December 5, 2009

Chad comes home today!!! I have kept myself and my children very busy and the time has passed quickly, but it is time for Chad to come home. We miss him. Day before yesterday when we walked in the front door, Jack said "Wow Nixin. We can't even say "Hi" to dad. That is so sad." And yesterday when I was talking to Nixin he thought that I said something about Vegas. He said to me "Mom, you just said a swear! Vegas is a swear word because that is where they made dad go." I think they miss their daddy.


My cute cousin Hollee came by this morning with her sweet kids, Mickey and Dahlia. We decided to have a candy making morning and it turned out to be a lot of fun. We made a variety of Fudge, Oreo Truffles, and Pretzel Turtles. Everything is SO YUMMY! I need to watch myself so I don't eat it all! I loved everything that we made, so I want to share the recipes. Here they go!

Foolproof Fudge


2 cups milk chocolate chips
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
Dash salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, or other extracts as desired
Chopped nuts, chopped candies, extracts, or other additions as desired*

1.In heavy saucepan, over low heat, melt chocolate chips with sweetened condensed milk and salt. Remove from heat; stir in additions and extracts as desired.
2.Spread evenly into wax-paper-lined square pans. Chill 2 hours or until firm.
3.Lift fudge out of pan and place onto cutting board; peel off paper and cut into squares. Store covered in refrigerator.

* We divided our fudge into 5 different portions. In the first we added 1/4 tsp. orange extract to make orange fudge. We added vanilla to the rest of the batch and then added different candies/nuts. To the first, chopped almonds. Then chopped snickers, chopped SKOR bar, and finally chopped Twix. Keep a small portion of each candy out of the fudge and then sprinkle on the top after spreading it into the containers. They all turned out amazing, I still can't decide which is my favorite!

Easy Oreo Truffles


1 (16 ounce) package OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, divided
1 (8 ounce) package Cream Cheese, softened
2 (8 ounce) packages BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, melted

1.Crush 9 of the cookies to fine crumbs in food processor; reserve for later use. (Cookies can also be finely crushed in a resealable plastic bag using a rolling pin.) Crush remaining 36 cookies to fine crumbs; place in medium bowl. Add cream cheese; mix until well blended. Roll cookie mixture into 42 balls, about 1-inch in diameter.
2.Dip balls in chocolate; place on wax paper-covered baking sheet. (Any leftover chocolate can be stored at room temperature for another use.) Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.
3.Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store leftover truffles, covered, in refrigerator.

Pretzel Turtles


20 small mini pretzels
20 chocolate covered caramel candies
20 pecan halves

1.Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
2.Arrange the pretzels in a single layer on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Place one chocolate covered caramel candy on each pretzel.
3.Bake for 4 minutes. While the candy is warm, press a pecan half onto each candy covered pretzel. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

There you have it, three easy holiday recipes.

Today's Activity: Candy Making