CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE COVERED CAKE BALLS

The title is no joke. This weekend Sherry, Sarah and I tackled perhaps the most ridiculous cookie you could make: a chocolate chip cookie covered cake balls. We followed the guide on the Sugarderby website.



First we made cake balls. We used red velvet cake mix, and these get covered in chocolate.



Meanwhile, we mixed up some chocolate chip cookie dough. Once the cake balls are all set, you make a cake ball sandwich with two chunks of the cookie dough and roll it into a ball, which gets rolled into a giant monster cookie ball.



The results are pretty fabulous, but you better believe there will need to be extra trips to the gym with these hanging out around the house! The cake balls are really fun on their own too, and lucky for us, we have extras.

What's in the Bag?

I picked up this week's CSA bag today, and am now starting to think of what will be on the menu this week.



This week we got lettuce, kale, celery, green onions, carrots, avocados, zucchini, cabbage, broccoli, beets (the guy called them "watermelon beets" but I couldn't find anything about those, so I'm guessing they are just baby gold beets?),

and cherimoya:



This is a fruit I've never had before, so I'm excited for it to ripen up a bit before doing a taste test. Time to get busy in the kitchen.

The Start of my CSA Adventure

My new year’s resolution for 2011 is to join a CSA and eat more veggies! I joined the California CSA, and am one week in. They have the option to pick up weekly or bi-weekly. I picked the bi-weekly option for now, as I get my bearings on how to handle all the new fresh produce in our fridge.

My first pick up included: broccoli, a yellow squash, avocados, carrots, celery, lettuce, spinach, parsley, tangerines, a lemon, and itty bitty beets.

This is what I did this week with my pile of fruits and veggies:

Chicken Pot Pie

Curried Lentil Soup

Roasted Beets

Roasted Broccoli

Avocado Dressing – blended with vinegar, mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper

Grilled Yellow Squash

And of course…lots of salads and tangerines :)

Pinterest

Have you signed up on Pinterest yet? I just got my invite yesterday, and am loving it. Pinterest is a website that allows you to build up boards of all your favorite pics and links from any internet source. I've been having tons of fun today adding inspiration and organizing into groups for knitting, food, craft projects, and just favorite things. You can find my boards here.

Christmas Crafting

Wow, it's about time we dust off the cobwebs around here and get back to it. Let's start off with a little holiday craft project I made while back in Wisconsin.

I saw these little crystal snowflakes on Martha Stewart and wanted to give it a try. They're so easy! My mom had sparkly pipe cleaners and borax stored away, so away we went.



First you make your shape out of the pipe cleaner, and hang it on a wire. Meanwhile, add your borax solution to hot hot hot water, and stir to dissolve in a jar.



Place the pipe cleaner shape into the jar and wait...



and wait...



and ta-da!



Crystal snowflake! You can make whatever you want of course, and use different color pipe cleaners, change the amount of time you leave the ornament in the solution for, or add food coloring. Mom was working on hearts for Valentine's day before I left. How cool!

Thanksgiving Weekend

*sunset in San Simeon*

I took some time off for the Thanksgiving holiday so Boyfriend and I could take a road trip up to San Fran. We had a great trip visiting some of Boyfriend's family, and spending some time on our own in the city. Here are some quick highlights (at least the ones I got some pictures of).



Snoozin' elephant seals near San Simeon



Boyfriend at the beach in Carmel, CA on Thanksgiving day



Views from our hotel room at the Westin Market Street in San Fran


(this picture was spruced up by the Camera Plus app for iPhone)



Anthropologie had the BEST holiday display!



Boyfriend's aunt cooked up "a little bit" of food for us to bring with us on the road. Yum. I think this is going to feed us for the whole month of December.

I hope you all had the happiest of Thanksgivings!

Simple Things

Yet another shawl! These can be so addicting to make, especially when you don't have to think too much about the pattern. This was the perfect project for a busy month, when I just wanted a non-thinking project.



This was made from just over two skeins of Knit One Crochet Too Handpainted Ambrosia, which is a silk, cashmere and alpaca blend. I bought this yarn on sale at the cutest little yarn store near my grandparents house in Urbana, Illinois. Klose Knit is a cozy little store, and has some fun yarn-bombing right outside.



This is the Simple Things shawl, found on Ravelry.



It's always a bit silly taking pictures of yourself :)