Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

These are the most awesome little bites of amazing that I have ever had. After I made these I had them in my refrigerator and would just take one out and eat it whenever I felt like it. These should be as common in a refrigerator as butter or eggs. I got the recipe from Love & Olive Oil after seeing the awesome reviews on it. What I like most about this recipe is that it's essentially EDIBLE COOKIE DOUGH! I know for a fact that I'm not the only one that loves eating cookie dough but feels a little guilty eating it raw. I tried a recipe once for an edible raw cookie dough that was made with cream cheese and it was good...but it tasted like cream cheese - not like I was about to bake cookies (which is what my friends and I were looking for). This, folks, is the real deal. I plan on making these again for a girls night, date night, or night in. I absolutely adore these - so I'm sharing them with you!

What You'll Need:

2 1/2 C flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 C butter (room temp)

3/4 C of granulated sugar

3/4 C of brown sugar (well packed)

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 C of milk

1 C of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

dark chocolate for dipping

Start by mixing butter and sugars until they're creamy and then add the milk and vanilla.

In a separate bowl mix your flour, baking soda, and salt then add that to your sugar mixture.

Measure out your chocolate chips and fold those into your batter.

You'll have to let this sit in the refrigerator for an hour-ish, I know, I hated it too. When it's been long enough, or like me, you take them out after about 30 minutes, it's time to roll them into 1" balls and place on a baking sheet lined with wax or parchment paper. You're going to hate me for this to but now you have to put these in the freezer for another 30 minutes.

A few minutes before you take them out, get your chocolate melted. You can double-boil them or just use these nifty little containers like I do. All you have to do is put in the microwave for a few minutes, then you get perfectly melted chocolate.

This is just a warning from one foodie to another but because the cookie dough is so cold, the chocolate won't coat as smoothly as it would if it were room temp. See what I mean though, they're not very sexy (but I promise the taste isn't affected at all).

After they're covered in chocolate all you have to do is eat them. I recommend the thinnest layer of chocolate you can get because they actually taste better with less. With these, less is more (unless you're eating them...). LOOK! This is what's waiting inside, hidden beneath the wonderful chocolate. Mmmm...

Foodie Love

I didn't cover all of mine with chocolate because I didn't like the way the chocolate was coming out so I only did half. I actually liked the way both came out. Both are completely addicting! Besides waiting for the dang things to cool off and freeze, they're so easy to make. You could easily whip some up and serve them while looking totally sophisticated. Enjoy!

Spreads & Other Snacks for "Grown Ups"

I dedicate this post to World Market and my fellow foodies who go shopping when they're hungry. There's no denying it, and I applaud you for it because this is when I find some of my favorite snacks. Mike and I went to World Market today to look around and came out with some great stuff - including a much needed lamp shade. But food-wise we scored some new snacks too. We ended up with some Scottish strawberry champagne preserve, Cafe Du Monde beignet mix, two plates, and a little dipping dish - all for just over $26! We decided to wait on the beignets (as hard as it was) and picked up a baguette to try the preserves instead.

I was really excited to try this because the cashier lady said it was one of her favorites. Really, at that point I was so hungry I would have tried it regardless. 

My new little dish :)

I washed some grapes I had in the fridge and decided to see what else we could snack on. I had some dried cranberries leftover from my Cranberry Orange Scones so I took them out too. All we had to buy was a "rustic sweet baguette" loaf. It must have been destiny (or at least luck) because we got the last fresh loaf.

We sat down on the couch (turned on the television) and got ready to try our little snack feast. The preserves were so delicious but they were definitely on the sweet side. We needed something to cut down on the sweetness so I brought out some brie (the Laughing Cow brand) that I had in my fridge. I put some cheese on a piece of bread then some preserves - foodie heaven, let me tell you!! The brie made it really creamy. I absolutely love strawberry jam and this one is definitely a keeper. It had a slightly stronger taste and a more intense flavor. I loved it!

     

                                                                                                                                                                                    

Oh, here's a little extra info about the difference between jelly, jam, and preserves - for anyone, like me, who didn't know until today. According to TLC Cooking,

• In jelly the fruit comes in the form of fruit juice
• In jam the fruit comes in the form of fruit pulp or crushed fruit
• In preserves the fruit comes in the form of chunks

After snacking on this for a while we decided we wanted a more savory spread - but that's one thing I didn't have laying around in my fridge.... so we made a pesto butter. It was so simple to make. 

What You'll Need:

1/2 a stick of butter

3 tsp of pesto

salt and garlic powder to taste

Make sure the butter is room temp and mix your pesto in. Add your seasonings to taste. When it's how you want it, put in in the fridge for 10 minutes. We use this pesto for everything. I've mixed it into pastas and put it on chicken. I always have a jar of this in my fridge.

When the butter was chilled, we cut some more bread and sat back down. I have to say the mix between the savory pesto and the sweet preserves was unbelievable! All together it was an awesome snack that's so much better than your average bowl of chips. You could definitely serve these as snacks for guests or as a date night snack for a night in. Either way I love you enough to share this simple snack with you! Enjoy!

Cranberry Orange Scones

For the past couple of weeks it's been quite obvious that I'm on the lookout for fall. I've been sort of rushing it by making warm dishes and baking... which must mean that I'm desperate because I'm not much of a baker. One thing that I was dying to try to make for the first time was scones - but a very specific type. I wanted to make the kind that they have at my school, the ones that I'm borderline addicted to and go amazing with 50 cent coffee, not nasty 50 cent coffee, but the kind of 50 cent coffee I look forward to and will go across campus to get whether I'm running late or not. That last statement is very, very true. Anyway my school has cranberry scones for a dollar that are responsible for turning me into a scone lover. Not to throw any "major coffee companies" (cough cough) under the bus but all I've ever had are dry scones which never made me a fan. I finally worked up the energy, I mean courage, to try to make them myself.

What You'll Need:

4 C + 1/4 C flour

1/4 C sugar

2 Tbl baking powder

2 tsp salt

1 Tbl orange zest

3/4 C cold diced butter

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 C cream

1 C dried cranberries

1 egg beaten w/ 2 Tbl water

1/2 C confectioners sugar + 2 T

4 tsp orange juice

Start by preheating your oven to 400. In a large bowl mix the the 4 cups of flour, the sugar, baking powder, salt and orange zest. Add your diced butter. According to Ina Garten, this should be done in a mixer but I don't have one because they're freaking expensive. I know, I know I'm probably breaking some sort of baking rule again. I just used a dough cutter to roughly mix (more like incorporate) the butter throughout. You'll want the butter to be crumbly. The dough cutter did a fabulous job.

In a separate bowl, mix your cranberries with the 1/4 cup of flour and toss together. Add these to the big bowl.

Lightly beat 4 eggs together with the cream. Add this to the big bowl. The reason that I added this after the cranberries is because I figured the cranberries would mix easier in flour than the dough so I did that first. I ended up being right.

When everything is carefully mixed, it's time to get messy! Roll the dough into a ball. Flour a large surface and a rolling pin so you can roll out the dough. Roll it out until it's 3/4 of an inch thick.

Line two cookie sheets with parchment foil. I thought I would only need one tray but I wasn't sure how they would bake so I spaced them out and ended up using to cookie sheets.

 

Use a biscuit cutter or anything that's around 3" in diameter to cut out your scones. I don't own a biscuit cutter so I used a normal plastic cup. It worked just fine. 

Keep rolling out the scones until all of the dough is done. This batch should make about 14-16 scones. Of course I got 17.

Make a quick egg wash (one egg with water) and lightly brush the tops of the scones. After this step sprinkle sugar on the top of your scones and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, until they're golden brown. I literally used the last granule of sugar for the dough so I didn't have any extra but I wouldn't recommend skipping this step.

When the scones are done put them on a cooling rack. While you wait, make can make your glaze - yum!! This is the easiest thing to make too. Start by mixing your confectioners sugar and orange juice. If it's not the consistency you like add more of whatever you need. I eventually gave up when it wasn't as thick as I wanted. Confectioners sugar isn't my favorite taste so adding more to make it thicker wasn't my idea of good eats. What I didn't realized was that it wouldn't really make a difference because the scones were phenomenal already! When it's how you want it drizzle it over your cooled scones.

Foodie heaven!

 I would have eaten more as soon as they were done but considering I started making these around 9 pm, and the true test was how they would taste with coffee, I only had one.

The next morning I couldn't wait to try my little meal (when you're in college this is considered a meal) and in true everyday fashion, I was running really late. I'm talking about and hour and a half late to get on the road to my parents' house. But it was so worth it! They were exactly what I wanted! I have to admit that I might prefer them with my Dunkin Donuts brand coffee a little more than the 50 cent coffee but could you blame me? The centers were perfectly cooked (baked?) and they actually had a hint of orange. I wasn't sure if they would be too orangy. I was nervous because I didn't use a lot of sugar either when making these so I was afraid they wouldn't be sweet enough but the cranberries add the perfect amount of sweetness. It was definitely the best breakfast I've had in a while. Even as a snack, I can't resist them. I don't think you'll be able to either!

Californian Chicken Salad

We've all had those days where you just don't want to cook but still want to eat. Between school and work we don't always have time to cook large meals, which sucks because after a full day of school and/or work you're usually able to eat a large meal. Luckily for me (and Mike) I've fully embraced the power of the rotisserie chicken. Oh my goodness how didn't I see it before - especially since, at one point, I was living with 3 roommates! Now don't think I chose the name Californian Chicken Salad because I'm trying to say you get nothing but shortcuts in California cooking. Au contraire mon cheri! California cooking is full of flavor, freshness, comfort, ease, (and my personal favorite) AVOCADO!! Let's be honest you can go to a restaurant anywhere and if there's avocado on the food it usually has California in the title. Anyway, I love this salad because it wasn't too heavy to eat late at night, it was delicious, and it was easy.

What You'll Need:

1 rotisserie chicken

1 bag of Italian blend ready to serve salad

1 tomato

crutons

1-2 avocados 

your favorite dressing

Start by taking the chicken breast skin off. Use a fork or you fingers to peel off chunks of chicken and heat them up in the pan. I chose to warm them up because I like the warmness of the chicken with the coolness of the dressing.The best part of the rotisserie chicken is that you don't have to season it at all. The second best part is that it'll be warmed up in minutes.

While the chicken is warming up cut up your avocado and tomato and put them in a bowl with the salad. You don't have to add croutons but we've been adding them to salads, including side salads, a lot lately. We always mix up the brands we get but I don't think you can really mess up croutons....

One brand we ALWAYS have is Marie's ranch. This is our favorite because it's perfect for dipping or salads because it's the perfect mix of tangy and creamy. Add the amount you want to your salad-crouton-avocado-tomato mix. 

 
Add your heated chicken on top of the salad.

TOSS, MIX, TOSS.... Ha ha and your done!

This salad is for all of my foodie friends that feel like they don't always have the time or the energy but know that your meal can still be fabulous as long as it's tasty! Serve with a glass of white wine (because you deserve it) and enjoy! Cheers!