Chubby Hubby Truffle

These are seriously awesome! They are the perfect mix of sweet and salty. Good luck stopping at just one. For those counting points for weight watchers these are 3 points a piece, if followed exactly. I ended up with 15 truffles instead of 18.

Peanut Butter-Pretzel Truffles (a.k.a. Chubby Hubby Truffles)

Originally found at Brown Eyed Baker

Yield: About 18 truffles

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Chill Time: 1 hour, total

1½ cups pretzel pieces
½ cup creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 cup milk or semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening

1. Put the pretzel pieces into a resealable plastic bag and crush into very small bits (a rolling pin works great for this).

2. In a small bowl, combine the peanut butter, butter, brown sugar and salt. Stir until all of the ingredients are completely blended and smooth. Add the pretzel bits to the peanut butter mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the powdered sugar and mix until completely combined.

3. Line a small baking sheet with wax paper. Using a small cookie scoop, or about 2 teaspoons worth of peanut butter mixture, gently shape into a ball with your fingertips. Place the ball on the wax paper-lined cookie sheet and repeat with the remaining peanut butter mixture. Place the baking sheet into the refrigerator and chill for at least 30 minutes.

4. When ready to dip the truffles, microwave the chocolate chips and vegetable shortening together in a small bowl at 50% power in 30-second increments, stirring after each, until completely melted and smooth.

5. Working one at a time, dip one peanut butter-pretzel ball into the melted chocolate and use a fork to roll it around, ensuring that it is completely coated with chocolate. Let any extra chocolate drip off and place back on the wax paper-lined sheet. Repeat with all of the peanut butter-pretzel balls.

6. Return the baking sheet to the refrigerator and again chill for at least 30 minutes. Garnish with a drizzle of melted peanut butter and crushed pretzels, if desired. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Yarn Crazy!

The yarn stores in my area consist of Walmart and Micheal's with low supply so I went to Knitting-Warehouse and started adding to the cart. I didn't really realize until the box came just how much I had ordered! But I am so excited to start more hats.

Latest update on the kitchen. Since painting the cupboards, my husband has added the hardwood flooring to the counters and recently put the tile mosaic backsplash on. We still need to add trim around counter paint under cupboards and maybe add crown molding to the top.

Before picture again:

Every year our kids meet up with their cousins for an annual Labor Day weekend camping trip. I started making t-shirts for them and this year I was able to use the Cricut to add vinyl. They turned out so cute! The back has their name and age and the front says, Lodge 2012. I used the Jubilee cartridge.

Baby has arrived!

Annabelle Grace arrived on August 20th, a week overdue. She is perfect but she is also the reason I have not had a posting in almost 2 months!

I love the look of little crocheted beanies on newborns, but I have never crocheted, so guess my newest craft! I started with just baby hats but then found an adorable pattern for some animal hats. I just finished an adorable monster hat for my 4 year old. It is so much easier then I expected. 

The monster pattern is from simply2irresistible.etsy.com and the baby beanie is from www.thelovelycrow.com

Baby Announcements

I realize I have not been posting as often but I am getting down to the end of my pregnancy and projects are moving a lot slower. I have a list of stuff to be cleaned and finished before baby, so I work a little bit on each one everyday. I have two quilts that I can't wait to display and I've been nagging my husband to finish the kitchen and the swing set for the kids.

Yesterday I started on my baby announcements. I used Baby Steps cartridge and inspiration from My Critter Creations. I just loved her card and it looked easy enough to make in large quantities. I made 20 yesterday and will make another 20 today. After she's born I will print off her stats and insert a picture.

The buggy was cut at 3" and I used pop dots to make it stick out a little. Unless you were doing a large cut the nose is nearly impossible to cut so I used a pen to draw it on and chalk for the cheeks. I am also unsure why they combined some of the layers. For instance the purple hood, wheels and the dark pink are all one layer but are meant to be different colors. So I had to waste paper and time cutting out all three shapes in purple and dark pink. I attempted to use the CCR to delete the shapes but it was not acting right yesterday.

Chicken Butchering

Wow, we have been so busy, but yesterday we finally got a whole day at home to catch up. So what did we do? Butchered chickens! Wahoo, not... We were not excited to do this but it had to be done. So we got set up and in the end it took about 3 hours to butcher 13 chickens. They were so big I had to run to the store and buy 2 gallon ziploc bags instead of the 1 gallon.

From this experience I have learned 1) my husband is Rambo, 2) my kids are pretty tough and 3) I'm not.

I didn't get a lot of pictures because I was busy plucking feathers but here is one of them headless and hanging before they are sent into the boiling water.

And one of my 2 youngest watching from their vantage point.

We may think we're tough after butchering 13 chickens but we were quick to run to town to get a pizza for dinner with NO chicken on it!