Apparently I have lost my mind to title a blog post that. I also have lost my mind from making the insane decision to finally replace all the batteries in M’s toys that previously had died. It’s been a long time coming. I should have just done that for her for Christmas. It’s like they are all brand new. And loud. Very, very loud.

Back to the title of the post. I like balls – Mama Pea’s sugar cookie dough balls and my favorite Oreo balls. I have a holiday party and cookie exchange to attend tonight. I could not decide which treat to make. I really wanted to try Mama Pea’s balls and I always look for a reason to make Oreo balls. What to do? Make both!

I made the Oreo balls with the holiday red creme cookies, which tinted my hands red for awhile, and topped the truffles with a sprinkle of candy cane. How beautiful and festive!

Since I already had the candy cane look going on and I despise sprinkles, I opted for the snickerdoodle version of Mama Pea’s dough balls.

Plus, who doesn’t like cinnamon and sugar? You might reply - “Who doesn’t like sprinkles?” Well, I don’t, you smart alec.

I also had to make an appetizer to share with the group. For a holiday party a couple years ago I made these spinach phyllo roll-ups and everyone loved them. Why mess with something that obviously works?   Although, I did go daring and used goat cheese instead of the feta. Heck, why not? They are insanely delicious. And insanely not super duper health food.

Spinach Phyllo Roll-Ups from Kraft Recipes (site has video demonstration)

• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 pkg.  (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained
• 1 cup feta cheese goat cheese
• 1 tub  (8 oz.) Garden Vegetable 1/3 Less Fat Cream Cheese
• 4 green onions, finely chopped (oops! forgot these at the store)
• 15 sheets  frozen phyllo (14x9 inch), thawed
• 1/3 cup butter, melted I used butter flavored cooking spray on the Phyllo sheets – its easier and quicker

1. Mix first 5 ingredients together and set aside.

2. Roll out phyllo sheets flat and place between damp towels or plastic wrap.

3. Lay out 1 phyllo sheet on your working area. Spray with butter spray. Add 2 more sheets for a total of 3 layers, with butter spray between each layer.

4. Spread 1/5 of spinach mixture along the short side of the phyllo. Fold in edges and roll up to make a log. Spray log with butter and make cuts in top at 1 inch intervals. Repeat process until achieve 5 logs.

5. Bake in 375 oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cut each log into 6 slices on the 1 inch marks made before baking. Serve!

Note: You can also freeze some of the rolls in plastic wrap or storage bags and bake them (after thawing) up to 3 months later.

Like I mentioned, these aren’t the healthiest things out there, but honestly I don’t care. When it comes to making things for parties, I usually opt for the tried and true recipes and classic favorites. I do like making healthier recipes and sharing them with friends/family, but rarely do so for special occasions. Plus, I enjoy the recipes as well and its fine by me to have them every once in awhile.

• What types of things do you like to make and bring to group parties, the office, other social gatherings?
• Is there a food you don’t like that people don’t quite understand? My hatred for sprinkles is more a texture thing. They get added to things where they just ruin the texture!

I can hardly believe Friday has already arrived. Weeks seem to fly by lately. We are already ten days in to December. Christmas Eve is two weeks from today. 2011 is only 22 days away. Baby B could join us in just a month’s short time. Which reminds me. I have some baby laundry to do and a hospital bag to start getting in order. You know. Just in case.

So, last night after my shopping extravaganza, I wrapped up all the gifts and then settled in for a nice evening. Peter grilled up some steaks for us from our cow.

You heard me correctly. Our cow. Now, those of you who are vegan/vegetarian may be kind of put off by this, but Peter & I went in together with another couple to purchase the meat from a cow. We don’t mind red meat in this house. In fact, we have it one, maybe two, times each week with many of our other meals vegetarian based and an occasional dinner using chicken. That’s right. We mostly eat beef or vegetarian style.

We like our beef, but we don’t like the standard run of the mill stuff from the market. We would make a point to purchase the highest quality possible, which could get expensive when its at least $7/lb for ground. When we heard about having the option to purchase extremely local, grass-fed, hormone free, etc quality beef and have the chance to support a local family business, we went for it. It also helped our wallets. We received a large variety of steaks, cuts, and ground for less than $3/lb.

It’s kind of disturbing to have that much meat in an extra deep freezer, but I don’t mind if it means better quality. Plus, that extra freezer we had to buy means more room to put frozen and ready to eat meals for after baby B. Or my Trader Joe shopping spree finds. Or holiday cookies. Or…dang, we should have bought a bigger storage freezer.

For the record, that meat was yummy. And for the record, I’m going to miss Glee while it has reruns. I finally watched the Christmas special last night and loved it. Although didn’t really care for the rendition of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”. That’s my favorite Christmas song (along with Silent Night). I don’t mind the two guy thing – c’mon, I have a gay brother (pretty sure you knew that) – but it just sounded off. I love the one from Elf. Wow. That was a tangent. Getting to my point - I had fun watching Glee…eating a delicious steak and broccoli dinner…and now listening to the Glee version on Youtube on repeat because M wants to hear it over and over. Happy Friday!

• What types of things are you picky about with the quality of your food? I’m most particular about where meat comes from. I also prefer to purchase things like spinach and apples from the “dirty dozen” list organically.
• A random thought you are having right now. I know I’m not the only one who has a mind prone to tangents and randomness.