Chocolate-It's What's for Dinner

I'm on the constant quest for delicious hand pies, cornish pasty, or whatever you want to call them. Chicken Hand Pies (Adapted from Cooking Light ) 14 oz white whole-wheat flour + 2T salt/pepper 1 t baking powder 10 T ice cold water 2/3 c olive oil + 2T 1 1/2 lb ground chicken or turkey 4oz haricot verts, cut into 1/4" pieces 3/4 c carrot, finely chopped 1 T thyme 1T minced garlic 1 1/2 c chicken stock 1/2 c thawed peas salt/pepper 1 egg, beaten with 1t water Place flour,  1t salt, and baking powder in a food processor. Pulse until combined. Stir together ice water and flour. With food processor running, slowly pour oil/water mixture down the chute. Mix until combined. Turn dough out onto board, knead 1 minute. Place in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes. Heat 1T oil in skillet add chicken, breaking up and cook until no longer pink. Remove from skillet. Wipe skillet clean with paper towel. Heat oil add, haricot verts, carrot and thyme. Saute unti...

This recipe was quite interesting to me because as much as I try with crust, either they come out really good or really bad. The taste is fine; it's usually shrinkage or the fluting that I struggle with. This appealed to me because it's seemed like it would be rather healthy. With all that said did it taste good - yes. Was it a quiche - I would say no. It reminded me more of a frittata. Is this a bad thing - no not necessarily, unless you were expecting a quiche. I did change up some of the recipe - they wanted you to use 4 eggs and 2 whites. I wasn't making ice cream so I didn't have a use for the extra yolks. I decided to just add them into the mix. Sweet Potato Crust Quiche Frittata(Adapted from Cooking Light ) 2 medium sweet potatoes* spray oil 1t olive oil 1 clove garlic minced 1 5-oz baby spinach 1/2 t nutmeg 1/2 cup milk salt/pepper 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper 6  eggs 2 oz goat cheese, crumbled Peel and slice the sweet potato. Using a ...

The ginger in this cake is no joke. When I saw 4 oz I thought that was an awful lot of fresh ginger. Boy am I glad I went with my instincts and cut this in half. I used 2 oz and that was more than plenty. Fresh ginger can really pack a wallop and this one did. The cake was very moist and stayed fresh. That's a LOT of ginger (2 oz) Ginger Molasses Cake (Adapted from Ready for Desserts ) 2 oz fresh ginger, peeled and minced 1 c molasses 1 c sugar 1 c canola oil 2 1/2 c flour 1 t cinnamon 1/2 t ground cloves 1/2 t ground black pepper 1 c boiling water 2t baking soda 2 eggs Butter the bottom and sides of a 9" pan and fit with a round of parchment on the bottom. In a large bowl, mix molasses, sugar, and oil. In a separate bowl whisk flour, cinnamon, cloves and pepper together. Add baking soda to boiling water. Add to the molasses mixture and then stir in ginger. Sift in the flour mixture. Whisking to combine. Add eggs until blended. Pour into pan. Bake 350 fo...

I found some nifty ways to store fresh herbs. It is so simple but really keeps store-bought herbs fresh longer. For basil: fold a paper towel in half and dampen with water. Put it on top of the basil and seal the container. Store at room temperature. Do not refrigerate. For Cilantro and Parsley the best thing to do is to treat them like flowers in a vase then refrigerate. Who's hiding under there?

I'm not a peanut butter fan at all. I just don't get it. Maybe it was all those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as a I child? However, I do understand that that people are crazy for the combination of peanut butter and chocolate (I believe there are these things called Reece's peanut butter cups that people go nuts over?? I don't know). However, I must admit I was intrigued by using Tahini with brownies. Luckily, I had just enough Tahini in the house to give this a try for a last minute invite to a party. Tahini Brownies (Adapted from Milk Street *) 4T butter 4oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped 3T cocoa powder 3 eggs 1c sugar 1T vanilla 1t salt 3/4 c Tahini 1/2 c flour Line an 8-inch square pan with foil. In a saucepan melt butter. Remove from heat and add chocolate and cocoa and stir until melted. Set aside. In a large bowl whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Whisk in Tahini. Gently fold in flour. Measure out 1/2 c of the mixture and set as...