Merry Christmas… Oreo truffles
Our laptop has been visiting the Nerd Herd this week, so I’m just now getting to post. By way of an apology, enjoy some truffles.
My grandmother gave me this recipe, and my boys adore these truffles. I’ve already made two batches of them this year, and I’m going to make another this afternoon.
Meemaw’s Oreo Truffles
1 block cream cheese
1 package Double Stuf Oreos
1 package chocolate chips or melting chocolate
a little bit of vegetable oil
In a food processor (you can use a blender, but be careful to use the pulse feature and do small batches so as to not burn up the motor - this is thick stuff!). Then, with your mixer, blend the softened cream cheese and Oreos.
Put that in the fridge for a bit to set.
Microwave the chocolate chips with the oil (1 tsp. oil per cup of chips) until smooth. Form the Oreo mixture into balls and dip into the chocolate. Chill the dipped truffles to set the chocolate.
You can also roll them in powdered sugar. The sugar will eventually melt into the truffles and give the look of a clear glaze.
These are very rich, so make the truffles small.
Tagged with: Holiday Plan • Merry Christmas • oreo truffles
Merry Christmas… Chel’s Homemade Butter Mints
I made these one year on a whim, having found the recipe in the now-defunct “Rosie” magazine, and they were such a hit that they are now a holiday tradition.
My friend, Linda, gets butter mints every year for her birthday, and I’m pretty sure she’d be annoyed if I decided one year not to send them.
Chel’s Butter Mints
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tbs plus 2 tsp whipping cream
- 1 tsp peppermint extract (I eyeball it.)
- red and green food coloring
In a large bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add sugar, cream and extract. Beat until combined. The mixture will be very thick. If it seems too dry, however, drizzle in a bit more cream. If it’s too wet, add more sugar.
If you want two colors, divide the mixture in half. If not, go ahead and add the food color of your choice and mix until blended. If you’ll use a concentrated paste coloring, the colors will be more vibrant.
You can either pipe them into stars (very pretty) or use a cookie press and make straws with them (easy, what I usually do).
I’m also trying (this morning!) rolling the dough out and cutting the mints with tiny cookie cutters.
You’ll need to drop them onto wax paper and let them dry overnight. In the morning, you’ll carefully flip them and let the underside dry.
The outside will be dry and crispy with soft, creamy insides.
They’ll keep for several weeks if you can keep folks from eating them for that long.
(In terms of how long they’re shelf-stable and edible, Linda one time found a batch at the alumni house of the college where we both worked … they were left over from the holiday party a few weeks prior. She ate the whole thing & said she was fine.)
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Merry Christmas… the Santa Letters
Every year, I write letters from Santa to send to the kids. It started with my kids and grew to my kids and the cousins and grew to those kids and kids of my friends and grew and grew.
They’re pretty darned good, too, if I do say so myself. My nephew, Hayden, was talking with his mom, Stacy, and with Griff recently about how he knew about Santa but he couldn’t figure out who sent the letters. “Oh, that’s my mom,” Griff said. Must be pretty good if he was still confused about them.
I send a list of questions to all of the mamas on my list, and they answer the questions about each child. Then, I write a different letter for each kid with personal information. I print them on holiday stationery and send them in holiday envelopes with a return label reading “Santa Claus, North Pole.” A little holiday postage & we’re all good.
And now I’m thinking I’ll share…
If you’d like me to include your child in my list, I’ll be happy to do so. You’ll have to chip in a little bit for postage and stationery, but not much. Or if you’d like to make your own, I’ll post my list of questions for the mamas and daddies and then a sample of my letter.
Let me know if you’re interested.
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Holiday Plan… Chel’s Cheese Ball Delight
I’m thinking that sometime later this week, I’ll make the first cheese ball of the season. It has such a tacky name… Come on, let’s have some cheese balls! Really. Tacky. But they’re yummy. So until someone comes up with a better name, that’s what we have.
Here’s the recipe. Adjust it to taste. Enjoy. (And for the record… everyone’s gonna love these. When Publix puts crackers on buy one, get one… buy several. I’ve got five boxes in the pantry now.)
Chel’s Cheese Ball Delight
- 1 box cream cheese (I use the low fat… not full fat, not no fat, low fat…. middle of the road.)
- 1 small box of Velveeta
- coupla shakes of garlic salt
Ok. Now, that’s the base. Let the cheese sit until they’re soft enough to mix. Or if you have a stand mixer, let it do the work for you. Put the mix in the fridge for 30 minutes or so until it chills and it easier to roll.
While it’s chilling, put wax paper on your countertop. Sprinkle chili powder on the wax paper. Form the cheese into whatever size balls you prefer (see, tacky). Roll them into the chili powder till coated. Now, I make small balls (again, tacky) because I like lots of chili powder in every bite.
Variations:
- Add a bit of basil or thyme to the cheese instead of garlic salt
- Ditch the chili powder & roll them in chopped nuts
- Roll them in fresh herbs
- Mix green onions into the cheese mix
Use your imagination. Think of what you like. And go from there. Keep these in the fridge. Let me know how you like them.
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Chel’s Holiday Plan … the Cards
Ok, the next step in my holiday plan.
In terms of Thanksgiving cards, I send a handful. If I remember. I’ve got other stresses at Thanksgiving (namely, my parents coming to visit for a week AND STAYING IN MY HOUSE THAT ENTIRE WEEK). If you get a gobbler card from me, yippee. If not, eat your turkey and say a little prayer for my sanity. Actually, do that even if you get a Turkey Day card.
Now, for Christmas cards… that’s another story. Here’s my plan. I follow it with much success every year.
Take your list (made during the initial Question stage), however long it is, and cut 10 percent. Just delete them. If you’ve only got 10 names on the list, cut one. If you’ve got 40, cut four. It’s not an unreasonable amount, and quite frankly, it helps me feel like I’m paring down, making things easier for myself.
It may only be in my head, but it helps. And never have more than 50 people on the list. That’s just unmanageable, I think. But that’s just me. (Keep in mind what stamps cost these days when you’re making your card list!)
Everything else can be done in small blocks of time, so it’s not so overwhelming. I can do an amazing amount of stuff while I watch an evening of television.
1) If you’re buying cards, decide if you want plain cards from the store that you can drop a photo into or photo cards. If you want photo cards, start taking those family pictures and uploading them to Snapfish or some such place as soon as you get the tree up. Order photo cards soon. The earlier you order, the less expensive the cards!
2) Plan to address envelopes (or key in labels) one evening watching television (if you don’t watch tv, I don’t think I can help you. I mean, really.). Stick the labels and stamps another evening. You can buy stamps online to avoid the line at the P.O. and to be sure that you get the cute stamps. And for me, cute stamps are important.
3) If you’re making your cards (which I did last year for the first and final year), make a list of everything you’ll need to make them and buy those things all in one shopping trip. Then, decide when you’re going to make them. Set aside an hour or two or three or whatever, but do it in one block. And decide that you’ll do it all in that amount of time and that whatever doesn’t get done, just won’t. And that’s fine.
4) I always take my stack of envelopes and make two stacks - the folks who get a name signed to the card & the folks who get a short note. And I mean a short note! (If I get photo cards, the note is printed on them, so this step is already done!) Then, I do the signing and note writing. (For those of you who get more than a quick note from me, hush up about it, huh? Don’t want people getting jealous.)
And now, I know there are people who want to write big newsy letters about what happened in their family all year long. I hate those. If I don’t know you well enough to have a general knowledge about what happened in the last year, why are you sending me a card? I want a photo of you and the kids. That’s it. I don’t need to know all of your accomplishments. Let’s not try to make everyone else feel icky about themselves by sharing how fabulous you are. Sheesh. But again, that’s just me.
If that’s your thing, however… Buy recycled paper and use a font big enough for us to play the error game without losing our eyesight (Those of you who know me and Mike in real life know we like to edit stuff that comes in the mail for errors. We’re comfortable with our dork status.).
Now, I’m updating this some this year for financial reasons.This year, I’m willing to acknowledge that e-cards or bloggy cards or special web pages aren’t a bad way to communicate holiday love with those people who may be on the fringes of your card list anyway. (Pretty frickin’ holiday generous of me, huh?)
Now, go make a list! And I wanna be on it!
Griff and Eliza in front of the Chrismon tree at our former church. He was six, and she was two.
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