together the cake mix and lemonade powder. Prepare the cake batter according to the package directions, using any additional ingredients called for (eggs, milk, water, oil, etc…). Stir the lemon zest into the batter. **NOTE: if you want to make your cake pink, put a few drops of red food coloring in and mix well. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden and a toothpick inserted in the centers of the cakes comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Carefully turn cakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the frosting, beat together the confectioners’ sugar and butter until fluffy. Beat in the remaining ingredients until combined. *NOTE: my icing was quite thick like cookie dough so I added 1 TBL. milk to thin it out and it was much better. You can also tint it pink by adding a few drops of red food coloring as you are mixing.

Transfer one cake to a cake stand or large platter. Using an offset spatula spread the top of the cake with a layer of frosting. Place the second cake on top of the first. Spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of both layers.

This cake was so pretty! I did a horrible job of frosting it since I was in a hurry but it tasted great! This would be a neat cake for a baby shower or bridal shower. It was a bit "twangy" due to the lemonade but it was a nice change from overly sweet cakes.

Until next time,
Melissa

Spring Recap + A Recipe

Greeting readers! I hope you all had a blessed and meaningful Easter. Here’s a recap of what we have been doing.

We made it through another tax season-YAY! To celebrate, we went to IKEA. Love that place. I don’t like shopping for clothes, but stuff for the house, bring it on! I could wander around IKEA all day long and so could Anna. She wanted to buy a chandelier for her room.

Monkey Boy lost his first tooth. WAAAHHH! My baby is growing up! He has another tooth loose too.

Anna was chosen as the BRAG student of the month from her class. She got to attend a special pizza lunch put on by Domino’s and also received a certificate for a free Domino’s pizza! WTG Anna!

I recently discovered a wonderful magazine at the dentist’s office, Taste of the South. It publishes every other month and they had yummy and easy recipes in the February/March issue. I whipped up this little appetizer that was featured, Gingersnaps & Strawberries. I got the honey flavored goat cheese at Aldi, it was a “Special Buy” earlier in the month.

Honey flavored goat cheese
Strawberries, sliced
Gingersnaps (I bought these at the Dollar Tree)

Wash and slice the strawberries. Put a dollop of goat cheese on each gingersnap and place a strawberry slice or two on top. Enjoy! So easy and refreshing.

Have a great week everybody!
XOXO, Melissa

Foolish Food Friday!

Happy April Fool's Day! Anna has been talking about April Fool's Day for some time now and I wanted to pull a prank on her. She's pretty sharp so I knew it would have to be good.



I follow Bridget's amazingly creative blog, Bake at 350, and she had a terrific idea for a prank on April Fool's Day, courtesy of Family Fun magazine. It is a fake grilled cheese sandwich, made with sliced & toasted pound cake and dyed cake icing.

Ingredients:
Pound cake (we used Entenmann's brand)
1 cup buttercream or white frosting (canned is just fine)
Yellow and red food coloring

Instructions:
Cut the pound cake into bread-like slices and toast them in a toaster oven just until they turn golden brown. Once they've cooled for a few minutes, stack two slices for each sandwich and cut the stack in half diagonally (slicing the sandwich before you fill it makes for fewer crumbs).

Now tint the frosting by stirring in a few drops of yellow and red food coloring (more yellow than red) to get a shade of orange that resembles American cheese.

Carefully spread frosting between the slices of each half sandwich. If you mound the frosting on one slice, then top it with the other and gently press down, the frosting will ooze out a bit and look all the more like melted cheese. Makes one sandwich.

This was so easy to make! I used a 2:1 ratio of yellow food coloring to red food coloring. For supper tonight, I fixed gyros and spanakopita. I told Anna since I wasn't sure if she would like the gyros, I made her a grilled cheese sandwich. She took a bite and then I busted out laughing after yelling "April Fools!" Needless to say, she had the gyros and spanakopita for supper and this fake sandwich was our dessert.

Have a great weekend everyone!
XOXO,
Melissa

The Fresh Market and Coconut Shrimp

I have always loved wandering around gourmet grocery stores, similar to window shopping for clothes, except it is for food. Give me some free time at the swanky Harris-Teeter at Morrocroft in Charlotte (where it’s not a “covered pick up area”, it’s a “porte-cochère” as seen in the photo) or at Trader Joe’s, the IKEA food market or The Fresh Market, and it’s like therapy for me.

As a pre-teen back in the 80’s, my parents and I would go to the new Fresh Market in High Point. I remember the grind your own peanut butter, the barrels of snack mixes and candy, the Jelly Bellies, and my dad hanging out beside the coffee barrels, sampling the coffee while mom and I shopped.

Now Tim and the kids and I enjoy shopping at The Fresh Market in Huntersville and deciding what cheeses, meats, and prepared foods to buy. Unfortunately, we never can remember to bring a cooler with us since it is a haul from the store to back home so the foods have to be already cooked. We are anxious to try the Greek Stuffed Chicken but not until we remember to bring our mini-cooler!

One thing we bought and loved was the coconut shrimp. I looked online for a recipe and found this one. It was really easy to make and had an excellent flavor. Plus it was baked and not fried. How ironic, all ingredients came from Aldi’s and not The Fresh Market. I may browse at the fancy pants grocery stores, but I actually buy from the discount stores!


Crispy Coconut Shrimp
Ingredients:
24 medium shrimp
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp garlic and herb seasoning (I used Old Bay)
1 egg, well beaten
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray large baking sheet with non-stick spray. Sprinkle shrimp evenly with seasoning blend and pepper. Place flour, egg, and coconut in three small separate bowls. Dip shrimp first in egg, then flour, then back in egg, then generously in coconut. Arrange shrimp on baking sheet. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden and crisp. Serve with dipping sauce. Makes 4 servings.

So good!
Until next time,
Melissa


the fine print: For more Harris-Teeter photos of the swanky Morrocroft store, check out grocerying.blogspot.com. The Fresh Market photo is from bradleyfarless.com. Shrimp photo was taken by me.

Snow Day = Eating and Shopping!

Today is a snow day here in NC. Schools were closed and I didn't have to go in to work. I shudder to think how much work will await me when I go in later this week. However, when it snows and I'm stuck inside, I just want to 1. eat and 2. shop!

I read about a big sale on Lilly Pulitzer home items at
Garnet Hill. I just bought this Lilly shower curtain for NINE. DOLLARS. Woo-hoo! It was originally $88! Won't it look so cute paired with yellow towels? Garnet Hill has some great deals in their clearance section so check it out.


As far as food, I recently made Quickie Chocolate Stickies from a recipe Tim found. His mom used to make these all the time when he was younger and I guess he got a hankering for them and he found a recipe on the Hershey's website. I'm glad he found the recipe with actual measurements since one time I asked Tim's mom for the recipe to include in a family cookbook. She was like "Oh, maybe this much chocolate, I don't know, a few tablespoons or so, a bit of sugar, maybe, 1/4 cup? Just eyeball it" and my OCD self was like "I NEED MEASUREMENTS"!

We deviated from the online recipe (we're such deviants LOL) and used a 9x13 glass pan instead of a mini muffin pan or 8" round pans. We gobbled them up in a day! So good.

Have a great week dear readers!

Until next time,
Melissa

Apple Festival and A Recipe!

Our county has many apple orchards and to celebrate our apple-ness, an Apple Festival is held annually on the third weekend of September. An Apple Queen is crowned a few weeks before, the Home Extension Agency holds an apple recipe contest, a craft show is held, the Apple Festival 5K run takes place, it's a big deal here in Lincoln County!

The best time to go to the Apple Festival is in the morning before it gets hot and super crowded. The official opening time is 9 a.m. but we were strolling downtown at 8:30. Many craft vendors, band boosters, churches, hopeful politicians, and of course the apple growers have booths set up through downtown. You can take your pick of what you would like to eat, the most popular are the bananas dipped in chocolate (or Wild Thangs) sold by the Lincoln Squares Square Dancing group. And there's nothing like munching on a giant turkey leg while walking around the festival!

So we have already been there, done that for the Apple Festival 2010. So in honor of another successful Apple Festival, I made a Pampered Chef recipe, Glazed Apple Daisy, for breakfast. So good and I remembered to take a photo of it, too bad I forgot my camera for the Apple Festival.

Glazed Apple Daisy by
The Pampered Chef
1 package (17.5 oz) grand size cinnamon rolls with icing
1 Granny Smith apple peeled, cored, and sliced
1/4 cup pecans chopped
1 orange

Preheat oven to 350F. Set icing aside. Seperate cinnamon rolls. Using 5" Utility Knife, cut each cinnamon roll in half. Arrange cut halves in a circle, pinwheel fashion, on 13" Round stone leaving center open. Gently press cinnamon rolls together with fingers to seal. Using lightly floured dough & pizza roller, roll dough out to within 1 inch of edge of stone. Peel, core & slice apple & nuts, place in small batter bowl. Using lemon zester, zest orange to measure 1 teaspoon, set aside. Juice orange to measure 4 teaspoons juice, sprinkle 3 teaspoons over apple mixture. Spread apple mixture evenly over cinnamon rolls. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven, cool 5 minutes on nonstick cooling rack. Add orange zest & remaining 1 teaspoon juice to icing, mix well. Drizzle over warm cinnamon rolls, serve warm.

Yield: 10 servings
Approximately 190 calories & 7 grams of fat per serving

Have a great weekend!
~Melissa

*Crowd photo from the Lincoln Times-News

Food Friday: Talking About Lemons

Today's Food Friday post is about Lemons, in a roundabout way.

Anna and Camden share a bedroom and Camden sometimes takes a while to settle down and go to sleep. It didn't help that Tim gave him a chocolate doughnut for an after dinner snack last night so Camden was rarin' to go at bedtime. This morning at breakfast, we had the following conversation with Anna.

Anna: "Mommy, did Camden throw lemons last night?"
Me: "?????"
Tim: "Did you dream it?"
Anna: "No, I was wondering if he threw lemons during the night."
Me: "Okayyyyy....."

Now Anna has a crazy active imagination. The things she comes up with are so far out. Usually she says something off the wall and my reaction is "What is she talking about? Where does she come up with this stuff?" So I figured she heard Camden kicking the wall during the night and thought he was throwing fruit.

Later this morning, we go into their bedroom and Anna says "He did! He did throw lemons last night!" and then I realize she's talking about LEMONS, the yellow stuffed animal cat she put in Camden's bed last night and he subsequently tossed on the floor. Mystery solved! Never a dull moment at our house, that's for sure!

Since today has been all about lemons, here's a recipe for Lemon Cream Puffs. I made these recently and the lemon filling was great! Cream puffs are so easy to make. The recipe is long so here's the link from Real Mom Kitchen, read at your leisure. Photo is from the Real Mom Kitchen website.

Have a great weekend!
~Melissa

Food Friday: Peach Fro-Yo

Happy Friday! We're in the home stretch of the last month of summer. I felt like I was in a cooking rut so I was browsing the Charlotte Observer Food section online last night. Food Editor Kathleen Purvis posted a great article on making ice cream without using an ice cream maker. The peach frozen yogurt piqued my interest since it had only 4 ingredients.

Here's the recipe (photos are by me when I made it this morning):

Peach Frozen Yogurt "I found the original years ago in a cookbook by the editors of Eating Well magazine, made with frozen strawberries and nonfat, plain yogurt. I like frozen peaches even better, and I’ve started using nonfat vanilla yogurt to make it a little sweeter."

1 (16-ounce) bag unsweetened frozen peaches (or strawberries)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 (4-ounce) cup nonfat yogurt (plain, vanilla or Greek-style)
1 tablespoon lemon juice

PLACE the frozen fruit and sugar in a food processor. Cover and pulse until the fruit is coarsely chopped. (If your food processor is small, start with half the bag. It will make a lot of noise when you grind the fruit, but hang on -- it will settle down quickly.) *Note from me: my food processor bowl is small and I had to make the recipe in two halved batches then combine at the end.

ADD the yogurt and lemon juice and add to the food processor.






Process until the mixture is smooth and creamy, stopping to scrape down the sides occasionally. It should be firm enough to serve immediately, or place in an airtight container and freeze a couple of hours for a firm consistency.
Yield: About 4 cups.

I let mine freeze for about 3 hours it and it is quite refreshing. Purvis also provided two more recipes, No-Machine Vanilla and Chocolate Banana ice cream with Bailey's and dark rum. Check it out here.

Have a great weekend y'all!
~Melissa

Cheerwine Doughnuts by Krispy Kreme

Happy Food Friday! I bought a box of the new Krispy Kreme Cheerwine flavored doughnuts to review.





In a nutshell:
Are they good? Oh yes!
Does the filling really taste like Cheerwine? Yep!
Would I buy them again? Probably, as a single doughnut.

Krispy Kreme released this new variety on July 1st and I bought a box of 6 for $3.99 from the grocery store. They are not available as a single doughnut you can buy from the display case so I had to buy a box. We each had half a doughnut after supper as our dessert and as my birthday cake.

If you are familiar with the chocolate covered, cream filled variety (or CCCF) that Krispy Kreme makes, this is very similar to that except the filling is Cheerwine flavored. The CCCF doughnut is my absolute favorite and is the standard I used to compare the two. The Cheerwine doughnut ranks pretty close in terms of taste and overall yumminess. It's not "lay down on the floor and scream" good like the CCCF doughnut, but I wouldn't turn one down if offered. My husband agreed that the Cheerwine doughnut was good but not as good as other KK doughnut flavors.

The filling really does taste like Cheerwine and not a generic cherry flavor, similar to comparing the taste of Cherry Coke vs. Cheerwine. Note to readers who have never heard of Cheerwine: Cheerwine is a non-alcoholic soda made here in NC. Its taste is very unique and not the same as cherry flavored cola. If you are ever passing through the South, try some Cheerwine. Cook-Out restaurants, Wendy's, and Bojangle's offer Cheerwine as a drink choice.

I would buy this doughnut again if it was offered as a single doughnut I could pick from the Krispy Kreme display. A box of doughnuts is a little too many doughnuts to have around no matter what the variety. I feel like I have to eat the whole box before they become stale (which is the whole point of buying doughnut boxes). The kids, however, could eat them all day long!

This doughnut is a nice novelty flavor worth trying once. Buy a box and split it with your family. You won't be disappointed.

Note: as always, I was not compensated by Krispy Kreme or Cheerwine for this review (though that would have been nice)!

Teacher Gifts 2010

I had to make nine teacher gifts this year and I made coffee flavored truffles and red velvet Whoopie Pies.

First up, the truffles. I used a recipe from the Maxwell House Coffee Cookbook, which is an excellent cookbook if you love coffee and sweets.

8 squares (8 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup brewed double strength coffee
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Gen. Foods International Coffee Cafe Vienna (dry) for garnish

Line a square 8x8 baking pan with foil.
Microwave the chocolate, condensed milk and coffee in a large bowl on high for 2 minutes, stirring halfway through the heating time.
Stir until the chocolate is completely melted.
Stir in nuts and vanilla. Pour into the baking pan.
Chill for 2 hours or until chocolate is firm enough to handle.
Cut into squares and roll into 1" balls. They don't have to be perfectly round a la Martha Stewart.
Store covered in refrigerator until time to serve.
Just before serving, dip tops in GFIC powder and place truffles in mini cupcake liners.

Next up is Red Velvet Whoopie Pies. This is NOT a good recipe for your kids to help you with as it is MESSY and the red dye might set them off behavior wise if they ate too much. I recommend wearing food service gloves while you are filling and piping the batter onto the pans. This recipe makes a huge batch of pies and next time I will double the recipe for the filling. Click the link above to see the recipe.

Once the goodies were ready, I lined these cute Chinese take out boxes I got at Dollar Tree with wax paper and put the truffles on the bottom and mini pies on top, separated by wax paper squares. I thought they turned out cute!

The teachers gave the goodies a big thumbs up!

Food Friday-Suddenly Salad

Oh the crazy end-of-the-school-year madness! I have three schools to keep up with: Anna's, Monkey Boy's, and the school I teach at. Add in a dance recital, awards days, field trips, doctor appointments, therapies, and Tim's crazy schedule, I don't have time to cook elaborate meals. Therefore, today's Food Friday is Suddenly Salad in the limited edition Greek flavor.

I saw this at our Wal-Mart and picked up a box. I try to keep boxes on hand since this is my go-to thing to make for potluck dinners. The Greek flavor was SO GOOD! I added feta, tomatoes, diced cucumber pieces, and basil. WOW! I ate entirely too much of it. I even wrote the Betty Crocker company to rave about it and to please make it a regular offering.

Suddenly Salad has been around for a while and it's so easy to put together and you can whip up a batch ahead of time. Try the Greek flavor, you won't be disappointed!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!
~Melissa~


Disclaimer: photo courtesy of the Betty Crocker website, I was not compensated in any way for this review. Though if the Betty Crocker company wants to send me a case of Suddenly Salad, you can find me on Facebook :)

Raspberry Jam

Happy weekend everyone! Did you remember to turn your clocks ahead? We slept in late today, until past 8 (or was it 9?). It was wonderful but it's going to be a hard wake-up call tomorrow morning when we have to get up and go to school!

One of Tim's clients gave him a jar of raspberry jam she had canned. The jam is divine and I love the color of the raspberries, that is my favorite color actually. It reminded me of a photo where jellies are lined up on a windowsill and sparkling in the sunshine, like here. My version is pictured above.


The jam tasted wonderful on biscuits and on a pb&j sandwich. It wasn't too sweet since some jams are more sugar than fruit! Delicious. I won't post a recipe since canning is way above my cooking expertise and I have no idea what recipe was used to make the jam since it was a gift. Do a Google search and pick a jam recipe that suits your fancy.

Have a wonderful day!
♥ Melissa ♥

Food Friday-Chicken Salad

Happy Weekend everyone! Today is unusual in that the kids are in school for 1/2 a day because we had to make up a snow day. I'm getting so much accomplished and it is so QUIET! I love it!

Today's Food Friday (albeit a day late) is chicken salad. I love eating chicken salad, just not making it. I refuse to boil a chicken, strip the meat off the carcass (gross), try to get all the seasonings right, and hope it's edible in the end. So I buy pre-made chicken salad.

Now these pre-made chicken salads always need a little something added to them, like tarragon, or more chicken, or sometimes I add one of the following: chopped grapes, pecans, apples, or almonds just to add some taste to it. I've had chicken salad which was mostly mayonnaise and that wasn't great either. However, I purchased a brand I never tried before from Food Lion and it is the best chicken salad I have tasted. Seriously. I would wake up and want to eat some on a cracker for breakfast.

The brand is Star's Private Stock All White Chicken Salad and they did not pay me to write this and I did not receive anything in return. This is solely my honest to goodness opinion. The chicken was in small bite size pieces, the base wasn't mayonnaise-y (is that a word?) and the spices were right on. I didn't have to add a thing to it. This would be perfect at a bridal shower in those phyllo dough shells or spread on a cracker or pita chips. I'm almost out so I'm going to pick up some more this afternoon. I'm even taking both kids with me to the grocery store, that's how bad I want some!

Have a great weekend!
♥ Melissa ♥

Oreo Pops-The Results Are In!

To recap: I wanted to make Oreo Pops for teacher gifts but I had to round up the supplies. See previous post here. I got everything together and made them and they turned out excellent! The teachers loved them. I think the pink ribbon was the perfect finishing touch.

I followed this recipe and did not have to modify anything. Be sure to scrape the excess chocolate off the cookies with a rubber spatula or spoon after dipping since the chocolate can get too thick on the cookie and "puddle" around the cookie when cooling.

Food Friday-Free Doughnuts!

In honor of National Doughnut day today, June 5th, Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts are giving away free doughnuts! Here's the scoop from walletpop.com.

I think the smell of Krispy Kreme doughnuts should be put on a car air freshener. I may load up Monkey Boy and head to the nearest KK. Chocolate covered with vanilla cream inside is my favorite. Down it with a glass of milk and there's nothing like it! Needless to say, the diet will start again tomorrow :)

Food Friday-Puppy Chow/White Trash

The last day of school for my 12th grade class was this past Wednesday. To celebrate, I ordered a pastry tray and made a huge batch of Puppy Chow (or White Trash Mix). There wasn't a morsel left! This is definitely NOT healthy but it is certainly addictive! It is an excellent recipe if you need to feed a ton of people such as a youth group or sports team.

Recipe:
1 stick butter
12 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c. peanut butter
9 c. Rice Chex mix (can use generic)
1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 white kitchen trash bag (new & clean)

Melt butter, chocolate chips and peanut butter in 3 quart saucepan. Stir frequently. While the chocolate is melting, pour the cereal and peanuts into a large bowl. Pour chocolate mixture slowly over cereal & peanuts. Gently fold mixture over until all the cereal and peanuts are covered.

In a medium size trash bag, pour 1/2 of the powdered sugar. Put cereal mixture on it and pour in the rest of the powdered sugar. Tie top of bag securely and gently shake bag until each cereal is covered with powdered sugar and chocolate.

After cooling, place in an airtight container.