guest post: amber's oreo balls

Amber's going to take over on this one. She made these for my birthday today. And yum. Double yum. Infinity yum. Take it away, Ber.

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Well, hello there. *waves shyly*. This morning, I made these oreo balls for Joanna's b-day dessert. Why? Because she requested them, and if I do say so myself, they are quite delicious. I forgot to take a picture of all the ingredients together, but ah, well. I shall tell you what all went into them:
1 package of oreo cookies (please, no generic cookies here--oreos all the way)
1 package of cream cheese
1 package of chocolate candy melts
1 package of vanilla candy melts

First, turn the oreo cookies into oreo crumbs using a food processor. Here's a picture of the crumbs:









Next, add softened cream cheese to the oreo bits. When I say softened, I mean softened. Like room temperature borderline warm and ready to be runny. Believe me, it will make the mixing process so much easier.If you use cold cream cheese you are only asking for a difficult mess. Here's a picture:


Then mix them together (you can use a hand mixer or a blender. I used a hand mixer and a big bowl. And did I mention the softened cream cheese?)

Next--and this will get messy- I suggest you remove all rings at this point- roll into balls, just like you would a buckeye ball. Might I also point out that using a cookie scooper is not a good idea for this because the cookie/cream cheese mixture is so heavy it will break your cookie scoop. And then you might go to Bed Bath and Beyond in search of another one, and they might be out of them......Just sayin'.....
Anyways, here are what the balls look like:

Melt your candy melts - dipping the oreo balls into the vanilla candy melts and then drizzling the vanilla and the chocolate candy melts over the balls.
and-

The final product? Delicousness--and in this case, as they are green and brown, a bit Ninja Turtle looking, don't ya think?



I also made chicken tortilla soup with quesadillas. I would give you a step by step recount of this, but (despite there being a recipe for it) I have my own little additions to it that make it the best chicken tortilla soup in the neighborhood. (If I do say so myself) :-) So, I'll show you most of the ingredients (I forgot to add the onion, flour, and butter to this picture):


Here is a picture of the final product:


All in all, I must say this was some pretty good food. And I'm glad that Joanna was born and that she suggested this for her dinner. :-D

Happy B-day! :-D

belated birthday cheesecakes

I am horribly behind on posting about birthday desserts. I made two cheesecakes in October for the birthdays of Ed and Anthony, and one faux-cheesecake (I say that b/c it wasn't baked and contained Cool Whip.) for Brad in December. I only took photos of the first two, and they were interesting and new recipes for me. Let's start with Ed's - Chocolate peanut butter cheesecake.


That's a LOT of chocolate and a lot of peanut butter and milk fat. Ah, sweet baked goods, how I love you so.

This recipe has you making your own flat cocoa powder cookies first, and then making a crust out of them.

While those are baking, you get started on dollops of peanut butter which are frozen and then dropped into the cheesecake batter later.


(That's in my freezer if you didn't notice in the picture.)

Now it's cheesecake time.


It's starting to smell fantastic at this point. Especially if you are a peanut butter lover like me. I'd eat it plain on big spoons when I was little.

Cookies done and crushed, get them ready to mix with some butter.


I like to put my paw in a plastic bag to form the crust because it sticks much less to the bag than my fingers. And we need all the crust we can get.

Drop the peanut butter bits into the cheesecake. Swoon.


Bake. Make a ganache with cream and chocolate. (My pics all turned out green somehow, so I'm skipping them.)

Top with ganache and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.


Oh yeah. You wish you were friends with Ed so you got a piece of this cheesecake. :)

In a completely different vein of cheesecake baking, I made an orange and cream cheesecake for Anthony's birthday, also in October.


Zest your oranges.


Take the easy way out and use a refrigerated cookie crust for the bottom.


Cover with the orange zest. I know it seems weird. Trust me on that one.

Start on the filling with cream cheese, sugar, and orange marmalade. I felt like Paddington Bear.

There is an orange-colored white chocolate glaze for the top. Add the food coloring in dots.

Pour on top of the baked cheesecake.


I know it kind of looks like a piece of grilled cheese or an egg casserole, but I promise it was good. I think everyone was pleasantly surprised that it tasted as good as it did. Score!

my first gingerbread house

Up until this Christmas, I had never in my 26 years made a gingerbread house. I really wanted to make one this year, so we got a Wilton kit. Next year we're definitely making our own gingerbread and designing it from scratch. But this year, we did way too many projects and had way too many events and things going on to take on that project. Next year we're going to have bay windows and a chimney. :)

First things first. Walls.



And then a roof.



Mark worked on the roof, covering it in royal icing and then adding piping and decorations. I was SO impressed.



I worked on the door and windows, adding awnings with candy. I also added the decorations where the walls join.

We built a Christmas tree on the back and marked it with a 2009 so that we can remember it was our first.


The finished product!



Check back for my bay windows and chimney next year. :)