From the category archives:

Chocolate!

Coca-Cola Cake: A Fun and Delicious Recipe!

by Joi on March 8, 2010

Coca-Cola Bathing Beauty Replica Metal Sign

Cocoa-Cola Cake Recipe

STEP 1
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup butter
1 cup Coca-Cola
3 Tbs cocoa

Mix the sugar and flour in a large bowl. Combine the oil, butter, Coca-Cola and cocoa and add to the dry ingredients.

STEP 2
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk

Add and mix well.

STEP 3
1-1/2 cup miniature marshmallows

Fold the marshmallows into the delicious mixture and bake in a greased and dusted with cocoa 9×13 inch pan for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

STEP 4
1/2 cup butter
3 Tbs cocoa
5 Tbs Coca-Cola

Bring to a boil.

STEP 5
1 box powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Add to the boiled cocoa and Coca-Cola. Combine and pour over the hot cake. Delicious!

Chocolate, As Prescribed By the Doctor

by Joi on February 17, 2010

Nothing but love. I’ve got nothing but love for Dr. Al Sears right now. He has the following to say about a close, dear friend of mine, Chocolate:

If you ate chocolate on Valentine’s Day, I have some news for you. You don’t have to feel guilty.

In fact, I have evidence that you may have cut your risk from dying of a stroke nearly in half.

Two studies give us great news about chocolate.

The first study found that people who ate one serving of chocolate per week were 22% less likely to have a stroke.

The second study found that people who ate 50 grams of chocolate once a week were 46% less likely to die following a stroke than those who didn’t eat chocolate.

About 80% of strokes occur when there isn’t enough blood getting to the brain.3 Your brain is starved of oxygen and nutrients and begins to die immediately.

Chocolate helps to counteract that in two ways. It’s rich in antioxidants and helps to increase circulation.

Flavonoids fight silent inflammation, which is the leading cause of chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, dementia, and many others.

You can find flavonoids in vegetables, tea, and red wine, but cocoa has more flavonoids. In fact, dark chocolate contains up to four times the antioxidants found in tea.

The good doctor… well, let’s just go ahead and call him the grand doctor… has this advice for finding the best sources of chocolate:

Look for chocolate that contains 70% or more cocoa. This is the ingredient that contains health benefits.

Check how much sugar is added to the chocolate you choose. Keep it as low as possible. But choose sugar over artificial sweeteners or chocolate labeled “sugar free.”

Beware of other chemicals in the chocolate. Choose a brand that has pure ingredients and no chemical additives.

Make chocolate your special treat of choice once a week.

You can find good quality chocolate at a health-food store. More and more it’s finding its way into grocery and drug stores. Read the label to be sure of the quality and content.

Only one problem, when he says to make chocolate your “special treat of choice once a week…” don’t you imagine that he meant once an hour?

Source: Dr. Al Sears

FoodChannel.com Encourages You to BE the Chocolate This Valentine’s Day!

by Joi on February 12, 2010

As a self help diva, cooking diva, and chocolate addict all rolled into one – I am in love with this! FoodChannel.com has put together a wonderful and fun article about the benefits of “thinking chocolate.” Read on, you’re going to love this!

FOODCHANNEL.COM ENCOURAGES YOU TO “BE THE CHOCOLATE” THIS VALENTINE’S DAY

CHICAGO (Feb. 11, 2010)¾ In honor of Valentine’s Day, The Food Channel^® (foodchannel.com ) editorial staff is encouraging visitors to the site to “be chocolate” and embrace the lessons one of America’s favorite indulgences can provide. “We have been watching chocolate ever since it was named one of the top food trends of the decade,” said Kay Logsdon, managing editor of The Food Channel . “This week, in particular, it seemed appropriate to commemorate how chocolate can enrich our lives—in ten fun ways.”

It’s Important to Hold Your Temper

It’s not easy to melt chocolate perfectly, just as it’s not easy to find your own boiling point and keep it under control. The fact is, for chocolate to form properly into all those fun shapes that go into the candy box, it has to be tempered. That means it has to be fed the right amount from the chocolate block, at the right time during the melting process, all the while being constantly stirred. In life, it means we have to guard what we take in, and be willing to move and change as necessary in order to get better.

Soft Centers Usually Have a Hard Shell

The best liquors, the softest centers, all need some protection around them. So remember that when your co-worker has a tough façade or your friend appears sort of brittle. Could be they are protecting their soft insides.

Meltdowns Can Be Avoided

Real chocolate starts to get soft at 72 degrees. Great candy stores keep the temperature cool rather than add vegetable oils to the mix. You can keep your cool if you remember to turn down the heat.

A Little Nuttiness Doesn’t Hurt

Unless you have an allergy, nuts add a new dimension to chocolate. A little crunch, a different flavor, a higher antioxidant level—it all just adds to the variety. So accept a little nuttiness in your life.

You Can Find an Excuse for Almost Anything

If society can pile sugar and cream into dark chocolate and call it a good-for-you antioxidant, then surely your teacher will believe someone ate your homework. Just tell her you wrapped it in chocolate.

Variety Matters

When it comes to chocolates, there is great variety. You have your soft creams, your liquors, your ganache, and your buttery caramels. You have your chews and your nuts. You’ll have your favorite, but at some point all of the varieties have to go in the box together. Learn to get along with variety.

Sometimes You Have to Feed the Need

Chocolate reportedly stimulates the release of hormones in the brain, and feel-good endorphins in the body. And, face it. Sometimes that is a craving that needs to be met. When hormone meets hormone, everyone feels better.

Some Things Are Just Worth It

We know the bad, the calories, the fat, the pound-for-pound guilt. We also know that there are lots of entrepreneurs who have quit the daily grind in favor of dipping chocolate. It’s a satisfying career, especially when you can lick the bowl.

Addictive Behavior Can Be Controlled

We all have our addictions. We are work addicts, Facebook addicts, Jersey Shore addicts and even nicotine addicts. Chocolate tells you when you’ve had enough—when you tip the scales at a new weight, when you have a stomach ache from eating too much, when you have spent your food money on candy and have nothing left for lunch. You can learn control from chocolate. Small doses go a long way.

Some Things Make Everything Taste Better

It’s the reason why people put chocolate in cookies, breads, drinks and candy. Chocolate is a flavor that goes with everything. Be chocolate.

Logsdon counsels, “Apply these lessons to life and see how far they get you. Hold your temper, recognize when people are softies at heart, reduce the heat and pressure in your life and the lives of those around you, and be a little crazy. Accept change, avoid addictions, and know what you need, physically and emotionally. Most of all live your life so that you can go with anything. Be chocolate. There are lots of lessons that are harder to swallow.”

About The Food Channel^®

The Food Channel ( www.foodchannel.com ) immerses visitors in a vibrant online community—comprised of food enthusiasts, culinary students and professionals—joined together by a passion for all things food. The site includes original features, chef-tested recipes for all occasions, chef profiles, 4-star food photography, book reviews and food-event coverage. Visitors will also find a variety of videos on cooking techniques, recipe preparation and interviews on topics of current interest. Weekly and monthly trend and recipe newsletters are available by signing up on the site. For additional food news, trends, recipes, professional tips and reviews, visit www.foodchannel.com. Follow The Food Channel on Twitter at www.twitter.com/foodchannel or Facebook at www.facebook.com/FoodChannel.

Beet Mash Chocolate Cupcakes with Beet Frosting – You Read That Right!

by Joi on February 4, 2010

Check out this recipe from Dave Lieberman and Del Monte for Beet Mash Chocolate Cupcakes, just in time for Valentine’s Day! Everyone knows that chocolate is an aphrodisiac, but did you know that beets are too?? (Yes, beets!)

Did you know?: Not only are beets nature’s multivitamin but beets are also rich in boron, a mineral thought to get the love juices flowing.

Dave recommends using canned sliced beets (he suggests Del Monte® Fresh Cut® Sliced Beets)—with canned beets you get all the flavor and nutrition for a lot less money, plus they are easier to mash!

Check out www.Delmonte.com/Solutions for a $1.00 off coupon on any 4 Del Monte® Brand Products to use in your recipe. I heart coupons, so I’ll see you there.

Beet Mash Chocolate Cupcakes (or Cake) with Beet Frosting

Recipe courtesy of: Dave Lieberman, campaign spokesperson for the Del Monte “Value without Sacrifice,” Chef and Author of The 10 Things You Need To Eat

FOR THE CUPCAKES:

One 14.5 oz. can Del Monte® Fresh Cut® Sliced Beets, drained
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2-1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup warm water
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sweetened cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

FOR THE ICING:

2 sticks unsalted butter
Approx. 1/2 can of Del Monte® Fresh Cut® Sliced Beets, drained
1 pound confectioners sugar

For Cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

For Cake: Preheat the oven to 325ºF.

In a small bowl, mash the drained can of beets finely with a potato masher and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, granulated sugar, oil, eggs, and water. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients until thoroughly combined. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet. Fold in the mashed beets and mix well.

For Cupcakes: Pour the batter into greased cupcake tins. Bake about 15-20 minutes, until set but moist. (Or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean)

For Cake: Pour the batter into a greased 10-inch Bundt pan. Bake about 70 minutes, until set but moist. Let cool, and turn out onto a large serving plate.

Make the Icing: Mash the ½ can of beets finely with a potato masher. Melt 1 stick of butter in a saucepan and add mashed beets. Simmer on very low heat for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, cream the second stick of butter with a mixer in a bowl. Mix in the melted butter and beet mixture until fully incorporated. Gradually beat in the confectioners sugar.

Ice the cupcakes with a thick layer of icing.

The cupcakes and cake serve 12-15.

The wonderful thing about edible gifts for Valentine’s Day is that you can impress the socks off of your sweetheart without spending a fortune. Gifts you make, yourself, are somehow more meaningful.

Italian Recipes and a Fresh,Wasteful Approach in the Kitchen

by Joi on January 27, 2010

I happen to be in the middle of jury service, which means that for this week I’m nearly out of commission. I was sent the following Guest Post and recipes yesterday and, ironically, they came at a time when a little extra help was especially appreciated! Italian food is so amazing that it doesn’t need an introduction… simply an opportunity to impress.

So, with that said, enjoy the article and enjoy the recipes.

“Waste Not, Want Not” and Make it Delicious!
By Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali,
Author of Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipes

There is no more appropriate time than now to think about how and why we cook. Food is a way of connecting with the people who surround us. Through it, we communicate emotions like love, compassion and understanding, and there is no better opportunity to communicate with our children than at the table. It’s where we can discuss our values of life that are important to us as individuals, as a family and as a part of the world we live in.

As overconsumption and greed have come to haunt us, now is a time for reflection. We should be looking back at the generations before us to understand their approach to the table. Growing food, shepherding animals, foraging for the gifts of nature is all part of respecting food. Nothing needs to be wasted. Bread can be recycled and used in soups, casseroles, lasagnas and desserts. Water is carefully conserved as in the pasta recipe I share below where the same water in which vegetables are cooked is used to cook the pasta that follows, and then that is saved for soups or for making risotto.

When one respects the food we prepare, it also leads to a more sensible and balanced intake of proteins, legumes and vegetables.

So “waste not, want not” and make it delicious!

Excerpt from Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy (Alfred A. Knopf, 2009)

FRESH CAVATELLI WITH CAULIFLOWER RECIPE

Maccarun ch’I Hiucc
Serves 6

Cauliflower is one of my favorite vegetables, and I regret that many people don’t sufficiently appreciate its unique flavor and nutritional value. This is not the case in Molise, where it is cooked often and creatively, as exemplified by the following two simple vegetarian pasta dishes. The first recipe, maccarun ch’i hiucc, is zesty with garlic and peperoncino.

1/2teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for the pasta pot
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
7 plump garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1/2teaspoon peperoncino flakes, or to taste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 large head cauliflower, cut in small florets
1 batch (1½ pounds) Fresh Cavatelli (preceding recipe), or 1 pound dried pasta

1 cup freshly grated pecorino (or half pecorino and half Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano, for a milder flavor)

Recommended equipment: A large pasta pot; a heavy-bottomed skillet or sauté pan, 12 inch diameter or larger

Fill the large pot with salted water (at least 6 quarts water with 1 tablespoon salt), and heat to a boil.

Pour the olive oil into the skillet, set over medium-high heat, and scatter in the sliced garlic. Let the garlic start to sizzle, then toss in the peperoncino and parsley; stir and cook for a minute. Ladle in a cup of the pasta cooking water, stir well, and adjust the heat to keep the liquid in the skillet simmering and reducing gradually while you cook the cauliflower and pasta.

With the pasta water at a rolling boil, drop in the cauliflower florets, and cook them for about 3 minutes, until barely tender. Drop in the cavatelli, stir, and return the water quickly to a boil. Cook another 4 to 5 minutes, until the cauliflower is fully tender and the pasta is al dente (if you are using dried pasta, it will, of course, take longer).

Lift out the florets and cavatelli with a spider or strainer, drain briefly, and spill them into the skillet. Toss well, to coat all the pasta and vegetable pieces with the garlicky dressing, then turn off the heat, sprinkle over the skillet the grated cheese, and toss again. Heap the cauliflower and cavatelli in warm bowls, and serve immediately.

CHOCOLATE BREAD PARFAIT RECIPE

Pane di Cioccolato al Cucchiaio
Serves 6

This recalls for me the chocolate-and-bread sandwiches that sometimes were my lunch, and always a special treat. And it is another inventive way surplus is used in Umbrian cuisine, with leftover country bread serving as the foundation of an elegant layered dessert. Though it is soaked with chocolate and espresso sauce and buried in whipped cream, the bread doesn’t disintegrate, and provides a pleasing textural contrast in every heavenly spoonful.

8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
8 ounces country-style white bread, crusts removed
1/2 cup freshly brewed espresso
2 tablespoons dark rum
2 tablespoons sugar
1-1/2 cups chilled heavy cream
1 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Recommended equipment: A large rimmed tray or baking sheet, such as a half-sheet pan (12 by 18 inches); a spouted measuring cup, 1 pint or larger; 6 parfait glasses or wineglasses, preferably balloon-shaped

Put the chopped chocolate in a bowl set in a pan of hot (not boiling) water. When the chocolate begins to melt, stir until completely smooth. Keep it warm, over the water, off the heat.

Slice the bread into 1/2 inch-thick slices, and lay them flat in one layer, close together, on the tray or baking sheet.

Pour the warm espresso into a spouted measuring cup, stir in the rum and sugar until sugar dissolves, then stir in half the melted chocolate. Pour the sauce all over the bread slices, then flip them over and turn them on the tray, to make sure all the surfaces are coated. Let the bread absorb the sauce for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, whip the cream until soft peaks form, by hand or with an electric mixer.

To assemble the parfaits: Break the bread into 1-inch pieces. Use half the pieces to make the bottom parfait layer in the six serving glasses, dropping an equal amount of chocolatey bread into each. Scrape up some of the unabsorbed chocolate sauce that remains on the baking sheet, and drizzle a bit over the bread layers. Next, drop a layer of whipped cream in the glasses, using up half the cream. Top the cream layer with toasted almonds, using half the nuts.

Repeat the layering sequence: drop more soaked bread into each glass, drizzle over it the chocolate sauce from the tray and the remaining melted chocolate. Dollop another layer of whipped cream in the glasses, using it all up, and sprinkle the remaining almonds on top of each parfait. This dessert is best when served immediately while the melted chocolate is still warm and runny.

Author Bio:
Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, coauthor of Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipe, is the author of five previous books, four of them accompanied by nationally syndicated public television series. She is the owner of the New York City restaurant Felidia (among others), and she lectures on and demonstrates Italian cooking throughout the country. She lives on Long Island, and can be reached at her Web site, www.LidiasItaly.com

Tanya Bastianich Manuali, Lidia’s daughter and coauthor of Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipe, received her Ph.D. in Italian Renaissance art history from Oxford University. Since 1996 she has led food/wine/art tours of Italy. She lives with her husband and children on Long Island.

Outstandingly Delicious and Healthy Snacks for Game Day

by Joi on January 15, 2010

One of our biggest pitfalls as a family trying to eat healthy foods is snack time. I make healthy meals and, even when we eat out, we make healthy choices. But when we’re watching football games, basketball games, baseball, Survivor, The Biggest Loser, or anything else on TV – we love our snacks.

Also – aside from my youngest daughter and our cats – the members of my family come and go all day and night. It can be exhausting for us homebodies watching them come and go. I’ve noticed that they all love to snack along their journeys… fuel for the road, I suppose. I try to keep healthier options in the kitchen and dining room for them to grab. Sure, we’ll have various forms of chocolate at any given time – I won’t even try to deny that. Besides, you’d smell the chocolate on my breath and call me out.

I always remind people that chocolate…

Is actually good for you – nutritionists sing the praises of dark chocolate almost as much as I do
Chocolate makes the world go round
Chocolate is sexy

So, you can count on this kitchen always, always, always boasting plenty of chocolate goodness just as surely as there will always be a coffee pot ready to play . The coffee will warm your body as the chocolate warms your mood. But potato chips, soft drinks, and fried, greasy crap has been exiled from our home.

Nuts are also remarkably good for you, so I keep several candy dishes filled with different kinds of nuts and nut blends. The largest candy dish is currently holding chocolate covered raisins and chocolate covered nuts. Another has almonds, which are a huge hit in my family.

Recently, I happened upon a combination that blew me completely away: Mariani Vanilla Yogurt Raisins and walnut pieces. I keep these yogurt covered raisins on hand because I’m totally addicted to them. They are ridiculously delicious. They had commandeered a large candy dish and I couldn’t find a spot for a bag of walnut pieces I’d just brought home from the store. So, I tossed the walnuts in with the yogurt covered raisins. When I passed by, I’d either pick out the raisins or the walnuts until I saw my husband grab a mixture and put them in his mouth. In an unsettling display of monkey-see/monkey-do, I jumped over and tried it for myself.

Holy deliciousness, Batman!!!

The combination reminds me of one of my favorite cookies, Iced Oatmeal Cookies. For whatever reasons, the vanilla-flavored yogurt, the raisins, and the walnuts make a powerhouse combination that convinces your mind that you’re eating the best Iced Oatmeal Cookie ever made. With less calories.

Try different combinations of nuts and dried fruit with your snackers… but, whatever you do, try the Vanilla-Flavored Yogurt-Covered Raisins paired with Walnuts first. It’ll blow you smack away. These yogurt-covered raisins are also outstanding when eaten with fruit such as pineapple wedges, grapes, strawberries, raspberries (!!!), blueberries, blackberries, and so on.

Below is a great recipe for Trail Mix Bars from Mariani – makers, not only of the yogurt covered raisins I eat like a cat with salmon, but also makers of many outstanding dried fruits and other snacks. Look for them on the shelves at your grocery store. In my favorite store, they’re located in the health food section.

Mariani Trail Mix Bars Recipe

2 cups margarine
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
6 cups mixture of Mariani Premium Banana Chips – crushed, raisins, mixed nuts, and chopped, Mariani Premium Mixed Fruit.
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
3 cups granola

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Mix margarine, brown sugar, and white sugar until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla. Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda, and add to butter and egg mixture. Stir in trail mix, oats, and granola. When mixed, drop spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

For more healthy recipes from Mariani, see their website.

Did you know that walnuts are very good for your brain? Click the link to learn how!

Green & Black’s Organic Chocolate: Happy Valentine’s Day Indeed!

by Joi on January 6, 2010

As you know, Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. And if you’re anything like me, if it’s a special day, you HAVE to have great chocolate and plenty of it. Actually, I have to have great chocolate every day, but I digress.

Chocolate doesn’t get any better than Green & Black’s Organic Chocolate – which is why I write about it so frequently here on Get Cooking:

Green & Black’s Organic Chocolate Give Us Reason to Celebrate

Green & Black’s Organic Chocolate: As Chocolate as Humanly Possible

Green & Black’s Organic Chocolate is Still the Best Chocolate on Earth

Green & Black’s Organic Chocolate Has Done it Again and I Love Them

Obviously, I’m hooked. There’s one thing you’ve surely noticed about me by now and that’s that I am extremely Brand Loyal. If I find a brand of chocolate (Green & Black’s), shredded and sliced cheese (Sargentos), Gourmet Cheese (Beemster’s), dishwashing liquid (Dawn), etc. that never lets me down – I never let it down. I stick with it and I praise it to the hilt.

Green & Black’s Organic chocolate most definitely fits this bill. Take it from the world’s most addicted chocoholic – this is top of the line, delicious, creamy chocolate.

We all know that chocolate is a necessity year round, but Valentine’s Day is custom made for it. Nothing says “You’re Special” better than the gift of premium organic chocolate. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Green & Black’s has introduced its first U.S. exclusive flavor to its family of premium organic chocolate bars. Green & Black’s new Peanut bar is a blend of premium 37% milk chocolate with a delectable combination of caramelized peanuts and a hint of sea salt.

How over-the-top incredible does that sound?!?!

Below is an outline of chocolate-y wonderful ideas for celebrating Valentine’s Day the way it was intended to be celebrated. These ideas are courtesy of Green & Black’s and I hope you’ll let them inspire you to go all out this Valentine’s Day.

Whether you’re single and celebrating with a group of friends or planning a romantic evening for two, Green & Black’s has enlisted Micah Carr-Hill, their Head of Taste, to create a romantic menu for an unforgettable Valentine’s Day!

Singles: Wine and Chocolate Pairing Party

This year, avoid the crowded restaurants and host an intimate wine and chocolate pairing party that your closest friends won’t soon forget. Your guests will fall in love with the latest wine pairings just for Valentine’s Day including:

Green & Black’s Toffee and Zinfandel

Chocolate, toffee and wine…three of life’s great pleasures. It’s never truer than when pairing the rich, dark-fruit characters in the wine accentuate the chocolate’s buttery sweet toffee flavors.

Green & Black’s White and Chardonnay

This may just be the world’s perfect pairing. The silky smoothness, creamy texture and vanilla finish of Green & Black’s White is perfectly complemented by the tropical fruit and hint of oak in a classic Chardonnay.

Green & Black’s Dark 85% and Syrah

Intense! This is the only way to describe the pairing of Green & Black’s Dark 85% and a rich Syrah. The complexity and sturdy structure of the wine softens and enhances the dark, intense chocolate.

Couples: Romantic Chocolate Tasting for Two

There’s nothing better than chocolate to set the mood for a romantic evening for two. Candles and rose petals are great, but nothing will show your special someone they’re the sweetest than a passionate chocolate tasting. Take these tips for an at-home chocolate tasting from Green & Black’s:

Conduct the tasting like you would a wine tasting
Choose up to six of your favorite flavours to taste
Start with the lightest variety (White) and finish with the darkest (Dark 85%)

Green & Black’s is a chocolate that makes no compromises. The great tasting chocolate made from the world’s finest organic ingredients also gives back to the environment.

In celebration of the launch of the new Peanut bar, Green & Black’s is offering a special $1 off coupon for customers. Visit www.greenandblacks.com for a downloadable coupon which can be used at select retailers, including Target.

************

Target is pretty much my home away from home, so it’s where I get all of my Green & Black’s chocolate candy.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites Weds Chocolate Candy and Cookie Dough and I Love Them For It

by Joi on December 8, 2009

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

Love chocolate candy? Well, of course you do – you’re on one of my websites, aren’t you? I have an automatic filter on my sites that detects non-chocolate lovers and bans them to a black cyber hole, auto-mat-ically. The way I see it, if you don’t love chocolate, I’ve got nothing for you.

So, you obviously love chocolate candy.

I’m pretty sure you also love chocolate chip cookie dough too – who doesn’t? Now, hold onto something, you’re about to feel a tremor: Someone with a deliciously brilliant mind has blended the two together and the beautiful outcome is pictured above. It’s also right in front of me, but you can’t see that. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites are wonderful and you simply must try a box today. The thing is, you’d better buy more than one, because these tend to disappear fast.

When you first pop one into your mouth, you’re instantly hit by the taste of delicious chocolate. The texture and size will remind you of chocolate-covered raisins or peanuts. But when you take a bite… chocolate chip cookie dough – but without the eggs so your mom’s “Don’t eat that, it isn’t good for you!” doesn’t apply.

You can find these scrumptious Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites in Wal-Mart, Walgreen’s, Best Buy, and K-Mart. I’m certain they’re available in other stores as well, these are simply the places I, myself, have encountered them. And what wonderful encounters they are! They’re the type of encounter that leave you with only one option…. cue the music… you gotta do your happy chocolate dance.

Do the happy chocolate dance!

Word to Santa: These would make killer stocking stuffers.

Christmas Cookie Recipe: No Bake Chocolate Haystack Cookies

by Joi on November 19, 2009

Creamer and Sugar Bowl with Cookies Giclee Print
Buy at AllPosters.com

Cookies! I so totally have Christmas cookies on the brain – so much so that it’s a wonder I can think of anything else. I have a ton of Christmas cookie recipes I’ll be adding over the coming weeks, so watch out for a cookie avalanche. The recipe below is one of my favorites – to make AND eat.

NO BAKE CHOCOLATE HAYSTACK COOKIES RECIPE

1 stick margarine
2 cups of sugar
1/3 cup Hershey’s Cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup Peanut Butter
2-1/2 cups Quaker (1 minute) Oats
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter over medium heat. Add the sugar, cocoa, and milk. Bring to a boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and immediately add the peanut butter and vanilla. Add oats.

Working quickly, spoon the candies onto waxed paper to cool.

Makes about 2 dozen.

I often leave the cocoa out simply because the peanut butter taste seems stronger without it. This is one of our favorite candies around our house because it seems to combine two of life’s greatest culinary treats: Peanut Butter Fudge and Oatmeal Cookies.

One of the trademarks of southern cooking is simplicity. A lot of magazines, blogs, cooking shows, and cookbooks feature recipes that are two miles long and would appear to take two days to prepare. They’re perfectly grand, mind you – beautiful, elegant, impressive, etc… But they never taste any better than the simpler dishes. That never ceases to amaze me.

Anyway, this is one of those simple Southern recipes that your taste buds will celebrate mightily.

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Hamilton Beach Bake Right 17 Inch Cookie Pan Champagne

Chocolate Art Print That’ll Make Chocoholics Weak in the Knees

by Joi on November 17, 2009

Melted Chocolate Running from a Whisk Photographic Print
Buy at AllPosters.com

A chocoholic such as myself shouldn’t even look at pictures like the one above, but here I sit – drooling and fixated. Fixated and drooling. What I wouldn’t give to plant my entire body (mouth first) beneath that flow of chocolate.

Looks like it’ll be chocolate something or another for our Biggest Loser snack tonight. Sorry, Bob. Sorry, Jillian. Chocolate calls and I must answer.

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