Sunday, November 25, 2007

I'm Grateful!

I thought since Thanksgiving has come and gone, I should tell you about my grateful weekend. We drove to Idaho and arrived too early in my estimation because I was ready to EAT! So I snitched ham for an hour and a half until dinner was ready. The food was grate! We feasted as a family and then just sat and digested and talked until all the women realized that we better hit the hay early if we were going to get a jump on shopping.
For the record, standing in front of Best Buy from 3-5 in the morning, was not grate! It was freezing. I was really worried about losing a few toes. But I endured thanks to the help of a free breakfast burrito from some kind strangers and sheer determination. But getting my item and getting out of there quickly was grate! We then had a grate day of shopping. I love spending 'black friday' with my sisters-in-law and my mother-in-law. We laugh, spend a lot of money and enjoy the day. It was grate! I took no pictures because I was too busy shopping but trust me, we had a grate time.
Saturday was more low-key. The kids played, Vicki (mother-in-law) got all her beading supplies out and we made jewelry all afternoon. I made some grate earrings, a bracelet, and a necklace. I am totally spoiled when I go over there. We played games in the evening and then packed up the kids to go home. Tyler drove and let me sleep and I think Thanksgiving and subsequent days were a grate success. And now you can see all the things I am 'grate'ful for.

And this has nothing to do with last weekend, but I forgot to post our treat from last week, and it was pretty grate too. Here it is.

Amazing Double Chocolate Truffles

Try making flavored truffles by stirring in different extracts…a teaspoon of orange, peppermint, or raspberry extract will do the trick.

6 1-oz. sqs. Semi-sweet baking chocolate, chopped

2 T. butter

¼ c. whipping cream

12 oz. pkg. white chocolate chips

2 T. shortening

Optional: Chopped nuts or colorful sprinkles

Melt baking chocolate in a heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly; remove from heat. Add butter and whipping cream; stir until smooth. Refrigerate for one hour. Roll mixture into one-inch balls; place on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet. Freeze for 4 hours. Melt white chocolate chips and shortening over low heat, stirring until smooth. Dip frozen truffles into white chocolate~return to baking sheet. Roll in nuts or sprinkles, if desired. Refrigerate truffles for 10 to 15 minutes until coating is set. Store in airtight container. Makes one dozen.


These were really fun and very rich. I still laugh when I read some of the instructions. It was not a piece of cake to roll them into balls after they set in the fridge, but it worked out eventually. The girls had way too much fun dipping them in the sprinkles and nuts. At one point when I was not paying attention Ivory was grabbing handfuls of purple sprinkles and stuffing them in her mouth. She was purple for a while.



This picture cracks me up. I feel like he is saying, "What did you expect to be in here? Chocolate of course."

5 comments:

Ker said...

Im glad you had a "Grate" weekend. And I love the photo of stallion. LOL. Just for the record, I want you to know that I am "Grateful" for you as my good friend.

Nathan Lindsay said...

Okay...I got it about halfway through. I kept thinking, "That's not how you spell great. I would've thought Maleen would know how to spell great."

Grate. I think I'm the one that's losing her mind.

Nathan Lindsay said...

See what I mean? Again...that wasn't Nathan.

Deanne said...

What a grate post. I'm grateful that you had a grate weekend. I can't wait to see your grate jewelry; perhaps when we have our grate night o fun with Jessie! So funny!

Wright Family said...

I love seeing all your post about the treats you make. Liam asked if those were candy? I said sort of so he pretended to eat all of them up.