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

Crockpot Pulled Pork

It's been a lovely fall here in Iowa.  The colors of the changing leaves were fantastic, and it hasn't really been cold yet.  It's been cool to chilly at night, and I've never lived anywhere before where there is a true fall season, so it's been wonderful.  Lately, I've been trying to cook some meals in the crockpot while I'm at school to save me from having to cook when I get home (usually tired!).  I had tried this recipe when we lived in Alabama, and loved it, so I brought it out again.  It's so delicious and easy.  Jonathan is obsessed with it!  I served it on homemade rolls from the Amish community 15 minutes down the road.  It got gobbled up so quickly I forgot to take a picture, so here's a link to the original site I got it from.

1 large Vidalia onion, sliced thin
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. paprika
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 (3-5 lb) pork shoulder or pork butt roast
3/4 cup cider vinegar
4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
Your favorite BBQ sauce

Rinse pork under cold water and pat dry with paper towels.  Trim away excess fat.  Place onions in the bottom of the crockpot.  In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, paprika, salt, and black pepper.  Rub mixture all over the roast, and set roast on top of the onions.

In a medium bowl, mix cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, crushed red pepper flakes, sugar, mustard, garlic salt, and cayenne pepper.  Whisk well to combine, and drizzle 2/3 of the mixture over the roast.  Cover and refrigerate the rest of the mixture.

Cover crockpot and cook roast on low 10-12 hours.  Drizzle remaining vinegar mixture over roast when 30 minutes are left in cooking.  Once cooked, shred meat with two forks and serve with your favorite bbq sauce.

Modified from:  My Baking Addiction

Beef and Spinach Enchiladas

I haven't had much time lately to photograph many of my cooking concoctions (we tend to scarf them down, and then I remember that I wanted to take a picture!), so here's an oldie but a goodie.  This is a recipe that my good friend and dental school classmate, Laura, gave me. It is an easy meal to throw together, and it even tastes great as leftovers.

1 lb. extra-lean ground beef, cooked and drained

2.5 cups chunky salsa, divided

1 package frozen spinach, thawed and all excess moisture squeezed out

4 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. salt

8 oz. reduced-fat cream cheese, cubed

12 flour tortillas

8 oz. 2% shredded cheddar

Preheat oven to 350.  Cook meat in a saucepan, then drain.  heat in the same saucepan the ground beef, 1 cup salsa, spinach, cumin, salt, and cream cheese until melted.  Spoon 1/3 cup of the filling down the center of each tortilla.  Roll them up and place seam down in a lightly greased 9x13" pan.  Spoon remanning salsa over the enchiladas and place in the oven, uncovered.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until hot.  Add cheese on top and return to oven, just to melt.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  For our pumpkins this year, we decided to celebrate our new home in Iowa.  We carved a Hawkeye, and of course, an Auburn logo.   Some friends had us over for pumpkin-carving, and it was a fun night!

Carving away... Jonathan did most of the work on our pumpkin :)

The finished products

Pumpkins to celebrate our past and present!

Pumpkin Patch Day

For years now, I've been wanting to go to a pumpkin patch and corn maze, so when our friends Cole and Allison invited us to go with them, I was so excited!  We actually had a cold front come through the day before, so it was quite a chilly day, but it just made it feel that much more like a fall day.  We had a wonderful time!  Here are some of my favorite pics from the day:

All of us together (along with our friends' sweet baby)

Picking out our pumpkin

Giant rocking chair

The boys got in trouble for breaking the rules :)

The corn maze was so fun!