Easy Oreo Truffles, Easy AND Delicious!

Last Christmas, I made these truffles and they went FAST. The recipe is insanely easy and makes a decent batch, depending on how large you make them. I would suggest no larger than the recipe states, 1" balls, as they are rich. I've made these myself this weekend so below the photo from the Kraft foods website is my own photo. Also, please see my notes under the recipe to make it a little easier for you.


Easy Oreo Truffles

Ingredients
1 pkg (8 oz.) cream cheese
1 pkg Oreo cookies, finely crushed (about 4 1/4 cups), divided
2 pkg. (8 squares each) Baker's Semi Sweet Chocolate, melted


Instructions
Mix cream cheese and 3 cups cookie crumbs until well blended
Shape into 48 (1 inch) balls. Dip in melted chocolate; place on waxed paper-covered baking sheet. Sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs.
Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm.


My notes:
1- Upon crushing the cookies, I suggest placing a few cookies in a large zippered baggie and crushing them with a rolling pin. You will want to crush a few at a time because in my experience, it's a little to hard to try to crush them all at once and you need really fine pieces.
2- It's much easier to mix the cookie crumbs and the cream cheese with your hands (yes you'll be sticky, just have paper towels handy) and then scoop out the balls with a melon baller.
3- While dipping the balls, you can use 2 forks to roll them around in the chocolate and coat them better. This way, it's also easier to remove them from the chocolate and place them on the baking sheet.





After making them this weekend, here are my own!




Enjoy!

JRandall, Christmas Style *Updated*

I've been enjoying JRandall's music lately, it's such a breath of fresh air from all the repeats on the radio lately. I am still so excited looking forward to a whole album from JRan. Truthfully, I haven't been this excited about a new artist since Adam Lambert and prior to him, Britney Spears. I remember being in 7th or 8th grade, running around to every record store I could find, asking for the new Britney Spears album. All I'd get in response was, "Who?" and a blank stare. Now it's hard to find someone who hasn't heard of Britney and I just know this will end up being the case with JRan.

Anyway, Mr. Randall has bestowed this little gem called "Santa Gimme" upon our speakers for the holiday season. Some may not like it and yes, it's for the younger crowd, but it's hilarious and is a very catchy song; I've had it on repeat since I first heard it! The video is coming soon and I can't wait for that either. Thank goodness for twitter so I won't miss anything! This blog site is offering a free download of the song, once you click over to the site, right click on the link that says, "Free Download" and then either "Save Target As" or in my case, "Save Link As." Or if you don't want to download it, you can listen to it right from the site.

Enjoy!
http://clizbeats.com/j-randall-gives-the-gift-of-free-music121104/


*Update!*
The video is now available, view it here!

Haunted House Follow Up!

I saw this video of Ellen DeGeneres' writer getting sent to the SAME haunted house I went to a couple of years ago (and referenced in my Halloween post here). Basically, her reaction is me to a T, with less screaming! Though I'm always with someone (would I go in there alone? Heck no!), I end up pushing them in front of me, hiding behind them or um...swatting at the people who are there to scare you. I'm not a violent person by any means but for some reason, I have a tendency to throw punches at them like I'm going 10 rounds. Luckily, I've never actually hit anyone. Hah. If you saw Modern Family's Halloween episode where Gloria punches Mitchell when he scares her while wearing a scarecrow costume...it's like that. That's also me. Lol.

Anyway , enjoy the video of Ellen's writer below, it's always much darker in there with just a strobe light to see by...the camera light makes it seem much brighter than it really is. I would say my favorite part is where she screams, "How rude!!"

Happy Birthday to Me & Reflections...

Well, not today, but tomorrow. And I'm going to be 25. Ack. I don't feel 25 and to be honest, I feel like I haven't accomplished a lot of things I figured I would have by now. I did graduate college and got my degree in psychology, but the true challenge for me has been finding a job where I can actually put that degree to good use. In many of the jobs I've been searching for, it seems that Master's degrees are now what is most desirable, that the Bachelor's degree has become the new high school diploma. In other words, nearly everyone has them nowadays so it's not "special." Ideally, I would like to work in human resources, or if I had to go all out and be unicorns and rainbows about it, I'd love to work in the entertainment industry somehow, possibly at a record label or a movie studio doing some of the background work.
Luckily, until I find that dream job, I have my Etsy shop and jewelry/accessory business to pay the bills. It allows me to make my own hours and express my creativity and still be a kid!

But I digress, back to my birthday since this post wasn't meant to be a downer!
I remember when I was little, birthdays were SO much fun. I'd go to school and we'd all have cupcakes or whatever my mom brought to class and try to pay attention through the school day. Then once we got home, the living room table would be all ready with my cake and lots of colorfully wrapped presents, most containing Barbies, art kits or Polly Pockets. Weekend birthdays were so much fun too; at my old house, I could stand at the top of the stairs and see straight down to the table done up in all its birthday fun. Unfortunately, our hallway creaked so my parents always knew when I was awake trying to get a glimpse of my presents and quickly told me to go back to bed.

Nowadays though, I can't see anything from upstairs except more stairs. And with each birthday comes the "So when are you going to..." questions that I just don't have answers to. But that doesn't make it any less fun. There are always surprises and unexpected fun things happening that I love. The day is just the same as when I was a little kid, but on a more adult scale; for example, my friend gave me Hello Kitty Rosé wine (which I've been looking for everywhere, I might add)!

So yes, while the pink, sparkly birthdays filled with Barbies are in the past, my birthdays today are still pink and sparkly, but filled with Hello Kitty Rosé. And cupcakes. What else?

Halloween, Anyone?

I love Halloween, mostly just the cute aspects of it since I despise being scared. Seriously, I hit the haunted house at Universal Studios a couple of years ago because my brother told me it was just a set display from the movie, "Van Helsing." Stupid, stupid, stupid. I had tall, ugly things hovering over, popping out and grabbing at me and monsters shouting at me and all in all, I was NOT amused. I don't mind thrill rides, gory movies, gross costumes, etc. but put me somewhere where things are supposed to pop out at you and you'll have me running for the exit.
If you like that sort of thing, here's a video I found on youtube of that Van Helsing haunted house, click the "play" button below to watch, or click on the box and it'll take you to a larger version on youtube. Remember, when you go through it, you can barely see anything so when you're walking, you have no idea what's coming:





Anyway, my Halloweens have gradually gotten more boring every year. Last year I was a fairy, I found THE cutest short blue prom-style dress with lots of layers and got a huge pair of fairy wings literally 2 days before Halloween. We had all planned on either going to a huge party or to something downtown called Monster Bash. One of our friends then got sick so we ended up sitting at another friend's house and chatting. While I was wearing aforementioned gigantic fairy wings. Lame, lame lame.

This year, we're having a huge party ourselves and it will be amazing! I'm planning on wearing this adorable sailor costume I got today:




Unfortunately, they make these costumes for people who are TALL, not 5'2 like I am. So I'll need to hike it up a bit and secure it with some of my trusty fashion tape (such a lifesaver, that stuff) and it'll be perfect. I'm already excited and can't wait to wear it!

And in keeping with my whole "Wear something I made, it's great advertising," I'll be wearing one of my gold glitter star rings, like these:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/58799839/red-or-blue-glitter-resin-star-ring


Yay!

You Need This Guy in Your Life: JRandall!

I usually don't write posts about music but I just recently heard his single, "Spirit of the Radio" on the radio and loved it immediately. At first, I thought it was by some well known artist like Jay Sean or Jason DeRulo, but it was only when I heard the song a second time a couple days later, they introduced it as being by a new artist named JRandall! Being the curious person I am (I pretty much research everything I'm interested in), I wanted to find out about him so I searched around on Youtube and found the video to the song, which is from the Step Up 3D soundtrack. Again, I LOVED it. Anyway, I'm so looking forward to his album which is supposed to drop next year and I feel like he has the potential to knock the Biebs off of his musical throne. Plus, JRan is a better dancer and has songs you actually won't mind getting stuck in your head all day, so there you have it. Who says the teenyboppers are the only ones who can have a hot new singer?

You follow him on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/JRandalland

And see his "Spirit of the Radio" video here:






UPDATE as of 10/6: You can now hear JRandall's new song, "Oo La La" which features Akon, via the Just Jared blog:
http://justjared.buzznet.com/2010/10/06/jrandall-oo-la-la-song-premiere-with-akon/


Or here on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE28bOT14QU


Oui, oui!

Absolutely Delish- Grecian Party Squares!

This appetizer has been one of my favorites for a few years; my mom used to have Pampered Chef parties and the sales lady that would be there would always have these for everyone to try. Normally I'm pretty picky about food and refuse to eat spinach (Popeye, I am not!); but these are amazing and the spinach just blends in so well with the other flavors, I don't even notice it. We made these over the weekend when we had family visiting and I've been enjoying them!

Here's the recipe (do note, they are telling you to use specific cookware or baking items, this is just because they want you to buy them at the parties. Your normal cookware will be just fine):

Grecian Party Squares

2 packages (8 ounces each) refrigerated crescent rolls
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1 envelope (.9 ounce) dry vegetable soup and dip mix
1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
1 can (14 ounces) artichoke hearts in water, drained and chopped
1 can (8 ounces) sliced water chestnuts, drained and chopped
1 package (4 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
1 garlic clove, pressed
1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375°F. Unroll one package of crescent dough across one end of Stoneware Bar Pan with longest sides of dough across width of pan. Repeat with remaining package of dough, filling pan. Using Baker's Roller(TM), roll dough to seal perforations and press up sides to form crust. Bake 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown; remove from oven to Stackable Cooling Rack.

Meanwhile, in Classic Batter Bowl, combine mayonnaise, sour cream and soup mix; mix well. Drain spinach in small Colander, squeezing out as much moisture as possible; add to batter bowl. Drain artichokes and water chestnuts in colander; chop with Food Chopper. Add artichokes, water chestnuts, feta cheese and garlic pressed with Garlic Press to batter bowl; mix well.

Spread spinach mixture evenly over crust. Using Deluxe Cheese Grater, grate Parmesan cheese over filling. Bake 10-12 minutes or until heated through. Remove from oven; cut into squares with Utility Knife. Serve using Mini-Serving Spatula.

Yield: 24 appetizers

Nutrients per serving: (1 square): Calories 150, Total Fat 10 g, Saturated Fat 3 g, Cholesterol 10 mg, Carbohydrate 12 g, Protein 4 g, Sodium 360 mg, Fiber 2 g

Cook's Tip: One-half of a 1.7-ounce envelope dry vegetable soup and dip mix can be substituted for the .9-ounce envelope, if desired.

Source: Pampered Chef




They will look like this once you get them all cut up and ready to serve. This is not my picture, it was found on a Google search so credit goes to that person!