Party No. 2, or as Sher says...

...help me, I've fallen into the holiday baking black hole! Or is it rabbit hole? Either one works right now. I have moments of sheer baking joy, followed by despair. (Will my kitchen ever be clean again? How many cookies should one person eat in an hour? Why am I out of chocolate again?) The highs, the lows. Could it have something to do with sugar? Perhaps...

But the menu for this week... think of me at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. Actually, just think of me all day on Wednesday!

In the savory realm...
*Tortilla tapas. Think bite size chile rellanos, sort of.
*Broccoli cheese souffle cups. The broccoli is just there as a foil for the cheese, and a little color too, I suppose.
*Endive with chevre and grapes.
*Artichoke toasts--as in, artichoke spread on baguette, broiled, toasted, etc.
*Cucumber cups with salmon mousse.

The sweet kingdom contains:
*Chocolate cups with custard--I have wanted to get those chocolate cups from Costco for the past couple of years... finally did. Now to fill! Yum.
*Florentine tarts. Taking the easy way out with the florentines... yum. They turned out scrummy tonight. Don't ask me how I know for sure (pats her tummy).
*Chocolate-dipped marshmallow squares.
* And here's where we confess that things change up around here... rather frequently. I said something about peanut butter cake "truffles" and chocolate hazelnut cake "truffles" for the last party... then I decided I didn't want too many round things (mini caramel apples in little cups) and went for the fruit and nut fudge (which was very yummy indeed). Well, now the truffles are ready to roll (ha, literally! I amuse myself!), and they are quite fine. AND, I'm making those apples again (see below; so obviously I got over the too-man-round-things issue...).

So here are the truffles on their first go-round with experimenting...
Fine, pretty, gooey and chocolatey, of course...

And then, I spent a few hours dipping the marshmallow treats in chocolate and thought, not gonna do that again. I like mindless dipping same as the next fella, but really? Let's get a little creative. And, having a steady supply of hazelnuts on hand (always!), I went for a little more rustic on the approach. And, frankly, I like the taste better... less overwhemingly CHOCOLATE. (Don't kill me chocoholics. I understand your kind, I'm just not one of you.)


*And back, by popular demand, the mini caramel apples. Every once in awhile there's an item that gets so many positive comments you just have to make it over and over again. And since I finally got it going really well just as I was finishing making these last week, I figured, why not?!This time I will take pictures.


And now for a completely random boy in the post. Someone had his last basketball game of the 6th grade season today! It's been a fun season, some really good games, and not that it matters, but his teams (he's on both A and B) both won today, so yeah! And the only way I got him to even smile for my camera (Mom at a basketball game is pretty embarrasing on so many levels) was to tell him this was for his Grandma and Grandpa! Ha. So I figured I should share, seeing as how it was such a blatant lie!

I will one day figure out how to cook AND blog about it at the same time. Right now I am fine doing one or the other, but both seems just a little more than this little bunyon can handle. Yes, you read right. I feel like a bunyon right now. Not Paul. A foot thing. And yes, that is an acceptable spelling. Thanks for asking.