Thursday, December 24, 2015

2015 Christmas Card

It's that time of year again... the holidays are here!

From our family to yours... Merry Christmas!



    

Friday, December 18, 2015

Christmas Truffle Recipe Round-Up

Can you believe Christmas is NEXT week?! That's right - just one week away!

If you're anything like me, you need gifts for your neighbors... or your kids' teachers... or random family members who show up at holiday parties... or you just need something deliciously sweet to take your mind off of spending so much time with family over the holidays. ;-)

Whatever the case, these four truffle recipes are sure to hit the sweet-tooth spot AND be a big hit at all holiday gatherings.


Last year, I made all four of these truffles, packaged them up all nice and neat in these adorable Christmas tins (from Dollar Tree - holla!), used mini muffin wrappers to individually hold them... and I took them across the country for my family to eat devour after Christmas dinner. The four different truffle flavors are: Chocolate Peanut Butter, Gingerbread, Egg Nog, and Peppermint Chocolate. YUM.


This year? Yeah, that hasn't happened yet. Don't get me wrong: I want them. But I just got over a terrible sinus infection ordeal that involved a middle of the night trip to the ER on base... and taking care of Annabelle and making gobs of Etsy orders to ship out in time for Christmas has left me feeling less than motivated to do anything else before we head out on our road trip next week. Who knows? Maybe the feeling will strike, and I'll whip one or two of these up... but I promise you won't regret it if you make all four. They're worth it. 



CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER TRUFFLES

Prep Time: 15 minutes                                                                             
Cooking Time: 1 hour (chill time)
Yield: 2 dozen truffles

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 tbsp butter, melted
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1+ cup powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp marshmallow fluff (optional)
• 8 oz chocolate candy coating

Directions

1. Melt butter in the microwave.
2. In a medium bowl, combine peanut butter, butter, and marshmallow fluff, and stir well to combine.
3. Using a spatula to mix, gradually add 1 cup of powdered sugar, adding more until dough is no longer sticky.
4. Whip peanut butter mixture until no longer clumpy looking.
5. Roll dough into a large ball, and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
6. Roll one inch balls from dough, and place on a cookie sheet.
7. Return the dough balls to the refrigerator.
8. Melt chocolate candy coating according to package directions.
9. Line another baking sheet with wax paper.
10. Dip dough balls into chocolate, and place on the wax paper to dry.
11. Refrigerate truffles when finished. 



GINGERBREAD TRUFFLES

Prep Time: 15 minutes                                                                             
Cooking Time: 1 hour (chill time)
Yield: 2 dozen truffles

Ingredients

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 8 oz ginger snap cookies
• 12 oz white chocolate chips
• decorations (optional)

Directions

1. Line cookie sheet with wax paper.
2. Finely crush ginger snaps in a food processer.
3. Add cream cheese, and pulse until combined.
4. Refrigerate for a half hour.
5. Form into one inch balls, and place on cookie sheet.
6. Insert a toothpick in each one, and freeze for 30 minutes.
7. Melt chocolate chips, stirring often to avoid burning.
8. Use toothpick to dip each ball into melted chocolate, and then remove toothpicks.
9. Use decorations to cover the toothpick holes if you want!



EGG NOG TRUFFLES

Prep Time: 15 minutes                                                                             
Cooking Time: 1 hour (chill time)
Yield: 2 dozen truffles

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• ¾ cup eggnog
• ½ cup butter
• 1 tsp rum flavoring
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup marshmallow cream
• 3 cups white chocolate chips
• 1 bar white vanilla/almond bark
• 1 tbsp nutmeg, for garnish

Directions

1. In a large pot, bring sugar, eggnog, and butter to a rolling boil for two minutes.
2. Remove from heat, and mix in rum flavoring and 1 tsp nutmeg.
3. Pour mixture into a mixing bowl, and stir in marshmallow cream and white chocolate chips. Mix until completely melted and incorporated.
4. Refrigerate for one hour.
5. Roll mixture into one inch balls, and freeze for one hour.
6. Melt vanilla/almond bark, and dip each ball until coated.
7. Immediately sprinkle a small amount of nutmeg on each one (as you go so they don’t dry).
8. Allow to set in refrigerator for another 30 minutes. 



PEPPERMINT CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES

Prep Time: 15 minutes                                                                             
Cooking Time: 1 hour (chill time)
Yield: 2 dozen truffles

Ingredients

• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup chocolate chips, melted
• ½ tsp peppermint extract
• 1/3 cup crushed candy canes

Directions

1. Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth.
2. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave, stirring often so they don’t burn.
3. Add melted chocolate and peppermint extract to cream cheese mixture, and beat until smooth and well combined.
4. Cover and refrigerate for one hour.
5. Roll into one inch balls.
6. Roll balls in crushed candy canes.

*Note: don’t roll in candy canes until the day you’re serving.



Do you like truffles?
What is your favorite kind?
Do you LOVE all the Christmas desserts like me?


    

Monday, December 14, 2015

Three Months: Annabelle

Well, another month (and then some - I'm late posting this) has passed us quickly by, and we are still loving being this tiny girl's parents.

Annabelle is as happy as ever, and she's *almost* always in a great mood. She cries when she's hungry or wet, but I would too if I couldn't use my words and needed help. She did have one pretty fussy day recently when we seemed unable to calm her down much, and unfortunately we were out in public (and with friends!) then, so it was a pretty great parenting test. We don't get too many of those, so I suppose it was time.



Annabelle loves standing with our assistance, and she MUCH prefers to be upright so she can see what's going on all the time. She's gonna be a nosy one. ;-) 

We're still calling her many nicknames, but the ones that are sticking around the most are: Anna Banana, A-Belle, Hungry Hungry Hippo, Annabellina, Stinkerbelle, Smellybelle, and Waaannabelle. I've also started calling her Cheeky lately... which stemmed from Chickadee, and then Chickie... and somehow morphed into Cheeky, which is appropriate, I'd say... have you seen her little cheeks? Totes adorbs. 

Annabelle is now wearing her size 0-3 month clothing and has been wearing some 3 month outfits too because we bought Christmas themed clothes for her in that size before we knew how teeny she'd be. She fills them out enough to not look ridiculous, though, so that's good. Her disposable diapers are still size one, but she's in cloth now full time except when sleeping. Her little fluff butt is so cute!


Seeing Annabelle grow, develop, and change every single day is amazing. She is quirky and has definitely started showing us her spunky little personality. She smiles on command and when she wants our attention. She coos loudly if we're looking at our computer screen but wants us to focus on her (smart girl!), and she poses for pictures... sometimes. 

For size reference, here she is at one day old, one month old, two months old, and three in the same newborn size sleeper. We had to officially retire this sleeper after the photo, but I tucked this one away for safe keeping. ;-)



    

Friday, December 4, 2015

A Pilot's Daughter {sort of} Reviews 'Daddy Flies' Book

Okay, so I only said SORT OF in the title of this post because Annabelle is only (almost) three months old, so she can't even express her own opinions yet, let alone review a book.

However, I can, and 'Daddy Flies' by Brye Stevens is excellent! The author is a military spouse whose husband is a pilot, and the book tells the story of young Katie, who learns that her daddy flies and is trying to figure out how.

I received a complimentary copy of the book 'Daddy Flies' by Brye Steeves in exchange for a review. All thoughts are my own. The adorable airplane bib is from SEWandCompany on Etsy.
*My husband (and Annabelle's daddy), Lieutenant Lovemuffin, has been flying for 11 years now - and he FINALLY heads to Air Force pilot training this coming spring after putting it on hold to pursue his Master's degree in Physics.*

'Daddy Flies' rhymes, which makes it fun for me to read to Annabelle, and she will surely get a kick out of that as she gets a bit older.

The book shows lots of adorable pictures of the dad in the book in his flight suit, and I am so glad that as Annabelle gets older, she will have a special book to read when trying to figure out what her dad is doing all the time in that silly green onesie!

We give this book 5 stars - it's cute, fun, and will be totally applicable to our life in a couple years, and I just know it will come in handy in explaining Daddy's job to Annabelle.




Annabelle was SUPER excited to add 'Daddy Flies' to her growing collection of books about airplanes / flying - just look at that sweet smile! Little does she know that she gets to go on her FIRST FLIGHT this month! I think her daddy is most excited... I just hope for his sake that Annabelle enjoys flying more than I do!


Be sure to follow 'Daddy Flies' on Facebook - and get your copy of the adorable book on Amazon!


    

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Honeywell Humidifier Review

Thanks to Influesnter, I received a complimentary Honeywell Humidifier to test out and review. I'm so glad it came at the time it did! It's starting to get cold out here in Ohio, and the air is dry.


Unfortunately, we had JUST bought a different brand of humidifier for Annabelle's room when she had a small cold. It works well in there, and when I received this one, we decided to keep it in our master bedroom instead of returning the other one and putting this in the nursery.

I'm glad we kept both because it'll be nice using this Honeywell one in our room throughout the cold months.



Even Stormy the cat was interested in the humidifier! Once I took the humidifier out of the box, though, all bets were off. The cat simply wanted the empty box. Go figure. 

I placed the humidifier on my dresser right behind my alarm clock. It's not too far from me, which will come in handy, I'm sure. (Excuse my cluttered dresser... I really should have cleaned up the bedroom better and used this as an excuse to... but I really just didn't feel like it). 




The directions to set up the Honeywell Humidifier were super simple to read. I normally have my husband take care of things like this, but he was busy working on our washing machine (ugh, I hate appliance issues!), so I set out to do this on my own... and I did! 

The only weird thing was the gurgling sound it made for the first minute after turning it on... but that's simply because the water was starting to filter, which is a good thing!

Thanks again, Influenster! I am loving my new humidifier... it's awesome!