Salted Chocolate Truffles

Not the greatest picture ever, but these were so good! The salt with the dark chocolate was amazing. I think they were slightly too chocolatey for Brandon (if that's even possible), but for a true chocoholic like myself they were absolutely perfect.

Martha Stewart Magazine will be the death of me.

If anyone reading this has come across this magazine and thought to themselves, "Hm, this would be a fantastic recipe to try"- please, I beg you, flip the page. Brandon and my Mom can attest to the fact that this recipe was not only quite difficult but single handedly allowed us to dirty every bowl and spatula in my Mom's kitchen (which is saying something considering my Mom has so many bowls and spatula's we don't know what to do with them all). Maybe it was the fact that my pregnant and irritable self didn't have enough patience while making them, maybe it was the fact that we were rushing out to dinner that night, or maybe it was the fact that there was my beautiful christmas tree waiting to be decorated... whatever the case, these *individual* {cough-cough-GIANT) Martha desserts were more trouble than they're worth. Mom's original chocolate mousse recipe still reigns supreme althought we liked the cake recipe and the mousse had its strong points. We all decided that just ONE of those rounds is enough dessert for 4 people (unless your name is Jacquie and you happen to be pregnant with one very hungry baby girl!). And on a side note I have to mention that little Sammy loved the mousse because it lacked the strong coffee that Mom's mousse (originally my Aunt Sharon's recipe) calls for.

Ana's Candy Buffet

Here are some shots of Ana's Candy Buffet. The girls loved it and I thought it came out looking very cute! (Then again I'm a candy lover so how could you not just love a table full of it?!). But special thanks to my wonderful husband ;) who transported and set up the ENTIRE thing with Mr. B since I had to take my Praxis II exam. He did such a nice job didn't he?!

Cake Pops for Ana

These were part of a dessert/candy bar I did for Ana's 8th brithday party. Pictures of that should be up soon! These little cupcake pops were a hit- vanilla cake and vanilla frosting on the inside, chocolate candy coating on the outside.

Mountain Dew Cake

I made this for my hopelessly-addicted-to-Mountain-Dew-boyfriend haha. It wasn't anything too crazy but the recipe used 20 oz. of Mt. Dew. It tasted like a sweet lemon/lime cake. The icing glaze is also Mt. Dew and powdered sugar. He liked it and so did I, but like I said, it was nothing too crazy.

S'mores Bars

Who doesn't love graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows? These were incredible (esp. hot and gooey right out of the oven). Got the recipe from the Favorite Desserts issue of Paula Dean's magazine. Really easy recipe that's so delicious!

My Best Gingerbread House Ever!

I finally got to make my own gingerbread house this year. Don't get me wrong, I've LOVED, loved, loved making them from the pampered chef stone mold my mom has used for the longest time, I just wanted something bigger and different this year for my house. And I really wanted to try making the stained glass candy sugar windows (which worked beautifully!). Thanks Nick for helping me with that. It was alot more difficult to roll out and cut the dough myself than I had thought it would be. It was thin and cracked easily and was hard to roll out big enough. Cutting through the dough would distort the shape (which would be so important to the integrity of the structure come building time...). But I made it work. I had to make 2 huge recipes to squeeze in all that I wanted to do. The Necco wafer roof was a nightmare because all the Necco's came out of their package broken! Thanks to my Mom who helped me pick all of the good ones out. I used chiclets as little lights around the house, and lots of cut up candy canes. The wreaths are M&M's and the tree is an ice cream cone!! The walkway is nerds (idea courtesy of the gingerbread houses Brandon and I saw in PPG place when we went ice skating one night. Anyway, anyone in Pittsburgh should go check out all those houses. School kids made them all from around the area and they are really fun to look at and get ideas from if your into the whole gingerbread thing!). But anyway I'll post the recipe for the gingerbread and icing incase anyone wants to try it.

One of the Family Traditional Favorites

This dessert is always the first request from my brother's and I for special occasions. This is one dessert I'll have to give alot of credit to my mom on. I have never tried to make it by myself, but I am going to try it as individual puffs next time. It's alot of work to make, but it is so delicious and the leftovers (when there are any) get even better in the refrigerator overnight! The shell is a light pastry dough arranged in a ring before it bakes. This way, it bakes up into a ring of connected big round puffs that are really attractive on a nice round tray. We pull out the extra inside dough so there is plenty of room for the custard that goes inside. Then we drizzle the top liberally with a thick chocolate sauce. It's so good! I'm all excited thinking about it now haha.

Best Apple Pie EVER.

This is a variation on my Mom's apple pie (which is the only apple pie I have ever LOVED). It has a little bit of nutmeg and lemon juice in it and uses vegetable shortening instead of crisco. There's also a bit of sugar in the crust. (I'm trying out the vegan thing, so this is a vegan suitable recipe, nothing weird in it tho.) The crust was tricky and crumbly but it baked into a perfect flaky crust. So tasty.

Homemade amazing truffles!

These were so tasty! The centers were chocolate amaretto, then each one was dipped in coffee flavored chocolate. After that, they were either rolled in cocoa powder, powdered sugar, chopped chocolate, crushed pistacchio's, crushed cashew's, or left plain and delicious. A personal favorite was the pistacchio's. The salt on the nut and the sweet chocolate were perfect together.

Black Raspberry Meltaways

Tried a new recipe with Adam's favorite jam... they were pretty good! Hope you liked them babe, happy anniversary!!!