Me + Chocolate = Forever

There really is no time when chocolate is very far from my mind, but Valentine's Day is a wonderful excuse to indulge even more than usual. 

While I would generally refrain from keeping chocolate in my desk at work, I was in a festive mood and decided to pick some up during my usual grocery run last week. I headed to the "seasonal" aisle of my local grocery store, and was very confused when I found a lot of green, yellow and lavender marshmallow animals lined up on the shelves. Seriously, this was almost a week before Valentine's Day and all of the pink and red-wrapped candies had already been consolidated into a smaller section at the front of the store that until recently had been occupied with broken candy canes. 

As if the prominently displayed Easter candy wasn't enough, I also noticed some patio furniture stacked on top of the dairy cases in the back of the store. Considering the temperature has been in the single digits lately, I think the whole store is getting a little too far ahead of the calendar...

Purchasing pre-made chocolate wasn't enough for me this year, so last Friday I decided to try my hand at making some truffles. I went back to the store, where my basket ended up as the picture of health, with Nutter Butters, Oreos, two kinds of chocolate chips, agave syrup, peanut butter and some hazelnut spread (not actually for the truffles, but I had just finished a jar and it fit nicely with the teeth-rotting, flab-inducing theme of my basket).

I followed the "Peanutty" and "Indulgent Chocolate" variations of this No-Bake Truffle recipe with a decent amount of success, if I may say so myself. The crumb setting on my blender did a nice job reducing the cookies to dust, and after that everything else just gets dumped in a bowl and mixed together. 

I didn't have any trouble rolling the mixture into balls, but I did choose to give them a quick rest in the freezer before dipping them in melted chocolate. 

The dipping part was definitely a little messy, and the coatings were far from perfectly smooth. I topped the peanut butter ones with appropriately colored peanut butter M&Ms and stuck them back in the fridge to set.

I packed up a bunch of truffles to take to dinner at a friend's house on Saturday. They made for an indulgent after-dinner treat. At two (or three) bites a piece, these truffles are pretty rich even for this chocoholic. I don't do a very good job of savoring them as I am eating, and then regret it later when I have eaten too many all at once. This is all to say I should be sharing more of the leftovers, but they're so good I just want to hoard them for myself.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

..for baking!  And eating dessert after every meal!  Or any time you happen to wander through the kitchen!

There are so many things to love about the holidays.  Some of my favorite activities include wrapping presents, looking at Christmas lights, and holiday baking.  Most people do not need any more sweets around the holidays, but when it comes to simple, homemade gifts I cannot resist giving baked goods.  I get to do something I enjoy, while also assuring I will not be eating an entire batch of cookies by myself!

Last year, I made easy peppermint bark and packed it in recycled glass jars to give as gifts.  With no final presentations to give or papers to write this year, I got a little more ambitious and baked a few of my favorites:

• Foolproof Fudge
• Peanut Butter Blossoms
• Christmas Tree Cookies--> the link goes to a similar, but not exact recipe.  I added green food coloring and shaped the dough into triangles before slicing.  Christmas trees, right?

Collage template from pizap.com

The adorable packaging came from the dollar bins at Michael's, and turned out even cuter that I thought it would be.  The gift tags were cut out from Trader Joe's (2011?) holiday bags and tied on with red yarn. 

Since being home in AZ, I have made another batch of PB blossoms, since they are a family favorite, and baked a quick batch chocolate chip cookies from refrigerated cookie dough.  However, I have not been as good about shopping for gifts as I have been about baking them!  How is it that there are only 4 days left until Christmas?!?!

Kuro Goma Cookies

Kuro goma is Japanese for black sesame.  Here in the US the plain white variety is more familiar, made famous in part by the Big Mac jingle...."blah blah, special sauce on a sesame seed bun!"  This wikipedia article will tell you more than you could ever imagine about sesame seeds.  Betcha you had no idea what the actual plant looked like or that Myanmar was the world's largest exporter.  Japan is the largest importer.

Wait, what am I doing learning all this?  It's summer, and all you and I really need to know is that they taste amazing.  Even (or is it especially?) in cookies.

Not so sure?  Make this recipe--NOW!

It starts out with all the usual suspects.

But then these interlopers are added...

...creating a ridiculously addicting dough, which if you don't eat it all straight from the bowl will produce golden and delicious cookies.

The original recipe from Joy the Baker says to chill the dough for 45 minutes and then roll it into balls by hand and coat with additional black sesame seeds.  This was a messy and time consuming process, and I was afraid the cookies were going to have way too much sesame on the outside.

My fears were unfounded.  Maybe there is no such thing as too much sesame.  But the second (yes, second) time I made this recipe skipped the chilling and sprinkled extra seeds on top of the cookies I scooped using a cookie dropper, which resulted in the beauties below.

I took these to a potluck, where they were deemed an ideal combination between a cookie and a bagel.  But apparently everyone was on Atkins, since there were a bunch left at the end of the night.  Too bad for them, and too bad for my waistline as I have no problem consuming several at one time and repeating throughout the day.

Super Bowl Sunday

I woke up thinking I would be attending a Super Bowl Party, so immediately after breakfast I got to work on my contribution: the appropriately themed Chocolate Covered Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Footballs from the blog Peas and Thank You.

First I gathered my ingredients,

arranged Keizo in the oranges (conveniently located near an outlet for charging)

and got to mixing.  This recipe is easy to follow and create, but has a few steps which require some resting in between which is why I started early.

All of the dough ingredients combined, I pre-heated the oven and got to shaping my footballs.

 

After the balls had baked and cooled, I melted chocolate chips and 1 Tbsp of canola oil in the microwave.

Then I grabbed some chopsticks (a kitchen utensil I find almost as useful as scissors!) and began dipping.  At least the dough balls are now more of the right color!

I put the covered footballs back in the fridge until after lunch, when I piped chocolate laces onto them.  I think they would have looked better with white, but I used up the last of my powdered sugar in the dough and already had some chocolate frosting in the fridge to use up!

Alas, the headache and congestion I began experiencing on Thursday didn't dissipate after a few hours of being awake like it did on Friday and Saturday, so I decided not to attend the Super Bowl party. :-(  I did send most of the footballs along with my housemates.  The ones that got stuck here with me are rapidly diminishing in number, so I don't expect any of the others to make it back.

*****

Without a buffet of high calorie snacks to choose from, I was stuck making my own dinner.  I had already eaten leftovers for lunch, but I kept it simple again with a veggie burger, carrots & hummus and cup of instant potato soup.

Nachos, wings and chocolate covered footballs, this meal was not.  But neither do I have a stomachache to accompany the headache, and I consider that a VICTORY.

T.G.I.F.

And unlike last week, I don't have to work on Saturday! Sunday is another story, but I don't want to get into that here. Oh, the joys of retail.

Because I worked through the weekend last week, this week has seemed kind of long. I had Tuesday off, but Wednesday was a long day and everyone seemed like they were in a rush yesterday, so I am really looking forward to my day off tomorrow.

To get the pre-weekend celebration started before my last shift this week, I made myself an extra fancy bowl of oatmeal this morning. I'm calling it berries-n-cream.

I topped my 1/2 cup of quick cook oats with 1 Tbsp plain yogurt, 4 sliced strawberries, a sprinkle of dried cranberries and some white chocolate chips.

After the photos, I gave it all a big stir with my spoon and dug in. The chocolate chips melt in the hot oatmeal and combine with the yogurt to give the whole bowl a nice creamy taste that is just a little bit sweet.

Box-o-Love

There are very few "good" things about a long distance relationship, but getting care packages from Keizo filled with Japanese food is pretty awesome. I received a "Sorry we missed you!" slip from the post office yesterday, and went to collect my box of treasures today. I knew it was coming because I had asked Keizo to send me a pair of black work pants I left in his apartment, but he went above and beyond (like usual--I am a very lucky girl!) and sent a whole slew of goodies.

Feels like Christmas!!

Under the pants, folded nicely on the top were several packages of instant Tokushima-style ramen noodles...

...four flavors of "Choko-boru" snacks. The one below is caramel...

...and sauces to make Ma-bo eggplant and goya melon champuru.

Also included was a kids "sushi" making kit, where you mix mysterious powders with water, pour into molds and then create your own gelatin sushi. Interested? You can watch videos on YouTube featuring similar products. While I will try it out, I think I have to save it for the next time Keizo and I are together. For one, it wouldn't be very fun without him; and two, I am pretty sure I prefer sushi made out of fish and rice over sushi-shaped gelatin (even if it's high in calcium, as it states in the pink writing along the bottom edge)

I also got back my Japanese study materials, as requested, plus a new book in the off chance that I decide to buckle down and take a Japanese Language Proficiency Test. My next stay in Japan is likely to be a way off, as I am leaning towards starting my Master's degree in the fall at the University of Virginia, but if I ever want to find a job there, having proof of my Japanese language skills (or lack thereof at the moment) will come in handy.

Nice light reading---not! At least I now have a lot of snacks to keep my brain fueled.

すばらし箱を送れてありがとうございました！！

Mmmmmmmocha Chip Cookies

After a super lazy Tuesday involving little more than a marathon of Law and Order after work, last Wednesday was by necessity a very productive day. I worked from 8 to 3:30, stopped by the bank, went to a pilates class and got everything ready to leave town for the weekend. This involved printing out confirmations and directions, packing (which always stresses me out more than it should,) and preparing something yummy for the people hosting me.

I cut the recipe for these cookies off the back of a brownie mix not too long ago, and it was the perfect thing to try on day when time was of the essence. They were a cinch to make, and all of the ingredients were already on hand.

Start with a box of brownie mix.

In a large bowl, combine mix with 1 egg, 2 Tbsp of instant coffee dissolved in 3 Tbsp of hot water, 3 Tbsp of vegetable oil and a dash of cinnamon. Stirring it all together was quite the upper body work out!

Lastly, fold in 1 and 1/2 cups of chocolate and/or white chocolate chips (nuts would also be a tasty addition)

Drop by teaspoonfuls on lightly greased cookie sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 F.

Let cool a few minutes and remove cookies from cookie sheets and place on cooling racks. They taste really good all warm and gooey.

Later in the evening I boxed up the cookies for my hosts and left a few behind for my parents, but I really should have packed some for myself to eat on the plane. There was no trace of the cookies that I had left behind when I returned. I guess I will just have to make some more--shucks ;-)

Pi Day!

Monday, 3/14 was Pi Day, and it also happened to be the day the whole family was around to celebrate Mom's birthday! We had dinner at a Thai restaurant and headed to the Mesa Art Center to experience Amococo, "the most labyrinthine luminarium." Click on the link for some great photos...it's kind of hard to explain.

Anyway, back to Pi Day. I could hardly let it go by without a pie, and the following is probably the easiest pie ever. I don't even need the recipe anymore (although I have bought all the ingredients and then walked out of the store without the pre-made crust--kinda important)

Chocolate Pie: start with 1 1/2 to 2 cups of "rocks," which is basically any combination of your favorite chocolate candies, chopped into small pieces.

Oreos and Reese's are pretty much standard at this house. In a separate bowl, combine one 3 oz package of instant chocolate pudding mix with 1 cup of milk. Stir, then fold in small container of non-dairy whipped topping. Add the rocks and pour into prepared chocolate cookie crumb crust.

Since it was a special occasion, I got out the chocolate chips and attempted decorating. It was harder than I thought it would be.

Cover and put the pie in the freezer to harden; remove 5-10 minutes before serving to thaw enough to get a knife through it.

Eat! I may or may not have had some of the leftovers for breakfast one day this week...

Vegan Raspberry Blondies

While I love cheese too much to adopt the vegan lifestyle on a daily basis, I like to try vegan dessert recipes...pretending that the word "vegan" makes them better for you. The biggest difference between vegan baking and traditional baking is that you can't use eggs. There are a few things you can use as substitutes like tofu or ground flaxseeds, but I prefer using things that are easy to find and ready to use at the regular grocery store like almond milk and soy yogurt.

The following recipe comes from Vegan with a Vengance, which I borrowed from the library a while back and loved. I tried maybe half a dozen recipes from it, and while they were all good, this is the one I still think about on a regular basis.

Start by preparing the raspberry layer: frozen raspberries, a little cornstarch, water and sugar simmered down into a nice thick sauce.

Next prepare the blondie layer: flour, sugar, almond milk, soy yogurt, canola oil, vanilla and baking soda combined to make a thick dough. Bonus points for coordinating outfits with the dessert you are preparing :-)

Set aside 1 cup of the dough mixture, then spread the rest in the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 pan. Cover with raspberry sauce, then crumble reserved dough mixture and sprinkle chocolate chips on top. I used regular semi sweet chocolate chips, which I do not believe are vegan; but then again I also used regular yogurt in this batch as well (shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!)

Bake at 350 F for 35 minutes. The top becomes a nice golden brown.

Delicious! The preparation isn't much harder than a prepared brownie or cake mix, but the results are in a different league completely.

Pumpkin Cookies

Don't let the simple title of this post fool you. These are no ordinary cookies. I truly believe they are in part responsible for keeping Keizo and me together while we lived a vast ocean apart. I first made them at home in October 2009, as a special Halloween treat to send to Japan. Since then, they have become frequently requested and somewhat well known; Keizo, the generous guy that he is has shared them with his teammates, friends and family. Even people who have never met me have eaten my pumpkin cookies.

The basic recipe is from allrecipes.com and starts with a cup of shortening, followed by two cups of sugar. How bad can they be?

Then you add a can of pumpkin puree (not so easy to find in Japan, but given the importance of these cookies, we made it a top priority) flour, baking soda and other cookie ingredients. You could throw in the chocolate chips and call it a day, but I prefer to add a whole bunch of yummy things. This particular batch included coconut, raisins (dried cranberries are better, but I didn't feel like searching for them,) chopped almonds and milk chocolate chunks.

Mix together and drop by teaspoonful onto a cookie sheet. I had some left over pumpkin seeds from the Sweet Pumpkin cookie mix so I decorated a few of them before baking.

The full recipe makes around 6 dozen cookies, but not wanting to stay up all night transferring batches into the oven, I cut it in half. I wrapped some up to give to Keizo's sister to show my appreciation for showing me around Tokushima before and after his game there last weekend. She was pretty excited when she saw them; Keizo and I are excited that there are still some left for us.