I know, you are wondering where in the world I have been! Life has happened and has taken me from my beloved pumpkin patch! I ended up having a very busy summer and have now been back in school for almost 3 weeks. I happily am down 58 pounds total and continue to go down each week!
I have already begun thinking about fall! My husband and I put out our fall stuff. No it isn't too early! We tend to do things about a month before everyone else does and Christmas stuff will be going up in about 2 1/2 months so in order to enjoy our fall decor it has to go out now! I love this time of year! I begin thinking about harvesting my pears from the pear tree, visiting pumpkin patches and festivals, and enjoying all those goodies covered with pecans, caramel, pumpkin pie spice, or cinnamon! I begin my hunt for the perfect smelling fall plug in to scent my house. I do love this time of year! Seems once school starts back, I am ready for fall.
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on us. I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing that day. I had just started my 3rd year of teaching. I had walked up to the front office to get my mail when I was told that the World Trade Center Towers had both been hit. My 1st graders were at specials so I walked back to my classroom and watched the television in disbelief. I remember wondering what in the world was happening. I remember being scared and sad. I remember asking, "Do we tell our class what has happened or go about our business and let the parents tell them when the time was right?" With them being only 1st graders, I believe the decision was made not to say anything but to carry on with business as usual. That was very difficult. I wanted to be glued to the television. I remember it being very difficult to turn it off and conduct regular business. I was in disbelief as was everyone else. The 10th anniversary has been made public and when I see the pictures and videos it all still seems like it happened yesterday. It is hard to believe how far America has come since that day. I am STILL proud to be an American and I will never forget that day and how it made me feel, even in my little county in Kentucky.
I have some nice recipes for dishes I have tried since we last talked. I have an awesome dessert recipe I am definately going to share with you today! I made them for my church's 130th homecoming celebration. They are called cake balls and they are sooooo simple and easy to make. I had so many people asking me for the recipe and when I told them the recipe they were shocked. BTW...these are not Weight Watcher friendly so beware! So here goes.....
CAKE BALLS
*1 cooled cake (you can use a cooled cake made from a mix or I just bought a bakery bundt cake from my local grocery store)
*liquid coffee creamer (enough to make a small pool of liquid and depends on how much cake you have)
*chocolate chips (can be any flavor...white, chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter, mint, etc..)
Buy a cake, liquid coffee creamer and chocolate chips that go together...for example if you are using a chocolate cake you might use a hazelnut creamer and dark chocolate chips or a peppermint creamer and mint chocolate chips, or a chocolate mocha creamer and white chocolate chips. Be creative. You may want to do a white cake with coconut creamer and white chocolate or a pumpkin cake with a pumpkin spice creamer and white chocolate...or a strawberry, lemon, or orange cake with french vanilla creamer and white chocolate chips.....the possibilities are endless.
Crumble your dry cake with a fork. Use your hands to complete the crumbling process. Using your hands, push the crumbled cake to the sides of the bowl making a small well in the center. Pour enough coffee creamer to make a small puddle. You are just using the creamer as a binding agent so don't get too heavy but need enough that the cake crumbs will bind together. Using your hands mix the creamer and cake crumbs together till you are able to make small balls of cake. If the mix is too dry add more creamer.
Roll the cake into small balls about quarter size and place on a wax paper lined baking sheet. Place the balls into the freezer for about 30 minutes. Melt your chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Pull the cake balls out of the freezer and roll in the chocolate. The cake bals will begin to crumble as they begin to warm so it takes a lot of the chocolate to cover them. Set up on the same cold baking sheet so that they set up quickly. Store in the fridge. Number of balls you make varies on the cake size.
I made lemon cake with white chocolate and a chocolate cake with peanut butter chips. They went over very well....like I said, a lot of people asked me how to make them. I have plans to make a strawberry version of these for my daughter's next birthday since it will be Strawberry Shortcake themed. Have a wonderful weekend and hopefully I won't stay a stranger in the pink pumpkin patch anymore! Ta! Ta!
