Decadence!

I looked up the word "decadence" in the dictionary and the definition it gave was "luxurious self-indulgence." That just might describe your experience when you make - and more importantly, eat - these little bits of chocolate delight.

This is a winter tradition of ours that my sister and I make chocolate truffles every year. We've experimented with different flavors, like orange and almond, but we've found that our favorite by far (and the most popular among others) is the peppermint. Chocolate and peppermint seem to have been made to go together! Try these out and you'll see why.

Peppermint Chocolate Truffles

Ingredients:
1 8-oz.(eight ounce) package cream cheese, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips, melted
1 1/2 tsp. pure peppermint extract (or extract of your choice, such as vanilla, orange, almond)
Crushed peppermints for rolling, optional

Instructions:

1. Beat cream cheese until smooth in a large bowl. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until well blended.

2. Stir in melted chocolate until no streaks remain. Mix in peppermint extract. Refrigerate for about 1 hour. Shape into 1-inch balls and roll in crushed peppermints. Store in parchment-lined candy tins in a cool place. Makes about 60 truffles.

P.S. I'm having a year-end special over on my graphic design website! You will receive a FREE custom button with ANY purchase - even if all you buy is a signature or a pre-made Twitter background for $5 (buttons are $7! That's getting $12 worth for only $5!). For those who want lots of work done, if you purchase $50 or more in graphics you'll get the free button PLUS a free custom Twitter background! These offers expire at midnight, December 31st, 2009. Go to www.PrairieRoseDesigns.com to take advantage of this special! :-)

Tell Me Thursday - My Goofball

Once again, I apologize for the lack of posting. Sometimes life gets in the way and blogging is not always my top priority!

I decided that once in a while I will do Wordless Wednesday as I LOVE photography and this would be a good way to actually use some of the photos I take. :-) (Please note that my photos are copyrighted and may not be reused without permission).

And then the Thursday after, you can come back and read the story behind the photo - if there is one!

I posted the above picture yesterday for WW. This is my kitty. Her name is Gavana - fancy name, isn't it? That's because she is from Russia; she is a special breed which is (mostly) hypo-allergenic, which is important because both my sister and my dad are pretty severely allergic to cats! But with this breed, they are fine - strange, isn't it? The reason is that this breed doesn't have dander, which is the cause of most cat allergies.

Gavana is an extremely talkative, social cat as long as it is only the family around. The second she hears a car in the driveway she bolts upstairs and doesn't come out until the company has left!

She is quite the goofball sometimes, as you can see from the photo. :-) She enjoys sunning herself in very strange positions that look decidedly uncomfortable to me, but seem to be satisfactory to her. She gets in lots of trouble but we love her anyway! :-)

Wordless Wednesday - My Goofball

Come back tomorrow to read the Tell Me Thursday for this photo!

Sale!

I hope you'll forgive me for inserting a little commercial here. :-) Over at our home site, MaidensOfVirtue.com, I've marked down my custom-made boa scarves for the chilly weather season!

These fun scarves are warm and feminine and a stylish accessory to add to your fall and winter wardrobe. Hand-crocheted in a cozy homespun yarn in the color of your choice, they make great gifts or get one for yourself! (Or both! Hee hee).

If you are interested in a different type of yarn, like a chenille or chunky yarn for example, just let me know and I'll see what I can do (this may cause the price to be different depending on the yarn).

Please feel free to pass this on to your friends and family who may be interested, or if you're REALLY excited (as I'm sure you all are :-) ) you can post it on your blog. Want that cute graphic? Here's the code (will be deleted after the sale is over):

<a href="http://www.maidensofvirtue.com/shoppe/boa_scarves.html" mce_href="http://www.maidensofvirtue.com/shoppe/boa_scarves.html" target="_blank"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp160/QuietMom/boascarfsale.jpg" mce_src="http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp160/QuietMom/boascarfsale.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" width="375" height="200" /></a>

It's October!

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn't it?"

- "Anne of Green Gables" by L. M. Montgomery

Apples!

Photo courtesy of my sister.

Our apples on our trees are starting to become pick-able, and picked they have been! We have two trees, and we're waiting on the other tree as the apples are smaller. These are green, those are red and green. We don't spray our trees (or at least we haven't yet so far) so lots of them have bad spots but you can always cut out bad spots. :-)

And then, this morning, Mom whipped up this WONDERFUL breakfast with our freshly picked apples:

A German apple pancake, baked in a cast iron skillet... OH. YUM. Wish you could have been here to enjoy it with me! (On second thought, maybe not, more for me! :-) ).

Anyway... just a little snippet from our daily life... I have some more serious posts mulling around in my head - I realize it has been quite I while since I did one of that nature. Thanks for stopping by!

Refreshing Summer Cooler

I'm sorry for not posting in so long... things have been busy around here. The weather has been unseasonably cool this summer, though yesterday and today are warmer. On those very hot days, it's always nice to have a little pick-me-up.

Something we have enjoyed lately are watermelon slushies. These are super easy to make and very co-o-o-ld to cool you down on a hot day. This is a recipe we really just make up as we go, so there are no real measurements.

Cut up watermelon into cubes. Most watermelons are seedless nowadays but if you have one with seeds, make sure you get those out. Put your watermelon in your blender. If you are looking for amounts, probably 1/3 full is good. Then add some ice. We start with a bit less than the amount of watermelon we put in. Blend that together. Continue to add more ice until you have reached a thick slushie consistency (no longer runny). Spoon into glasses and enjoy! Oh, and a word of caution - it's a good idea to scoop instead of pour the slushi into the glasses... take it from me, you will end up with a mess on your counter if you don't. :-)

Though we haven't tried it this way yet, you could experiment with flavors too - add a little lemon or orange juice to give it some zing, or maybe mint?