Oreo Truffles

Merry Christmas!  I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  If you're going to a New Year's Party, think about making these treats.  One of my dental school friends made these delicious for a wedding shower once, and I knew I had to have the recipe.  It is so amazingly simple yet amazingly tasty...no one will ever know it only took you a few minutes to make!

1 package Oreo cookies
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened (I used light)
Milk or white chocolate bark

Put 6 Oreos in a food processor and crush until fine (if you don't have a food processor, you can crush them by hand in a bag).  Reserve for later.

Put the remaining Oreos in the food processor and crush until fine.  Stir in softened cream cheese; mix well.  Roll into 1" balls and place on a wax paper-covered cookie sheet.  Put the freezer for 15 minutes or so to firm up.

Melt chocolate according to package and covered balls with chocolate.  Set on wax paper to dry.  Sprinkle the tops with the 6 crushed oreos before chocolate sets.

Christmas Party

Jonathan and I had some friends over to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (our Christmas movie tradition), and I served up some easy snacks.  Since it was on a Friday night, I only had an hour or so to get things ready after school, so I chose easy things to throw together.  Here's two of the items, followed by their recipes.  They were both a big hit!

Rolo Turtle Pretzels

Rolo Turtle Pretzels

32 waffle pretzels

4 packages Rolos

Pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place pretzels on a cookie sheet.  Place one Rolo on top of each pretzels.  Stick in oven for 4 minutes, then press one pecan onto each Rolo.  Cool and enjoy!'

Adapted from:  The Hungry Housewife

Goat Cheese with Fresh Dill and Paprika

Goat Cheese with Fresh Dill and Paprika

2 packages (11 oz.) goat cheese

6 Tbsp. fresh dill, finely chopped

6 Tbsp. paprika

Crackers, for serving

Place the goat cheese in the freezer for 10 minutes to firm up.  Meanwhile, put your dill and paprika on two separate paper plate.  Remove goat cheese from package and roll one in the paprika and one into the dill, coating well.

Carefully roll each into plastic wrap if you're not serving right away.  Try not to prepare too far in advance of the one with paprika will get clumpy.  Serve with sturdy crackers or crostini.

Note:  I cut the recipe in half and only used one package goat cheese, cut in half, since we had a smaller crowd.

Source:  The Pioneer Woman

Kansas City Trip

This post is a couple weeks overdue, but better late than never!  Over Thanksgiving, we took a road trip to Kansas City.  It was a lovely place to visit.  The area where we stayed was an upscale shopping district that decorates the plaza with thousands of strings of Christmas lights every year...it was beautiful!  We also visited the World War I Museum (I highly recommend), went to a local farmer's market, and then went to a NFL game!  Jonathan has always wanted to see Peyton Manning in person, and Kansas City was playing the Broncos that weekend, so it worked out perfectly!  Here's a couple of pictures I have from the game:

Welcome to Arrowhead Stadium

If you look closely, the guy in the #18 jersey is Peyton Manning!  He was warming up right in front of us.

I forgot to get a picture of the stadium once it filled up (oh well).  But the Broncos won so we were happy!

God gave us a beautiful sunset to be in awe of him on the drive home