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This week's Carnival of the Recipes is up for viewing, hosted at Slow Cooker Recipes. Lots of great crockpot recipes to try!
Next week's Carnival will be hosted at JamiLeigh. I can't tell if there's a theme or not. Holler at Jami and ask, and then let me know, wouldja? Be sure to get your recipes in by Saturday noonish, via email: recipe(dot)carnival(at)gmail(dot)com or use the online form.
I'm comparing teas this afternoon. Earl vs. Earl, dukin' it out. Ever since I discovered Lady Grey, I've wanted to go back and rediscover the Earl.
Maybe this isn't a fair comparison. In one corner we have fresh, loose leaf Earl Grey from Jing Tea. On the other, a box of Private Selection Earl Grey tea in bags, newly bought, but of questionable freshness. I'm afraid one is quite the heavy weight, and the other is a sickly toad.
Actually, comparing the two teas in color, the PS is stronger. I steeped them for the same amount of time, and the PS tea is notably darker. But I suspect that has to do with something I read on the Bigelow tea blog, about how some companies use tea dust in their tea bags, which makes the tea "color" more quickly:
Tea dust is the smallest size tea leaf possible; however, the problem with tea dust is that although it provides quick color into the cup, it has no real tea flavor. It also happens to be an inexpensive tea to purchase.
So, the important thing here is the flavor, and there's no contest, none at all. In both smell and taste, the Jing tea is better. The citrus is amazing, very light, but full. And there's a spice I can't identify that jumps out in the tea leaves, but sits back and blends in in the steeped tea. Altogether a wonderful taste, and great afternoon tea.
The PS tea is bitter at this strength. It might be tolerable if I hadn't steeped it as long as the Jing. I did have the same experience with the Lady Grey that I bought... it needed a very short steeping time or it became bitter. I guess now I'll have to find some fresher / loose leaf Lady Grey and run some tests on that as well.
Hmm, ladies in the ring, dukin' it out. With lace gloves? Heh.
I don't think I've ever made anything that was so satisfying for me -- on SO many levels - as this dish.
There is something really comforting about bread. Psychologically speaking, it ranks right up there with chocolate for sheer comfort factor. And coffee, of course, one of my favorite things, ranks high on the pleasure list. Put all of these together and whaddya got? Something I'm going to have a hard time sharing, that's what.
I used foodnetwork.com's recipe as my starter and guide, but I did modify it quite a bit. Some of the mods were because I didn't have the right ingredients, and some were ... just because. I needed substitutes for some of the milk and cream, but it didn't seem to affect the outcome very much. It's still a serious to-die-for gimme-comfort delish dessert. But next time I'll make sure I have enough milk and cream on hand to try the original recipe and see how it does.
Chocolate Coffee Bread Pudding
8-10 slices of bread, cubed
2 cups milk
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup non-dairy creamer (I used a combination of Vanilla and Amaretto)
1/2 cup strong coffee or espresso
1/2 cup Kahlua (or other coffee liqueur)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup cocoa powder
8 oz semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped or grated
6 eggs, lightly beaten
Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish and place bread cubes in it. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, cream, non-dairy creamer, and Kahlua. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, brown sugar and cocoa powder. Add sugar mixture to milk mixture and stir well. Beat eggs lightly in a separate bowl and add in vanilla and almond extracts. Combine egg mixture with milk mixture and mix well. Stir in the grated / chopped chocolate.
Note: for chocolate, I used 4 oz semi-sweet, and for a little extra coffee kick, 4 oz Ghirardelli Intense Dark Espresso Escape. I also didn't bother trying to grate the chocolate, as finely chopped was good for me.
Gently pour over the bread cubes in the pan. Leave to set for about 20 minutes, or until the bread is saturated, stirring occasionally.
Bake for 1 hour or until set. A knife inserted into the center should come out clean. Serve warm or chilled, with whipped cream, ice cream, or other topping of your choice.
Enjoy!
No, I'm not Irish, and you needn't kiss anything. Heheh. This is the project that has kept me away from blogging lately. My very first CD cover! It's been a while since I did any print work, and so this was a lot of experimenting and remembering how to do things in hi res. I also got to do the website design, which was a lot more fun, and you can see both here: www.kelticcowboys.com
There's an interesting backstory here. This friend of ours, Frank Mackey, wrote and recorded a song called Kiss My Irish Ass about 10 years ago. Well, unbeknownst to Frank, it became a big hit with the Irish drinking crowd online. It's all over the net, but listed as the wrong artist!!! Apparently nobody knows Frank did it. Everybody seems to think it was done by some other group, either Flogging Molly, Great Big Sea, Young Dubliners, or Drop Kick Murphy. Poor Frank. Not to get credit for his own hit!
ED: The hubs wanted me to be sure to state categorically that "Kiss My Irish Ass" is by Frank Mackey and the Keltic Cowboys, not by any of those other bands, and that the CD contains some other great songs, including his (the hubs') personal favorite "I Won My Wife in a Pissin' Contest" (which he didn't). [Now he owes me a nice dinner. :)]
The bad news is the old CD master is dead. The good news is, he's reissuing the song on a new CD, and the better news is, I got to do the cover. The bad news is, since it's a friend, and my hubs paid for the publishing, I get no monies until a profit is turned. So, get thee hence and spend some of your hard-earned ducets on this CD, just in time for St. Patty's day of course, so yours truly can see some green as well!
Carnival of the Recipes |
This week for your gustatory pleasure we have a bevy of treats guaranteed to make your heart go pitter pat, whether you 
to cook, or to eat, or both!
Sweets for Your Sweetie (or your own Sweet Tooth)
Starting with chocolate, which is the staple of love ...
Shawn of Everything and Nothing ensures we won't go into chocolate withdrawal with her recipe for Chocolate Syrup Cake. This sounds absolutely decadent.
Anne-Marie gives us the ultimate in chocolate desserts: Valentine's Day - Julia Child's chocolate mousse. Anne-Marie suggests adding some coffee or vanilla-flavored liquor. Sounds like a MUST to me!
Kathy of startcooking.com offers up a recipe (with plenty of pictures and destructions) for Home-Made Chocolate Fudge. Heh, is there any other kind?
And be sure to check out my offering, a story of what went wrong, or the heart tart that never was: Ganache with Panache.
Marsha of A Weight Lifted presents 10 Minute Fresh Berry Dessert with Yogurt & Chocolate, shown in the picture here, giving us all a way to indulge without compromising our healthy living lifestyle.
Next is a special dessert recipe from KeeWee's Corner for Pavlova. I've never tried meringue and this recipe makes me wanna try. The photo sure looks delish.
Poor Stephanie of Stop the Ride! nearly lost her friend's recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake. Thank goodness she found it, and shared the recipe with us! Now if she loses it again, we can all send her a copy. :)
Here are some fun sweets, for when your sweeties are kids, or just the kid in your sweetie. More4kids presents Valentine Recipe Ideas - Heart Cookies, Valentine Pancakes and more. I love the pancakes!
Ideas for Romantic Meals and Such
For Valentine's Day breakfast, this recipe from Maureen at Trinity Prep School for Raspberry-Cinnamon French Toast Bake sounds LOVERLY! It's not your average french toast nor is it your plain egg bake.
Riannan from In the Headlights offers us a tasty dish: Grouper, Shrimp and Artichokes in Tarragon Cream. This recipe could serve 6, she says, but I bet you and your sweetie could feast, and then have leftovers at 1am.
Broke and busted? Make your Valentine's evening special, no matter your budget, by making spaghetti with love, and Cheap Homemadish Spaghetti Sauce from triticale, the wheat/rye guy.
Something to replenish body and soul, and that of your loved one, is Seriously Good Kevin's recipe for Pastitsio, a Greek meat and pasta pie Kevin refers to as "peasant food". Whatever it is, it sure sounds good.
DeputyHeadmistress at The Common Room has posted a great recipe for "tangy-sweet salad": Honey-Orange Bean Vegetable Slaw with good explanations and commentary. I love it when folx explain how they used or modified a recipe and why. For one-dot cooks like me, this is so helpful!
Erika over at Tradition offers three recipes in Cold Weather Recipes: Mulligatawny Soup, The World's Best Ever Biscuits, and last but not least, Fudgy Brownie Pudding. Sounds like a warm meal from the heart!
You could really WOW your sweetheart with this recipe for Succulent Lamb Kebabs from Daryl at Authentic Malaysian Cuisine & Food Recipes. Wonderfully exotic, and yet, so easy!
Party Fare!
Jennifer Miner of Travel Articles says this is The World's Best Artichoke Dip: A great recipe for artichoke dip that'll be the hit of the party. This is a hot dip that Jennifer spruces up by sometimes adding crab, red peppers, and eggplant.
Now here's an idea from Andrea of Wisebread Frugal: Tortillas and Chilaquiles: Romance him with sports bar food?. If you met your hunny in a sports bar, what better way to celebrate the occasion!
The Hermit of The Ziggurat of Doom is whipping up some very special iced coffee. This is a MUST for after dinner, with a warm desert. I'm so THERE.
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That's all for me on this one folx! I hope you all have a delicious and love-ly Valentine's Day! Next week's Carnival will be hosted at Techno Gypsy. Submit your recipes via email to recipedotcarnivalatgmail.com, or use the Blog Carnival submit form.
I have to be perfectly honest, my first attempt at ganache didn't really have much panache. It was mouse-waddling, if you're not fussy about blobs. But it's not particularly pretty or artsy. In fact, heh, this is more of a "what went wrong" story. What I had planned as a large heart-shaped tart, covered with a lovely, swirling sheen of ganache ... turned out to be a bigfat cookie with blobby chocolate icing.
Ok, ok, it wasn't that bad, but... well, you'll see.
Ganache, as I now know, is a French term (pronunced gah NAHSH) referring to a combination of heavy cream and chocolate. From joyofbaking.com:
The origins of ganache are debatable but it is believed to have been invented around 1850. Some say it originated in Switzerland where it was used as a base for truffles. Others say it was invented in Paris at the Patisserie Siravdin.
Recipes vary, depending on what you're going to do with it. It can be used as a glaze or icing, or it can be used as a filling for cakes and pastries. Some recipes call for a little bit of butter or oil to be added, which will give the chocolate a shiny quality. Flavorings can be added, such as liqueurs, extracts, etc. But for my first attempt, I opted for this basic recipe from FoodNetwork:
Ganache With a Sheen
3 tablespoons corn syrup
6 ounces heavy cream
12 ounces dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a small saucepan combine the corn syrup and heavy cream. Bring to a simmer and add the chocolate. Stir until smooth. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract.
I used a combination of milk and dark chocolate, so maybe I can blame my blobs on that. I tried to drizzle it in some artistic way. Then I tried just spreading it all over and swirling it with a spatula. I finally just gave up and left the streaks and blobs.
Ok, now for the "what happened to the tart?" part of my story. I had originally planned to make a big heart tart with a cookie crust. I decided to make some chocolate chip cookie dough, thinking it would cook up as a nice tart crust, with some kind of pudding filling, topped with ganache. Silly wabbit. I forgot how much this recipe expands. It kept growing and growing, and pretty soon it bubbled up over the edges of the pan. So much for crust, and so much for my heart tart! What I ended up with was this bigfat heart-shaped chocolate chip cookie, with really delicious blobby ganache icing.
Here's the slightly modified Toll House cookie recipe, in case you ever want to follow my errant path and make a non-tart/bigfat cookie:
Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookie
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 shot espresso, or very strong coffee (or 2 tbsp instant coffee)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, cream butter, sugars, vanilla extract and eggs. Beat until creamy. Slowly add flour mixture and continue beating. Add chocolate chips and stir with a spoon.
For regular cookies, drop by spoonful onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 375°
For a non-tart/bigfat cookie, or for bars, spread dough into pan and bake for 20-30 minutes at 375°.
The good news is, this is a very tasty bigfat cookie! Enjoy!!
Ok, so I'm a little early to be treating myself this way, but I'm SO in the Valentine mood. I just couldn't wait. And I've been working so hard, I needed a little break and a bit of chocolate. No fancy recipe here today (that'll come tomorrow!), just some photos I wanted to share of my special rose-tea-chocolate afternoon treat.
First, I baked some Wally-Mari-Brownies (that's brownies with walnuts and marascino cherries inside).
I just used a brownie mix, and these cute little heart-shaped tins I found in the baking aisle.
Added some chocolate kisses to the plate because ... well... you can never have too much chocolate.
The perfect complement to go with the brownies: Rosebud Gong Fu tea, which just arrived from JingTeas.com.
This is the perfect tea. I lovelovelove it. Lightly scented/flavored, and there are tiny little rosebuds right in the tea. It's a treat for all the senses. Pretty to look at, wonderful smell, the taste is perfect, and the little afterbreath of roses is delightful.
And of course, the only possible china to use was my gold-rimmed roses cup and plate.
Sadly, now I have to get back to work. *sigh*
I got a chuckle from this article over at the Samovar Tea blog: How to Spot Your Own Darjeeling. You can tell a lot about a person by the stuff they consume and how they do it. Tea Guru Julian knows all about that. And this applies not only to tea, but to other foods as well: ice cream, coffee, dinner, dessert...
When you're first getting to know somebody, the truth is, all the signs are there. At the end of a relationship you can always look back and see it... how the signs were there from the very beginning, if only we had been looking and aware.
Does your date order like Sally, everything on the side and specially made? Careful! You might be going home with Mr. or Ms. High Maintenance. That's not to say high maintanence people don't deserve love too, they certainly do. And if you love them enough, you're happy to ... maintain them. :)
I don't have a lot of time for blogging this week, but I wanted to get a couple of quicky posts in before that big boulder called "work" rolls over me.
Thrifty Mommy has posted this week's Carnival of the Recipes, and WHOOPS, I missed the fact that the theme was Mexican food. Oh well. My Cream Cheese Fruit Tarts will make a nice soothing dessert for those spicy meals. Heheh. A couple of other notables:
Coming up - I will be hosting the pre-Valentine's Day Carnival right here, so get your favorite Valentine's Day recipes out and post them here or by sending email to recipe(dot)carnival(at)gmail(dot)com by noon CST on Saturday!
Get ready for some serious to-die-for cream cheese fruit tart.
This is a recipe my SIL made for one of our tea parties. For these tarts, B used a basic pastry recipe for the crust, pressed into cupcake tins. The shape of the crust is irregular when you do it this way, but unless you're fussy about scalloped edges, a rough edge has its own appeal.
This cream cheese filling could also go well with a cookie type tart crust (go here for more crust ideas).
Cream Cheese Fruit Tarts
Crust:
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add flour, salt and vanilla and beat together. Separate into 2-3 inch balls and press into cupcake tins.
Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract (optional)
Beat all ingredients together. Spoon into cupcake tins, but don't fill all the way to the top.
Bake at 375° for 10-15 minutes, until crust is golden brown. Allow to cool.
Top with thinly sliced pieces of fruit: bananas, strawberries, mandarin oranges, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, rasberries, etc.
Enjoy!
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