Festive Fudge Blossoms

I am a big fan of making super easy recipes and letting everyone think you slaved away for hours. This is a very basic recipe that you can play with and make tons of different versions of it.

Ingredients:
1 box (18.25 ounces) of chocolate fudge cake mix (told you it was easy, starts with a box!)
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg, slightly beaten
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts (or any nut)
48 hershey's kisses, or hugs, or peanut butter cups

1. Preheat oven to 350. Cut butter into cake mix in large bowl until it resembles course crumbs. Stir in egg and 2 tablespoons water until well blended.

2. Shape dough into 1/2 inch balls, or use small cookie scooper. Roll the balls into the chopped nuts, pressing nuts gently into dough. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake cookies 12 minutes or until puffy and nearly set. Place candy in center of each cookie, bake one minute more. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Fudge Cake Balls

One of the most popular baking sites on the interwebs is Bakerella, and spending too much time on there will make your pants tight. Making truffle like cake balls is so easy though and they come out so amazing, you just have to do it.

Here is what you do: bake a cake from the box, any flavor. I used devil's food cake. After it cools, crumble it up in a large bowl. If you have a kitchenaid mixer or any stand mixer, just throw it there on low and let the mixer break it up. Then dump in a container of icing, and flavor. I used a can of milk chocolate. Once it is all mixed up, roll the mix into little balls or use a cookie scooper, my favorite thing ever. Put them in the fridge to harden for about an hour. Then melt down some of your favorite chocolate chips. The best way to do this is to boil a small saucepan of water, then place a glass bowl on top of the pot and pour the chips in. Do not let the water touch the bowl. Stir until melted and smooth, then roll the cake balls around in there until they are coated, and place on wax paper.

You can decorate them if you wish by swirling different kinds of chocolate on top, sprinkles, nuts, or icing. We had some leftover pink icing so I piped that on top to make it look more holiday like. Refrigerate till it is time to serve them.

Chicken Pot Pie

I saw this recipe on my friend Devynn's cooking blog, and I have made it several times since then. The good thing about chicken pot pie is you can use whatever you have on hand, so we have never made the exact same one twice. Sometimes I make my own pie crust, sometimes I use pillsbury biscuits on top, and this is the easiest and tastes the best: bisquick mix on top. This particular time, I was lame and used a store bought crust because I had no time to make one.
Anyway, here is the recipe for the inner goods:

CHICKEN POT PIE
Prep: 40 minutes Bake: 35 minutes 6 servings
Oven: 425 degrees Pan: 9x9x2

1 package (10 ounces) frozen peas and carrots (or whatever veggies you want to use, broccoli is REALLY good in this)
1/3 cup butter or stick margarine
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 3/4 cup chicken broth
2/3 cup milk
Pastry crust: make your own or use store bought

1. Please frozen veggies in a bowl and cover in cold water to separate (drain before adding)
2. Melt butter in 2-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add flour, onion, salt and pepper (makes a roux). Cook and stir constantly until mixture is bubbly, remove from heat and stir in broth and milk. Remember to remove from heat so you don't scald the milk. Return to heat and oil, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in chicken and veggies, remove from heat.
3. Heat oven to 425 degrees.
4. Make pastry (I do this first) roll two-thirds of hte pastry into a 13-inch square. Ease into an ungreased 9x9x2. Pour chicken mixture into pastry-lined dish.
5. Roll remaining pastry into 11-inch square. You can cut out designs and stuff with a cookie cutter and make it all pretty, I just cut slits in the top on the diagonalto let air vent. Turn edges of the pastry and cut off the excess.
6. Bake about 35 minutes or until golden brown.





My hubby adores this recipe, and we usually serve it with mashed potatoes. Enjoy!

Crockpot Roasting Chicken

I picked up a 5 pound roasting chicken at Winn-Dixie for 6 bucks yesterday. I have always wanted to make a whole chicken in the crockpot, and after how wonderful my Thanksgiving turkey came out, I was itching to make it this week. I skinned the chicken to the best of my ability, took out the neck parts, and this chicken actually came with a packet of seasoning. I had a recipe I was going to use that involved 6 or so different spices, but I decided to be lazy and use the packet it came with. I coated the chicken on all sides, and turned it on low at 10 AM this morning. When I came home from work at 8:30, this is what I saw:



It looked great and the house smelled divine. You can see just how much seasoning came in the packet! My husband asked me if there was any pepper left in the house. Hmph. I cooked it on low for 9 hours, and then my programmable crockpot switched to warm around 7 tonight and I threw a chicken pasta side in the microwave, steamed some corn, and that's whats for dinner. Holy tenderness batman!

Lemon Cake

My hubby requested a lemon cake for his birthday back in August, so I asked his grandma for the recipe he loves. I whipped up this super simple cake a few months back, and Yvonne's mom had a slice of it and she loved it. It was so moist even though I had made it almost a week earlier before she tasted it. So when her birthday came around last week, I recreated the cake and brought it to her house, along with all the Christmas gifts Yvonne gave me in NC to bring home to her family. It was fun playing Santa!

Lemon Cake ingredients:

1 package of lemon cake w/out pudding

1 pack lemon jello

¾ cup water

4 eggs

¾ c Wesson oil

Blend all together, beat 4 mins on high, scrape sides as it mixes.

Grease and flour 9 inch springform pan.

Bake at 350 for one hour.

I drizzled half a cup of melted cream cheese frosting over the cake to make a glaze-like topping. Top it with whatever you wish, powdered sugar or white chocolate would also be yummy.

Our Thanksgiving Vacation

We left South Florida on the Friday before Thanksgiving, and stayed the night at Ollie's grandma's house in Daytona. Charles came with us and she thought he was a very pretty kitty. The next morning we drove the rest of the way to Weaverville, NC which is a few miles outside of Asheville. We were there all the way until the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so we did a lot of things and also had plenty of time to relax. This is pretty much what we did:

Saturday: arrived in Weaverville and visited Ollie's friend Ben in their new home and saw his brand new baby Henry, what a cutie.

Sunday: went food shopping, fixed the water heater so we can finally take showers, and attended Sage's memorial service (see previous post.)

Monday: Went shopping at Asheville Mall and left our wedding rings at Helzberg to get redipped and made all shiny and new again.

Tuesday: We drove to the top of Mount Mitchell, which is the highest peak east of the Mississippi. Then we hiked to the top of Mt. Craig which is the next peak over) and then back down again. To get there you need to drive for a good while up the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were up so high that the weather was below us.



you can see the weather below us in the background









Wednesday: We had lunch at the Moe's in Biltmore Village (yes, there is a Moe's! I can officially live here now) after we visited Asheville's Urgent Care Clinic so I can take my drug test for the job offer I had received earlier that day. We also traveled to the nearby town of Marshall to check out the real estate in the area. It is a dream of ours to move to western NC in the near future, but Marshall was definitely way too much out in the sticks for us. My BFF Yvonne and her husband Tony also arrived super late that night from TN to spend the holiday weekend with us.

Thursday: Before we left in the morning, I prepared my turkey for the crockpot and left it simmering all day. Since we weren't going to be home, we couldn't leave the oven on so this worked out perfectly. We visited the Biltmore Estate, spent some time wine tasting, and just enjoying the life of the ridiculously wealthy. The estate is over 800 acres, and the home is 175,000 square feet. It is the largest private residence in the United States, and this is only the summer home for the Vanderbilt family.

We picked up a foreclosure while we were there...



The view from the terrace



Here we are posing with Charles' older cousin



And then we tasted all the wine we could.... with a baby.



When we got home, the turkey was ready and we were starving. Yvonne and I whipped up the other side dished, and we dove in. This was my favorite turkey I had ever eaten, so tender and juicy it all fell apart. I used a turkey breast, a stick of butter, a can of broth, salt and pepper, and let it go for about 8 hours. Here are some pics of our feast (please excuse the weaponry on the table, silly boys!)





We had tons of leftovers so we had Thanksgiving part 2 on Saturday night.

Friday: This is my first year not braving the crowds at 4 AM to partake in my favorite shopping day. For once, I actually did not need or want anything. I am guessing it is because we got married this year and got our share of stuff for awhile. We did brave the mall later that day to check out new cell phones and see the deals they were offering. I was about to get the Droid but I am still holding out for an iphone, we shall see what happens in a few months. For lunch we had good ole' BBQ at Luella's BBQ. Back at the house, we found some expired cans of food in the pantry, so the guys decided to use them for target practice. The girls got turns too, but the guys were too busy telling us how to shoot to take our pictures. Bah humbug.










We visited with the neighbors that maintain the property that my in-laws own up there (where we were staying) and also went to downtown Asheville that night to eat at Wasabi's for some good sushi. It was freezing outside so there weren't really too many hippies around. I really wanted Yvonne to see how many there normally are around town.

Saturday: Ollie decided to drive us to a different mall instead of the Asheville Mall we had been to many times already that week. It was called the Biltmore Square Mall, and man was it feeling the brunt of the recession. Almost every store had closed down and all we saw were vacant spaces. Oh well, it was worth driving out there because we passed this road on the way, and had to take a picture:



This sign was actually at the intersection of Ollie Weaver and Ayers Road. How crazy is that?
When we got back into Weaverville, we ate at Blue Mountain Pizza which is the local pizza joint, and the hippies there did not disappoint. That afternoon, we saw the Gators demolish the Seminoles in the swamp. Gator games take priority, even on vacation.

Sunday: we left Weaverville at around 10:30 AM, and got back to South Florida at 3 AM. It was a loooong drive, but the most annoying part was the 3 hour holdup in South Carolina because of the accident on the OTHER side of the highway. That's right, our lanes were free and clear, but everyone needed to stop and slow down to investigate the other side of the highway. I still cannot get over that cost us 3 hours.

Here we have some pictures of the property my husband's parents' own. I am so glad we can visit as often as we want. Can't wait to go back next year!

Charles goes for a walk

It's not often you see a cat being walked on a leash, but we decided to give it a try. We are heading to North Carolina on Friday, and Charles will be going on his first long car ride with us, so we figured he needed to learn how to be walked on a leash at rest stops. My husband had way too much fun doing this. Charles was wary of the harness and leash at first, but now he won't stop scratching at the door to go outside. He is getting pretty big now and is about 8 months old.