Chocolate-It's What's for Dinner

What is a tassie anyway? I looked on the web of knowledge and the definition is a tass (real helpful huh?). Then if you look up tass it says it is a goblet or what is in the goblet - as small draught. The British version says that it is a native of Tasmania. Well none of these definitions quite fit these little lemon filled pastries. Lemon Tassies (Adapted from Martha Stewart ) Crusts: 5T butter, cut into chunks 1c flour 3T sugar 1 egg yolk 1t vanilla 1t lemon zest 1/2 t salt 1-2T lemon juice Filling: 8oz cream cheese 1/3 c sugar 1 egg 2T lemon zest 2T lemon juice 1t vanilla Lightly grease mini-muffin tins. Set aside. In a food processor pulse the butter and flour until it looks like bread crumbs. Add sugar, egg yolk, vanilla, zest, and salt. Process until incorporated. You might need to add the lemon juice for the dough to come together. DO NOT OVERPROCESS. Divide dough into 4 pieces and then each of those 4 further down into 6 pieces. Place each dough ball ...

I had to go into work for a few hours this Saturday. I wanted to grab a quick bite before heading home. Periodically throughout the year Urban Space has Broadway Bites near where I work. It's all these little food stalls. On a much smaller scale it reminds me of the food stalls at some of the markets in London. The food is always really good. I opted for the wafels ( Wafels & Dinges ) this time around. Before After I went for the banana, bacon, and chocolate one. They were very clever with the bacon. The bacon was precooked and they finish it off with a blow torch. It was delicious. I was in the mood for something savory but when I saw the savory/sweet - I was in.

So it was sauerkraut again. This time around apples were added, things were set aside for a few weeks and a nice sauerkraut was made. Sauerkraut with Apples (Adapted from Food and Wine ) 1 lg head of green cabbage 1 Granny Smith Apple Kosher Salt (about 2 T) 1 T caraway seeds 1/2 T juniper berries Salt water Slice cabbage into thin slices. Add apple and salt. Aggressively rub salt into cabbage. Let sit for about two hours. Meanwhile heat water and add some salt until dissolve. Set aside to cool. Add caraway and juniper berries. Pack the cabbage into a large jar adding any liquid that has accumulated. Add enough salted water to cover the cabbage by about 2 inches. Cover with a piece of cheesecloth then with a plate. Weigh down plate - a container of water does a good job. Cover with a clean dishtowel and secure with some rubber bands. Let sit for several weeks. It might foam a little bit but that is OK. It will smell a little bit but it will smell like sauerkraut. If mold ...

Some recipes just grab me right away this was definitely one of them. It struck me as a fairly straight forward but needed a little more seasoning than the original. This must be chicken week - second recipe for this week. Chicken with Croutons and Leeks (Adapted from Real Simple ) 1/2 lb sourdough bread (about half a loaf), torn into pieces 4 medium leeks, halved lengthwise and cut into 2" pieces 3 lemons, cut into quarters 1/3 c olive oil about 10 sprigs of thyme salt/pepper 1 whole chicken, cut into 10 pieces In a 13x9 pan place bread, leeks, lemons and thyme. Pour over oil and toss to coat. Add salt and pepper. Salt and pepper chicken on both sides and put skin-side up on top of bread mixture (I tucked some of the smaller breasts pieces deep inside the bread in the center so they wouldn't cook too fast). Bake at 425 for 50-60 minutes until chicken is done and bread is toasted. This was such and easy no fuss recipe. I must admit I didn't tear the bread ...

While this may be a little bland looking, it is totally not. It was a ton of flavor. It makes a really nice fall warming on the inside dish. I think the cinnamon gives that warming feeling. Chicken with Dates & Cinnamon (Adapted from Cooking Light ) 12 bone in chicken thighs salt/pepper 2T olive oil 4 c sliced onions 1t ginger, minced 2t capers, rinsed 2 T flour 3/4 t cumin 1/2 t coriander, ground 1 cinnamon stick 2 c chicken broth 1/2 c pitted dates, chopped 3T lemon juice Dry the chicken with paper towels. Salt and pepper the chicken thighs. In a large dutch oven, add olive oil, and half of the chicken thighs. Cook about 5 minutes each side or until brown. Remove from pan and add remaining thighs and do the same. Set chicken aside Add onion and ginger to pan. Saute until the onions have some nice color - about 10 minutes. Add capers, flour, cumin, and coriander. Stir about 1 minute. Gradually add broth, stirring constantly while loosening the browned bits - ...

Time for another Flash Back Friday. I made these oven barbecued ribs again. Actually last time I did them in the Sous Vide and this time I made them in the oven. They just come out so tender and delicious. Make sure that you remove the silverskin from the back of the ribs. It's a little difficult to grab. Since the last time I made them I found an easy way to remove it.  Grab hold of it with a paper towel. Once it gets started, it peels right off in one piece (very satisfying!). Then you are all ready to do the rub.

Kryddkvarn Med Korklock - Swedish for grindy thing? The Sous Chef came home with this for me one day recently. It does a marvelous job grinding things. I still haven't quite figured out what the cork is for. I assume once you grind your spices, you can store them in the top half? But then what is the point? You would want your spices fresh ground - wouldn't you? The bottom of the container has rough raised parts and the bottom of the top piece has rough raised parts. You put the spices in-between and turn the top part while adding a little pressure. It works as well as a mortar and pestle. It has some heft to it as it is made of cast iron.

When I first got on the plane and they said we were heading to "Garbled words that did not sound like New Orleans" I thought I was almost on the wrong plane. I thought I had an accent! They certainly have an accent in N'Awlins. I did one of those touristy bus tours. I had very limited time and wanted to just get a quick overview of the layout. I got to see many really nice houses, the French Quarter, the 9th Ward (still not all rebuilt - very sad), a park, a levy and a cemetery. I'm sure you've all seen pics of those things so I won't bore you with a whole load of pics. But here were two interesting ones. Park Spanish Moss As one of the evening events of the conference, we got to visit the warehouse where all the floats are stored. That was pretty interesting. All this mishmash of characters - from dogs, unicorns, to pirates and dragons (Oh my!). Many of them are made of styrofoam. Never really gave it a thought of what they were made from. A ...

While the food on offer is unbelievable, I unfortunately did not get to partake as much as I would have liked (The conference took up a lot of my time). First I must recommend the Ruby Slipper for breakie. I had the best Bananas Foster French Toast (or as they call it - Pain Perdu). When it first arrived, I was worried. I thought it was going to brick heavy. It was the lightest French Toast I have ever eaten. I don't bananas foster usually has raisins but they did add a nice flavor. The Ruby Slipper - Bananas Foster Pain Perdu I hit up this local joint that looked like a real Mom & Pop Shop that had been there forever. There was a pretty decent crowd in there for the time of night so I thought it might be an interesting place. I ordered the Shrimp Po'Boy. The best that I can say was that they use clean oil to fry their shrimp. The bread was mediocre at best. The shrimp had no seasoning. Maybe I ordered the wrong thing there? Clean oil A trip to the famous Cafe ...

While in New Orleans, I discovered a new (new to me anyhow) brand of rum. It is called Blue Chair Bay . They have several different varieties. I was able to taste two - the coconut and the banana. Both were excellent. The coconut tasted a little more coconuty than Malibu (my other favorite). The banana was a cream liquor and was really tasty. Their website has many different recipes that I will have to try.