Oreo Truffles

This is a hiatus from blogs about the kitchen remodel. Everything was finally functional so I wanted to take the opportunity to make our friend Pete a treat for his birthday since we had dinner club* tonight.

I had gotten the recipe from a fellow bowling league member but promptly lost the paper she wrote it down on. I had to turn to my go-to, allrecipes.com. Sure enough, it was there.

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, divided
• 1 (8 ounce) package PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
• 2 (8 ounce) packages BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, melted

Directions

1. Crush 9 of the cookies to fine crumbs in food processor; reserve for later use. (Cookies can also be finely crushed in a resealable plastic bag using a rolling pin.) Crush remaining 36 cookies to fine crumbs; place in medium bowl. Add cream cheese; mix until well blended. Roll cookie mixture into 42 balls, about 1-inch in diameter.
2. Dip balls in chocolate; place on wax paper-covered baking sheet. (Any leftover chocolate can be stored at room temperature for another use.) Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.
3. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store leftover truffles, covered, in refrigerator. 

I did make a couple of modifications. Instead of using 1 package of the same type of Oreo I used half of a box of regulars and half of a box of mints. I cut the cream cheese in half and mixed in separate bowls. I used 8 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate for the regular Oreos and I used 8 ounces of white chocolate for the mint Oreos. You could probably mix and match for whatever suits your fancy. To dip these I dropped them in a bowl and scoop them out with a fork. The toothpick method did not work. I also did not do the crushed Oreo garnish. And a tip I picked up from Barefoot Contessa - when melting chocolate in the microwave, only melt the chocolate part way and then stir it until it all becomes melted. This will keep the chocolate looking shiny once it dries instead of that frosty look.

These are rather sweet and rich for a treat but are pretty good! I gave some to Pete for his birthday and kept some in the freezer for a last minute get together. Easy!

*Dinner club is our weekly (at least we try to do weekly) get together with a group of friends. We rotate weeks, when it is your week you get to choose the place. Dinner club began with 4 members and has morphed over time. We also began with a rule that we couldn't go back to somewhere we had been and we couldn't choose a chain. We ran out of options quick so the rules have changed. We have been doing dinner club for 4 or 5 years now? I'd have to ask Katie she remembers everything. Many, if not most people who attend ski weekend have been dinner club members at some point in time.

It's been a while, what's the latest?

This will be quick. We made some progress over the last week. We officially have a fully functioning kitchen! I haven't cooked anything yet though.

We still have a lot of details to tend to. Such as the ends of the countertops, finishing the floor near the cabinets, light switches, trim. We made progress last night on the backsplash... we picked out a few and brought them home. I believe this one is the winner:

That's all for now. Once we're all done I'll do the final reveal!

Can you tell what we did last night??

If you said "added hardware" then you are very observant.

Kitchen update: What day is it?

I can't remember where I left off. As of Thursday we had everything torn out. Friday after work we began our painting. We did a coat of primer, went to the hardware store (for the 468th time), had some dinner, and then painted our first coat of Milk Toast on the walls.

Somewhere around 12:30 or 1am we went to bed. Saturday morning we woke up around 7:30 and got ready for Uncle Sean who is the brains behind this operation.

After some careful planning, moving electrical outlets, and 2-3 trips to the hardware store the cabinets started going in!

Then more cabinets and counter tops...

This is where we stopped on Saturday.

Sunday was Mother's Day and we needed to get Griffin in Lansing. He spent the week at Grandma and Grandpa Brunmeier's (where he had an awesome time, he is still sleeping it off). We needed to do some other chores too: grocery shopping, mow the lawn, etc. Today is Monday, I took the day off to be available for Uncle Sean to stop by. He put in the last cabinet (we had 1 cabinet delivered in the wrong size so I had to pick up the proper cabinet today), worked on our sink and drain, put our fridge in place, and mudded some holes in the walls. More progress! Tonight we are hoping to get the hardware on, install some shelves in the tall cabinet, and finish painting. We're getting closer!

Dining room progress

Night #4: Demo complete. Could it be?

It is now Day 5. We are totally sore and tired. Last night we finished tear out. Yesterday I had to work at home to wait for the cabinets and appliances to be delivered. I decided I couldn't focus knowing there was work to be done in the kitchen so I took most of the day off to paint the dining room ceiling, some beams, and begin priming. I only painted 1 thing that I wasn't supposed to. It's going to be fine, I have a plan. I have to say though, I am less than impressed with Lowe's Valspar ceiling paint. Hopefully the wall paint is a different story.

Gutted!

It's very echoey in here now.

It wasn't so easy to move the fridge, this is as far as we could take it...

Notice my handy work on the ceiling and the beams? No more throw backs to the 60's.

Tonight we will paint all of the walls. Tomorrow Uncle Sean and Jeremy (right brother?) are coming and we're going to install!

Night #3: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

We knew we would have some challenges last night. Two of the hardest pieces to remove: the cabinet with the stove top in it and the cabinet with the oven in it. We had to first turn off the gas to each. Turns out, in 1964 they didn't put levers on the shut offs so instead you have to use all of your might on a little nubbin and try to get it perpendicular. Okay, so we figured that part out. I guess since all of the pipes have been screwed together for 40+ years they don't want to be separated, ever. We had to get crafty. To save any of you from worrying I won't go into full details but let's just say we got the appliances out and we didn't blow up our home or even get light headed.

Recall what we started with. You can see the oven in the back left corner and the stove top in the front right corner.

GONE!

More progress

Rust orange wall oven is no longer.

In case you are curious. Tappan wall ovens from the 60's are HEAVY! Josh was proud of me that I was able to help him lift it. I'm glowing with personal satisfaction. Now that we have the appliances out, the remainder of the cabinets should be pretty easy. We'll need to be patient with the upper cabinet that has the hood attached. There is some electrical there and we'll have a big hole in the ceiling where it vents into the attic. Haven't figured that one out just yet, might wait for Uncle Sean. And by the way Sean, our workspace is very clean, I do in fact vacuum with the shop vac and my regular vacuums every night when we are done. I also dispose of any waste we created.

I grew up doing projects with my mom, can you tell?

Night #2: Starting to get a little gross

What kind of glue did they use in the 1960's

Sink removed, counter top off,  2 base cabinets gone

If you don't ever plan to remove your kitchen cabinets, do yourself a favor and don't think about what is under there. Gross.

Getting a little closer

The hardest part of last night was removing the cast iron sink. It fell through the hole which made lifting it a challenge. We are being very patient and after some trial and error decided to take the counter off to get it out. It may not look like much progress, but I tell you, this is a lot of work! We've put in about 5 hours on demo now because we just have the evenings.

I suppose I should admit that Josh had been working for a while to disconnect the pipes from the sink and remove the disposal. I walked up and poured my water down the drain. Which means I poured my water through a hole onto the floor. Good job.

The Kitchen: Before pics and night 1 progress

Before

Before

Before

Doors removed, 2 upper cabinets GONE!

Exposing the lovely mint green paint

We have a long way to go people.