How I Managed to Make Peppermint Truffles

I really love peppermint and dark chocolate together. When I was a kid, my grandma made this peppermint ice cream dessert at Christmas, and that's probably what started my love of this flavor combination. We called this Christmas-time dessert "pink dessert," and it consists of chocolate-covered rice crispies and peppermint ice cream. She would laugh and laugh about how much we all liked it saying "it's such a simple recipe."

As soon as Starbucks transitions from Pumpkin Spice Lattes to Peppermint Mochas, I become a frequent customer. I can't get enough! This flavor combination reminds me of Christmas at my grandparents' farm with my dad's family. But it's also plain old super-delicious!

My sister pinned a recipe for four ingredient peppermint truffles, and it caught my attention. You can find the recipe at http://houseofyumm.com/peppermint-truffles/. So earlier this week, I thought I'd try making them. The recipe promised to be easy, and I had some time.

However, as this was my first attempt at making any kind of truffles, I ran into some problems. At first, the middle of the truffle (the ganache) was way too hard. There was no way I was going to be able to scoop it and make little peppermint balls. And I also thought it needed more peppermint. A lot more peppermint. So I added more heavy cream and more peppermint extract. Then the ganache was not firm enough. Ugh. So I added more white chocolate. Finally, I had the right consistency!

I borrowed a melon baller from my mom, which made the truffles just the right size. Also, since these truffles are supposed to be kept in the refrigerator, I didn't want the chocolate to turn white like it does when it has been heated and then refrigerated. That meant added coconut oil - a staple in my pantry.

Here's the 5-ingredient recipe I ended up with for Peppermint Truffles:

• 4 teaspoons peppermint extract
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 10 ounces white chocolate chips (weigh it - it's about 1 3/4 cups)
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (dark chocolate would also be really good)
• 1 tablespoon refined coconut oil

1. Using a double boiler, melt the white chocolate chips. Add the peppermint extract and heavy cream. Stir until all chips are melted and ingredients are combined.
2. Transfer peppermint ganache to a bowl and refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight.
3. Remove the ganache from the fridge.
4. Melt the semisweet or dark chocolate chips in a double boiler. Add the coconut oil and mix well.
5. Scoop one truffle center at a time and dip into the melted chocolate. Place the chocolate-covered peppermint ball onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Once all the peppermint ganache has been used and dipped, put cookie sheet back into the fridge until the chocolate has hardened.
6. Transfer the truffles to a sealed container and store in the refrigerator.

I got 16 truffles from this recipe, but the first two I made were quite big. I'd think you would end up with between 16 and 18, depending on how big your balls are. Let me know if you make them!

Jesse Tree

One of my fondest Advent memories from childhood is doing the Jesse Tree with my family. The five of us would gather together for this daily devotion time. Even before I could read, I could participate! We would read a Bible passage, have some discussion about the passage, put an ornament on the Jesse Tree (my job, especially before I could read), and say a prayer.

The Jesse Tree from my childhood that I'm using with my own kids now.

If you are unfamiliar with the Jesse Tree, it is a really awesome way to get ready for Christmas. Each day, you read a Scripture passage and add an ornament to the Jesse Tree. The cool thing is that the whole point of the Jesse Tree is to connect Jesus to the Old Testament, so almost all of the readings are from the Old Testament. The first day, you read Isaiah 11:1-10, which talks about a shoot from the root of Jesse and prophesies the Messiah, Jesus. You also read 1 Samuel 16:1-13, about David being chosen as king. This sets up the idea of the Jesse Tree and allows you to talk about the idea of a family tree. Then, you jump back to the story of creation and make your way through some of the highlights of the Old Testament.

Even though Advent started on Sunday, November 27, it's not too late to start doing the Jesse Tree! You can find the daily readings here. (Most of the readings can be found in the Spark Story Bible, which is the one my son has. That makes it really easy to use with my young children.) There's also a really good description of the Jesse Tree on Feels Like Home. She has a free e-book available for download, which includes an explanation and suggestions for how to do the Jesse Tree. Her e-book also can be re-used each year, despite Advent having a different number of days year, and she explains how to do that.

You can make your own Jesse Tree, or you can find one on Amazon. Whatever you use, it's great to trace Jesus' lineage.

Christmas Wish Lists

When I was kid, my parents would ask my sister and brother and me for Christmas Wish Lists. My parents used our lists to help with their Christmas shopping. They would share the lists with our grandparents, too. The best part of this, as a kid, was that I always received gifts that I wanted. At some point, I stopped providing these Christmas wish lists; I'm not sure why. My parents and friends had to work a lot harder to determine what I wanted for Christmas (or my birthday).

Now that I have kids of my own, I want our Christmas celebration to be joyful and centered around the reason for the season. It's so hard to avoid getting sucked into the commercialism of the holiday. It's really fun to give and receive gifts, so I still want that to be part of our celebration. But I do like the idea of being more thoughtful with our requests and with our gifts. An idea I've heard a lot in the last few years is to give each child four gifts: something wanted, something needed, something to wear, something to read.

I really like this idea. I like this idea so much that I created a PDF template for kids to fill out. You can download it for yourself right here.

What do you do in your house to help keep the focus on the birth of Jesus?

Kids Say the Darnedest Things!

A co-worker asked me if I've been writing down the funny things O and K say. I said, "No." And then I thought, I could certainly use this blog to keep track of their hilarity. So I'll start with a story about O from yesterday.

A friend of ours gave the kids some foam blocks and the movie Inside Out for Christmas. Yesterday morning, O asked, "Why did Sean give us that movie? Why didn't he give us a trumpet? Or a tuba?!"

I guess we need to work on gratitude...

Holy Week

As I've gotten older, I find myself enjoying the pre-Christmas season of Advent and the pre-Easter season of Lent more and more. I like the anticipation. I like the time to consider the impact of these major Christian holidays. For the past several years, I've been unable to attend the weekly Wednesday evening services during Lent because I've had to waitress. I feel like I miss out on Lenten contemplation because of that. This year, however, I subscribed to the daily email devotions published by Luther Seminary and Pacific Lutheran Seminary. These daily devotions helped me get into the spirit of Lent and feel the magnitude of Jesus' suffering. I will miss Maundy Thursday worship tonight and Good Friday worhsip tomorrow, but I will be thinking about the Last Supper, the washing of feet, and the horror of crucifixion. I will be worshipping in my own way.

December 21, 1983

Twenty-five years ago, during a Christmas caroling outing with members of Hope Lutheran in Milton where my dad was pastor, I ran into the street in front of a blue Chevy pick-up. But let me back up. I remember it was a Wednesday. We had had school that day, but not the next day, so it was the first night of Christmas vacation. My friend Angie was spending the night. I had a piano lesson, and then we went to the church to gather with other members to go carol to shut-ins who were members of Hope. This caroling event was an annual affair. Everyone would gather at the church and make Christmas ornaments to give to the shut-ins, and then we would all head out to carol. After we had sung at a few places, it had started to snow. I believe it was the first snow of the season, but I can't be sure. As we left one house, my brother and his friend were throwing snowballs at each other, at me and Angie, at my sister. I decided to get them back, so I made a snowball. My plan was to throw the snowball and immediately turn to run away so they couldn't get me back. I threw it, and I ran. Right into the street without looking. I remember hearing my dad yell, "AAAAAMMMMMMYYYYY!" I looked to my right, and he was stopped, looking in terror at something beyond me. I turn my head to the left and saw headlights. That's all I remember, until I woke up with Gary Getchel (a high school senior) slapping my face and saying my name. (He had run back to where we just caroled, and actually ripped the screen door off its hinges to get inside and call 911.) I was on my back, lying in the middle of the street, with my left leg bent and my right leg straight. I was going into shock and just wanted to go to sleep. He had been told to keep me conscious, so there was a lot of slapping. When the EMTs arrived, they asked me questions - my name, age, etc. I had broken my left femur (thigh bone). They would need to straighten my left leg so they could put me on the stretcher and get me into the ambulance. The female EMT told me it was going to hurt a lot, so if I wanted to scream, I should just scream. She placed her right hand above my left knee and her left hand above my left ankle. She slowly straightened my left. I didn't scream. I felt my leg moving, but it didn't hurt. (I have since learned that because the femur is the largest bone in the body, the brain shuts down pain receptors when it breaks to spare you that level of pain.) They got me in the ambulance, and we headed to Mercy Hospital in Janesville. I remember the ambulance ride being very bumpy, which is rather unpleasant when you have a broken leg. They took my blood pressure several times, and kept asking me questions to keep me conscious. I had to be in traction to align the femur and allow it to heal correctly and be the same length as my uninjured right leg. Luckily, I had a clean break, and my only other injury was a cracked left clavicle. I was in the hospital for 23 days and went home with a cast that started just above my belly button. It went around my hips and then cut over to go down my left leg all the way to my toes. I could move and bend my right leg, but I could not sit up. I don't know how much school I ended up missing, but I had a home-bound tutor who would bring my homework and teach me my lessons. And now, except for a scar high on my left thigh, you would never know I had broken my femur.

My family has slightly different memories of this event, as does Angie. I hope they will share their recollections in the comments. . .

How the Grinch. . .

Einar and I watched the old cartoon version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on Monday night. I was tired from a long day on a video shoot and still trying to warm up (high of only about 5 that day). Watching the Grinch (and eating spicy-hot shrimp creole) helped me warm up. I sang along with some of the songs, and Einar even joined in! I always treasure the times when he'll sing, and they are few and far between. My favorite part of the whole 26 minute cartoon comes toward the end, when all the Who's are singing and the narrator says, "Christmas time will always be just as long as we have we. Christmastime is in our grasp, so long as we have hands to clasp." Beautiful. Christmas is coming. Can you feel it?