Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Truffles

Sounds heavenly, right?

who wants a cute little truffle?

They are.

after I dove in and swam around a little

I must give credit where credit is due. Jessica, a.k.a., master of all things sweet, is who provided me with  this simple recipe. And it doesn't disappoint.

I challenge you to find a room with three people who all don't like Reese's peanut butter cups.  It won't happen. Unless you surround yourself with loonies on a regular basis.

don't slobber all over your keyboard. just go make some.

All you need:

• 1/4 finely chopped salted pretzels
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (I used my new favorite, Naturally More. go get that, because it's got a fantastic flax seed crunch to it)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate, but dark chocolate would've been even better)

I found crushing the pretzels in a ziplock baggie to be most effective. And great stress relief.

don't chop them finer than this. I almost wish I had bigger pretzel pieces.

Combine peanut butter and pretzels in a small bowl. Chill in the freezer until firm, about 15 minutes.

Roll the peanut butter/pretzel mixture into little balls. I made them smaller than necessary... because who doesn't want MORE truffles for a little less guilt? ;)

Place on a baking sheet (lined with parchment or wax paper for less mess) and freeze until very firm.

Roll the frozen balls in melted chocolate. Refrigerate until the chocolate is set.

Thanks to my Aunt Nancy and the Cupcake Kit she gave me (which I'm SO excited to use once I finally have the time to make some little cuppycakes!), I had adorable little wrappers for the truffles.

my aunties spoil me with the best gifts.

the end result was a fancy-tasting peanut butter cup.

cha-ching!

Meggy gave her stamp of approval.

I wish I thought to take a picture of my practically empty Naturally More peanut butter jar.

I'm choosing to blame the truffles.

Not my baby spoon-fulls.

That I may or may have not stolen from the jar...

several times a day.

In Other News...

I've been very bLyssfully busy! :)

Cocktail Ring-1. Alyssa-0

thank you, VB fire department and rescue squad. my finger is free at last.

Yesterday morning, I found myself in a little bit of a pickle.

When I got ready to go out on Saturday night, I picked out a ring to match my new Michael Antonio Lovie Pumps. I remembered it was a little small, but it went on my finger fine, so I finished getting ready and hit the town without worrying about the ring.

perfect match, no?

After a fun night with Cynthia, I went to take off my ring. Annnddd.. no luck. I ran my finger under cold water. Still no luck. Butter? Nope.

I figured I'd try again in the morning... no big deal.

This is my finger around 2 p.m. on Sunday.

ouchies...

I tried every trick in the book. I held my (numb) hand in ice water, I tried Windex (the best method out there), I wrapped my finger in tape... and no luck.

After a cry for help via Facebook (what would we do without social networking?) my EMT cousin suggested I hit up the closest fire station to get it cut off.

thank you, Steffie!

So, after realizing my finger was turning colors all too quickly, I trudged up to the fire station and rescue squad near my house. Feeling a little dumb, I rang the little bell to open the door, and a nice fire man answered.

"Hi... uh, this might sound weird, but my cousin is an EMT... and she suggested I come to you... uuumm.. (gesturing to my finger like Julia Roberts does in My Best Friend's Wedding) I kind of have something I need to get cut off?"

(best. movie. ever.)

He grinned and asked if i wanted the ring or the finger off.

About 15 minutes, 3 cuts into the ring, and a lot of wrenching and pulling later, I was a freeee woman.

Did I mention this process took three firemen?

yes. you may cut my ring off.

So, the moral of the story is... if the Windex doesn't work, hit up the fire station. It'll save you a ton of money and time you'd otherwise be spending at the ER.

"mom, take it easy on the too-tight jewelry. I'd rather not wait for you in the car at the fire station."

Other than my little mishap on Sunday, my weekend was a great, friend-filled one.

We celebrated our love for wine with our usual Tortugas Wine Night...

kisses for the chard

and a few of us attempted several group pre-party pictures...

we try.

carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese filling? peanut butter pretzel truffles? bourbon balls? bruschetta? gosh..

And we enjoyed serious amounts of treats (recipe recap to come)!

Laura used her new bLyss Designs wine glass!

and Meggy and I snuggled and ate copious amounts of bruschetta.

Chloe Bieber

Meghan has a "Beiber yourself" iPhone app. Chloe wanted in. Never say never when you put together a bunch of girls, a dog, and a Bieber Yourself app.

"not until you're 3, Chloe."

Speaking of wine love, Chloe wanted in on the action on Saturday night. Cynthia and I decided that we needed to wait until she turns 3, (in dog years, that's 21, yes?) so she's eagerly awaiting that birthday.

so she chilled on Cynthia's furniture while we had our Saturday night fun. =)

kisses for mama!

Chloe's found a new set of pet-sitters!

Here's to hoping each of you had a stress-free, relaxing weekend... without a trip to the fire station. ;)

And guess what else happened this weekend?!

soon to be Mrs. Doherty

Remember all the blog love Lisa-Marie got in my last post? Her boyfriend popped the Q and they're engaaaged! Congrats to Seth and LM...we're all getting so old.

What lesson did you learn this weekend?

Etsy Enthusiast

Are you guys all Etsy lovers like I am?

For all of you who aren't up to speed on the awesome site, I'll fill you in a little.

Etsy is like the Ebay of handmade goods. Their "About" page reads, 

Our mission is to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers.

Our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice:
Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade.

check out my etsy! :)

And gosh, am I thankful for Etsy. This is where I started bLyss Designs, my hand-painted glassware business!

Although it was a great starting point, I definitely have re-vamped the biz, and I make way more personalized "to-order" glasses. So... I made a Facebook Page. :)

I WOULD, however, like to highlight a few of my faves from Etsy!

I stumbled upon Emily's shop, ERM Originals, a few months ago. I fell in love with the gorgeous little necklace, and have pined over it for a while.

how adorable is this?

I finally pulled the trigger on the "Check Out" button about a week ago, and I just received my little beauty in the mail yesterday.

Naturally, I'm sporting mine at work today.

"A" is for "Alyssa" and an "Awesome" necklace.

Lulubug is another favorite store of mine. She makes the cutest little dainty necklaces, and I wear my daisy flower all the time!

Lulubug Jewelry

Chloe and me sportin' the Lulubug!

My friend Lisa-Marie and I stumbled onto Lisa's shop, Whimsy and Ink one night when we decided we needed flasks (don't judge; there is always a time and place for one, and trust me, we were there). We were so excited to see Lisa's funky designs on handmade flasks as seen in Real Simple Magazine. They're pretty hysterical, and to go with my little thing for Ke$ha, I got a beard flask.

I own this. in hot pink. "I like your beard."

and Lisa-Marie's mustache flask. gosh, are we cute.

Morgan Prather's shop is chock full of adorable jewelry, as well. I've purchased several of her necklaces, including this one Lisa-Marie wears all the time (gosh, it just sounds like LM is my Etsy buddy, huh?).

photo by http://aliciawhitephoto.com/

Isn't Morgan's necklace perfect?

And FINALLY, my friend Katherine, shop, Kakalina Rose. She's got the most adorable Vintage clothing store on Etsy, and the most beautiful pictures to boot! If you're a vintage girl, you must check out her stuff. It's so cute, and her prices are awesome. You can get coupon codes if you check out her blog, too!

pretty Katherine and her  vintage 70s flower maxi dress

I'm done rambling about fantastic Etsy. But seriously, check those girls out. I love their stuff!

Do you have some favorites on Etsy? Share them with me! I'm at Etsy-holic, and I wanna see 'em!


P.S. The fit academic is having a PB & Co. giveaway! Pretty timely, since I just tried these for the first time!

Baked Potato Chips, A New Fave, & A New Project

Look what I did last night!

gimme, gimme more, gimme more

Since my parents were leaving on vacay, they left me with some of the stuff they needed to clean out of their fridge and pantry. I was brainstorming what to do with the leftover russet taters, and a lightbulb came on.

I love, love baked potato chips at restaurants, so why not try my own?

And honestly, aside from the long bake time, they were easy peasy lemon squeazy (was I the only kid who grew up using this term, or is it because I lived in England?)

All I needed:

• 1 russet potato
• salt
• light olive oil
• ketcup/ranch combo for dipping (trust me on this one)

All I did:

• slice potatoes width-wise (as thiiin as I could get 'em)
• toss in olive oil
• throw on baking sheet (try to separate the chips so they bake faster)
• bake about 20 minutes(ish) on 450 degrees (watch these babies.. you'll need to take the crispier ones out first)
• sprinkle with salt halfway through baking process
• take them out once the edges are browned and crispy and throw them on a paper towel

naice and crispay!

Prep these before your main entree, because they're just as good once they've cooled. And the best part? Leftovers can be wrapped in foil and thrown in the fridge. Just reheat them a little and they're good to go.

Annnd, for the main course, I chopped some turkey sausage and sauteed it with some green pepper, onion, and my favorite bbq/ketchup/apple cider vinegar combo sauce.

yummy, yummy dinna

In other exciting food news, I have made a wonderful/terrible discovery.

yumyumyumyumyumyum.

Naturally More peanut butter. It's the upped protein, higher fiber, lower fat, extra wonderful kind of natural peanut butter on the shelves, and it's got chia seeds in it for some extra crunch.

I'm completely obsessed.

move over, reduced fat Peter Pan. I'm sorry.

Here's the terrible part of this discovery.

too many of these in my belly per day.

Dangerous.

I tried my new best friend in some pb&j oats...

and it was faaantastic.

If you've never tried peanut butter & jelly oats, I strongly urge you to do so.

Aaand, if you're noticing the cute bowl it was prepped in...

a new bLyss Designs creation!  (click that link for the Facebook Page)

I love little portions of snacks, so I grabbed some glass bowls and tried my new favorite tie-dye painting technique. I'm working on a set, and I've been adding some favorite quotes to each one.

This one reads, "home is the person or place you want to return to over and over."

Whoo-hoo for new projects! I'm gearing up to tackle some other new glassware.

I'm thinkin' a design around the edges. I just haven't decided what yet.

and for THIS baby... I also still haven't decided. :)

Any great ideas from you guys? I'm just so particular when I make my own projects, it's hard for me to decide what I want. Time to go research! :)

It's a Small, Small World.

Pop quiz: what's the most horrifyingly annoying song ever to be played in all of Disney World?

I think the answer to this one would be unanimous. The Small World boat tour of singing dolls around the world is sure to get stuck in every passenger's head for the rest of their day at Disney.

myyyy hero!

I can't fail to mention how it was my favorite as a 5 year old. My mom apparently took me on Small World about 37 times in a row. She still loves the ride. Me? Not so much.

At least I had some killer style.

there we are, a Halter girl dream team repping pink and purple together.
and yes, I really needed that many scrunchies.

thanks, mom and dad. that fanny pack really pulls together my
high socks and coordinating oversized polka shirt and shorts.

I digress. The topic of this post is intended to cover what a SMALL world it really is.

Last week, I noticed I had a post comment from cupcake dynamite (how cute is their blog header? I need to do some re-vamping to mine. Any ideas?)
_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

Apparently, Julie's blog is just bringin' people together.  :)

I've always had such jealousy over the Orlando and Charlotte blog friends of mine who get to meet up with others who have the same likes, interests, and hobbies. When I saw Jamie's comment, I was so excited!

Jamie even remembers when Julie featured my hand painted glassware in a few posts. Yay for bLyss Designs!

**bLyss Designs now has a Facebook Page, thanks to a suggestion by Michelle. Go check it out and "like" it now, puh-lease! :)

The CRAZY small world part comes next. Jamie graduated from one of my rival high schools! What's more? She knows one of my Catawba friends, Todd, and she played field hockey. THIS means we played on the same field hockey field. She was right wing on the opposing team, and I was left wing.

And not only does Jamie live in Virginia Beach as well, but our houses are exactly 2.4 miles away (yep, we mapped it).

I nearly wet myself I was so excited to have another Jersey girl so nearby. And not just another Jersey girl, a Jersey girl running buddy! Oh, how I've missed my running buddies... Anastasia, Rob, Mag, John... it's been a lonely winter training for the Shamrock on my little treadmill at the YMCA.

So, Jamie and I scheduled a run on Sunday morning at 9 a.m. (after a Saturday morning rainout).

As we met up halfway between our houses, we giggled at the fact that we can check "running blind date" off our bucket lists. She was awesome, it was a gorgeous day outside, and it was a perfect way to start out my Sunday morning.

This is the most running outside I've done since the summertime.  I was enjoying Jamie's company and the sunshine so much, I got completely distracted and ended up running 7 miles before returning home to my little Tasmanian Devil.

thanks to Brian, Chloe's got a new favorite monkey toy!

I finished up my run with a .25 mile walk with Chloe. Trust me, .25 miles is a lot longer when it sounds with this little one... and walk is a strong term for what's going on here. "Drag" is more like it.

Jamie and I are already planning more buddy runs, trips to Skinny Dip, and nights out. Jersey girls taking VA Beach by storm - wahoo!