Saved by the bell memories.....

Mini Pies....

Today I made some mini pies. I got the idea from Julia, who got her idea from Bakerella. I decided to make the pies without the sticks. I thought this would be a wonderful dessert for someone that just wanted a little bit of pie.

Ingredients:

Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts

Fresh fruit or canned fruit

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is preheating, spray your baking sheet with pam spray. Then on a flat surface with some flour, unroll your pie crust (roll with rolling pin) and cut into circles.

Next, put a circle on the pan. Then add your filling. I used cherry for one pan and apple for the other. Then add another circle for the top. Close off by using a fork or by pinching the top and bottom together with your fingers.

Let them bake, and once you take out of the oven move them to a cooling rack.

When serving you could add a dollop of cool whip or a dollop of Vanilla ice cream. I had my brother, Kirk be the guinea pig. He tried the apple and he loved it!! YEY!! :) I can't wait to share with everyone. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!! :)

I can't wait till May!!! :)

Sex and the City 2 in HD

Trailer Park | MySpace Video

More Truffles....

On Monday, I decided to make some more truffles. This time I made Chocolate Mint truffles and Milk Chocolate peanut butter truffles.

Above is a picture of the Chocolate mint truffles. I used mint morsels for the inside. I melted some white chocolate but for some reason couldn't get it to stick to the truffle, so I used milk chocolate instead. On top I put some crushed candy cane.

I ran out of milk chocolate so these didn't get the second coating of chocolate. I just sprinkled crushed candy cane on top of them. They are still very good. :)

Here are some Peanut butter truffles with milk chocolate. I like them better than using semi sweet chocolate. I'm a milk chocolate girl! :)

Easy Delicious Semi-Homemade Doughnuts

Today, I decided to make some doughnuts. I used to make these when I was little for my brother and sister. They are very easy to make and take no time at all.

First off, you need a can of biscuits, vegetable oil, a soda/pop bottle top, sugar, cinnamon, and powdered sugar.

Put Vegetable oil in a deep pan and let it heat up.

Take the biscuits out of the can. Use the soda top to take out the middle. Keep the little ones because that's what makes the doughnut holes. :)

In one large ziploc bag put powdered sugar and in another bag mix some white sugar and cinnamon.

By this time the oil should be heated up nice and hot. Add the doughnuts carefully. They cook very quickly. I think 30 seconds and they are ready to be flipped.

Once flipped, let them cook on the other side till they are golden brown. Once they are done, lay the doughnuts on a plate that's covered with paper towels to drain the grease. After all the big doughnuts are taken out put the little holes in. They cook really fast and roll over on their own.

The doughnuts draining on paper towels.

Add the doughnuts to the desired bags for cinnamon or powdered sugar.

Don't they look cute? :)

Monkey Bread....

I decided to make some Monkey bread today. The last time I made it I was in high school and I've been in a baking mood lately, so I figured I would go ahead and make it.

It's very simple to make. :)

What you need to make it:

4 cans refrigerator biscuits (about 40)
1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup pecans, raisins and/or coconut (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Bring brown sugar and butter to a boil in saucepan, then let it cool.

Take biscuits out of cans and cut each biscuit into 4 pieces.

I put the cut pieces into a bowl. Pour sugar and cinnamon into a plastic bag and mix. Add cut biscuit pieces, several at a time; shake to coat.

Then place the pieces into the coated Bundt pan until all are used. At this time you can sprinkle the layers with nuts, raisins or coconut if you choose to use them.

Once all the pieces are layered into the bundt pan pour the sugar and butter mix over the top.

Then bake for 45 min. Let it cool for about 15 min before removing from the pan. Turn upside down to serve. The reason Monkey bread is called monkey bread is b/c you 'pick' like a monkey when you eat it. :)

Christmas fun in Richmond....

Last night, Nate and I went to Kristen and Dave's for our yearly Christmas dinner. We do dinner together instead of getting each other Christmas gifts. The last few years we would go to Maggiano's but we figured making dinner would be cheaper. We had lots of good food. (Steak, twice baked potatoes, corn, white macoroni & cheese, rolls and then there was shrimp). MMMM! (except the shrimp...I don't like seafood....bleh)

After dinner we went downtown Richmond to the James Center. It's soooo cute!!!

After the James Center we went back to The Anderls' for Cherry Cheesecake and Truffles.

On the way home, Nate decided to get off 95 (too many crazy drivers) and take Rt. 2 home. We saw lots of deer eating on the side of the road, and one in the middle of the road. Thankfully, we didn't hit any. Made me kinda nervous....Anyways, we got to

the town of bowling green, which is soooo cute. We passed a funeral home that had a water fountain out front and had to stop and look at it. There was a little bit of water running but a lot of it was frozen. Pretty cool!

Truffles.....

Ok, so today I decided to make truffles. I made chocolate truffles and peanut butter truffles. I followed the recipe exact. It was messy but simple. For the peanut butter truffles, I used a bag of Reese's peanut butter morsels. I melted the morsels and mixed it in with 1 8 oz bar of cream cheese. I also mixed in a little bit of sugar and milk. Let it set in the fridge. I think I waited 10 to 15 min. Then I shaped them into little balls putting them on wax paper, which was lined on a cookie sheet. After that I put them in the fridge while I melted some chocolate. Once the chocolate was melted (which I constantly stirred) I pulled out the pan of pb truffles, dipped them in the melted chocolate and set them back on the wax paper. Then I took my sprinkles. (I had red, green and chocolate) and sprinkled them on. Once done I put them back in fridge for an hour. Then you can put them into their containers. They easily, come off the wax paper. :) I also have a bar of white chocolate that I plan to use next time to dip the chocolate truffles into for a mix. :)

Simply Sensational Truffles....

A few weeks ago in the newspaper I found this recipe for Truffles. It's seems so easy to make. After talking to some co-workers today everyone pulled the same recipe out and are planning to make it this holiday season. I think I know what I'm doing on Sunday. :) And how can you go wrong with cream cheese and chocolate? :)

What You Need:
2-1/2 pkg. (8 squares each) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate (20 squares), divided
1 pkg.

(8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

decorations: chopped PLANTERS COCKTAIL Peanuts, multi-colored sprinkles


How to make It:
MELT 8 chocolate squares. Beat cream cheese with mixer until creamy. Blend in melted chocolate. Refrigerate until firm.

SHAPE into 36 balls. Place on waxed paper-covered baking sheet.

MELT remaining chocolate. Use fork to dip truffles in chocolate; return to baking sheet. Decorate, then refrigerate 1 hour.

Fun Friday in FXBG.....

Today, I met Jessica at the station and took her to lunch for her birthday. We shared a pizza at Castiglia's. It was good as always. After we stuffed ourselves, eating 3 slices a piece we walked around downtown. We figured we would walk off the pizza. And we had our winter coats, gloves and scarves. So we were prepared!!! :) We did some window shopping and even checked out some of the cute shops. We found some cute things and some not cute things or even some very expensive things. :) We didn't buy anything but it was fun!

We finally stumbled upon Whittingham storefront window display. They are known for having wonderful window displays throughout the year and I couldn't wait to see the talked about windows. The display had little mice doing all sorts of little things. My favorite part was the little mice in the mine shaft digging up diamonds and other jewels. Too cute!! :) Here are just some pictures of the mice....



They also had a little bar set up with stools and the seats were ritz crackers. :) I liked it all!!

After all that we went to our Christmas party at our General Managers house. It was fun. Jess and I left at 6:30 so I could come to work and so that Jess could get on the road to head home to Burke. It was a nice day!! :)

A blast from the past...

An old childhood friend (Stacy) sent me this photo on myspace. Look how young we look. It's from 1999. Ahhhhhhh MEMORIES! :)

100 and counting....

YEY!! This is my 100th POST! :)

Awww....

Harley and Lizzy love the Christmas tree. :)

Surprise 2009

Today, I threw a surprise birthday party for Nathan, Kristen and Dave. Melissa came over early and helped me set up with decorations and helped me with the potatoes. I really hate peeling potatoes. It takes too long. :) The party started at 2pm. Just about everyone that was invited made it. Kristen and Dave thought once they got to my house that we would be going out to dinner. Just the four of us. Little did they know that about 20 guests would be here. We had homemade Macoroni and cheese, homemade Mashed potatoes, KFC Fried/Grilled chicken, cole slaw, green beans, baked beans and biscuits. Then of course, a birthday cake and ice cream. MMMM-MMMM good! :) I think we all stuffed ourselves silly and enjoyed each others company.

Here's some of the balloons that Melissa had brought.

Nathan, Kristen and Dave getting ready to blow out the candles.

Lora's daughter Olivia. We call her Livi. She is very well behaved and just too darn cute.

Opening the gifts....

Adam and Dave being silly. :)

My dad and Nate's dad just chatting in the living room. Gene looks sleepy. LOL

I hadn't made Homemade Macoroni & Cheese in a while so I thought it would be good with the dinner. It was marvelous!! :)

Lizzy

This is our other cat, Lizzy. She's a little shy. I snapped this photo of her earlier today and thought it turned out pretty cute.

First snow of the season on Nate's 30th birthday.... :)