Saturday, January 31, 2009

Welcome!!

Thank you for visiting my blog. I created this to share some new recipes, and to gain recipes for myself. I enjoy cooking and baking, and wanted to share it. I frequently visit The Nest's 'What's Cooking' board where members can share their recipes, ask cooking questions and get advice. A lot of the members on that board have recipe/cooking blogs, and I get so many ideas and inspirations from them that I wanted to have a blog to share with them as well!!

Please feel free to leave comments, questions or suggestions. I hope you enjoy!!I will have more recipes posted, hopefully daily, but our computer is being wonky about letting us upload pictures so I have to be a little sneaky about it :-)

On this "warm" January morning, I'll leave you with a picture of where we went on our Honeymoon-The Riu Resort in Cancun, Mexico. ::peaceful sigh:: ....I want to go back!! This picture is courtesy of google images, because like I said, our computer won't let us upload any of our real Honeymoon pictures. This is exactly what the beach looked like, exactly how the weather was for our whole trip. It was pure bliss....

Oreo Truffles

This recipe is a popular one on the nest message board, "What's Cooking?" that I frequent. I made them during the Holidays, and they were a huge hit. They're so fun to make because you can make them a variety of different ways. You could use mint oreos or peanut butter oreos. You could make them for the Holidays and use Holiday sprinkles to decorate them, you could make them for a football game and decorate with piped icing with your team colors, you could make them for a Baby shower and decorate with pink and blue. They're versatile for ANY occasion!
Easy Oreo Truffles
Recipe: Adapted from this Kraft Foods Recipe
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1 pkg (1lb 2oz) OREO cookies
1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese (I used sweetened condensed milk so that no refrigeration was required)
2pkg (8squares each) BAKERS semi sweet chocolate (I used almond bark for dipping)

Mix 3 cups of cookie crumbs with your cream cheese (or sweetened condensed milk). Shape into 42 1-inch balls. Once I shaped them, I stuck them outside, covered, so that they could harden up before dipping in the chocolate. I recommend doing this, otherwise I've found that if they're room temperature, the melted chocolate will almost melt the oreo ball. When they're a bit firmer, the dipping process is a lot smoother. Also using toothpicks helped me dip them, shake off the excess chocolate and set them neatly on the counter.

Dip into the melted chocolate, and set aside on wax paper lined baking sheet, or in my case-the kitchen counter! If you want to decorate them with sprinkles of any kind, I would do it when the chocolate/almond bark is still a bit wet, so that they stick. Same with sprinkling them with the remaining oreos. Otherwise they tend to fall off the oreo ''ball".
You can see the assembly line I had going when I started the dipping process. These truffles are definitely a messy endeavor, but SO worth it! You will fall in love with them!

I made mine and put them in 3 little boxes that I purchased at Michaels, added some ribbon, and they were ready to go to our Holiday parties!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

I figured I should get to adding some recipes here, I created this blog in the beginning of January and January has almost escaped us already! I made this soup awhile back, but this would be perfect now that Minnesota's coldest month has hit us. It's quick, easy, and hearty! I made a huge pot of this and we had it for lunch the next couple days. It was very good! I even sliced up some fresh bread to accompany it.
Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Recipe from: Myself
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1 bag of egg noodles
1 rotisserie chicken
carrots
celery
any other vegetable you may like
1 box Swansons chicken broth


Heat the broth in a large pot on medium-high heat. While the broth is heating up, you can cut the meat off the chicken and either shred it or cut it into cubed pieces for the soup. Add the noodles to the broth, cook them according to package instructions. In the meantime, cut up your vegetables. If you want your vegetable pieces a little bit on the softer side, add them about halfway through the noodle cooking time. If you want your vegetables with a firm texture, add them the last 2-3 minutes of the cooking time.

Continue to let everything boil together until the noodles are done and the vegetables are done to your liking.

Enjoy with fresh bread, or even a side salad!