Meatballs and Truffles and Punch, Oh My!

This past weekend I was lucky enough to spend time with some of my favorite people! Sara and Caroline have been best friends of mine for over 10 years now. The three of us have been through so much together and they mean the world to me! We have lived in different cities and states since high school, so it was so wonderful to spend some time with them over the weekend! Sara's blog post today actually was about the three of us and this past weekend and put a huge smile on my face! You can view her post here.

Caroline is the first of the three of us to get pregnant, and is expecting her first child in a few months! Sara and I threw her a baby shower last weekend, and I thought I'd share a few recipes that we made for the shower. Sara came home from Texas for the weekend and I went over to her parent's house Friday night so that she and I could start fixing some of the food for the shower the next day. Sara's family has been like a second family to me since early high school and it was so great to hang out with them some! I (and I'm sure Sara as well) wanted this shower to be extra special for Caroline!

We started out making some Italian Turkey Meatballs. I didn't get a great picture of the meatballs, but here they are simmering in the crock pot:

I thought the meatballs turned out really good! We doubled the recipe and it was very easy to put together. We fixed them on Friday night and set them in the fridge and then put them in the crock pot on Saturday morning and let them cook all morning until 12:30pm (the shower was at 1pm). I thought they had a great flavor to them, and they sure did smell good cooking all Saturday morning!

Next, we fixed the Oreo Truffles:

We had a little trouble with the truffles. The recipe made it sound so simple! The beginning was very easy, we just had to crush the Oreo cookies (p.s. - I'd like my own food processor now) and combine them with the cream cheese, but we ran into problems with the dipping. The list of ingredients just calls for 8 oz dipping chocolate. I thought any type of chocolate would work, so I just brought some chocolate chips with me and we melted those in the microwave. It was pretty thick, so we tried adding milk. That made it very thick and fudge-like. Next we tried heating it all back up over a double boiler but we didn't have much luck. It was almost 1am at this point, so we decided to just stick the Oreo balls in the fridge and call it a night. We found out that apparently there is actually a special chocolate called dipping chocolate. Mama Ann had some in the pantry (that we overlooked late Friday night), so we very easily melted that and dipped the truffles by sticking a toothpick in the top of the truffle and dipping it in the melted chocolate (thanks Nana!). We were close to running out of chocolate, but discovered there was also some white dipping chocolate in the pantry. So, we made it look like we did this on purpose and dipped the other half of the truffles in the while chocolate and then sprinkled crushed Oreo crumbs on top of those truffles. Long story short, there were DELICIOUS!!! I could have eaten the whole tray! Mmmmm Oreo Truffles...

The last recipe I am posting from the baby shower is this punch recipe that looks like a bubble bath:

I thought it was super cute!! I totally loved this, but I think a lot of the guests were a little scared of it. I was in charge of the beverage table and many of the guests looked at it asking "Uhhh what is that?" But after I explained it, a lot of people preferred to have either water or tea. Oh well. I thought it was awesome! It was a very tasty punch too! The recipe calls for one packet blue Kook-Aid, so just make sure to get blue Kool-Aid instead of the blue packet of Tropical Punch (hehehe), because then your friendly bubble bath will be red. :-)

It was a super successful baby shower (as if I have a lot of experience in baby showers) and it made me so happy to spend time with people that I love so much! Give one or all of these recipes a try next time you have a shower or party!

Crock Pot Italian Turkey Meatballs
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/11/crock-pot-italian-turkey-meatballs.html

Makes about 24 meatballs

20 oz (1.3 lb) ground turkey breast 93% lean
1/4 cup whole wheat seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup Reggiano Parmigiano cheese, grated
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
1 egg
1 large clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp kosher salt + fresh pepper

For the sauce:
1 tsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, smashed
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 bay leaf
salt and fresh pepper to taste
1/4 cup fresh chopped basil or parsley

1. In a large bowl, combine ground turkey, bread crumbs, egg, parsley, garlic and cheese. Using clean hands, mix all the ingredients and form small meatballs, about 1/8 cup each.
2. In a small saute pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until golden, being careful not to burn.
3. Pour crushed tomatoes into the crock pot with bay leaf. Add garlic and oil.
4. Drop meatballs into the sauce, cover and set crock pot to low, 4 to 6 hours. When meatballs are ready, adjust salt and pepper to taste and add fresh chopped basil or parsley.'
5. Serve with ricotta, over paste or enjoy with French bread.

Oreo Truffles
http://www.myfabulousrecipes.com/2011/12/12/oreo-truffles/

1 (16 ounce) package Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, divided
1 (8 ounce) package Cream Cheese, softened
8 oz dipping chocolate

1. Crush 7-9 Oreo cookies in a food processor or place them in a resealable ziplock bag and finely crush them using a kitchen hammer. Set aside.
2. Crush the remaining Oreo cookies in the same manner. Combine the crushed Oreo cookies and the cream cheese and mix well using an electric mixer until well mixed and smooth.
3. Roll mixture into small balls, about 40-45 (or less if you decide to make bigger sizes balls.) Place them on parchment paper.
4. Dip the balls in melted dipping chocolate (to melt the dipping chocolate, microwave them in a bowl about 30 seconds at a time, stirring well, about three times)
5. Roll the dipped truffles in Oreo crumbs that were set aside earlier or sprinkle the top of Oreo truffles with Oreo crumbs. Set aside until hardened, about 1 hour.

Ducky Bath Baby Shower Punch
http://tidymom.net/2011/ducky-baby-shower-punch/

1 packet blue, unsweetened Kook-Aid
1 (2 liter) bottle Ginger Ale
1 (64 oz) bottle White Grape Juice
1 cup sugar
8 scoops pineapple sherbet
2-3 Rubber Duckies
maraschino cherries (optional for garnish)
orange slices (optional for garnish)

1. Chill ginger ale and grape juice over night.
2. Remove sherbet from freezer about 1/2 hour before serving punch to soften.
3. In a large bowl, combine Kool-Aid packet, sugar and chilled juice. Stir to blend.
4. Slowly add chilled ginger ale.
5. Float 8 scoops of softened sherbet on top.
6. Add Rubber Duckies (don't forget to wash before using)
7. Garnish cups with cherries and orange slices.