Holidazzling

It's been too long! I've been keeping busy, so the blogging has fallen by the wayside. I wish I had been better about sharing all the wonderful holiday crafts and goodies before the holidays, but alas, this is what you get.
I handmade (almost) all the gifts we gave this year, and naturally, didn't get around to taking pictures. I'll try to do that soon and get them up here. I sewed scarves for the lovely ladies in my life, and made microwaveable rice warmers for the men to warm their chilly toes! I also made fun coffee mugs for a few friends, and, of course, made about 40 Christmas cards! It was fun to see everyone's amazement at the things I'd whipped up.
I also made these wonderful peanut-butter truffles, called Chubby Hubby Buckeyes. They were a hit! I've shared the recipe below. Before we get to that, though, I want to say how thankful I am for the wonderful people in my life. I know we are often more cognizant of that this time of year, but I'm truly blessed to be surrounded by so many delightful folks, and you reading this are most definitely among them. If I haven't said it already, Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year to you!

Now, the truffles. I found the recipe on Pinterest. If you aren't a Pinner, I won't say you're missing out on the world's most important website, but it has been sooooo fun for me to see ideas for crafting, recipes, decorating, and more on there. Plus, because I am friends and family with so many talented folks, I can see their inspirations, too! I don't remember how I stumbled onto this one, but it's a goodie! They are called Buckeyes after an Ohio treat that resembles a tree-nut called a buckeye. Usually they are made without the pretzels, and when dipped in chocolate, an "eye" of peanut butter is left un-dipped, so as to resemble the tree-nut. That was more work, so these were totally covered in chocolate. Still tasted great! Plus, I only know one person from Ohio, so the Buckeye reference was lost on most.

Chubby Hubby Buckeye Truffles Recipe:

Yield: About 18 truffles (I doubled the whole recipe-what are you going to do with only 18?)
Prep Time: 20 minutes | Chill Time: 1 hour, total

1½ cups pretzel pieces
½ cup creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 cup milk or semisweet chocolate chips (since I doubled, I did a whole bag)
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening or vegetable oil (do just shy of a full Tbs. if using oil)

1. Put the pretzel pieces into a resealable plastic bag and crush into small bits (a rolling pin works great for this). My rolling pin is in storage, so I used a wine bottle!
2. In a medium bowl, combine the peanut butter, butter, brown sugar and salt. Stir until all of the ingredients are completely blended and smooth (I used a hand-mixer for just this part). Add the pretzel bits to the peanut butter mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the powdered sugar and mix until completely combined. It will be a little sticky and not fully together. They set up after a few minutes in the fridge. I didn't try it, but you might chill the dough for 5-10 minutes before forming the balls to firm it up. What I did was chill them a few minutes after forming, then rerolled them. They were just too lumpy the first time!
3. Line a small baking sheet with wax paper. Using a small cookie scoop, or about 2 teaspoons worth of peanut butter mixture, gently shape into a ball with your fingertips. Place the ball on the wax paper-lined cookie sheet and repeat with the remaining peanut butter mixture. Place the baking sheet into the refrigerator and chill for at least 30 minutes.
4. When ready to dip the truffles, microwave the chocolate chips and vegetable shortening together in a small bowl in 30-second increments, stirring after each, until completely melted and smooth.
5. Working one at a time, dip one peanut butter-pretzel ball into the melted chocolate and use a fork to roll it around, ensuring that it is completely coated with chocolate. Let any extra chocolate drip off and place back on the wax paper-lined sheet. Repeat with all of the peanut butter-pretzel balls.
6. Return the baking sheet to the refrigerator and again chill for at least 30 minutes. Garnish with a drizzle of melted peanut butter and crushed pretzels, if desired. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I didn't drizzle (I'd made a lot of dishes at that point anyway) but I added some festive sprinkles. Also, keep an eye on them when serving. Mine started to melt sitting close to a warm oven! If that happens, pop them in the fridge until the chocolate sets up again.

 

Enjoy! I know my family sure did! Feel free to forward-I love to share good recipes when I can. It's always nice to know someone tried it and it was tastey, rather than take your chances with one you find in a cookbook or online. Plus, it was easy, so, so easy.

Other than that, things just keep rolling along. I hope you and yours are finding ways to indulge in good food, good company and good cheer this holiday season.
All my love,
Kelli

Baking Bread, and other activities I now have time for

As you know, I love cooking and enjoy baking. Bread, and for that matter, anything that called for yeast, was usually a recipe I'd skip because I'm busy (and pretty impatient.) Still, when a friend posted a recipe for the whole wheat bread from The Cheesecake Factory (a similar version is served at Outback), I had to try it. My mom and I LOVE that bread! Plus, a quick look at the recipe made me realize this could easily be done in an afternoon, rather than a whole day of kneading and rising. The results were delightful! It wasn't quite identical in flavor to that at the Cheesecake Factory, so I may play with adding 2-3 additional tablespoons of cocoa powder next time.

The original recipe is available here: http://www.friedalovesbread.com/2008/10/outback-black-bread-copycat.html
I substituted 2 Tbs. Molasses for the caramel color-it was one thing to track down vital wheat gluten, but I drew the line at caramel color. By the way, the vital wheat gluten is available in the baking aisle in stores that carry specialty flours. I used the Bob's Red Mill brand. If you can't find it, you might try letting the bread rise longer, and/or kneading the bread more to develop the gluten in the bread more. If all else fails, leaving out the vital wheat gluten should just make your bread more flat and shouldn't affect flavor. I also imagine you could do this in a bread machine, I just don't have one.
Ingredients
2 1/2 c. warm water
4 T. butter or margarine melted, or vegetable oil
2 T. caramel color or molasses
1/2 c. honey
3 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
3-4 c. all purpose flour
2 T. cocoa
2 T. active dry yeast
2 T. vital wheat gluten
2 t. salt
Oats (to roll in)

Instructions
Combine first 4 ingredients (water, oil, color, honey) and mix well. Pour wheat flour on top of wet ingredients. Add cocoa, yeast, gluten and salt. Stir until well blended. Allow mixture to stand for 10 minutes to allow yeast to develop.

Add all purpose flour, one cup at a time, until dough clings to hook (I did all mixing by hand since my mixer is still in storage-it was fine) and almost cleans the sides of mixer, about 3-4 minutes.

Allow to raise in the bowl, covered with plastic wrap, until doubled, about 20-30 minutes.

Divide into 8 piles, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Shape into loaves and roll in oats. Place on greased cookie sheet or 2 greased 9 x 5 loaf pans. 

Allow to rise till double, about 20 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy warm with lots of butter! 
And, for your visual enjoyment, my latest card-making gem:

I hope this finds you well, enjoying the warm days and cool nights (finally!)

All the things you can do with infinite time

As someone who just came off three solid years of non-stop toil (and it's not as if I was slacking off before that!), I'm having a tough time adjusting to all this free time. I've tried spacing out my tasks for the day to make myself a little less bored with sitting at home, but I haven't been too successful at just enjoying the time off. I've been praying about it. Did you ever think I'd pray to God to be busy again? I've actually prayed the "right" prayer: "God, please help me see the good in this time of doing nothing." Because praying for what you think God wants you to pray for is better than asking for what you really want, right? So, I'm working on it.
One thing I decided to do right away was tackle new recipes each day. I LOVE cooking, as you know, and it always seems like that first time you try a new recipe it takes forever! So, what better time to try them when I have nothing but time?! I have been cooking my way through Real Simple Magazine's August recipes, which contains 16 dinners that are each under 20 minutes. Like I said, though, the first time is much longer because you have to keep looking at the instructions, trying to figure out the measurements, etc. So, these each took me between 30-40, but now that I know them, I'm convinced 20 minutes is possible.
First up:
Chicken Sausage and Peach Skewers with Green Beans
This one was TASTY! Unfortunately, I forgot to buy kabob skewers, so they were more like sausage and peach sandwiches :)
1 pound green beans, trimmed
1 Tbs. whole-grain mustard
3 Tbs. olive oil
4 fully-cooked sausage links, cut into 1" pieces (I couldn't find cooked chicken sausage, so I added time to cook the ones I bought)
2 peaches or 3-4 plums, pitted and cut into wedges
1/2 baguette or other sturdy roll, cut into 1" pieces (I used 2 good-sized ciabatta rolls, which were delicious!)
Heat grill to medium-high. Toss sausage, peaches/plums and baguette pieces in a large bowl with 2 Tbs. olive oil. Thread the pieces onto kabob skewers. Make a foil packet and place green beans and remaining Tbs. olive oil inside, fold to seal. Place foil packet on the grill, and grill the skewers, turning every couple minutes.

Grilling everything takes about 7-10 minutes, but the kabobs may be done sooner. When everything has nice grill marks on it (and beans are bright green when you peek into the foil packet), you’re all set! Toss the green beans with the mustard, and season with salt and pepper. Serve with extra mustard.

I’ll be sharing all the recipes I try throughout the next couple weeks.

Ninjabread men

You know how sometimes you see something at Target and it just leaps into your cart? Of course, maybe it's just me that happens to (yah, right!) I was shopping with my mom right after the bar exam, and my impulse control was still pretty low, and we fell in love with pretty much everything we saw at Target. But, being charitably-minded, I saw these and just knew Andy would love them:

Andy took a karate class in college (yes, really) and these ninja cookie-cutters just had to come home with me so I could make him some ninjabread men. That said, gingerbread in early August just didn't seem right, so I thought long and hard and came up with Ninja Brownies.
I did two small packages of brownies in a 11 x 14 pan (so they were thinner than most people make theirs) and baked them up. I lined the pan with foil so that I could lift them whole thing out easily when it was time to cut them apart. The hardest part was waiting until they were cool enough to cut out!

 Once they cooled, I went to work. I didn't get very many out of the pan because unlike cookie dough, you can't re-roll brownies out of the funny shaped scraps (don't worry, those brownie scraps went to a good home--ice cream toppings, mmmmmm). So, that left me with 12 little ninjas to frost to stealthy perfection.

 I had a hard time getting the red really to be red (isn't that the way it always is?) but they look pretty good, I think. the ninja stars were also really hard to pipe. Next time, I think I'll look for star sprinkles instead. All in all, I think they are just adorable! I'm giving a couple of them to a friend for his birthday party that Andy and I will go to tonight. I can't wait for the boys to see them!
As you can probably tell, I'm having a hard time adjusting to not being busy. In addition to my baking expedition, I've cleaned our whole house, and done 6 loads of laundry. Today. I'll be glad to start working, for sure! I hope this finds you well and enjoying the last of summer!

Domestic Bliss: Dish washing

I finished the bar exam (YAY!) and then headed with a couple friends to Gunnison, Colorado for a 5-day getaway. We stayed at a lovely hostel (like a cross between a boarding house and a commune and your friend-of-a-friend's couch). It was quite the experience! We had access to a full community kitchen, meaning we could cook all our meals there, but also meaning we had to clean up after ourselves! One of the cool things I picked up while we were there was a tip for making your dish soap last longer. I also find it easier to actually USE the dish soap than the usual method of trying to squirt just a little but ending up with a lot more than you need for one or two little dishes. You take a spray bottle (I picked up an empty one at the Dollar Store) and fill it about half full with water, then half full with the dish soap, then put the spray top back on and shake it enough to combine the soap and water. I labeled mine since we have spray bottles with water, multipurpose cleaner, etc. all over the place. When I'm washing up, I just spray once or twice on the dish (or onto the scrubby) and go to town! It works great! It's a really simple thing, but I would never have thought of it! I asked the hostel's owner about it, and she said an older guest mentioned that he had seen it at another hostel and thought it was a great way to save resources. I agree!

Legally Blonde: The Musical!

Can you see how giddy I am to see my favorite movie brought to life?

the teenagers we stopped to take our photo evidently didn't realize we were posing in front of the sign for the purpose of capturing its contents. Thanks anyway.

 

 

 

You probably wonder what I've been up to since the end of April when I posted last. After we got Andy all graduated, it was time to pack, pack, pack, and sell off and give away most of our stuff! I spent the better part of two weeks wrapping everything up at school, packing, and getting ready for my own graduation. My wonderful family drove out for the graduation festivities, and to help us (a lot!) with our move back to Colorado. The weekend was wonderful, despite all the hard work packing and cleaning, and then the fun was all over and it was time to unpack in our new place in Colorado and start studying for the bar exam. And that is pretty much all I've done since May 17th. Seriously, I've been a very boring person. I have taken ONE day off (really, just one). On the upside, I usually call it quits by 5 or 6, which means I can have dinner with Andy, and sometimes, even with friends!
This week has been particularly brutal because it is my last week of regular class meetings for my bar exam preparation course, meaning that I have 6 consecutive days of class, ending with an 8-hour class on Saturday. Evil. As a reprieve, Andy treated me to tickets to go see Legally Blonde: The Musical! It was so fun! Elle Woods, the original Legal Blonde, overcomes insurmountable odds to succeed at Harvard Law School. It's a darling story of the hard work and heart carrying the day for the underdog, who finds her own way. Even though it's basically the same story as the movie, the music was really fun, and of course silly. One of my favorite lines that is not part of the story in the movie was "With the chance you've been given, you have to be driven as hell!" It was a great reminder that with great power (and opportunity), comes great responsibility. Even though I'm already exhausted from studying, I owe it to myself and to the privilege of the opportunity I've been given to work hard, not only to pass the bar but to be a great attorney when I'm done. It sounds cheesy, but seeing the musical was just the uplifting energy boost I needed to get through the next four weeks!
Now, I'll be crawling into the bar studying cave soon, so you may not hear much until after July 25 when I'm finally over this last (I hope) hurdle!
I hope this finds you all well and enjoying your summer.
With love,
Kelli

Graduations

It has been a busy week at the Riley house. Andy and I are both graduating this year, he from college with a Bachelor of Science in Economics, and I from law school. His commencement festivities were this week, so we've been hosting family, sitting through ceremonies, and partying! I'll try to post pictures of the happy graduate soon, but here's a little snapshot of the card I made for his graduation:

I got the idea from Pinterest. Andy is a huge science nerd, and studied aerospace engineering for many years before deciding to pursue economics. He was so geeked out about the elements of the periodic table that he didn't notice they spelled out CONGRATS.