Holiday Recipes!

You know how I've blogged and tweeted about not being able to cook. Well, I officially have decided if I learn great, if not, oh well... ah, such is life, huh! LC is an amazing cook, and I don't think I need to rock the boat. A man that's handy, borderline genius, cooks, AND cleans...yeah, not trying to fix something that isn't broke:)

I think I'll be the baker in the relationship...possibly. maybe?

Anyways, enough of my rambling. These are three super easy recipes that were a hit over the holidays. And yes, I made them:)

 **note: mine aren't too pretty, no time to fix. however, i've been reading up on how to make them look pretty. use a teaspoon for rolling in the chocolate or toothpicks/skewers to dip them:)

OREO TRUFFLES

What You Need

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1 pkg.  (16.6 oz.) OREO Cookies, finely crushed (about 4-1/4 cups), divided

2 pkg. (8 squares each) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted

Make It

MIX cream cheese and 3 cups cookie crumbs until well blended.
SHAPE into 48 (1-inch) balls. Dip in melted chocolate; place on waxed paper-covered baking sheet. Sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs.(I used Christmas sprinkles instead of cookie crumbs)
REFRIGERATE 1 hour or until firm. Store in tightly covered container in refrigerator.
**This recipe is from here on Kraft.com. Also, do not use the whole package, LC tried to go ahead and start these for me and he mixed the whole package of Oreos with the cream cheese. You really do need only three cups. The ones he started were crumbly because there wasn't enough cheese to hold it together. I remade them, and the consistency was just like it should be. I keep seeing to use a whole package in the blogosphere, but that didn't work for us.  

MANGO CHEESE BALL 

This is a recipe that I got from my aunt. I have no idea where she got it from. However, it IS good. Even LC liked it which is amazing in and of itself. It's super easy and only 5 ingredients. Can be premade before hand and only add  last two ingredients when you get to where you're going! LC put the toppings on it hence the messiness. He was in a hurry and didn't care. I would have done it better! ha:)

Ingredients: 
a 4 cup bag of cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups of mayo
2 small bags of slivered almonds
chopped green onions (didn't use here, because not sure if people would like onions)
1 bag of real bacon bits
1 jar of mango chutney

Directions:
Take first 4 ingredients and mix together and form into ball.
Then take the jar of chutney** and spread evenly on the cheese ball.
Lastly, cover the ball with the real bacon bits.
My recommendation: Serve with Ritz crackers; we used Carr's water crackers just because that's what we had in the pantry, but a buttery cracker such as Ritz is best with this.
**I used Major Grey's chutney. It's on the condiment aisle at my grocery and not the jam/jelly aisle. It doesn't say Mango chutney, but if you look on the ingredient list on the back you will see mango in it. Kroger is my local grocer.

Butter Brownies

Luckily, this is one of those recipes where you probably have everything in house with the exception of maybe one ingredient. I got this recipe out of my local paper. The baker is also a local blogger come to find out and the recipe is found here.

Ingredients:

1 cup (140 g) all purpose flour 

1/2 tsp baking powder 

1/4 tsp salt 

6 oz white chocolate chips

5 tablespoons unsalted butter 

1/2 cup sugar 

1 egg

1 tsp almond extract 

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 300°F and put parchment paper in your 8x8 square baking dish.   

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside.

In a sauce pan over low heat, add the chocolate, butter & sugar, stir together until melted. Remove from heat & allow to cook slightly. 

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, place the egg & extract & whisk together. Slowly whisk in the cooled chocolate mixture into the egg mixture.  Then, add the flour mixture and continue whisking until combined. 

Using an off set spatula or similar, spread the batter evenly & place in the oven.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Allow them to cool for at least 1 hour.  Then remove from dish & cut into bars.

**The first time I made these they were kind of dry and cakey. LC looked at the recipe and made some changes. So if you see things a little different compared to her original recipe, that's why. He said it was too much egg, and that cooking on a lower temperature would make them less dry. After taking his advice, they came out much better. They were an easy bake especially if you're in a hurry because most of the ingredients are in your pantry. The only thing we lacked was the white chocolate.  

**Also, if you are used to making box brownies, these have a much thicker consistency. I didn't know that brownies from scratch were like that, but now you do too!