Monthly Archives: July 2010

Hunger is the best sauce–if you add pomegranates and cream

I had some time to waste the other day after work and since it was a beautiful day, I decided to walk down to the Kerrytown Market and pick up something for dinner.  I was thinking, some chicken to grill would be great.  We’d been eating a lot of pork and beef and I was getting kind of bored and it was just the perfect kind of day to break out the new grill again.  I knew we had some lovely, giant summer squash given to us by a couple of friends so all I really needed to complete the meal was an entree and some fresh sliced bread that I could dip in herbs and olive oil.  Yum.  The boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the case at Sparrow’s looked fantastic and I knew just what to do with it.  I still had a few bottles of pomegranate juice from the last case the lovely people at Pom Wonderful sent me (and here you thought I used it all up in those pom-chocolate-mint mojitos), and I had plenty of cream thanks to our weekly Calder’s dairy delivery.  (Yes, that’s right–dairy delivery.  I have a milk man.  I’ll dish more on that in another post later.)  And for some reason, I really wanted to put the two together.

I also had this fantastic cheese I picked up at Whole Foods.  You can probably find it in other places, but I found it there a few weeks ago and we are completely hooked on it.  Like, ridiculously hooked on it.  It’s fantastic in everything–melted on burgers, shredded and stirred into scrambled eggs, eaten by itself…delicious.  It’s a jack cheese from Great Midwest that’s studded with leeks and morels.  Yes.  Leeks and morels.  I know.  You’re drooling right now as you read this.  Go out and pick some up.  You can thank me for it later. Continue reading

Chocolate Marshmallow Mousse. It’s real and it’s beautiful.

All right, menfolk.  This post is for you.  Not because I think you’ll like it (I do) and not because I thought, you know, I should really reach out to the men who read this site (I didn’t) and not because I’m hoping that by doing you this favor, you’ll repay me by moving some furniture (seriously, I need to buy a new bed).  No, no.  I’m doing you this favor out of the kindness of my own heart.  And if you happen to be around when I’m moving a new bed in, well…that’s just random.  Entirely random.

But pay close attention to this post.  Because you need to learn to make this dish.  This dish is your “get out of man-jail free” card.  It is easy to make, it looks impressive, it is delicious and it’s so chocolaty I think I might die just thinking about it.  Your significant other will adore you for it—girlfriend, boyfriend, real doll, doesn’t matter.  Seriously.  Well I’m not serious about the Real Doll.  But maybe you are.  Who am I to judge?  The point is, this dessert is your chance to be the Old Spice Guy.

I should make a note here—I ran out of milk yesteryday.  So where it says “3/4 cup of milk,” I actually used cream.  It made it extremely rich and delicious, but if you don’t want the insides of your partner’s body to turn into molten rivers of chocolate and fat, you might want to stick with the milk.  I also topped mine with grated chocolate because I like extra chocolate on my chocolate.  Continue reading

Chock Full o’ Cherries Coffee Cake

maybe she meant, let them eat cherries

Or, “What to do with 14 pounds of canned cherries.”

Josh likes cherries.  Josh likes canning.  Josh cans cherries.  Lauren carries off two cans of cherries.  Lauren cooks cherry cake.  Cherry coffee cake.  Cherry coffee cake with canned cherries.  Josh is cheery.  Josh likes cherry coffee cake with canned cherries.

I was bored on Saturday and that’s usually a recipe for disaster deliciousness because when I get bored, I bake.  Only I was running low on ideas.  It’s amazing, really—there are seven hundred and fifty recipes in my Evernote cookbook and yet, not a single thing I wanted to make right then and there.  Well, that I could make anyway, with what I had on hand.

So I went offline and in search of my 40-something cookbooks.  I wasn’t inspired by much there that day either, until I went through a Tastebook I had put together several years ago.  If you’ve never been to Tastebook, it’s basically a site that lets you organize and print your own cookbooks—it’s rather nice, and I especially like it for gifts.  But anyway, I’d printed myself a cookbook of recipes I found online a few years ago and one of them–the very first recipe in the book, actually—was for a cranberry coffee cake.  Well I could do that, I thought.  But I don’t have any cranberries.  But I did have a basement wine cellar full of unfermented fruit (I know—I’m doing it wrong).  That is, full of cherries that Josh bought fresh and canned a few weeks ago.  Josh likes cherries.  Josh likes cake.  Cake likes cherries.  Lauren cooks cherry cake. Continue reading

Hearts of Pom: French Toast Style

So like I mentioned in the last post, Pom Wonderful sent me another free batch of their pomegranate juice to see what I could do with it.  I love when this happens.  I like having to be creative with something.  Especially something free.  And plus, you know, I figure that pomegranate juice is so healthy for you that it totally trumps all the egg and cream that’s in this french toast recipe, plus the breakfast meats (with an ‘s’) that I served it with.

Ok, maybe not.  Maybe it won’t instantly unclog your arteries but it is full of antioxidants and hey, every little bit helps.

Oh, also it’s really tasty.  And let’s be honest here.  That’s the most important thing.  What did Lennon used to say?  “All you need is love deliciousness.”  I’m pretty sure that’s what he said. It sounds right.

So anyway…I came up with this on kind of a whim this past Sunday.  I come up with most things on a whim.  And a prayer….Who could it be?  Believe it or not, it’s just meeeeeee…..

Sorry.  Had a “Greatest American Hero” moment there for a second.  Where was I?

Oh, right, right, french toast.  With pomegranate.

Josh is a big fan of french toast.  I’m really more of pancake gal myself, but Josh, he loves him the pain perdu.  He makes a mean french toast casserole.  The only downside is that french toast casseroles take some planning and work.  And you know me–I like to do things on a whim.  And a prayer.  Who could it be?  Sorry, I’ll stop now.  Anyway, I like to do things on a whi–er, more spontaneously, and with few ingredients.  I honestly was just preparing a basic french toast batter and I thought, hmm, maybe I could just throw in some of that pomegranate juice and add a little flavor without any real work.  Turns out, yes I can. Continue reading

But Why’s the Rum Gone? Chocolate-Mint-Pom Mojito Slushies

That's why the rum's gone

Josh and I took the plunge this past Saturday.  No, we didn’t get married.  Well, we did but that was three years ago.  No, no, this event was almost as important.  We bought a new grill.  It was definitely time.  Our friend Brian helped us drag it home from the store, down the side of I-94…sorry about that traffic backup near Belleville, but we lost one of the wheels and I had to run after and retrieve it.

Just kidding.  We put it in Brian’s truck.  And drove it back.  And we didn’t even take 94.

Anyway, as a thank you to Brian and a celebration of our newest member of the family (what?  I take my grilling very seriously), we had Brian and a couple other friends over for burgers and things.  Josh decided he wanted more mojito slushies at this particular event and I obliged.  Two things made these mojitos even more awesome than the original version.  The first was the substitution of pomegranate juice for the lime.  My dear friends at Pom Wonderful sent me a free case of pomegranate juice.  I love when this happens.  Last time, I made pomegranate barbecue sauce, molasses and pomegranate-braised beef.  This time, I’m making these mojito slushies and…well, a few other things that will be posted later. Continue reading

200th Post! Homemade Snickers Bars

Oh yeah, we’ve hit the big time here.  That’s right, this is my 200th post on this blog.  200 entries of deliciousness, tastiness, snarkiness and about 1,322.57 other -nesses that need not be named.  I had to prepare something special for this momentous occasion.  I decided to make something that covered all the bases: included chocolate and caramel, wasn’t something you’d generally think of making on your own, had a few different steps but wasn’t overly complicated.  Snickers bars.

You can think our friend Jeff for this.  At some point, Jeff got the bright idea that if he just posted a recipe to my facebook page, I would then make it for him.  It was a risky gamble.  Actually, not that risky.  He was pretty much right.  As I’ve proven here.  Anyway, he posted a link to this recipe for snickers bars.  I was intrigued.  I like making my own candy–I mean, so far I’ve done mints, peanut butter cups, chocolate and turtles.  But I’d never made nougat before.  Or as complicated a candy as a Snickers bar.  And I love Snickers bars.  I love anything that includes chocolate, caramel and nuts.  So I gave it a go. Continue reading