January 04, 2009

A Belated (but Yummy) Christmas Post

I had hoped to post this before Christmas, and obviously that didn't happen. But I figure better late than never, especially when it involves sweet treats.

Much like the Thanksgiving pies, I was a bit overly ambitious when it came to making some Christmas treats to give away to family and friends: I wound up with a total of 10 different things. But most of the recipes were very easy, so I thought I'd share them here:



From the upper left:
Cookie Dough Truffles - There's no raw egg in the dough, so you can scrape the bowl all you want. This really does wind up yielding the 5 1/2 dozen the recipe says it does.
Butterscotch Nut Fudge - A nice change of pace from chocolate fudge.
Chocolate Orange Cremes - Okay, technically the recipe is Orange Cappuccino Creams, but I'm not a big fan of coffee, so I left that part out. I also made another variation of this with diced up marischino cherries, cherry extract, a touch of red food coloring and finely chopped slivered almonds. When I was done, I sprinkled a little bit of the chopped nuts on the top. It gave them a polished look, and I was able to tell which was which based on what kind of nuts were on top.
Chocolate Peanut Clusters - A simple but classic goodie.
Chocolate Almond Macaroon Bars - These are very rich, so a small piece goes a long way even for someone like me who has a ginormous sweet tooth.
Rocky Road Tasty Team Treats - These are super, super easy to make, and they're delicious too. They're my new favorite bar type of dessert.



Foreground:
Cherry BonBon Cookies - These have a sweet surprise inside!
Middle:
Mixed Nut Bars - These are quite addictive, but again, another one where a little bit goes a long way.
More of the Chocolate Orange Cremes and Chocolate Cherry Cremes are in the background.



These Mint-Mallow Chocolate Cups turned out to be my favorite. I hadn't made them (or most of the other above treats) before, and at first I wasn't sure about the combination of mint and marshmallow, but it worked very well. A couple things to note about this: I would advise making it the day you plan to serve it, because the candy pieces begin to break down in the marshmallow mixture over time. Also, I would wait until the very last minute to sprinkle the crushed candy pieces over the cups as a garnish, because they look very glittery and pretty when you garnish them, but the garnish sinks into the marshmallow fairly quickly.

Enjoy!

P.S. I'll post more about medical stuff in the next couple of weeks, but a quick update: Today was 6 weeks since the last of our embryos were biopsied, and we don't have the CGH results yet. I started the Synthroid a few weeks ago, and it seems to be helping a little bit. (Meaning, I'm able to stay awake longer than 8 hours at a stretch, but the weight isn't falling off and running away like I had hoped.)

I have a follow-up with the endocrinologist this week, and an appointment with a reproductive immunologist in a couple of weeks. A few of you have also asked specifically what my thyroid levels are, so I'll post those after I get the new ones at the end of this week.

9 comments:

Polly Gamwich said...

Ok, you rock ... good grief that's a lot of baking! Great job!!

I'm interested too to hear your TSH levels.

6 weeks down!! woo hoo!

DAVs said...

Wow, it's nice to know I'm not crazy since I, too, baked about one zillion different treats for Christmas. And not to give away--just to have for all of our guests. Yours look scrumptious and thanks for including the recipes!
I can't believe it's been six weeks already, but I'm sure it's crawling to you.

Sue said...

OMG- I am dying to try some of your recipes! How generous of you to post them for us:-) I wondered how long it took for CGH results, so now I guess I'll know it takes a REALLY LONG TIME! Good luck. Dying to hear your results! Oh, and I had hoped that the weight would just fall off back when I found out that I really needed synthroid (went from no meds to 125 mcg overnight). Needless to say, it doesn't just fall off...(boo hiss) or at least it didn't for me:-(

A said...

OK, OMG... you need to call the lab and see where you stand in the line for your results!!!! 6 weeks of waiting is well worth a call to inquire. Try your nurse first, but if she can't give you a reasonable answer, I've got some 'direct' numbers / emails if you want 'em.

And I think I just gained 2lbs *looking* at your confections!

Silver said...

Fantastic goodies!! Now that I have high blood pressure AND insulin resistance, I wander the shops trying to avoid sugar and salt - not easy! - but those things look small enough to enjoy a couple - as long as someone locked the rest of the batch away :-). You're showing remarkable patience with your results - we had array CGH on my eggs and the three days that took to come back seemed tortuous, so I'm seriously impressed at your calm! Crossing fingers for good news!

Grad3 said...

Wow-- you were really busy!!

Has it already been 6 weeks??? Probably doesn't seem that way to you though ;)

Keep us posted!! Hugs

MrsSpock said...

Whoa- those all look INCREDIBLE!

Josée Martens said...

I don't know how I missed this post. I've been waiting to hear from you. I hope you are feeling better and better on the synthroid. my weight didn't do much on the meds either. darn it!!!

So any news on the CGH? I am just a few weeks behind you and wondering too. Miss your posts.

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