Sweet Sundays: Black and White Truffles

 

 

A perfect rainy day, all snuggled up in my jammies, just shouts make something!  Nothing on T.V. but football and one kid is practicing piano, the other is on the computer and the third is creating elaborate schemes with his superhero friends.  That means time for me in the kitchen.  Time to create beautiful, delicious bites!

I know it is a little early to start making things for Christmas, but I found this recipe for Black and White Truffles in  my Betty Crocker Christmas Cookies cookbook (Issue December/January 2009).  It has pull out recipe cards so the recipes can be stored in a recipe box.  As a side note, if your recipe box looks like mine, I would suggest keeping the book together.   My recipe box is filled to the brim!  So I keep the book together.  This cookbook is filled with great easy ideas for cookie exchanges, teachers gifts and so much more.  This won’t be the last recipe I make from this cookbook! 

The other component of this recipe that I love is that there are only 5 ingredients!  Oreo cookies, vanilla almond bark, semi-sweet chocolate chips, vegetable oil, and cream cheese.  When you combine all of these things beautiful things happen!

Sweet Sundays: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

 

 

So this weeks “Sweet Sunday” post comes to us from Friday.  I am way too tired today too bake so I am going to be sneaky and post a dessert I made on Friday.  Friday was one of my days off this week and for the first time since I had my children I  discovered that I would be alone……all day.  Just me.

 

 

The thought of being alone in my house with no children was a happy one.  I couldn’t wait to lay around in my jammies all day and make food.  But something odd happened.  The closer the day came, they less it sounded like fun.  I became anxious and a little uneasy.  I would have no one to talk to, no one to help me clean and no one to eat the food that I had planned on making.  The cat and dog would eat no matter what I fed them and I knew I wouldn’t get any good criticism from either of them. 

 

 

Enter a savior…….a dear friend who heard of my lamenting and came to my rescue.  How about you come for lunch she said, and my lonely ears had never heard such sweeter words.  Of course!  I would love to!  I was so excited I couldn’t stand it.  A lunch date with a dear friend without my children would be a grand thing!  I could have an actual conversation with a grown up and enjoy great food at the same time.  I told her I would bring dessert.  So I anxiously awaited the day. 

Then Thursday came and I picked up my youngest child from school-wheezing.  Yes wheezing and coughing,  I listened to him wheeze and cough for a while and decided to call the doctors office and they promptly told me to bring him into the emergency room.  So long story short, Gabe had an allergic reaction to something either at school or something that he was exposed to and he needed to have a breathing treatment and rest. 

Guess who wasn’t going to school on Friday.

Aaarrrrggghhhhhhh!!!!!! My lunch date would be ruined!  I was gong to have to call and cancel!  I called my dear friend and explained the situation to her.  Gabe wasn’t contagious, he was  just coughing and coughing a lot.  Is it okay if I still come over?  She granted my wishes and we ended up have a fabulous lunch  She made broccoli cheddar soup and it had bits of ham and potato in it!  We had peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bars for dessert.  It was a perfect day. 

 

 

I found the dessert for the perfect day in another Pillsbury Cookbook.  This time it was the 5 Ingredients or Less cookbook (June 2004, Volume 280).  This cookbook is a great resource for quick cooking recipes and recipes that you don’t have to cook at all! 

 

Sweet Sundays: Flourless Chocolate Lime Cake

 

 

My house smells like chocolate cake.  I swear there isn’t a better smell.  Ok, peanut butter cookies, brand new crayons, my Grandmother’s spaghetti….. those rank up near the top.  But when you sometimes feel like me and I know some of you do, nothing can beat chocolate.

 

My love for Nigella Lawson knows no end.  She loves food and she is honest about it.  Reading her cookbooks are a guilty pleasure for me, because she gets me… she knows that deep down we all want to stick our hands in the fridge and eat whipped cream right out of the bowl (spoon optional).  When I need something chocolate hers are the books I turn to.  Nigella has devoted whole chapters of her books to chocolate.  Cakes, brownies, pies, loafs, cookies, cupcakes, mousses and pudding……..heaven!!!!!

 

 

Flourless Chocolate Lime Cake was found in Nigella’s cookbook Nigella Kitchen. This cookbook focuses on easy simple food that is quick to the table and perfect for families.  I have made a few recipes from this cookbook before, but they were so quick to put together, I forgot to take pictures of them.  Before I knew the dishes were done!  This recipe for chocolate cake was just as easy and just as fast.  There are a few simple steps but it isn’t at all impossible and the cake can be thrown together on a late Sunday afternoon and devoured within an hour! 

Just what I need…..

 

Lemon-Roasted Chicken with Oregano Orzo

Ahhh…. the smell and sounds of fall are in the air.  The sound of children in agony as I drag them out of their snuggly beds is music to my ears.  The hours of seventh grade math homework has been something that I have looked forward to since I was in seventh grade, ( I hope you all detected the severe sarcasm in that last statement).  How many times can one person back down the driveway only to drive right back up again, because someone forgot a sweatshirt or a trombone before the neighbors take notice? This morning it was 7 times, (I am being serious).



To have summer again would be fabulous.  Lemon-Roasted Chicken with Oregano Orzo tastes like summer.  The smell of lemon intermingling with garlic and roasted meat is enough to make anyone’s mouth water.  The cloves of garlic and the lemon wedges caramelize and leave the chicken coated in a sticky sweetness.  This recipe is perfect for a weeknight dinner, with very little prep, or perfect for a Sunday afternoon.  Sunday, especially if it is followed by http://sara826-itstartedwithone.blogspot.com/2011/09/sweet-sundays-lemon-ginger-bundt-cake.html aka Lemon Ginger Bundt Cake.



I found this recipe in the same cookbook as the Lemon Ginger Bundt Cake,  Everyday Food by Martha Stewart Living publications.  Again it is a great source of inspiration and it has great ideas not only for dinner, but for meals cooked in the microwave and for sack lunches.   I did make a few changes.  The original recipe was called for dried dill and orzo.  I added the oregano instead because that is what I had on hand.  I served a side salad and crescent rolls and we had a feast! 

Sweet Sundays: Lemon Ginger Bundt Cake

 

 

 

I love Bundt cake.  Ok, so my kids call them bump cakes. They are soft and moist and you can flavor them any way you want too.  Oh and have I mentioned that I love Sundays?  I love Sundays.  I can relax, bake and enjoy the day.  LOVE them! 

So we had a lemon inspired meal again. Lemon has to be one of my favorite flavors, scents, essences.  Pretty much anything you can make from lemons I love!  One of my first blog posts was an all lemon feast.  Check it out!  http://sara826-itstartedwithone.blogspot.com/2010/05/dinner-with-lemon.html.  Today’s dinner consisted of Lemon-Roasted Chicken with Oregano Orzo.  That post will be on Tuesday and let me tell you it was absolutely delicious with dessert!

 

I found both recipes in the Martha Stewart Living publication of Everyday Food (March 2008, Issue 50).  Like the Pillsbury cookbooks, these little hand-held cookbooks are chocked full of quick and easy recipes. Great to keep in the car to use at a moments notice or if you are stuck waiting for your kids to get out of school.  Lemon Ginger Bundt cake combines two flavors that go hand-in-hand.  My husband loves ginger.  I love lemon.  A match made in heaven.

Just a quick note:  I apologize for the quality of the photos.  I am having a hard time saving my pictures.  After I fix some of the exposures I save them and then they disappear!  I checked my recycle bin and sometimes they are in there and sometimes they are not.  If anyone has any suggestions please let me know!