Chocolate-It's What's for Dinner

This bread is really dense. It's not made for plain old sandwiches.  It goes great with a few good wedges of cheese for a nice lunch. There's no kneading or yeast required. Be warned though - you need to soak the grains overnight. So a little bit of planning ahead is necessary. Often I'm not a huge fan of soda breads , which technically this is a soda bread since it uses baking soda to rise, but this packs a lot of flavor and is fairly moist. Seeded Whole Grain Soda Bread (Adapted from BonAppetit ) 1/4 c millet 1/4 c quinoa 2T buckwheat* 1 c old-fashioned oats (plus additional for top) 2 1/4 c buttermilk, divided (plus additional for top) 3c white whole wheat flour 1 c flour 2T flaxseed 1T kosher salt 2 t baking soda 4T butter, cut into pieces 3T brown rice syrup (molasses would also work well) 1 T canola oil 1/4 pepitas (or sunflower seeds) (plus additional for top) Mix millet, quinoa, buckwheat, oats, and 1 c of the buttermilk in a bowl and let sit ov...

Remember when I made Sourdough Waffles ? What could be better than that?? Why Chocolate ones, of course! Sourdough Waffles (Adapted from The New York Times ) 1 c sourdough starter (unfed) 1 c buttermilk 3T brown sugar 1 c flour 1/4 c cocoa powder Stir together, cover, and let sit overnight at room temperature. 1 egg 1/4 c butter melted 1 t vanilla 1/2 t salt 1t baking soda Combine ingredients and mix into the sourdough batter. Pour batter onto waffle iron and cook. Repeat. These were a little tricky to decide whether they were done or not because of the coloring. The first one was a little underdone, but it didn't take too long to get it down pat. 

Did you think I forgot about you?? I've been busy with a capital B. Hopefully, things will be slowing down a bit. I saw this nifty video about how to quickly Julienne vegetables. I gave it a whirl. One of the key things that you need is a mandolin (the cutting sort not the instrument sort). Slice the vegetable to 1/8" thickness. Like so: Next stack 'em up: Then slice into strips: After a short time, you have this: Pretty neat huh? Until the Sous Chef pointed out that I have a Julienne setting on my mandolin. Whomp whomp!

So onward on my quest to use up the Impastata . I was cruising around and found this on Epicurious. It used Mascarpone. The Impastata is so creamy it's like Mascarpone or Cream cheese so I gave it a try. It only used up 1 cup but it was well worth it. Strawberry Tart (Adapted from Epicurious ) Crust: 1 1/4 c flour 3T sugar 1/4 t salt 7 T butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces 1 egg yolk 1 t vanilla extract 3 T lemon juice (cold) zest from lemon Blend flour, sugar, and salt together in a food processor. Add butter and pulse until it looks like corn meal. In a small bowl mix egg yolk, vanilla, lemon juice and zest. Sprinkle over the flour mixture. Pulse until comes together. You might need to add additional lemon juice. Empty into a 9" tart pan with removable bottom. Cover with a piece of plastic wrap and press dough into bottom and up sides of tart pan. Freeze for 10 minutes or until frozen. See crumbled parchment fits great into the pan Prick bottom of shell wit...

What happens when you go to the store and ask for curd to make mozzarella and they give you impastata? 3lbs of it?? You get real panicky and start looking for recipes that use massive amounts of ricotta. You also get a little annoyed because you were looking forward to fresh mozzarella with some tomatoes and basil. But time to make lemonade - so to speak...I found one recipe that was OK for Ricotta Pie. I found the crust part a little weird - you butter the pan and basically let whatever cookie crumbs stick to the sides stick. It was a little strange. I also pulsed some chocolate chips in the food processor (2/3 of a cup to be exact) and stirred that in. It tasted good but wasn't the greatest I've ever had but at least it used up 3 cups. The next recipe worked out real well. Tune in next time for that one.

Well I must be behind the times. Apparently it is way cooler to bake your egg in an avocado than make toad in a hole . Who knew? I can't say which I prefer. They each have many things going for them. So if you're behind the times too, try to be cool and give this a try* Avocado Egg (Adapted from Epicurious ) 1 avocado 2 large eggs salt/pepper chives Cut avocado in half. Remove stone. Scoop out some of the flesh (more than you actually think). Place the avocado halves in a dish that they fit in snugly or at least lean against the side to remain upright. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the avocado. Crack one egg into a small dish. Carefully slide the egg into the "hole" of the avocado. Repeat with other avocado and egg. Place in a 450 oven and bake for 10-12 or until done.  Sprinkle with chives. They suggest putting a splash of hot sauce beneath the egg, but you all know what a big baby I am when it comes to hot sauce. I think you might also be able to use a ...

So it was off to London for the Main Event... THE Cake The bottom layer was red velvet and the top was just yellow BUT those are all white chocolate sticks surrounding the layers - yum! There was a little debate about the flowers - non-edible. We went to Chop Shop after a matinee and had some really delicious pork belly (the special). The mash (mashed potatoes for all you "non-English" speakers), was so creamy and really good. Also a nice fennel slaw. We had a quick bite at Franze and Evans. It was right near the flat we rented so how could we not. They had some mean gnocchi. The breakfast menu looked really nice, but we didn't get to try that out. We also ate at the Approach Tavern . I ate there on the last quick hop over. Last time it was excellent sausage and mash. This time, it was a mighty excellent burger. The absolute best meal was at this Peruvian place called Andina . It was tapas style so we got to try many different dishes - 10 in total. There...