oreo truffles

The first time I met my friend Bailey, she brought to our potluck dinner the most delicious and unusual dessert I'd had in a long time. Of course I had to ask her for the recipe, and I attempted to make them for a baby shower.

They turned out pretty tasty but much sloppier than Bailey's, but thankfully she gave me pointers for next time!


1 pkg Oreo cookies, crushed
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
2 bags of white chocolate chips, melted
small amount of semi-sweet chocolate melted for drizzling on top

Directions:
Crush oreo cookies in a food processer until very fine. Combine crushed oreo cookies with softened cream cheese. Roll into 1-inch balls and put them on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Place cookie balls in the freezer for 2 - 24 hours (I think I only froze mine for 2 hours). Roll cookie balls in melted white chocolate and set on wax paper to harden. Drizzle melted semi-sweet chocolate on top.

Bailey's secrets for making them perfect:
Roll them around in the chocolate with forks and lift them out of the chocolate with forks. To make a prettier drizzle, use a baggie and cut a little corner off.

bottle show-off

Katie hates being fed a bottle, so we put her on the floor to feed herself and let her roam free with it. She is such a pro, it is a wonder to watch all the things she can do while still drinking out of a bottle.

She rolls around...drinks one-handed...NO-handed...while waving to me...and my favorite is drinking a bottle hands-free while holding a book open above her face with both hands, like she was reading it!!

Then she smiles at me like she knows she did something funny.

loquat tree

The first time I went to Japan I ate biwa, a fruit I'd never seen or heard of before. They were growing on trees everywhere. I had forgotten about biwa until we moved into our house...a tree in our yard explodes with them in the spring!

"Biwa" is a loquat. The fruit is sweet and reminds me a little of an apricot.

3 peas in a pod

An ultrasound on Friday confirmed what I already knew...and the ultrasound tech gave me this sweet handmade hat to take home.

We are so excited!! I love the idea of a house full of girls.

basmati rice, chickpeas & toasted almonds

Mark and I have been making this recipe almost as long as we've been married...it is a total staple dinner in our house and is hearty enough to be the main dish. The basmati rice makes the house smell so good.



Here's the recipe:
2 t. olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 c. basmati rice
1.5 t. lemon zest (I skip)
3/4 t. salt
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/3 c. cilantro (or 1 t. dried)
1/4 c. sliced almonds, toasted

1. In a large saucepan, heat oil and cook onion and garlic 7 mins. or until tender.
2. Add bell pepper and rice, stirring to coat. Stir in 2 c. water, lemon, salt, and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 15 mins. or until rice is tender.
3. Add chickpeas at the end (3 mins.) to heat through. Stir in cilantro and almonds before serving.

lost gatitos

Apparently I am missing a library book that I have no recollection of checking out. It is called Los Gatitos...why would I check out a baby book in Spanish? It serves me right. I have been skating on thin ice by checking out 8 baby books at a time and then getting them mixed up in here:



...and those shelves are deep. The books are shoved and crammed way back in there. I have searched high and low for Los Gatitos, but to no avail. And my house isn't even very big. I will probably have to pay up on this one.

What about you? Do you check out library books for your kids? If so, how do you not lose them in your house?

easter recap

We spent our Easter weekend in Macon, GA - the pollen blew around in huge yellow clouds but the blooming cherry trees and flowers and gorgeous weather made our allergy attacks worthwhile.

I'm not sure why there were pinwheels stuck in the front yard, but they provided almost a solid hour of entertainment.


My camera battery died just before the easter egg hunt, so I only have a picture of the aftermath...candy dumped on the floor to be counted, sorted, sniffed, compared, stolen from a cousin's candy pile, cried over...I don't think the older girls cared so much but Anna and Meg spent a long time hanging out with their candy.


A lot of time was spent helping Katie perfect her army crawl. She loved the attention.


Our attempt to get a good group shot on Easter morning...impossible.