Missing the Holidays

Happy New Year to everyone! I started a post about the New Year and my goals for 2011, but got Writer's Block since I wasn't very inspired by the topic. This morning, as I was driving into work, I suddenly realized how much I missed the holidays and how fast that time of the year seems to go. I have a feeling my January blogs will mostly be about December. Maybe I'll be ready to talk about 2011 next month. LOL.

One of my favorite things to do during the holidays is bake. I bake goodies for my office, my mom's staff, the rest of my family, some of my friends, and potluck/holiday parties. When T.J. was still in school, I would bake for his class too. Usually, it's the funfetti cupcakes for whatever holiday (they sell them for July 4th, Halloween, and Christmas). This year, I've been adding to my baking repertoire (e.g. Red Velvet Cake Pops/Truffles, Cookies & Cream Cupcakes) and have been adding the new items to the funfetti cupcakes.

For the holidays, my mom asked me to try a "new" recipe: Chocolate Peanut Butter Pops/Truffles. I was game since I was somewhat familiar with the process and wanted to see if I can handle the Pop/Truffles a little better the second time around.

If you want the full recipe, let me know and I can email it to you. Otherwise, I'm giving you the abridged version. The filling for these pops is peanut butter, powdered sugar, butter, and rice crispies. Once you mix all that up, shape into balls the size of walnuts, then let them set in the fridge for at least an hour. You want the peanut butter to be hard enough to withstand a coating of melted chocolate, so I recommend having them sit in the fridge overnight if possible. If you have lollipop sticks, then stick those in before putting the batch into the fridge. If you don't have the sticks, you can just leave them as is (that's how you get truffles).

I haven't seen an actual walnut since I was little, so these turned out a bit bigger than they're supposed to. But, yeah, these are the peanut butter balls that are being "set" in the fridge.

After the peanut butter balls have set or hardened, you can start coating them in chocolate (I used a mixture of milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate morsels). Take the ball, coat in chocolate, let the excess chocolate drip off, then coat in crushed peanuts.

Again, let the coated Pops/Truffles set, either in the fridge or at room temp. If you're leaving them out at room temp, do so overnight. And....ta-da...Chocolate Peanut Butter Pops/Truffles!

Lots o' Pops

Pretty Truffles :)

I don't know if it's because it's the peanut butter or the fact that I've already tried to make this type of treat before, but it was A LOT easier making these Pop/Truffles. I still ran into problems with mixing the inner ingredients and properly coating everything, but it's more so because of the lack of tools than anything else. Also, I've been trying cake balls from other places (both homemade and from a bakery) and the cake filling has been too moist for my liking. So the Peanut Butter filling is the kind of texture I prefer...until I find a cake ball that isn't all mushy.

For the most part, everyone that tried them liked them. Then again, I doubt people would tell me they tasted like shit to my face. I tried a couple and they were pretty good, especially with hot unsweetened/unflavored tea. If you want me to make some for the next time we get together or want the recipe to try on your own, holla at your girl :)

Holiday Treats 2010

Red Velvet Cake Balls = Black Diamond Course

Warning: This is a long post. I apologize for not having actual pictures because it would have made this one a lot funnier. I'm looking for a new camera so these posts are a little more personal. 

You know the person in your office who gives Valentine cards and bakes treats for everyone - that's me in my office. This year, I was inspired by Jill's Facebook pictures of her cake balls. I decided to get fancy too and tried my hand and Paula Deen's Red Velvet Cake Balls. I took a look at the recipe and figured it would be a piece of cake (no pun intended). HOLY CRAP...was I wrong!

First step is to make the cake, then crumble it, mix in the frosting and let it set in the fridge. This ended up taking a total of 2.5 hours to do plus the time to set the mixture. The recipe says you can let it set for 3 hours or overnight, I  chose overnight. Mixing the frosting and cake together took FOREVER. I only had a spoon to mix everything, so that could be why. The recipe says to use a hand mixer...what the eff is a hand mixer if not a freakin' spoon in your hand? Regardless, I'm pretty sure my right bicep is now slightly bigger than my left bicep.

After the cake mixture has set, you're supposed to use a melon ball scoop to form the balls. Yeah, a melon ball scoop does nothing. The recipe should say, "Now use your hands and start rolling balls out of the mixture (similar to making meatballs). DO NOT use a melon ball scoop because it does shit." Paula Deen says you're going to come out with 36 balls - I came out with 68. I blame the melon ball scoop for throwing me off. After you've formed the balls, you have to let them harden for an hour in the freezer. I placed my 68 balls in the freezer and went to the gym for a run - I felt fat from smelling everything and I had to do a taste test every now and then to make sure it was good :)

Once the hour in the freezer is up, the next step is coating them in white chocolate. I thought this would be the easiest step...NOPE.COM. I took 18 balls as my first batch and started getting ready to coat. I melted the chocolate in the microwave (that's what its bag said to do since I didn't have the fancy double boiler it recommended). I took the first one, swirled it in the chocolate so that it was fully coated, took it out, and laid it on the wax paper to cool. It was cute. The second and third one came out nicely too. When I started the fourth one, I noticed the ball was falling apart and left RED crumbs in the WHITE chocolate. It was also getting hard to swirl the ball with a toothpick. The chocolate started hardening and the balls were softening. The fifth ball tore apart in the chocolate. I stood there looking at my broken ball in the chocolate and decided to improvise a double boiler to keep the chocolate soft.

There I was with a bowl of white chocolate sitting in a pot of boiling water That's basically a double boiler, right? Nope. The chocolate started cooking and I basically made a white chocolate ball with red crumbs. FAIL. I started over with a new bowl of white chocolate, but by that time the cake balls were too soft to swirl. Balls 6 though 8 were a mess. I looked at my white chocolate that was still liquid-y, then at the 10 remaining uncoated cake balls. I knew I had to come up with something fast before the chocolate hardened again, then I thought of the chocolate factories that have a conveyor belt of truffles run under a fountain of chocolate and come out beautiful on the other end. I figured pouring the chocolate over the ball would have the same effect. It didn't.

Out of my 18 balls, 3 came out decent. That's a 16% success rate, which would be an "F" if I was going to grade myself. However, if I had to grade the taste of the final product, I would give it an "A" with a happy face. With a sigh and in partial defeat, I went to go watch The Office and a surprisingly funny episode of 30 Rock (I don't usually watch 30 Rock because I don't think it's that great, but I was SO over doing anything because of the damn balls that I just left it on NBC and watched). Needless to say, I'm sitting at work now without valentines to give and no home-baked goodies for everyone to fawn over.

I have 50 balls in the freezer right now. Should I event attempt finishing them? How the hell do you keep melted chocolate liquid-y enough to swirl? Is it normal that my hands are still kinda red from rolling balls last night?

Below is a picture of Paula Deen's cake balls and a link to the recipe. Proceed at your own risk.

Paula's Cake Balls 

Happy freakin' Valentine's Day. 

Cooking Adventures

I recently started living on my own for the first time in my life. Among other things, I've learned that it is difficult to cook for just one person. I don't put much effort into the meals I have by myself. In fact, thanks to the new health/fitness program my boyfriend introduced me to, many of my solo meals during the week are one of the following: a) grilled chicken with veggies or pasta or rice and 2) eggs, tomatoes, and rice. It's simple and healthy. If I'm late getting home or I feel like changing things up, I'll have El Pollo Loco or Flame Broiler. However, given my current budget constraints, I can't indulge in the fast healthy food too much.


Luckily, my boyfriend spends weekends at my place. 


When he's there I feel motivated to cook something nice, but we'll also cook things together which is even better! He and I have been pretty spoiled by our parents who are all wonderful cooks. So now, in our late-twenties, we're just starting to learn the basics and have decided to go with pasta dishes for now. How bad can you mess up a pasta dish, right?? Below are our first two meals that we made together


Chicken Parmesan

and Lasagna Roll-Ups

Both turned out pretty good, but I really like the Lasagna Roll-Ups A LOT! In fact, we brought some to his family the same night and they actually liked it :) While I love this dish a lot and crave it all the time, it takes about an hour to prep and another 30 minutes to bake. No wonder lasagna always takes so long at restaurants!


If you're interested in the recipes for either, email me!