I don’t remember it always being this way, and I’m wondering if it’s something to do with my hot water heater, or maybe something else. Or if I just have to live with it.  Has this happened to anyone else?  Suggestions? Help!

The hole I had to fix

First, I prepared the wall by rubbing a sandpaper block over it to remove any rough edges. 

You don't have to use a sandpaper block, but this is what I had on hand

Much better!

Next, I got out my spackle and putty knife.  I use DryDex Spackle with a dry time indicator – that basically means that the spackle is pink in the can, and then once it dries on the wall and is ready for further sanding, it turns white.  Great for the amateur repair artist like me, because there’s no guesswork.

DryDex - love this stuff!

I took a little bit of spackle out of the can with my knife and wiped it into the hole (kind of like icing a cake, but you can be a little firmer with your touch since it’s a wall). 

A little dab'll do ya

The object is to get spackle into and around the hole to create a smooth surface.  With small nail holes, it’s very easy – wipe the spackle in, and then run the edge of the putty knife almost flush against the wall to remove excess.

Time to apply the spackle

But for these slightly larger holes, it didn’t work that easily.  I applied a little bit more spackle and ran the edge of the putty knife over it to get a mostly smooth finish.  Because I would later use the sandpaper again, I wasn’t worried about it being perfect.

A good start, but I still needed to apply a bit more and wipe off the excess

Better

Then, it was time to wait for it to dry.

*Almost* entirely dry. I'm a little impatient.

Once it was dry, I rubbed the sandpaper block over the spot to smooth it out. 

Time to smooth it out

And voila, finished!

Now it's ready for paint!

From what I’ve seen, this size of hole is about the largest you can fix without needing to get mesh tape to give the spackle something else to hold on to.

But I digress.

Whether or not a storm happens, when one is predicted, it’s important for any handy homeowner girl to get prepared.  I knew the storm was to hit over the weekend (initial predictions were for it to start at 4pm on Friday and go through 7pm on Saturday), so Thursday night I headed to the grocery store. 

I probably should have gone Wednesday, because everyone had snow fever and was buying groceries like they’d be locked in their homes for the next month!  I did manage to get everything I needed and get out of there without ramming anyone with my cart and I was glad to have all my staples in case I got snowed in.

But how else could I prepare? 

First, I had to make sure I had the essential snow management items – I put my shovel outside by the front door, so I wouldn’t have to be trying to open the shed door against a foot of snow on Saturday morning.  I also put my salt back in the front closet temporarily to fight any post-storm ice.  When I was in for the night on Friday, I made sure to park my car further back on my driveway (it made shoveling easier the last time) and put all of my windshield wipers up – this keeps them from freezing to the windshield and maybe tearing when scraping the car off.  I knew where all my relevant clothing was, from long underwear and ski socks to my hat, gloves, coat and boots.

Friday afternoon, I also made sure to run all of my errands.  I have been taking a ceramics class on Saturday afternoons (which was cancelled), and I like to head to Target afterwards and pick up a Starbucks frappuccino.  Okay, so it’s not a blizzard necessity, but I grabbed one anyway, so that I wouldn’t feel slighted about missing it.  Then, I headed to Lowe’s for some paint for the guest room.  I’d finally decided on a color, and thought it might be a good idea to have an indoor project planned for the weekend while I was stuck inside.  It was funny to see people racing me to the door of Lowe’s because they thought I was there for a shovel – and the only one they had left was a metal one more for digging than shoveling! 

I also made sure to hit the ATM so I had enough cash – it seems like a silly thing to make sure of because it’s not like I’d be ordering a pizza or anything, but I felt in case we were really slammed and I needed to call someone to plow me out, it would be good to be able to pay him.  I just wanted to be prepared.

Something else I should have gotten was logs for the fire – there were a number of power outages with this storm, so it would have been good to have the ability to light a fire if my power went out.  But I didn’t think of that until I was already at home.  After I’d already driven the 20 minutes back to the main spot for shopping.  Twice.

Snuggled up at home with the pup, we awaited the storm.  At 4pm, nothing.  Same thing until 9, when the first flakes started to fall.  It didn’t seem to be sticking much at first, so I thought, watch, the weathermen have gotten this wrong.  But by 11, we had two inches already and I wasn’t feeling so good about having to go to bed without being able to take shoveling a few inches at a time.

This was what we woke up to Saturday morning

I got up at 9 to a winter wonderland. While we at the shore were fortunate to not get that much snow (I haven’t seen the overall totals, but I think it’s about 18 inches, maybe a bit more), we had a foot of snow on the ground when I got up.  I prayed that my neighbors with a snowblower would take pity on me, but I bundled up and got started.  The snow was heavy, sitting on a layer of slushy ice, and it was brutal shoveling.  Because it was so heavy, I took my time with shoveling.  I started by making a path for the pup on the deck and a little bit of the yard so that he wouldn’t be overwhelmed by white (he still was a little – he has stubby legs).  Then I shoveled off my front stoop and sidewalk.  Because of the way my car was parked, and my neighbor’s cars, the front of my driveway was like a wind tunnel – there were deep drifts, but some of the snow was fairly low.  So I managed that and brushing off my car before I needed to take a break.

Because the snow was wet and heavy and it was so windy, it stuck to EVERYTHING

It looked so pretty, but it was hard to shovel!

My poor car - see how the wind created these weird snow drifts?

Shoveling is a hard thing to do, and more of a serious workout than some people realize, so I made sure to drink a lot of water and some juice to keep my energy up and keep from getting overheated.  Taking a couple of breaks helped too, though I couldn’t let my muscles stiffen up too much, or I wouldn’t have gotten back out there!  After about a half hour, I headed out again and managed to shovel a good part of the rest of my driveway.  The main issue after a while was running out of places to put the snow as I shoveled it, so I ended up building these huge piles of snow, which was exhausting.  I would take short breaks outside to push some of the lighter snow along the cleared parts towards a larger pile and then pile it on top.  It made the shoveling more manageable. 

I had a lot of extra shoveling to do because of the way the plows came through

LONG drivway. Little car

I took another break and knew at that point that if I didn’t finish up the driveway, I’d never be able to get it all done.  I live on a cul de sac, so when the plows went through, they didn’t get very close to the edge of the street.  That meant that I had about seven feet in front of my driveway that I also needed to shovel, in case there was an emergency.  And not only was this the snow that had fallen, but mixed into it was the heavier, icy snow that the plow had turned up.  It was fairly brutal, but I finally managed it and knew I was done for.  I figured any shoveling after that would be easier, as long as I kept an eye on how much was falling and kept on top of it.

It's quite the pile of snow in front of my house. You could almost sled down it!

I ended up covered with most of this snow yesterday when I put the garbage out. Which still hasn't been collected

The snow on the trees didn't last too long, but it was nice while it did!

I decided to nix the painting project for the weekend because I was so exhausted, and ended up watching some tv and drinking hot chocolate.  When I went out for another round of shoveling around 4 (I’d finished the first set of shoveling around 1), I had just cleared the sidewalk when my neighbor came out to say that they’d be happy to use the snowblower to finish digging me out.  I wanted to ask where they’d been all morning while I was shoveling, but I appreciated being able to stop for the day.  I did clear off my car one more time and gratefully went back inside to relax again.  We were very lucky not to lose power here, and once my neighbor plowed me out this morning, the driveway and sidewalk snow melted under the sun (though it’s only 28 degrees).  The trees are also melting, though they looked very beautiful and mysterious yesterday covered in snow.  According to the snowfall totals I’ve seen, we ended up with about 18 inches of snow.

At least somebody was having fun in the snow! Who says bassets can't jump?

I’m also feeling every muscle in my body today from the shoveling, so while I started on my guest room, I’ve decided to take my time with it and paint next weekend.  Although, because I’ve cleared everything out but the bed and dresser, and it’s sitting in the hallway and my office, we’ll see how long that lasts…

Now that we’re into the doldrums portion of the year, where the days are cold and mostly grey, with nothing like Christmas to look forward to, it’s time for my home projects to start up again in earnest.  I mentioned a few things towards the end of last year that I planned to work on, but something new came up this weekend instead.

I’m a big believer in fixing what bugs you.  I remember working on an organizational challenge a few years ago that began with walking through my living space and picking the things that really bothered me.  Things like ugly light switches, chips in the wall paint, loose wallpaper corners, that type of thing – the stuff that makes you say things you don’t mean, like “I hate this house!” whenever you’re having a bad day and stumble on them.

I finally came to that point this weekend with my downstairs coat closet.  I normally grab whatever I need out of there and quickly shut the door, so I don’t have to see the clutter and disaster within.  It was one of the places in the house that still harbors a weird “former occupant” smell too, which even overpowered the little air freshener I put in there.  It was a dumping ground for coats, hats, scarves, gloves, unused hockey skates, dog food, tv tray tables, sketch pads, a piece of carpet, a mop, vacuum, two pairs of boots, a pair of old sneakers, some never used ski goggles, and more.  I just hated it, but I mostly pretend it’s not there or important to clean out.

But Saturday night, as I was thumbing through my files looking for ideas to improve my guest room, I found this article from the November issue of Real Simple:

Ah, so pretty

I remember totally loving this closet when I read the article, and thinking, hey, I could do that (and I did it for less than half of the $375 price tag they quote in the article)! 

So when I needed a Sunday project, I decided that the closet would be a good start.  I’m almost embarrassed to show you the before pictures of my closet, which was stuffed to the gills, but it looks so much nicer now – and I ‘m sure that I’m not the only one with cluttered spots in their homes!

Well, here it is, the official before picture - no straightening up for the photo either!

To "save space" I hung all my scarves with my coats. Which just made the hanging items bulkier

The bottom of the closet wasn't any better - it was all about out of sight, out of mind

I ended up just tossing all my hats and gloves on the shelf because I had no where else to put them

To start, I made a list of what I wanted and needed, even before I cleaned out the closet (just in case I was too tired to start on the closet itself once I’d run my errands – I’m still feeling the jet lag these days!).  I really liked the shelving unit that they’d used in the closet in the article, and I love love love baskets of any kind, so I put those items on my list.  I also decided to get a basket for the top shelf – things just look neater when you have somewhere to put them. 

I also liked that in the article, they’d painted the inside of the closet a fun color – I never would have thought to do that otherwise!  Since I plan to paint the center wall of my living area an accent color, I figured that I would pick the color I wanted and then use that for the inside of the closet as well.  And since the entire inside of the closet was a bit grody, I also decided to get some matte white paint to freshen up the trim, the shelf and the ceiling.

I started at Target and found two wonderful stackable shelves from ClosetMaid for $19.99 each.  It wasn’t exactly like the piece in the article, but I thought it was a fairly economical alternative (I can’t find them online, but they were in the store).  I checked out the baskets there as well, but they didn’t have enough to fill the six shelves I would end up with, so I next headed to Michaels.  By sheer coincidence, Michaels was having a 40% off sale on their baskets, so I was in heaven.  I love the dark brown baskets, but they didn’t have six of these, so I settled for alternating dark with light baskets.  They only had five in the size I wanted, so I decided to leave the bottom shelf free for my skates – yes, even though I’ve never ever used them in about 10 years of owning them. 

I also picked up some dark brown soft round baskets for my bathrooms – I saw another great decorating idea recently, where someone used these baskets to store new rolls of toilet paper.  It frees up any under the sink storage areas for other things (those are also spots I need to work on in the next few months) and looks pretty in the house.  It’s a silly little thing, but I was so thrilled with them, along with the dark basket I bought for my laundry items to sit on top of my stackable washer-dryer.

Baskets Galore!

Then, it was on to Lowes for paint and supplies. I picked up some samples for my guest room overhaul, which I’m planning to work on over the next few months, since that’s another room that drives me crazy.  I also got my paint for the closet, and then it was off to work!

I started by emptying out the entire closet and deciding what could be relocated.  I realized that the tv tray tables haven’t been used since I moved in, but could always be useful, so I put those up in the attic.  Also to the attic went a Christmas box that had been holding a laughable number of gloves and hats and the piece of carpet I’d been keeping in there. 

The closet makeover article I’d read mentioned that not all coats need to be in the coat closet, so I relocated any of my spring/fall coats to an upstairs closet and put all of my winter coats on the same type of hanger – fortunately, I had those already.  I went through my hats, gloves and scarves, as well as coats, and put anything I didn’t want anymore in a bag to go to goodwill.  Next, I realized that I could fit my ironing board next to my washer-dryer in the bathroom and that it made more sense to keep all of the laundry-related items together.  So I got rid of the two extra mops that I no longer use (since I love my Shark steam mop!) and put the ironing board behind my drying rack in the bathroom.  The iron and accessories were also relocated to the bathroom, while my sketch pad was moved to the upstairs closet with all my other sketch pads.  Salt for melting ice/snow went into the shed, my trunk cover went back out to the car, and the boots I don’t often wear went into my upstairs closet. 

Finally empty!

There's actually a lot of space in this closet, but you can see I also had to contend with my alarm box

Maybe I was just trying to cover up the grody-ness with all my clutter

I learned that while sometimes I still have the energy to paint at the end of the day, it’s not always a good idea when I don’t have a big spotlight to shine on the project.  I only have a small light in my closet, and between that and a flashlight, it was a bit of a struggle to finish up the painting.  But I managed to get it done – two coats of the blue and the white matte paint, and the closet looked great.

Painting done! So much better already

You’ll see from the pictures that I have a gross eyesore in the closet too – the home of one of my two filters.  I learned from watching countless hours of HGTV that if you want an architectural feature to disappear, paint it the same color as the surrounding walls. So I painted it blue along with the walls and aside from still being in the way, it does blend MUCH better than before!

Next, I put together the shelving units, which should be attached to a stud if they’re going to be stacked.  I don’t have one in the closet, but I can attach the top unit to the wood holding up the shelf, and plan to do that later today for safety.  I sorted the remaining items into baskets and was surprised to find I had a TON of room in the closet now!  Once the paint was dry, I easily put the shelving units back in the closet with their baskets, tucked the dog food behind the filter box and the vacuum at the back of the closet too, hung up my winter coats and extra hangers for guests, put my snow boots in a basket on the top shelf, snuck in my mop, and even had enough room to put away a “project box” (which contains the crocheted quilt I’m working on) on the top shelf!

The after!

No more clutter!

I’m so pleased with it that I want to get to work making over ALL my closets, but one step at a time.  My next project is to paint the accent wall, now that I have the paint to do it – I was watching Sabrina Soto yesterday on Get it Sold, and she said that if you have a center wall in an open-plan floor, it’s a good idea to paint it a darker color (in the same family as the rest of the paint) to give the room depth.  So I’m glad I’m thinking like a designer!

See, aren't these lovely?

I got all the ingredients and settled down yesterday to bake the cookies…and they were a total disaster! The first batch weren’t even salvagable, and the second batch were only a little better.  I’ll recreate the recipe here, and maybe someone can help me figure out where I went wrong! (Though I’m totally mortified by how terrible these look)

First, I got out the ingredients:

I thought anything with butter, cream cheese and vanilla would be good!

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 8-ounce bar cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the work surface
1/2 cup seedless jam
1 large egg, beaten
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar or coarse sanding sugar

First, I put the room temperature butter in my mixer

Then I added the cream cheese

Then, the sugar

This was to be beaten until fluffy, so that's what I did, scraping down the bowl a couple of times

Then I beat in the vanilla

Next I was supposed to reduce the mixer speed to low (which I did) and gradually add the flour, mixing until just incorporated - did that, even scraping down the bowl a couple of times again

This is what it looked like

And here's how the dough appeared right out of the mixer

Then, the recipe said to gently knead the dough on a floured surface two to three times, just to bring it together (okay) and form the dough into two 1-inch thick squares.

Here's a square. Then I was supposed to wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for one hour. Did that.

After an hour, I got one of the two squares out and on a lightly floured piece of parchment, I rolled it into a 9x12-inch rectangle - I even measured it.

I spread the jam over the dough - now here's where I may have run into trouble - I just eyeballed jam amounts, and this may have been more than 1/4 of a cup - but it appears to be a thin layer!

Then, I was supposed to cut the dough into three pieces (which I did), making three 9×4 inch rectangles.  And…oh no, I just realized my error – it says to start from the LONG side of each rectangle and roll it into logs.  Yup, you got it, I started with the shorter edge of each rectangle.  Darn!  Okay that explains the whole issue….

But anyway.  Once you roll each of those three pieces into a log, wrap it in wax paper and refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes.  Repeat with the remaining dough.

Then, heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Slice the logs into 1-inch pieces and place on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing them 1 1/2 inches apart.

Brush with the egg and sprikle with turbinado sugar (I couldn't find it, so I had to use regular sugar)

Bake them until golden, about 20-25 minutes. If you've messed up the recipe like me, lie down on the floor in despair and take pictures of the ceiling.

Cool slightly on baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely - store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. (Sorry this picture is blurry, I think it was my tears of disappointment clouding the lens...)

Okay, now that I’ve figured out what went wrong, I may or may not try to see if I have the ingredients to do it again tonight…we’ll see!

**Update: I did go ahead and remake half a batch of the cookies to see how they would come out, and it was SO much better than yesterday’s batch!

Mmm, fully cooked, kept their original shape, not too much leaking jelly!

And I finally got my pretty jar of cookies! If I weren't so tired, I'd add pretty ribbon to it too, like in the photo. For the other three jars I had, I put the pasta fagioli that I made for dinner tonight - yum!

Unfortunately, I don’t have a garage that would keep it a secret as to whether my car was here or not.  So it’s pretty clear to anyone wandering by when I’m not at home.  That (and my own sense of security) is why I installed an alarm system a few months ago.  I’ve read one too many articles about single women being accosted/attacked in their homes, so I thought it made sense to spend the extra money and put one in and it’s been great.  I think the alarm signs in my yard and on my front and back windows alone have given me peace of mind, let alone the window and door alarms, and motion sensors.  I can finally sleep peacefully at night and feel confident when coming home that as long as the alarm is still activated, there’s no one in my house.  So that’s my main security.

Keeping me safe!

Even though it’s kind of obvious that I’m not there, I do like to give the illusion that someone’s home (maybe my car’s in the shop, right?).  So shortly after moving in, my dad helped me install a light switch that has a built-in timer – I can set it for a certain time, or make it random. I always choose the random setting, so that it appears as if someone real is home and turning on the lights, instead of just a timer.  I also have a timer set for my bedside lamp in my room, so that it looks like at night, I’m in there reading when I’m not.  Some people also leave an upstairs shade open, to make it look as though someone might be home, but I have yet to do that – I generally close all the shades in the house, so that no one can see in. 

At this time of year, I was also happy to find an outside timer for my Christmas lights – it works really well now that we’ve had all that snow and I can’t get to my outside GFI plug easily, but basically, at dusk, my lights come on, and then six hours later, they go off.  So that will help with the appearance of someone being home too.

Love my light-sensing timer!

Before going away for more than a couple of days, I also let my next door neighbors know where I’ll be and for how long.  They help me out by picking up my mail and the paper, so it doesn’t pile up for too long, and they keep an extra eye on my home for anything out of the ordinary.  Sometimes, they’ve been known to put my garbage cans out, which really makes it look like I’m still here!  I never broadcast that I’m going to be away, but I think it’s helpful to let one trusted neighbor know where you’ll be. 

In addition to security, I’ve got to prepare the house.  I leave myself a long list of things to do in the days leading up to my departure (mostly because if I didn’t have a list, I’d forget something).  I unplug anything unnecessary (like, I definitely plan to unplug my space heater, even though it’s off, just in case).  I like to come home to a clean house, so I spend a little time each day straightening up and cleaning.  On the day I’m leaving, I take out my garbage and recycling, so that it’s not smelling up the house while I’m gone.  I make sure to run the dishwasher the night before and then handwash any dishes I use before leaving.  I water all my plants and clean out my refrigerator of any perishables that won’t last until my return.  And just before leaving (in the winter), I set my heat at 45 – that way I’m not using too much energy in an empty house, but it’s just enough that my pipes won’t freeze.  You can never predict how cold it might get in the winter, so it’s always a good idea to leave the heat on low, rather than shutting it off completely.  Finally, I double check that all the locks are bolted before turning on the alarm system and heading out.

So that’s my routine for leaving home for a week or so – how do you close up your house while you’re away?

I plan to paint this wall a darker blue in the same color family

And I just hate the light fixture in my downstairs bathroom. Hate it.

Blech

My parents are getting rid of a decent fixture from their bathroom, so I plan to use that, and replace one of the glass covers that’s cracked.  I’m all about recycling, because light fixture can be expensive.  The one I really like, I saw at Lowes:

Right in the middle

I may also get around to replacing the ceiling fan in my bedroom as well, which has seen better days, and often makes a grinding noise when I’m running it.  It’s awesome. 

The thing I’m most excited about though isn’t a project, but a furniture addition – I think I’ll finally be able to get the dining room sideboard I’ve been eyeing at Pier 1 for the better part of a year:

The Alston Chest!

It says they have limited availability though, so I’m hoping to get it just after the holidays – we’ll see!

What projects are you planning for the new year?

I started with the ingredients:

1/2 pound good bittersweet chocolate (recommended: Lindt – didn’t have any at my grocery store, so I went with Ghirardelli)
1/2 pound good semisweet chocolate (recommended: Ghirardelli)
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons of orange flavored liqueur, optional (I substituted 2 tsp of orange extract)
1 tablespoon of prepared coffee
1/2 teaspoon good vanilla extract
Confectioners’ sugar
Cocoa powder

First I chopped the chocolates finely with a sharp knife and put them in this heat proof mixing bowl:

Ah, lovely chopped chocolates!

Then, heat the cream in a small saucepan until it just boils - small bubbles will form at the edges when this happens.

Turn off the heat and allow the cream to sit for 20 seconds.  Pour the cream through a fine-meshed sieve into the bowl with the chocolate.

If you don't have a fine-meshed sieve, attempt to use a coffee filter and fail miserably.

With a wire whisk, slowly stir the cream and chocolates together until the chocolate is completely melted. If this doesn't melt the chocolate completely, you can microwave it in 15 second intervals, stirring in between, until melted

Add in the orange extract or liqueur, depending on your preference

Then add the coffee

And the vanilla. Whisk all together and set aside at room temperature for an hour

Once you’re ready, the messy/hard part begins.  Since I needed two hands for this, I wasn’t able to photograph this part – with two teaspoons, spoon round balls of the chocolate mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment (or waxed) paper.  Roll each ball of chocolate in your hands roughly to make it round – be prepared, it’s very sticky and messy at this stage.   Roll in confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder or both – I chose cocoa powder.  These will keep refrigerated for weeks, but serve them at room temperature.

These taste gourmet!

I also made two other kinds of truffles this weekend, but since I made them on Sunday, I was too tired from shoveling to remember to take many pictures!  I did get this one when I was mixing peanut butter and chocolate for my peanut butter truffles…

Mmmm, I could have just licked the spoon!

And I ended up with these cookie dough truffles - delicious!

And these chocolate peanut butter truffles!

First I made sure I had all the ingredients:

1 7-oz jar marshmallow creme
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla*
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups powdered sugar
Toasted whole almonds, toasted pecan halves, toasted macadamia nuts, toasted hazelnuts (filberts), quartered pitted dates, and/or dried cherries (I treated this as optional and didn’t use any – I don’t like centers in my truffles)
Powdered sugar
8 oz semisweet chocolates squares, chopped
1 tablespoon shortening
Finely chopped toasted nuts, toasted coconut, or candy sprinkles
White baking chocolate, melted

*Their test kitchen tip was to omit the extract and use 1 tablespoon of desired flavoured liqueur, such as raspberry or orange to the marshmallow mixture and increse the powdered sugar to 3 1/4 cups.  I prefer almond extract, so that’s what I used.

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper and butter the paper – I’m lazy, so I just sprayed it with Pam.  For the next step, I had to use my favorite kitchen appliance:

Ah, my lovely red Kitchen Aid mixer

In  the large mixer bowl….

...combine the marshmallow (yes, it's more than 7oz. That took some figuring),

butter, almond extract, and

salt.

Beat with the electric mixer until smooth

Get out your powdered sugar...

And gradually add the three cups to the marshmallow mixture

Beat until well mixed - it looks strange when it's mixed, so don't be alarmed

Cover it lightly and freeze for 20 minutes.  I just put this in the fridge too, and it worked out great.

Once the mixture is chilled sufficiently, they suggest you lightly dust your hands with powdered sugar (which I found wasn’t necessary).

It looks strange, but you can work with it no problem

Shape the marshmallow mixture into 1-inch balls, forming the mixture around the almonds, pecan halves, etc mentioned earlier unless you're omitting them. Place the balls on a covered baking sheet and freeze for 20 minutes

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, put your semisweet chocolate and shortening:

This just makes me happy

Heat and stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat

Line another large baking sheet with waxed paper.  If you are running out of baking sheets (like I was), use a wire rack with waxed paper.  Remove the marshmallow balls, a few at a time, from the freezer, and dip them into the chocolate.  Like the process I described in the Cookies & Cream recipe, roll them around with the wooden spoon, and then use a fork to lift them out of the chocolate, drawing the fork across the rim of the saucepan to remove excess chocolate.  Place the balls on the waxed-paper-lined baking sheet.

Immediately sprinkle tops with finely chopped nuts, toasted coconut or candy sprinkles (you can see what I used)

Let them stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes or until completely set.  If desired, drizzle truffles with melted white chocolate.  They recommend storing them between piece of waxed paper in an airtight container.  They can be stored in the fridge for up to a week or freezer for up to 3 months. 

Another lovely truffle!

I’ve never made truffles before, so I was really being ambitious trying five new recipes in one weekend.  It turns out that they’re fairly easy, as long as you go with your gut when you’re making them.  But be prepared for a big mess in your kitchen, because that’s what I was left with after a whirlwind of candy making all weekend. 

I started with these cookies & cream truffles, a recipe from Katie Lee Joel (soon to be the ex Mrs. Billy Joel), published in Cosmo in April.  She says that if you store them in an airtight container in the freezer, they’ll last for two weeks.

I started by getting out all the ingredients:

8 Oreo cookies
4oz. cream cheese
1 c. semisweet chocolate chips
1 t. powdered sugar, for dusting

I’ll add in an extra ingredient here too – 1 tablespoon of shortening.  Katie doesn’t seem to think it’s necessary, but if you add it into the chocolate when you melt it, it will make it shiny, and keep it melted for longer, which makes it easier to work with when dipping the truffles – more on that later.

Ingredients galore! I got out all of the ingredients for all of the recipes at once

First, line a baking sheet with parchment paper – I didn’t have any, so I used waxed paper, which worked just fine. 

For the next part, I used a food processor – it seemed to work easiest. 

Take your Oreos, all eight of them, and put them in the food processor and pulse into fine crumbs

If you don’t have a food processor, you can put the cookies in a zip-top plastic bag and crush them.

Mmm, they look good already! But I've always been a sucker for Oreos

Then add your cream cheese...

...and pulse until just mixed

Use a teaspoon to scoop the cookie mixture into small balls (I also rolled them in my hands to get them to look the way I wanted)

Place the cookie balls on the baking sheet, cover with plastic, and freeze until firm, about one hour (I put mine in the fridge for about 90 minutes, and they came out fine also)

While you’re waiting, you can either start your next truffle recipe, which is what I did, or pop in a Christmas movie, like Love Actually or Ziggy’s Gift to get yourself in the holiday spirit!

Then, after the requisite time has passed, Katie Lee Joel suggests you put the chocolate chips in the microwave, first for one minute and then stir, then for 30 more seconds and stir again. 

It comes out looking like this.

I used this method to then dip the truffles using toothpicks or two forks, like Katie Lee suggested, but it was a MESS.  The easier way to do this is to go ahead and use the chocolate chips if you want, or pick up a bar of semisweet chocolate (8 oz) and chop it up into little pieces.

It already looks prettier

Put that in a small saucepan, and add the shortening to it.

Melt this on low heat, stirring occasionally, but always watching it, until it's smooth and shiny

Once it’s smooth and shiny, take it off the heat, and start dipping – the easiest method seemed to be to put one truffle in the chocolate at a time, roll it around with the wooden spoon I had used to stir the chocolate until it was completely covered.  Then, pick it up underneath the truffle, using a fork, and scrape the bottom of the fork on the side of the pot to remove any excess chocolate – it will still drip all over the place, so just be prepared.  Place it back on the wax paper-covered baking sheet and repeat.

To finish them up, put some powdered sugar in a sieve and dust it over them. I didn't have a sieve (or the ability to get to one), so I just sprinkled with my hands

Once they’re at this stage, cover them with plastic wrap and stick them back in the fridge until you’re ready to package them up, at least an hour.  Katie Lee again suggests freezing them, but they firmed up great in the fridge for me (and that’s where I have the most room!).  They should be served cold.

Once I was ready to package them, I put them in mini cupcake papers:

Don't they look delicious?

This recipe doesn’t make a lot of truffles (and mine were all about an inch/inch and a half in diameter), so if you want to make a lot of them, I’d recommend doubling it.  They are delicious and easy, and make a great Christmas gift!