Cupid's Peppermint Truffles

Do calories count on Valentine's Day? I sure hope not, because these little beauties are WHOPPERS!

I hosted a children's cookie decorating party at my house last Friday and I wanted to make some special treats for the moms coming as well. I had never made Oreo truffles myself before, but I have savored *a few* at a friend's home.

I came upon a recipe for WHITE CHOCOLATE OREO TRUFFLES on ehow.com and tweaked it a little. So here goes:
1 pkg. Oreos (or Newman's O's)
1 8 oz. block of cream cheese (Neufchatel or full fat, your choice)
1 12 oz. bag of white chocolate chips
1 Tbsp. canola oil
Wax paper
Sprinkles and toothpick "arrows" are optional.

Start by crushing the Oreos inside of the package. I did this just by using my hands, but you could use a rolling pin or other blunt instrument to help you get the job done if necessary. Next, blend them into the room temperature cream cheese by hand with a spatula. It will look very mushy, but don't worry.

Roll this mixture into 1 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. All of the handling can make the mixture become warm and difficult to keep its shape, so you may want to chill the mixture in its bowl to make it easier to form into balls. I was able to produce 34 truffle balls.

Place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator for at least a half hour before you begin to chocolate coat them.

When your truffle balls have chilled long enough, get your white chocolate coating ready. Place the 12 oz bag of white chocolate chips in a microwave proof bowl or pyrex measuring cup with the tablespoon of canola oil. Melt in the microwave in 30 second intervals until completely smooth.

Skewer each truffle ball with a frill-top tooth pick (I bought mine at Publix) and dip each one in the melted chocolate, spinning slowly to allow the excess chocolate to drip off.

Finally, sprinkle each truffle ball with a few Valentine hearts (mine came as a topping with a tub of Pillsbury frosting) before the chocolate hardens.

Serve on a fancy plate, and use a paper doily if you have one!

Any math geeks out there (like me) who are wondering about the full calorie count?
Full package of Oreos: 2100 cals
Full block of cream cheese: 560 cals
Full bag of white chocolate chips: 1680 cals
Full tablespoon canola oil: 120 cals
Total calorie count =  4460 calories
Yield: 34 White Chocolate Oreo Truffles,

making each truffle 131 calories each. Not really too bad...if you can manage to cosume only one!

Happy Valentine's Day, and I hope you enjoy somthing a little sweet with someone you love!

Valentine Crafts Under $1

And the crafting continues...

I cut a bunch of heart stamps from mega-pack of sponges purchased at Dollar Tree. The girls loved making their own designs with them.

They even enjoyed cutting up the scrap pieces of sponge. A different texture for them to cut through, so a hand skill as well!

Another fun and nearly free painting idea, brought to my attention by Kim over at 4 Krazy Kings, is to take toilet paper tubes and bend them to make a heart shape, then use as a stamper. She has TONS of crafts to make with toilet paper tubes. Check 'em out: http://4crazykings.blogspot.com/2010/02/weekend-recap-making-crayons-crazy.html

To jazz up the newly painted hearts, why not fill them in with some Valentine stickers like my 4- year-old did?

Today's Inspiration: Salt Dough

Too often I browse the internet and file away clever idea after clever idea and never take the time to actually take a stab at doing them myself.

"Today's Inspiration" is going to be an ongoing segment in which I can REJOICE in the fact that I actually took an idea I found on the blogosphere and turned it into reality.

Today, it was Salt Dough Hearts. I have been "planning" on making salt dough ornaments year after year after year. Well, thanks to a posting of a cute bunch of kid-crafted salt dough hearts strung with butcher's twine here http://thelongthread.com/?p=5678, I was inspired to make my own.

Very simple recipe: 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt, and 1/2 cup warm water. Knead together and flatten with a rolling pin, then cut out into any shape you like. (Check out the toast imprinter I remembered was in a utensil drawer before I ran out of dough!)

The nice part about rolling the salt dough is that unlike pie dough, you don't need to spread any flour on your board, therefore less messy!

Bake in a 200 degree oven for about two hours. If any piece is very large, you may need to flip it over at the end, and allow it to air dry in the oven once it has been turned off. Also, I used parchment under the dough hearts, but I'm sure you could use foil just as well.

My batch made over fifty 1 inch hearts and two larger hearts. Try it!!

M said, "I like the lacy ones." B said, " I want mine to look fabulous."

Valentine's Only One Week Away

I really enjoy Valentine's Day. A holiday centered around hearts, love, hugs, snuggles and CHOCOLATE? Come on, what's not to love?

I have hosted a Valentine's Preschooler Craft Party at my church for the past 2 years now, and thusly (yeah, I said thusly) I have a stash of Valentine craft supplies that even Cupid would envy. My original intention was to share and post 14 different Valentine's day ideas from Feb. 1-14 to jump start my blogging again, but while preparing for this year's party, I fell off the blog bandwagon again. But now I'm back!

Here's a simple 3 paneled Valentine banner I made last year. It was inspired by a Halloween "BOO" banner I had seen in a scrapbooking magazine in the Fall of '08, decked out with tons of Halloween embellishments. With time and simplicity as my two driving factors, this version is pretty tame, but you could certainly embellish to your "heart's content".

Basically, I started with 3 pieces of the darkest color paper and cut them into a pennant shape (pointed at the bottom). Then I printed "We" and "You" on a medium shade paper, and printed "Love" on the lightest shade. The three medium shade pieces were also cut to mimic the dark pennant shape, but narrower on every side, and trimmed with pinking shears at the top for a little extra contast. The lightest shade with "Love" printed on it was cut into the shape of a heart, old school style, b/c I am cw/occm (translation: because I am currently without a Cricut machine), for the center panel.

The real character of the banner comes from the 3 flowers at the bottom of the center panel. I started by gluing 3 rickrack and ribbon "stems", then attaching a 4 petal flower to the top of each one. Each flower is made of 5 hand-punched hearts (2 inches, I believe) that have been creased in half (for dimension), pin-hole punched at the bottom, and attached with a simple brad. Note: Attaching the flowers must be done before gluing the center panel to the dark pennant back or else the brad prongs will show thru the back of the piece.

Finally, I used 3-D stickers at the corners of the outer panels, and strung the 3 panels together with coordinating ribbons for hanging.

This banner was a gift for my mom, who taught me that a homemade gift is by far the best way to show someone you love them. I love you, mom.