Sunday, October 23, 2011

Sweet Sundays: Dark Chocolate Mint Truffles

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This Sunday is the third in the series of truffles.  I took the original idea for the Black and White truffles and ran with it.  I hope you guys try these truffles.  They are so easy to make and you can customize the recipes to what ever you are craving. 

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Out of all of the taste testers of these truffles, (phew, that was a mouth full), the mint truffles were the favorite.  My youngest child thought the truffles tasted like mint chocolate chip ice cream and everyone at work thought they would be perfect as an after dinner mint.  Just a few notes about the mint truffle recipe.  I could only find the mint Oreo cookies in double stuff.  I wasn’t sure if this would effect the batter so I added some plain chocolate wafer cookies.  These cookies can be found in the ice cream topping section of the store.  I had four people looking for them.

  My favorite is still the Nutter Butter Truffle, but I admit I ate my fair share of these too.  I have quite a few ideas for the more truffle flavors so stay tuned!    I can’t wait until the holiday season!  OOHHHH the ideas are flowing!
If you guys missed the Black and White Truffle or The Nutter Butter Truffle here are the links so you can make these fabulous treats too!

http://sara826-itstartedwithone.blogspot.com/2011/10/sweet-sundays-nutter-butter-truffle.html

http://sara826-itstartedwithone.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Sweet Sundays: The Nutter Butter Truffle

 

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Right now it is all about the truffle.  I love them.  I decided to spin a new tale of a truffle out of an old one.  Remember the black and white truffle?  Well, now I made it my way-with peanut butter and chocolate.

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I don’t like to toot my own horn, (okay, maybe a little), but I think I have created a masterpiece.  Something that people will be asking for over and over again.  Drum rolls………. The Nutter Butter Truffle!  Ok, maybe you weren’t that surprised because you read it in the title, but seriously this food item has to be one of the greatest things I have ever put in my mouth.  I tried it out on a few people and their reactions were pretty much the same as mine.  The verdict was definitely a resounding yes.  One person admitted to having consumed six or possibly seven of them.  Oh, and I decorated them with an “S”, because they are super.

Try them out for yourself…  Heaven pure heaven…..

Monday, October 3, 2011

Crock-Pot Mondays: Slow-Cooked Meatball Stew

 

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Mondays are busy.  They always have been.  Mondays are the get back to the routine and the try not to pull your hair out trying to get everything done day.  Monday is the day I say to myself, “I really have to get out of bed at 5:45am for the next 5 days?!  Ugh!  I don’t think I am going to make it!”  Ok, so I don’t say that out loud, but that is how I feel, especially on Mondays.

 

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Monday shall now be a little bit better.  I have discovered the long lost art of crockpot cooking.  It is so easy to get everything together and just throw it in a slow cooker, set the timer, push the button and walk out the door.  The only trick to crock pot cooking is making sure you have the ingredients in the right order.  The longer cooking ingredients need to be on the bottom, closest to the heat source.  Ingredients such as potatoes and carrots and meat.  Ingredients that are already cooked need to stay near the top because they don’t take long.

 

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I want to find slow cooker recipes that are easy to put together and that there isn’t a lot of prep work involved.  I think Slow-Cooked Meatball Stew is just the recipe to get me started.  I found the recipe for this amazing smelling stew in another Pillsbury cookbooks (Slow Cooker, Feb 2005 issue 288).  It has a whole chapter of recipes that only call for five ingredients!  What an economical way to feed a family of five!  My favorite part of crockpot cooking?  The smell!  Walking in the door after eight hours of work and after picking up three children from school and after piano lesson, the best thing is the smell of the house.  A home cooked meal already done for me!

 

Carbohydrates per serving:   37 grams

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Sweet Sundays: French Apple Cake

 

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Fall is my most favorite season.  The smell of the leaves, the smell of the leaves burning and apples.  All of those glorious apples.  One of my favorite days of the year is the day we go apple picking as a family.  We have a favorite orchard that has the best hot donuts and cider ever.  Ok, maybe that is the real reason I love apple picking.  The apples are crisp and ripe and so abundant that it is easy to rack up more that you wanted to spend, because you can’t stop grabbing that next apple.

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So what did I do when I came home with my pounds and pounds of apples?  I baked an apple cake of course!  I baked an apple cake last year http://sara826-itstartedwithone.blogspot.com/2010/10/apple-cake-with-crackly-meringue.html.  Check it out!  It was a bit more extensive than this one, but just as apple yumminess!

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This apple delight is brought to you by my favorite French cookbook.  “Around My French Table”, by Dorie Greenspan is probably one of my most favorite cookbooks ever.  Please see the list of blog posts that pertain to this fabulous book.  I love everything about it!  The pictures, the easy instructions and the great stories on how the recipes came to be.  This French apple cake is quick and simple and so delicate.  It really is a more of an apple pile with a little bit of cake to hold it all together.  I used four different kinds of apples.  Ms.  Greenspan said that this really is the key to the recipe.  Also, the cake gets better at room temperature.  The moisture in the apple flavors the cake and it almost has the consistency of a sponge cake.  You guys got to try it!

You might also like these great recipes!

http://sara826-itstartedwithone.blogspot.com/2011/05/gnocchi-la-parisienne.html

http://sara826-itstartedwithone.blogspot.com/2011/04/gourgeres.html

http://sara826-itstartedwithone.blogspot.com/2011/03/what-is-little-coconut-between-friands.html