Birthday Weekend

Having a birthday that falls during February vacation has always been wonderful, more so again now that I'm back on a public school schedule. And having a birthday a week after Valentine's day has always been fun -- it's always kind of framed a week I can claim as my birthday week. Maybe I just like birthdays too much. Someday I'll get over it.

It's February vacation . . . finally. The last fifteen minutes of school on Friday were torture. My last class was asking me to tell them "crazy college stories" -- they quickly learned that, no, I wasn't going to tell them stories, but not that the reason for that is that even if I were silly and would tell them stories, I don't have any they would want to hear. Even if last week was torture waiting for vacation -- it was still a fun week. LO even made me authentic Chinese food. Yum.

Anyway, it feels like I've been on "vacation" forever, if you can call this week a vacation. I'll be in at least 3 states, 2 grad schools, in a concert and at several rehearsals. Oh well. At least that doesn't require being up at 5:30 am.

This morning was dedicated to cooking. More hummus and some oreo truffles for tonight. I tried the hummus again with 1 tsp of salt . . . it made all the difference in the world.

The idea for the truffles actually came from MF. She made them for a Valentine's day gift, and our apartment decided they were amazing (since she was so kind and let us each sample one. :) ) and I decided they would be good for my friends.

I always want to have my friends over around my birthday time, but I don't want it to become a birthday party. Which, invariably it does sorta. Oh well. Tonight, they get dad's carrot cake. And my oreo truffles. Yum.

Dad was making the frosting this morning. It took like 2 seconds with the new mixer.

Meanwhile, I took all morning to make hummus and the truffles. Both are easy, but the truffles were a little time consuming. Totally worth it though. Totally.

Basically, they are three ingredients. First, you take some oreos and food process them until they are finely ground.

Then, you take the rest of the package of oreos and grind them up -- not necessarily too finely.

Then you have to add the softened cream cheese and mix.

And mix.

And mix.

And mix. Pulling the spoon backwards over the mixture actually does help combine it.

Then, you roll it into 1 inch balls. And then drop them into melted chocolate.

I feel like it was dangerous to have a whole bar of Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate. And I discovered that those bars are only half of a package of the Baker's chocolate bars. Of which I was trying to get two. Oh well. Thank goodness for chocolate chip supplies.

Make sure that you sprinkle any toppings on them after each one. Otherwise they will be too hard. This made almost 50 truffles for me. That's a lot more than 36.

So, the fridge is full, and I need to refrigerate them, but, never fear! It's winter in New England! A screened porch works just like a fridge!

Oh, and one of my birthday/Christmas presents that I had been saving up for came this week. A new camera. I'm so excited. Now, I've got some learning to do!