Oui, Oui!

My wonderful friend Kate likes holidays. Most holidays. Nope, all holidays. American or not! She's also very patriotic and loves red, white and blue. She got us all excited about Bastille Day (July 14) and invited all the girls over for brie cheese, wine, champagne, etc. I love Kate's enthusiasm for holidays. A LOT. So I got on board.

I decided to make a dessert. Truffles. So I googled "easy truffle recipe". One popped up. I also thought it might be fun to make little french flags to put in the truffles. (**I don't care what anybody thinks about France, I'm indifferent and I like crafts, so zip it) I decided to make the flags first, thinking the truffles wouldn't take too long.

In Word, I made some little french flags and then printed them out. I gathered some toothpicks and some scrapbooking double-sided adhesive tape. I cut out the flags and left a little extra white paper on the side next to the blue part of the flag. I put the tape on that part and then wrapped it around a toothpick.

Success!

So I made 24 more.

When they were finished, I gathered all the materials that I would need for the truffles. Most important: the cookbook macbook with the recipe.

My sous chef was ready to lend a hand.

My favorite part of the recipe was blending together cream cheese and confectioners sugar. Mmmm. I could eat it all day.

Then I melted 3 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave (not cool enough for a picture) and added it to the cream cheese/sugar mixture. It started to thicken immediately and definitely had what I would call a "truffly" texture.

Now time to gather the fun toppings in which to roll the truffles. I had a bag of sliced almonds (they were on sale) so I grabbed the magic bullet and pulverized them.

Success!

Then I gathered cocoa, coconut and more confectioners sugar.

At Michael's, I found some red and blue baking cups! I lined the traveling tupperware with them.

My first truffles!!

Viva la truffles.

Truffle Recipe:

Easy Decadent Truffles

Prep Time:
1 Hr

Ready In:
1 Hr

Original Recipe Yield 5 dozen

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips, melted
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until well blended. Stir in melted chocolate and vanilla until no streaks remain. Refrigerate for about 1 hour. Shape into 1 inch balls.

Footnotes

• Roll truffles in ground walnuts (or any ground nuts), cocoa, coconut, confectioners' sugar, candy sprinkles, etc.
• To flavor truffles with liqueurs or other flavorings, omit vanilla. Divide truffle mixture into thirds. Add 1 tablespoon liqueur (almond, coffee, orange) to each mixture; mix well.

Really Can't Sleep

I am realizing that I will need to get more exercise so that I will actually be able to sleep this summer. It's amazing to me how quickly I have changed sleeping habits. I don't actually like nocturnal summer Caitie, though, because my dog sleeps and I'm awake. Thank goodness that Netflix instant play saves me from bad late night tv.

Since I'm wide awake, I decided to brainstorm a wish list for myself. I have given myself 3 years in which I'll acquire these things, in no particular order.

1. I would like a new memory foam mattress topper. I kind of like this one: mattress topper

2. I would like a new tv for my room. Nothing crazy extravagant. Costco has pretty good deals on hdtvs, though. I'm anticipating spending $250 or so dollars on something nice.

3. I would like a raincoat. I don't actually own one. I envision something like this:

or

4. I would like a tent. I think this one will probably be the first thing I buy. There is a camping trip planned for the beginning of August with Joy and Kevin and friends, and Pheebs and I will need a place to rest our heads. So, I'm looking into tents. So far, I really like these two:

The big debate is this: (because they are the same price- $59.99!) One is a well-known brand (the orange one is a Coleman) but the blue one isn't a name brand. However, the blue one is tall enough that I will be able to stand up in it. So, do I go for height or name brand? Both reviews were good. This debate will continue until I get paid in August.

I'm on a budget, people, that's why it's called a Wish List.

..... time to stop counting tents and start counting sheep.

Who buys unnecessary things?

I bought this on ebay.

Updates to come...

Diablo Dog

It's time for a Phebe Update.

She's officially a puppy. She's getting bigger, she's getting more brave. She's exploring things and sometimes she runs REALLY REALLY fast out of the blue... for no reason at all.

I am having to take her on longer and longer walks to wear her out. And sometimes after I eat macaroni and cheese, I don't want to take her. But I do. Because I love to sleep.

I am realizing that I need to fix my camera. Or possibly get a new one because all the pictures I take look fuzzy and unfocused.

Oooh... maybe I'll do some online research...