Food for thought...Oreo Truffles

These are probably the easiest dessert ever and are absolutely fantastic. Me, the hater of cream cheese, I love them! I had them once at my mother-in-law’s and then I was hooked. Literally, you can’t just have one. Then you’re standing next to the bowl and it’s half gone because they pop so easily into your mouth. It’s almost a sickness. When I asked one of my good friends if I could bring anything to her son’s baptism get-together she replied almost instantaneously with those “oreo evil things.” Once you make them, you’ll understand why.

Here’s what you need:

1 pkg regular oreos (double stuffed not required)

1 8oz pkg philadelphia cream cheese

9+ squares of almond bark (this is key)

Step 1 . Take out the cream cheese and let it soften while you make the oreos into crumbs. This will help out with step 2. Take each sleeve of cookies and pop it into your food processor (no need to de-cream). Turn it on until they resemble coarse crumbs. Remove crumbs to a large mixing bowl. Repeat for the two remaining sleeves.

Step 2. Add the (now) softened cream cheese to the mixing bowl with oreo crumbs. Fold with a spatula (or dig right in with freshly washed hands) to combine oreos and cream cheese. The mixture should be slightly sticky with no loose crumbs.

Step 3. Get out a large cookie sheet (feel free to line it with parchment paper if you like). Scoop out approximately 1 tablespoon of the mixture and roll it into a ball. Place these on the cookie sheet. You should be able to make about 3 dozen. Place the cookie sheet into the freezer for at least one hour to harden the “dough.” I did mine overnight because I started late in the day.

Step 4. When ready to coat, break apart 9 squares of almond bark (I like to use white because it’s a nice contrast but the hubbs likes the brown because it’s so delicious). You can either heat them in a tiny crockpot or in a microwaveable bowl. If you go the microwave route, heat for 30 seconds, then stir. Repeat until the bark is melted and smooth. Be careful not to over cook! If you do you’ll end up with gross bark that’s not useable.

Step 5. When the bark is melted, remove the oreos from the freezer. Using a toothpick dip each ball into the melted bark and roll around until covered as desired. I’m lazy a fan of leaving a little at the top showing so I don’t coat it completely. Remove the now dipped ball back to the same cookie sheet. Repeat 35 more times

Step 6. Place the now dipped truffles back into the freezer for an additional hour to firm up.

Step 7. Serve the truffles in a large bowl and then stand far away, lest you gain twelve pounds by standing there devouring the whole bowl.

These are probably already in your recipe deck. But I want to make sure everyone knows about these habit forming snacks desserts. What do you think about them? Tasty?

Tunetastic Thursday - Arctic Monkeys "Do I Wanna Know?"

I've been tricked. Again. I may not have mentioned this before, but I'm not a fan of the Arctic Monkeys. Until now of course. What is with all these terrible bands coming up with great music?! (I'm not really upset over this. I mean who, in their right mind, would be?) I'm putting my foot down, though. Once Arcade Fire gives me a good song, I'm just throwing everything out the window and listening to Polka.

EQX has been playing a TON of new music. I was listening with Ryan in the car and this song came on. It was so catchy that I had to know what it was. Ryan was more than delighted to find out who it was - just another little rub of my nose in it. I was in disbelief. But with "basic rock song structures, a subtle use of vocal harmony, mild rhythmic syncopation, minor key tonality and melodic songwriting" how can you go wrong? Would it be wrong to call it almost campy?

What do you think? What's been on repeat on your music device of choice?

Quick Update!

I'm not dead nor have I forgotten about you. Life has been hectic and I didn't have pre-written blogs ready. I'm getting on that now.

While you're waiting for more genius from me, ponder this: why does pie crust taste like Satan's booger until you bake it? It's so buttery and flaky after 40 minutes of love; before that it's salty, doughy grossness. Eck. What's worse: that flavor or eating it time and time again knowing it'll taste the same?

What's that got to do with the price of tea in China?

Tonight, the hubbs and I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up a book for his mom. We're meeting them this weekend for dinner and since we have one in the area she asked us to stop by.

Now, there's an elusive wooden "L" that's never stocked. Apparently it's a popular letter. So when we got into the store we had a conversation that went like this:

A: "Oooo, maybe they'll have the "L"."
R: "No, we're not getting an "L"."
A: "Why not?"
R: "Why do you want one?"
A: "Because our last name is LaBarge."
R: "What's that got to do with it?"
A: *mimicking* "What's that got to do with the price of tea in China?"

And then we started laughing and continued to look for the book. We couldn't find it right away so Ryan went one way and I went the other. On my journey I found my "L"! I also found the book. Ryan, of course, not being adept in the layout of Hobby Lobby turned up empty handed. As we were walking to front of the store we had another conversation:

R: "What else do you have there."
A: "The "L" I was talking about."
R: ""L"? I thought you wanted an elf."
A: "What elf?"
R: "The shelf elf thing. That you move around."
A: "The elf on the shelf? No, I mean I do want one. But I wanted to "L" for the door. Did you think I was saying I wanted an elf?"
R. "Yea."
A: *laughing* "I was saying I wanted the "L". Now our earlier conversation makes much more sense."

I mean our last name being LaBarge might have well been a good reason to get an elf on the shelf...but it would take some explaining.

Wonderful Wednesdays - Game Night for Two

This past weekend I relaxed. And it was pretty wonderful. I'm trying to work on enjoying life more. Part of that I believe is playing games with friends and family. I tend to get...competitive and not in a good way. There's no good natured  trash talk. There's just me, getting pissed, throwing cards, and other game objects. This is why I haven't played canasta in about five years. In general, I try to avoid those situations. But I want to play; I want to have fun. Thankfully, I have Ryan. He knows exactly how I get. So I asked him to give me a chance and for us to have some fun.

It was awesome. We ordered a pizza, had a couple drinks, played card games, and played Jenga. Ryan even taught me a new game, Pitch. The game we played the most was Palace, which apparently is also called Shithead. Playing the game, I completely understand, ha!

We're going to have to do game night a lot more often because it was a blast. Now, I'll leave you with some pictures from Jenga:

no smiles, just concentration

something obviously wasn't going well

just tap, tap, tap it out

right before it all fell down

What's in your game night repertoire? Are you more serious or do you like to just goof around?

What can I craft this Tuesday? Spice Shelves

My parents basement is a treasure trove. It has so many neat things in it. Possibly because they live in the house my grandfather was building and most likely because he was what you would have called a hoarder. Any way, I get to benefit from it! My parents want the stuff out and I want things to repurpose.

While I was perusing the basement a few weeks back I had been eyeing these drawers that used to hold various building materials like nails and screws. These drawers are old, dusty, and grimy. Literally, after I cleaned them I was blowing black snot out of my nose (sorry for that picture). What one person might deign to the burn pile, I salvaged and made kitchen storage! Go me.

Here's what I did:

Step 1. Scrounge your favorite basement, garage sale, etc for the perfect drawers. Note that these may not be in ready-to-use condition.

Step 2. Using a wire brush, scrub away years of grit and grime. You may need to vacuum out dust before and after.

Step 3. Wipe away any loose dirt and grit. Let dry and then wipe down again.

Step 4. Envision your wall and think strategically. Measure and screw in two d-rings on each side of the drawer. For larger drawers, you may want to add a third. Then get to nailin'. In the future I think I'm going to add another drawer lengthwise so that I can put taller spice jars there.

my future fourth drawer (please marvel at my photo editing skills)

Step 5. Now that I've got my drawer shelves hung, I had to get my spice jars ready. I have a spinning spice rack that has all your basics, but I have a ton of extra spices (for refill and other ones like nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon). I didn't want to just hide them away in my cupboard and, let's face it, having to dig through Penzy bags is just a pain. Thankfully I'm a hoarder thoughtful and keep empty salsa, cherry, and topping jars. I brought out my chalkboard paint and painted their lids so I could label my spices. For some reason, just by looking I'm always confused by basil and parsley. Please, please, don't judge my cooking skills because of that. I promise everything I put on here's delicious or at lest not awful.

Step 6. I put two coats on the lids and didn't bother priming the paint (by rubbing it down with chalk) I just went ahead and wrote the spices after the paint dried overnight.

Step 7. Fill those shelves up to your heart's content. Then marvel at your crafty-ness and ingenuity.

Here's my shelves filled with spices! I love it and I cleared up a shelf in my cupboard. Win-win. Now I just need to find a way to cover up that old phone jack. Ideas are more than welcome!

those spice jars are pretty darn handsome

Where do you keep all your extra spices and seasonings? What would you do with an old set of drawers?

Food for thought...Danish Apple Pastry Bars

A couple weeks ago I bought a half a peck of apples from the local orchard at our farmer's market. My original intention was for fruit for lunches. Well...some how that didn't happen and I needed to use these apples. So I searched the interwebs until I found a new recipe online and made it my own. Here's what you need to make these wonderful fall treats:

Pastry

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup milk (approximately)

Filling

6 medium apples

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract (if desired)

Icing

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp milk

There's no ingredient picture because I was throwing everything together late. Please forgive me. There's plenty of pictures for the steps though!

Step 1. Preheat your oven to 375 F. Peel, core, and slice your apples thinly. Place in a large mixing bowl. To prevent apples from browning before you move to the next step feel free to add a dash of lemon juice. Give them a little toss to coat evenly. 

Step 2. Add packed brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla (if desired) to the mixing bowl. Make sure your hands are clean and then give those babies a toss. Set the bowl aside until ready to fill dough.

Step 3. To make the dough, add flour, salt, and tabs of cold butter to your food processor. It is a thousand times easier than using a pastry blender or fork. Add one stick of butter's worth at a time. Pulse until the mixture resembles course crumbs. 

Step 4. In a liquid measuring cup, add the egg yolk. Beat it slightly and then add milk (~1/2 cup) until the measure reads 2/3 cup. Add the mixture to food processor slowly until the dough is slightly sticky. 

Step 5. On a lightly heavily floured surface, roll out about 2/3 of dough. Fold several times and roll it out. Roll out to about 16x20. If the dough sticks to your surface (like it did with mine) roll it up in your hands and work in some extra flour. Then roll out.

Step 6. Fold dough in half and press into bottom and sides (about 3/4" up) of an ungreased 13x9 pan. Take your delicious apple mixture and pour that in. Make sure to drizzle the juices at the bottom on top of it all. 

Step 7. Roll out the remaining dough to 13x9. Press onto the top of your pan. Slice holes in the crust so it doesn't explode the steam can escape. I made mine into an argyle type pattern. Make sure you pinch together the bottom and top crust.

Step 8. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Please don't judge my dirty oven window. Now I won't lie, the recipe I was following said to bake for 25 minutes THEN add the foil. It was just about the worst instruction ever. I mean, have you ever tried to put foil on a 375 degree pan?! It's rough and hot. Burning sensations WILL occur. So add it first then take it off.

Step 9. Remove foil from dish to allow it to brown. Bake for an additional 25 minutes until golden brown. Then remove from oven and let cool. 

Step 10. While the bake is cooling. Put powdered sugar and 2 teaspoons of milk in a liquid measuring cup. Mix together until well blended. I also added about 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla to the icing as well. You don't need to do that though. Then...drizzle, and drizzle, and drizzle.

Step 11. Allow bake to cool completely before cutting into 18-24 squares (depending on your portion size). Or if you can't help but try one before it's completely cool, make sure it's not steaming or boiling still. I waited about 45 minutes until I couldn't stand it any longer. 

Step 12. Enjoy! I think these would pair perfectly with apple cider ice cream. Now, I'll just have to figure out how to make that.

Let me know if you try this recipe and how they turned out for you. I'd love to see some pictures of these delicious treats! Especially considering I made mine yesterday and there are four left...