Chocolate and wine

Today was my last Christmas present: Henry's parents gave he and I tickets to a wine and chocolate class. I was pretty nervous to go to this particular one; although I usually love the wine classes I take at the Cooks of Crocus Hill, this particular class was at the Lakeville Arts Center and I learned that my boss and his wife frequently attend their wine classes. To add to the complications, one of my least favorite (and my boss' most favored) projects is running a nonprofit. His most recent project for me was to arrange a fundraising wine tasting through the Lakeville Art Center, so I was dreading the possibility of my entire Christmas present evening being consumed with discussions with my boss about a project that regularly destroys my work ethic and morale. Luckily, they picked today as the day to skip and so I happily ate far too much chocolate and drank a few too many glasses of wine.

I primarily learned two things in this class: first of all, I really like port wine. I've never tried it before, and to be perfectly honest next time I try it (when I haven't already tried 4-5 glasses of wine) it may be less delicious, but it was something completely different and pretty darn good. We tried a few different varieties, one from Australia and 3 from Portugual, and in the end Henry won us a bottle of my favorite type! Secondly, I learned that there is a fantastic chocolate shop in Burnsville. After trying a few types of truffles, I think my Valentine's Day plans are set: order a large box of chocolates (they have everything from French silk milk chocolate truffles to caramel s'more candy) and drink my new bottle of port!

Rent, jazz, baseball and food experiments

It's 11:15 and I think this is the earliest I've really had the opportunity to sit down for a few minutes all week. It's been an incredibly busy week--fun, but very busy.

This last weekend I went to Eau Claire to visit my old college roommate, who I haven't seen in probably two years. It was great to see her but strange to be back in Eau Claire. I suddenly didn't fit in at a lot of the places I used to love to go, and I was surprised at how much worse my old apartment in the "student ghetto" looked after a few years of perspective. It was also good to be back; Eau Claire has a great arts scene that I've missed. The Twin Cities definitely has a lot of arts opportunities, but most of them are farther away, a LOT more expensive, and generally both. We took advantage of the weekend to see a jazz concert and the musical Rent (as put on by the Eau Clare Children's Theater...odd). I was honestly surprised at how much I liked Rent--from the things I'd been told, I expected to spend a large part of the time frustrated with starving artists. Instead, I found the play to be a lot more about trying to live with impending death. Depressing, but much less frustrating as a member of the audience. The music was good and the play was not watered down or performed by children, although I was a little nervous when I realized that the play was being put on by a children's theater. It was a great busy weekend.

Tuesday I got my first experience at Target Field, which was pretty darn awesome. My brother, sister and I took my oldest nephew to the game, and I'm pretty sure nobody in the ballpark was having a better time for a lot of that game than my nephew.

 It was nice to have somebody to cheer with me, even if he was only five! The Twins didn't play great--their pitcher was fantastic, but I wasn't impressed with the offense. If you're facing a pitcher who is walking in runs and giving up more runs with wild pitches, I feel like you should be able to get your offense going to build on their runs--not so last night. In spite of that, it was a good experience. The ballpark is beautiful and, thanks to my very generous brother, I got to sit in some fantastic seats. It was a perfect night for baseball weather-wise, AND it was just wonderful to get back to baseball. And the ballpark has tacos and gelato. I'm not really sure what more you can ask for.

Finally...I've been seriously falling behind on my food experiments. This is partly because I've been crazy busy this month, and partly because my last several experiments have flopped miserably. My spicy Asian peanut butter cookies from last week were not much of an exception...I liked them and a few other people did, but in general they did not go over well. They aren't a normal cookie, and with so many strong flavors a lot of people found different flavors they didn't like. I adapted it from this recipe according to what I had on hand. Feel free to make these if you are adventurous, and try them with some good vanilla ice cream. Like I said, I really enjoyed them--but don't expect a normal peanut butter cookie!

Spicy Asian-Inspired Peanut Butter Cookies 
My version, as adapted from the one I link to above. This made me between 2-3 dozen cookies. Also, I think I could have left out the cayenne pepper without compromising the taste at all. I never tasted the pepper, but after a few bites a slow burn started that you could feel rather than taste. Weird for a cookie, too hot for a lot of people and since it didn't add any noticeable flavor, not particularly important to me.

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (scant)
• zest of one lemon (make sure the zest is very small!)
• 1.25 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 cup chunky peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Sift together the flour, spices, baking powder and baking soda.
2. In another bowl, beat the butter, sugars and lemon zest until light and smooth but not fluffy. Add the peanut butter and vanilla, and blend until smooth. Add the egg and combine.
3. Add the flour mix to the peanut butter mix, mixing just until combined and no flour streaks appear.
4. Chill the dough until firm.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
6. Grease cookie sheets and create balls about 1.25 inches across for cookies. On the cookie sheet, flatten each ball slightly with a fork.
7. Bake for about 10-12 minutes; let cool slightly before removing from the pan.

Food experiments: Better than Sex Cake

I've been slacking lately on writing, and so I have a lot to catch up on...like this. I've heard about better than sex cake for years, but until a few weeks ago I'd never tasted it. A coworker asked for this for his birthday cake from Steamboat Willie, which she made on the day before Valentine's Day.

Yum. I had one piece at work, and promptly changed my plans for Valentine's Day dinner to include it. I hear there's a lot of different recipes for this out there, but this is the one that I definitely enjoyed!I would make this cake at least 6 hours or so before you need it, and the night before would be even better. The longer it sits for the toppings to soak in, the better it gets. Really--I had this cake leftover for over a week, and it was far better on the last day.

Better than Sex Cake
This reminds me of one of my favorite cakes that my mom used to make, but easier.

Ingredients
1 package devils food cake mix
Eggs and oil as required by your mix (usually 1/3 cup oil and 3 eggs)
1 can condensed milk
1 cup butterscotch topping
1 cup hot fudge topping
1 container Cool Whip
a few handfuls of toffee, chopped or crumbled (Heath bars work, but I used leftover toffee from my Mom's Christmas candy)

Directions

1. Bake the cake according to the package instructions.
2. Let cool for about 10-15 minutes.
3. Use a fork to poke holes all over the top of the cake--not big or deep, but just to perforate it enough for liquids to soak in.
4. Dump the can of condensed milk over the cake, spreading it as evenly as you can. Let it soak in for around half an hour or until it's mostly absorbed. It may not absorb well right away, but you can still put the other toppings on.
5. Dump on the cup of butterscotch, again spreading it as evenly as possible and letting it sit for awhile. Repeat the process with the hot fudge.
6. Let the cake sit until you are ready to serve. If the cake will be sitting out overnight, refrigerate it.
7. Just before serving, top with the Cool Whip and the toffee crumbles.

Food experiments: Flan!

I love flan. I suppose that’s no surprise…I love custards, creme brulee, or even custard-filled donuts. They’re delicious. But flan has always seemed to me to be one of those things like cheesecake—really delicious, but something you normally eat at a restaurant because it’s too hard to make.

So, in the spirit of experimenting and adventure, I decided to try making flan this week. And, while it was definitely fussy and took a long time, it turned out on my first try! So that’s one more difficult recipe that I can honestly say has been much easier for me to pull off than a batch of brownies.

Because I was intimidated, I used Alton Brown’s recipe. I’ve generally found that his recipes are good for scared people, because he adds a lot of tips to the sides of them and because they’re written down to help you learn to cook. That and I have 3 of his cookbooks, so I usually figure I should use them! This recipe is also available on the Food Network website, with a few more of his details and recommendations.

Alton Brown’s “Flandango”

In his ingredients, he calls for the sauce to be made from caramel sauce, preserves or any other sauce you’d like to try. I experimented with caramel and apricot preserves, and I can heartily vouch for the caramel. The apricot I found to be way to overpowering for the flan itself, so I’d recommend sticking with milder flavors for the sauce. I also used caramel ice cream topping to save time. This tasted fine, but next time I want to try homemade caramel sauce to experiment with textures. The ice cream topping was pretty runny and didn’t really meld well with the flan.

You also need 8 4 oz ramekins (or the equivalent), a big roasting pan, a fine strainer, some pots, a whisk, and your life will be a lot easier if you can get ahold of a pitcher with a spout.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1 cup half-and- half
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sugar
• An assortment of jams and sauces for toppings (e.g., Butterscotch ice cream topping, hot fudge ice cream topping )
• 6 eggs

Directions

1. Ensure that your highest oven rack is in the middle position. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. I would do this right away and leave it to bake so that the temperature will even out—you’re going to need all the heat you can get, because when you leave the oven open long enough to pour in the water bath later, a lot of heat is going to escape.
2. Place a kettle of water on to boil—the larger your roasting pan, the bigger your kettle. This will become your water bath. (I had to fill my pan up twice—luckily the hot water heater was turned up a little higher than it probably should be, so I had quick access to very hot water!)
3. In a saucepan, combine the milk, half and half, vanilla extract and sugar. Bring to a bare simmer over medium-high heat. As soon as this is achieved, remove from the heat and set aside. This takes a long time. I was able to prepare all the other ingredients and still read a few pages of my book.
   
4. Place 1 to 2 tablespoons of the toppings in the bottom of each ramekin—it shouldn’t be very deep. Probably less deep than mine was!
   
5. Separate 3 eggs, reserving the whites and keeping the yolks for use in the flan.
6. In a mixing bowl, combine the 3 remaining whole eggs with the yolks. Whip with a whisk until the eggs are thickened and slightly lighter in color.
7. Continue whisking the eggs while you mix in about 1/4 of the milk mixture. Then whisk the egg mixture into the saucepan with the rest of the milk mix. (This keeps the eggs from cooking with the heat of the milk.)
   
8. Put the mesh strainer over a pitcher with a spout. Pour the egg mixture through the strainer to get rid of any cooked eggs or particles.
   
9. Set the custard cups in the roasting pan. Evenly distribute the egg mixture in the custard cups.
   
10. Place the roasting pan on the middle rack of your oven. Pour the water from your kettle into the roasting pan to create the water bath—it should stop just below the level of the custard (NOT the ramekins).
    
11. Cook for about 40 minutes, or until the flan wiggles slightly when the pan is shaken.
12. Take the ramekins out individually, either with tongs or (if you are more skilled with oven mitts than with tongs, as I was), with oven mitts. Leave the pan with water in the oven to cool before you throw the water out. (I don’t know why, but I figure I don’t need to find out why by wrecking something, so for once I’ll listen!)
    
13. Now this is the hardest part for me—first, leave the flan to cool to room temperature. Then, put them in the fridge to cool before eating them. (Ok, the ramekins are small enough that this only took about 2 1/2 hours, but on top of the two hours it took to make these, it was hard!)
14. Try to share. It’s hard. They’re good.

Food Experiments: Chocolate Fondue

Since there are still pumpkin bars sitting in the kitchen from last week's experiment, I decided to try to make something I thought would be a little smaller this week: chocolate fondue. I've been wanting to try it since I found an incredibly easy recipe on the A Year of Slow Cooking blog, and decided that it was time.

Maybe if I had thought things through a little more, I would have realized that a cup and a half of chocolate chips, mixed with various tasty things and used just as a dipping sauce is not actually a small amount of food. I'm very full, and it was very, very good! This recipe is still available in the archives of the Year of Slow Cooking blog (which I highly recommend if you like easy, good food) but I will re-post it here to keep my recipe experiment collection complete.

She notes that a small crockpot is best for this recipe, but you can also put the ingredients into an oven-safe container inside a large slow cooker to heat the ingredients in the same way as a small one.

Chocolate Fondue
I made this in a 1.5 qt. crockpot, the kind that only has an On and Off option, no temperature settings, and made it with semi-sweet chocolate and a splash of Captain Morgan. We tried it with pound cake, banana slices and marshmallows. Strawberries would also probably be quite nice. Really, I'm pretty sure anything short of beets or asparagus would be good with this--what doesn't benefit from being dipped in molten chocolate?

Ingredients
1.5 cups chocolate chips (semi-sweet, milk chocolate or white chocolate)
1/2 cup cream
1 tsp vanilla

(optional)
1 T Grand Marnier
1 T rum
1 T peppermint schnapps
1 T Irish cream
1 tsp. peppermint, orange, etc. extract

Directions

1. Put chocolate chips into a small crockpot.
2. Add cream, vanilla and any optional flavors.
3. Turn slow cooker to On or Low for about 1 hour.

This has been a slow month for adventures and experiments...I blame the influence of February. It's a bad month up here, and it's usually around now when I feel like winter has been here forever and I start to have a hard time remembering what the world looked like when it was green. But, I'm trying to do my best to fill the rest of my winter with some interesting stories, so hopefully things will pick up soon.

Pumpkin Bars and a cancelled experiment

All in all, today was a disappointing day. I got a call telling me that the Asian brush painting class I was planning on taking this Saturday was cancelled because I was the only person signed up, I had to delay starting on a project at work that has finally gotten moving (after 2 years of prodding people who needed to be involved) in order to work on a project that has nothing to do with my job or the company, and to top it off, the cream cheese frosting on my pumpkin bars was less than impressive. Given, my mom makes some pretty top notch cream cheese frosting, so I have some high standards, but this frosting was runny and tasted more like butter than smooth cream cheese frosting. The bars themselves are good, but the cream cheese frosting leaves something to be desired, so--I'll just keep that part of the recipe out of this. Find your favorite recipe for cream cheese frosting, ask your mom or buy the jarred type at the story to top these off.

Pumpkin Bars
I got in trouble with the people at work who had New Years resolutions with these ones! They're very heavy and rich, but as I heard several times; pumpkin is a vegetable. Ergo, these must be good for you. Right?

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1- 15 oz can pumpkin
• 2 cups sifted all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Using an electric mixer at medium speed (if available--I didn't use one), beat eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin together until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mix and beat on low speed until batter is smooth and thoroughly combined.
4. Spread into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.
5. Frost with cream cheese frosting. Cut into bars and serve.

Food Experiments: Malva Pudding

I've been wanting to make malva pudding for a long, long time. It's a dessert that I've only ever eaten in safari camps in Africa, and it's also one of the most rich and delicious desserts I've ever tasted. It's also incredibly hard to find a recipe for, and it seems like there's quite a lot of different names for it and variations on it. The one I made tonight isn't quite what I remember and am searching for, but it's close. Maybe I will top the leftovers tomorrow with some custard sauce to try to get closer...sooner or later, I need to cross this off my bucket list!

Malva pudding is similar to bread pudding, especially in texture, but it has a somewhat sweeter, nuttier taste than any bread pudding I've ever had. To me, it brings back beautiful memories of sitting in thatched, open air huts for dinner, with the smell of a mopane wood fire blowing in and more stars than you could probably see anywhere in the United States waiting just outside. It is the sort of dessert that I think is best appreciated after spending a whole day outside--partially from my nostalgia for the safari days and partially because spending a whole day running around outside before eating this is the only way to stave off the immense guilt that I'm feeling for eating it. In short, my dessert experiments that help those of you with new year's resolutions are over!

Malva Pudding

I would start by serving small portions of this dessert. When finished, it looks like a pretty bland cake, but it is deceptively rich!

Ingredients:

CAKE:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon apricot jam
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon butter (a generous tablespoon)
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1/3 cup milk

SAUCE

• 3/4 cup fresh cream
• 7 TB butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup hot water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat or whip the sugar and eggs, preferably in a food processor, until thick and lemon colored. Then, add the apricot jelly (or jam) and mix thoroughly.
2. Sieve together the flour, soda and salt. Melt the butter (do not boil!) and add the vinegar. Add this mixture, as well as the milk, to the egg mixture in the processor, alternately with the flour. Beat well.
3. Pour into an oven-proof dish (I used a tall 8x8 ceramic pan), and bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Meanwhile, in a pot, melt together the ingredients for the sauce. When the cake is halfway baked, take it out of oven. Make holes in cake and pour the sauce over the pudding. Return to the oven. When finished, the cake should still be slightly jiggly. (Hint: the softer and more pudding-y parts taste much better than the parts that look completely solid and cooked like cake. Mmm butter sauce!)

Food Experiments: Dessert Month and "healthy" strawberry pie

I love food. Going along with that, I love cooking and playing with new ideas.

So, in defiance to everyone else's more intelligent new years plans for being healthy, losing weight and eating well, I'm going to start a food experiment challenge to myself; each month I'll pick a theme and make at least one new experimental recipe each week. To start, I'm going to tackle desserts (and let's all hope and pray that I can survive the wrath of everyone with more healthy resolutions). Because I came up with this plan in the middle of the month and because I really love dessert, I'm going to declare the rest of January and all of February as dessert month.

Yesterday's challenge was to create a birthday dessert for a joint birthday party. The catch? One birthday person was diabetic, and the other was lactose intolerant. Yep. You try to come up with a tasty cake recipe to meet those guidelines! (Really...I wouldn't mind any ideas!)

So instead, I found a recipe for sugar-free strawberry pie. This was super easy and, in spite of being completely sugar free, very delicious. It is also quite healthy, so I'll survive the new year's people for at least another day. According to the website where I found this recipe, if you make this "pie" without a crust, it's only 55 calories for a fourth of the recipe.

Sugar Free Strawberry Pie Recipe
This can be made with or without a crust, depending on your preferences! The original recipe had no crust and obvioiusly had fewer calories, but I put it within a pre-bought shortbread crust.

Ingredients

• 1 small box Jello sugar-free Cook and Serve vanilla pudding
• 1 small box strawberry sugar-free Jello
• 2 cups water
• 12-16. oz sliced strawberries

Instructions

1. Mix pudding mix with water in a saucepan; heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils.
2. Remove from heat and add strawberry Jello mix.
3. Let cool to room temperature. (I forgot this step and poured it into the crust still warm...it still tasted fine, although I bet it would have looked nicer if I'd let it cool!)
4. In a glass pie dish, add the sliced strawberries to the bottom (or over the crust if you choose).
5. Pour pudding mix over strawberries. Refrigerate pie at least an hour, until set.