Vegan with a vengeance Pad Thai

Awhile back I asked you all for your go to pad thai sauce recipe. A suggestion of the Vegan with a vengeance recipe was given... Well John and I gave it a try! It smelled NOTHING like any pad thai we've ever had, all we could smell was the hot chili sauce totally overpowering everything. I was less then enthusiastic to try it... with some hemming and hawing.. first bite... yum! It was pretty close to the real deal, excitedly we dug in... only to realize the more we ate, more sickeningly sweet the sauce became... The sauce calls for 6 Tbs of sugar... I was so set on following the recipe spot on even though it seemed like to much, DUMP it all went in... BAD IDEA. This sauce has promise... just a sweet promise. I'll definitely try it again, minus the sugar, and see how it tastes. I'll let you know how it goes!!!


Either way, it sure did look pretty :) And if anyone has another suggestion PLEASE PLEASE let me know!!!

PS tomorrow is John's birthday!! Happy Birthday sweets!! I'm sure I'll have a bunch of fun things posted next week that I made for his birthday weekend of chow!

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Dark chocolate chunk cherry cashew cookies

A crispy crunchy cocoon encasing a chewy delicious center.

PHEW! That was a mouthful! And man was my mouth full of cookies once these came out of the oven! You see Foodbuzz and Quaker and getting together for a little contest, come up with a recipe involving some of the flavors from the new Quaker True Delight granola bars... and possibly win a fantastic trip to Outstanding in the Field!! So here is my entry, and if you are anything like me... you are going to LOVE this recipe! It's full of good for you things, has no added butter or oil (you'd never know it), and totally satisfies a sweet tooth craving!

Chow!

Dark chocolate chunk cherry cashew cookies
recipe by stephchows
makes 2 dozen cookies

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3.5 oz Gerber Cherries and Apples baby food (it comes in a 2 pack, you just need 1 container)
1/2 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
3 Tbs splenda baking blend or (6 Tbs granulated sugar)
1 large egg
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup plump, moist, dried sour cherries
4 oz. dark chocolate broken into chunks about the size of the cherries (try using TCHO fruity!)
1/2 cup no salt added cashew pieces

Whisk together flour, baking soda, cocoa, and salt. Set aside

In a large bowl beat baby food and sugars until well combined. Beat in egg and vanilla.

Slowly mix in dry ingredients. With last addition of flour mixture also add in cherries, chocolate and cashews.

Drop tablespoon-fulls of dough onto a silicon baking mat lined cookie sheet. Bake cookies for 15-18 minutes. Let cool a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack.

These are best the day you make them, crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle. They loose their crispness when left overnight in a plastic container, still tasty, but best right out of the oven :)

Hope you love these treats!

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"Fried" Zucchini

As I've told you guys before, I'm a library ho. In my last trip I mentioned I picked up... what was it... seven cookbooks? Yeahhhh... so one of these books was The Most Decadent Diet EVER! It's really good and has a ton of recipes I want to try! So far I've made 3, and had rave reviews from all of them! As you know I posted about the pasta yesterday, so here is the rest of the recipe. Hope you like it as much as I did!


"Fried" Zucchini
Page 183 The Most Decadent Diet EVER!

Olive oil spray
1 1/2 tsp flour (I used whole wheat)
2 Tbs plain dried bread crumbs (I used panko)
1 1/2 tsp reduced fat Parmesan
1 tsp finely chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black peper
1 large egg white
2 small zucchini (about 4 oz each) cut into 3/4 inch rounds

Directions (shortened into my words)

Preheat oven to 425. Mist a baking sheet with spray.

Put flour in one bowl, beat egg white in second bowl, put everything else into a plastic bag.

Dip rounds into flour, shake off excess, dip in egg white, then shake in plastic bag. Place onto baking sheet. Repeat will rest of rounds, make sure they aren't touching on the sheet. Mist tops with spray.

Bake for 7 minutes, then flip them over and bake an additional 4-6 minutes.

Chow!

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Homemade pasta

Happy Fat Tuesday!!

Pasta is one of those things that tastes 100 times better when it's home made, and in truth it really isn't that hard to make. I grew up making pasta dough, among other delicious things, with my Dad. He's 1/2 Italian and grew up where it was the men in the family's job to make pasta. He has two daughters so I get to inherit the men's role :) Ravioli is always my favorite to make with him! Tonight though I was going simple, just a little fresh pasta to have with some breaded zucchini and some red sauce. It's so simple, yet SO FLAVORFUL!

There was pasta hanging/spread out EVERYWHERE when John got home!

All you need is a pasta press and you are good to go! Doesn't it just look pretty :)

A quick dip in a pool of boiling water and we were ready to chow!

Whole wheat pasta
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 eggs
dash of salt
drizzle of olive oil

Pile flour and salt in a large bowl (or if you are brave, right on the counter) create a well in the center and crack eggs into it. Beat eggs with a fork and slowly start incorporating the rest of the flour into the center until well mixed. Then use your hands to kneed the dough into a ball, at this point you may need a little more moisture so a little drizzle of olive oil will do the trick! Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for about 20 minutes at room temperature.

Divide into small pieces (around 8) and work through pasta machine to flatten. Start at the highest number on the side and work your way thinner (lower number) I only did mine to a 3... for ravioli we aim for a 1! Thick dough ravioli is a pet-peve of mine... BLEH! I like mine THIN! Anyway... once you have your nice thin sheets, crank them through the cutting part of the machine (the part in the front right side of my photo above). I did a thicker fettuccine cut as apposed to a spaghetti size width. Separate the pieces and hang to dry. Once you are done cutting all of the dough boil up some water and get ready to chow! Make sure your sauce is done first though, since this pasta will cook up quick (4-8) minutes depending on how thick you made it, and how dry it's gotten since you made it.

Drain and serve it up with your favorite sauce or whatever else you like!

Come back tomorrow for the zucchini recipe, a perfect meal if you are celebrating ash Wednesday and can't eat meat tomorrow... or for a Friday in Lent... or you know if you don't ever eat meat :D

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Better'n Peanut Butter Chocolate cookies

Have you ever heard of Better'n Peanut Butter? It's this crazy stuff made from defatted peanut flour and it has half the calories of regular PB and only 2 grams of fat per 2 Tbs serving! I know seriously, how do they do that!?

I read about this stuff a long time ago and wanted to give it a try (it can be hard to find, I got mine at Trader Joe's). It definitely doesn't taste exactly like PB. It has a PB-y flavor to it, but something is a little off. John can eat it straight up no problem, not me, I tend to like it baked or mixed in with things. Hence the cookies I made :)

These are basically a low calorie/ low fat cookie to fulfill your PB and chocolate cravings :) John and I both give them a thumbs up for sure :)

Better'n Peanut Butter Chocolate cookies
(I was just experimenting with these so this recipe only makes 12 cookies, next time I'll double the recipe)
1 egg
1/2 cup splenda granulated (or 1/2 cup white sugar)
1 Tbs brown sugar
1/2 cup Better'n Peanut Butter
2 Tbs cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup whole wheat flour

Beat eggs, sugar, and peanut butter in a bowl until combined. Stir in flour cocoa, and baking powder. (FYI, the dough is really thick and sticky) Drop heaping Tbs of dough onto a silicon baking mat, press cookies a little flat. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes.

Chow!

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Just call me shortcakes

I like to think I'm tall.

I'm 5'4" actually probably 5' 3 3/4" but lets just round up shall we? My hair is up today anyway!

Now to some, like 99% of the women in my family, that's totally tall. To the rest of the world... that's pretty short. Just the other day my coworker was standing next to me (me in my oh so comfy flats, her in crazy tall stilettos) oh and did I mention she's like 5' 10" to boot? anyway I get sidetracked... she looks over (I mean down) at me and is like MAN you're short today HAHAHAHAHA. There are good points to being short though!! Whenever I go for a hike with my friend Matt (who is like 6'3" or something crazy like that) I always have a safe travel down the trail... while he is constantly running into low hanging branches, HA take that tall Matthew! :D

What does this have to do with chow you ask? Why because we are making strawberry SHORTcakes??? get it???

*crickets chirping*

Ok fine fine, I thougth it was funny...

Well then, here's the recipe. My roomie made these the other night and they were super tasty! Thanks Steph!! (yes for those of you who didn't know my house mate's name is also steph...)


Classic Strawberry Shortcakes
recipe slightly adapted from Betty Crocker

2 1/3 cups Original Bisquick mix
.5 cup milk
1.5 tablespoons splenda blend (or use 3 Tbs sugar)
3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
Sweetened sliced strawberries
Vanilla ice cream

1. Heat oven to 425°F.
2. Stir Bisquick mix, milk, sugar and butter until soft dough forms. Drop by 6 spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Split warm shortcakes; fill and top with strawberries and whipped topping. (Sweeten strawberries before making shortcakes so sugar has time to dissolve; for each quart of sliced strawberries, stir in 1/2 cup sugar.)
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Heat oven to 450°F. Decrease sugar to 1 tablespoon.

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A little soup to go with your bread?

Soup... that's the stuff you dip your bread in right?


I love pea soup and recently saw a recipe at cuisinivity for pea soup involving sweet potatoes and coconut milk... sounded good to me so I gave it a go!

I wasn't 100% sure if I would like the coconut milk addition or not... and good news, you add it at the end. So I made up the soup one night, put it in the fridge and the following night took out one serving and added the coconut milk to that and warmed it up... that way I still had the rest of the soup saved if I didn't like the coconut :) And it's not that I didn't like it... I just couldn't taste it? Anyone else have this problem?? It was just adding calories and fat... and no taste?? Totally disappointing. The soup on its own though was wicked tasty. So I'd make it again... just leave out the coconut milk :)


Split Peas, Sweet Potato and Coconut Milk Soup
recipe from cuisinivity

1 cup split peas
2 medium sweet potatoes ..... pealed and diced
1 medium onion ..... chopped
2 cloves garlic ..... minced
1 teaspoon ginger ..... minced
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 can coconut milk
5 cups stock (chicken or veggies)

1. In a large soup pot, put 1 tablespoon olive oil and saute garlic, ginger and onion in medium heat until onion is translucent.

2. Add split peas and sweet potatoes and sauteed another minute.

3. Add cumin, bay leaf, salt and pepper then add stock. Bring to boil and turn heat down to low and simmer until sweet potatoes and split peas are tender for 40 minutes. Add some more water if needed while cooking potatoes and peas.

4. Take out bay leave from the pan. Use a blender to puree the peas and potato mixture and then put puree back to a pan.

5. Add coconut milk and mix well. Simmer until it whams up. Adjust with salt and pepper if you like.

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Glorious Bread

Dear bread,

I love you.

~ stephchows

Yes yes by now you all know about my lustful relationship with bread. I can't help it! I mean how do you say no to a hot yeastfullydelicious crusty hunk of bread? You don't... you just don't. You say thank you and savor every hot wonderful bite.

Have you heard about the book Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day? They also have a blog. I took it out from the library the other day (I'm a library ho, it's true, I took out 7 cookbooks the other day... don't hate on me... it's called resourceful) Anyway, the book is awesome! I was a little hesitant, ingredient: flour, water, salt, yeast. It's no kneed. Dump it all together, toss to incorporate, let it rise, then chuck it in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. You do still have to let the dough rise before it goes into the oven (unless you are making pitas) and they have all different ways of shaping and adding stuff to it. (get the recipe on their blog here.)

I made the straight up, grab out hunk of dough, shape it, let it rest 40 minutes, slash it a couple times, toss it on a preheated baking stone, toss in some water to steam it, DONE. Thirty minutes later, this beautiful crusty beauty came out of the oven... and OH how I enjoyed it. Perfect crust, amazingly tended guts... DELICIOUSLY GLORIOUS!

Yeah... I ate the whole little loaf... half with a nice big bowl of soup (come back tomorrow to see what kind) and then I ate the other half straight up plain. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go to a spinning class to work off said glorious bread :D

*drool*

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TCHO winner!

Thank you again to everyone who has been reading/commenting/drooling over this blog for the past year! I plan on continuing with all the tasty posting and look forward to trying new recipes and meeting new people! If anyone has a recipe they would like to health up send it my way and I'll see what I can do!

OK back to the TCHO tasting package!!! This Tasting Pack includes 1 each of TCHO's “Citrus”, “Nutty”, “Fruity”, and “Chocolatey”. The perfect way to Discover Your Chocolate!
And the winner is... *drum roll please*


Comment number 10 by the Diva on a Diet!!


Congratulations!!! Send me an email with your address and I'll ship off this delicious package! Let me know when you post about how you like it or what you made with it :)

I also mentioned something about bunnies yesterday... well my friend Clara of I heart Food 4 Thought AND I heart cuppycakes (yes that's right she has two blogs!! what can I say she's an overachiever ;) ) lol you know I adore you Clara!!


Anyway, Clara has these two adorable bunnies... and I made a little fun gift for her and her bunnies... go check them out here!

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Malt-o-meal and blogging friends

Just a quick reminder you have until midnight tonight to add a comment to be entered into the TCHO giveaway, just go comment here.

Ok onto awesome blogger friends! Awhile back Megan of Megan's Cookin posted about these healthy maple and brown sugar magic muffins! Anything with healthy in the title always catches my eye so I immediately printed the recipe out. There was only one problem... it called for maple brown sugar malt-o-meal... huh? I asked Megan and she said to look near the oatmeal at the market. So off I go to wegmans who normally has everything... nothing... no plain malt-o-meal, no maple brown sugar malt-o-meal, nothing! I asked at the info desk and they had no idea what I was talking about. Totally bummed I reported back to Megan that malt-o-meal didn't seem to exist in the north east. Without hesitation she asked for my address so she could send me a box!!! Seriously??? How cool is that!!! Megan rocks!!

look how tall these muffins came out!

The box made it in one piece and was wafting a wonderful maple smell when I picked it up off my front step. I knew these muffins were going to be good! I described the muffins to John and he wasn't convinced, but I made them anyway over at his house :) Needless to say he munched away on one, finished, and said "you can make those anytime you want!" Score! The muffins have a corn meal like texture to them, are oh so crisp on the outside, and soft and tender in the middle. For the recipe head over to Megan's cookin, here.

As a thank you for Megan I sent her something you can only find up around Rochester.... sponge candy! It's a treat only made during the winter here (wait isn't that all the time?) and most people have never heard of it. (I hadn't until I moved here!) You can see it over at her blog here. Her family loved it, which made me very happy to hear :) Thank you again Megan!!!

And to continue the fun blogger friends theme, come back tomorrow to hear about some fantastic bunnies!! AND learn who won the TCHO giveaway!

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Giveaway for a Blogoversary!

Happy Friday the 13th!! AND happy blogoversary to me!!

Woohooo! This is it! One year of cooking/baking/and blogging my little heart out. Making friends, trying new recipes (jam, gnocchi, so many more...), taking part in cookies exchanges, sending cookies across seas to support our troops!, cupcake competitions, tastes like home events, hosted dinner outing events... You guys have been there (and supportive) for it all, including me chopping my hair off for locks for love, yikes that was fun and scary all at the same time! So much good has come out in this past year! I am so grateful to all of you who are avid readers and followers. Seriously every time I get an email saying I have a comment I get a little high on life and am smiling like mad! And even if you don't comment, I love checking my google analytics and seeing how many people stop by to read everyday!! And seeing all the different coutries readers are from (92 countries and counting!) That makes me so excited, you have no clue, it's amazing!

look at all those countries who have visited!

I love being able to share my cooking triumphs and failures, and see what everyone else is up to out there. It's amazing how many talented, wonderful, caring people come out of the woodwork. You guys are amazing!! And I hope you continue along with me on my journey of chowing, and I look forward to continuing following along on yours! I really can't say thank you enough!!! THANK YOU!!!! As a bonus thank you TCHO has agreed to sync up with me and provide a tasting package of their fantastic chocolates to one lucky reader!

image from TCHO's website

TCHO currently has four flavor profiles which are included in the tasting package. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have, and I hope you come up with some great recipes to try them in! I am a huge advocate of TCHO and even if you don't win I hope you give them a try!

You can enter to win two ways

How to enter:
(1) Enter by leaving a comment about which TCHO flavor you think you would like best. (one comment per person please)
(2) Blog about this contest and leave a comment with the blog link on this post.

Rules:
(1) Unfortunately we can only ship to inside the US... so if you live outside the US you'll have to sit this one out :( Sorry all of my international readers (all 92 countries of you!! you ROCK!!!)
(2) Please enter your valid email address so I can contact you if you win.

Deadline: Monday, February 16th at 11:59pm EST

Winner will be chosen by Random.org

Thank you again everyone!

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Lasagna for the heart

I'm a big advocate of treating tragedy with good for you comfort food. When something bad strikes, I'm immediately to the kitchen to cook something up to send/ drive over to the person in need. Last week when I heard the news of a friend's father passing I immediately started making a shopping list of things to prepare to bring to him and him family.

Big batch of homemade lasagna, check,
Big batch of his favorite cookies, check.

Lasagna travels well, pretty much everyone loves it, and you can freeze leftovers (if you have any). All you need to do is have the person pop the whole thing in the oven to rewarm or slice out a piece to fit in the microwave. Perfect.


Comforting Whole Wheat and Veggie Lasagna
350 degrees for 45 minutes covered plus 15 more uncovered

6 whole wheat lasagna noodles (uncooked)
1 medium zucchini sliced into long wide (lasagna noodle shapped) pieces about 1/4 inch thick
1 large jar of your own go to pasta sauce (wegmans diavola)
1 container sliced mushrooms
15 oz reduced fat ricotta
1 egg (lightly beaten)
2-3 cups part skim mozzarella divided (depends on how cheesy you want it)
fresh basil and parsley to taste (you can use dry if you don't have fresh on hand)
fresh ground black pepper to taste
(feel free to toss in any other veggies you have on hand, I like to add in bell pepper and spinach)

In a small bowl mix ricotta, egg, 1-2 cups mozzarella, black pepper, basil and parsley.

In your baking pan pour a little sauce and shake the pan around until it coats the bottom. Layer 3 lasagna noodles on top of sauce. Spread 1/3 of the ricotta mixture over noodles. Sprinkle 1/3 of the sliced mushrooms along with 1/3 of the remaining sauce to cover. Layer 3 more noodles and repeat with ricotta, mushrooms, and sauce. For the final layer cover with long wide slices of zucchini, followed by remainder of ricotta, mushrooms, and sauce. Finish by topping off with mozzarella.

Cover with tin foil and place in the oven. I normally turn the oven on now, no need to preheat with something like lasagna. Heat at 350 for 45 minutes. Remove foil for final 15 minutes to brown cheese.

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2 days till my blogaversary and a giveaway!

I can't believe that this blog will be a year old on friday!!! I started this thing to participate in cupcake hero, I had sat watching all these great cupcake ideas and decided I wanted to join in on the fun! I would have never guessed how much fun I would be having with this blog. Man has this come far since then! My photo skills have gone up, I've tried so many new recipes, and met SO MANY amazingly wonderful people!! Seriously I feel like I have gained so many new and wonderful friends. It's amazing the generosity of people out there.

Ok ok what about this giveaway right? The wonderful people at TCHO are shipping me a tasting package of their 4 flavors of chocolate for me to giveaway this Friday! TCHO is an amazing company who roasts and produces their own chocolate and achieve amazingly distinct flavors by using different types of beans. (my favorite is nutty!) And not only is their chocolate amazing, their packaging is fabulous! Their designer did a wonderful job, gotta love it!

Please go check out TCHO and make sure to come back on Friday the 13th (see it's not a scary day, it's a fun giveaway day) to see how you can enter to win!

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"Snicker"doodles

I have multiple friends who would happily confess their favorite cookies as being snickerdoodles. I have another friend who was once baked a batch and was VERY unhappy to realize they did not include Snickers bars in them. I mean talk about false advertising... they are called snickerdoodles why on earth WOULDN'T they have Snickers in them??? And thus this has lead us to "Snicker"doodles... yup, take a normal snickerdoodle, roll it in cinnamon and sugar like usual, then jab a hunk of Snickers bar into the middle... Oh and my version of these bad boys has no butter, and uses whole wheat flour... and they taste YUM!

"Snicker"doodles and snickerdoodles... which do you like better?

"Snicker"doodles
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup splenda blend or 1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 Snickers bars
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375°.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar, stirring with a whisk.

Combine 1/2 cup splenda blend or 1 cup of sugar and apple sauce in a large bowl, and beat until well blended. Add the corn syrup, vanilla, and egg; beat well. Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture, beating just until combined.

Combine 3 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon, stirring with a whisk.

With moist hands, shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in sugar mixture. Place balls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Flatten balls by jabbing a hunk of snickers into the center of each cookie. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft). Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

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Mocha Cake with Mocha Cream Cheese Frosting

Another Ellie, The Food You Crave! Page 282. Don't they just look delicious? If you are looking for a super sticky sweet dessert though... this isn't for you. It's described as the chocolate cupcake from your childhood all grown up. The frosting is really not sweet at all, it has a nice intense espresso flavor, almost a bit bitter, so if you like coffee, you'll like these... if you want total sweet... I'd skip the frosting for sure. The cupcake was ok... but nothing amazing, unfortunately, ... but they sure do look pretty :)

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Fried Rice with Scallions, Edamame, and Tofu

Based on all the sweets I've been posting about, I figured it was about time to give you guys a little something for actual dinner... not that cake isn't a great dinner idea "life is short eat dessert first!"

This is another Ellie recipe from The Food You Crave (can you tell I'm loving this book?). You can find it on page 176. SO GOOD! In my usual style I added some shrimp so it's not vegetarian anymore, but this would be super tasty even without the shrimp :)


Fried Rice with Scallions, Edamame, and Tofu
recipe from The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger

1 Tbs plus 1 tsp canola oil
2 large garlic cloves minced
4 scallions
1 Tbs minced fresh ginger
4 cups cooked brown rice
3/4 cup seeded and finely diced red bell pepper
3/4 cup frozen shelled edamame, cooked according to package directions
1/2 cup fresh or frozen (thawed) corn kernals
6 oz firm tofu cut into 1/4 inch cubes
2 large eggs beaten
3 Tbs low-sodium soy sauce

Heat oil, add garlic, scallions, ginger and cook until aromatic. Add rice, bell pepper, edamame, corn, and tofu and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes. Make a well in center and scramble eggs (I did the eggs in another pan). Stir to mix and add soy sauce. Serve hot.

John thought there wasn't enough flavor to the sauce. I may add some red pepper flakes to spice it up a bit next time.

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Amaretto-amaretti chocolate cheesecake

"that cheesecake has ruined me to any other cheesecake, it was amazing!"

In all truth, I think this is my new favorite dessert... I have a hard time picking favorites... but this one... it has won the title! Sweet, creamy, not too heavy, a little chocolate, almond paste and amaretto... *drooool* oh yeah baby.

The original recipe came from The Gourmet Chocolate Club. It's a very very HEAVY hitter, obviously I lightened it up a bunch, still not healthy by any means haha but I think the full on version would have been too rich for me. This version makes me happy to think about... seriously just thinking about it makes me happy... is there something wrong with me?? :D Plus no one had a clue it was a lightened up version... again not to say it's by any means healthy... just healthier then the original.


Amaretto-amaretti chocolate cheesecake
Lightened up by me, original from The Gourmet Chocolate Club

The Crust
1/2 of the batch of Amaretti (or 7oz store bought)
1 oz of unsweetened chocolate (1 square.)
3 Tbsps. butter


The Filling
6 oz of semisweet chocolate
1/2 of the batch of Amaretti (or 7oz store bought)
4 oz of almond paste
1/3 cup of Amaretto liqueur
1 1/2 lb of 1/3 less fat cream cheese at room temperature (next time I'll try subbing 1/2 lb of fat free cream cheese in there)
2 Tbs Splenda (or 1/4 cup of granulated sugar)
3 eggs (large) (next time I'm going to use egg white only and whip them up a bit first)
1/2 cup of heavy/thick cream (maybe try 1/2 and 1/2 next time)

Crust: Butter only the sides of a 9-inch spring-form pan (2.5 to 3 inches deep). Then grind the Amaretti very fine, in a food processor or blender. Then melt chocolate & butter in the top of a double boiler, stir occasionally (I used a pyrex bowl in the microwave). Then add the melted mixture to the Amaretti crumbs & mix thoroughly. (Do not wash the double boiler; you'll be using it again in a min.) Turn the mixture into the prepared pan. With your fingers, distribute it evenly on the bottom and press down into a very firm/compact layer. Refrigerate while you prepare the filling.

Filling: Adjust the rack 1/3 up from the bottom of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. F.

Partially melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler (microwave for me), then uncover and stir it, until completely melted. Remove the top of the double boiler & set aside to cool. Break the Amaretti coarsely into bowl and set aside. Cut almond paste into small pieces, and beat on low speed with an electric mixer, gradually adding the Amaretto liqueur. Beat until it is thoroughly mixed, and set aside.
Beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer until it is very smooth. Then add the sugar and once again beat until smooth.
Add the almond paste_Amaretto mixture & beat until thoroughly mixed. Add the melted chocolate and beat well again.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating at low speed until they are incorporated after each addition. Add the heavy cream and beat until smooth.
Then add the coarsely broken Amaretti & stir gently only to mix. Turn it into the prepared pan, now pouring the mixture over the bottom crust. Then proceed to rotate pan gently to level the batter. [Do not worry if the mixture comes close to the top; it will not go over.] Bake for 45 min. It will seem soft and not done, but don't bake any more; it will become firm when chilled. The top of the cake is supposed to look bumpy because of the large chunks of Amaretti. Cool completely at room temp., then carefully remove the sides of the pan and refrigerate the cake [still on the bottom of the pan] for 4 to 6 hours, or overnight.

I made this at John's with an old school hand mixer that was not happy when I tried to use it on the almond paste haha... So be prepared for some elbow greece if you don't have a stand mixer, it would take much less time with a kitchenaid.

I seriously already want to make this again, I need an excuse to make it again??? Hmmm it's Thursday... maybe I should make cheesecake!

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Amaretti Cookies

Most people know Amaretti cookies by their very distinguishable tin.

Picture taken from this site.

Growing up, we always saved the tins and used them for storage of all types of things. My sister has a ton of them as accents in her kitchen and they look fantastic! For those who don't know about Amaretti cookies, they are a crunchy almond paste based cookie... very sugary sweet, and delicious. Check out the site where the picture came from for the story behind the cookies.

Anyway, I love these tins, however the grocery store here in Rochester doesn't sell them in the cool (16 oz) tins, they only sell them in small (2.3 oz.) little boxes... This became a problem when I decided to make an Amaretti-Amaretto Chocolate Cheesecake... yeah you heard me right *drool* The cheesecake calls for 14 oz of the cookies.... yeahhh I wasn't about to spend a good $50 on small cookie boxes so I could smash them all to pieces and put in a cake... so what's a girl to do? To the internet to find an Amaretti cookie recipe!!!


I found the recipe over at Joy of Baking. It's incredibly simple... just one thing... USE THE PARCHMENT PAPER! I didn't have any on hand and my silicon mats were over at Johns so I said whatever they can't stick too bad... wrong... they stuck bad... well most of them. But it really didn't matter since I was just baking these to smash them up anyway :) So if you are making these to eat and serve... use the parchment paper!

Amaretti Cookies
process adapted from Joy of Baking
8 ounces (225 grams) canned almond paste (NOT marzipan)
1 cup (200 grams) superfine or castor sugar
2 large (60 grams) egg whites

Extra granulated white sugar for dusting cookies

Using KitchenAid Mixer: Break the almond paste into small pieces and place in bowl of electric mixer along with the sugar. Mix on low speed until very fine. Lightly beat egg whites until foamy in separate bowl. Add the egg whites in three additions, mixing well after each addition. Continue mixing the dough until very smooth, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Drop teaspoon-fulls of dough onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper (seriously do it!! otherwise you'll have a big mess). Bake at 375 for 10 minutes, then lower tempurature to 325 and continue baking for 10 more minutes, or until the cookies have risen, are a deep golden color and have tiny cracks. Remove from the oven and place baking pan on a rack to cool. When cool gently peel cookies from parchment. If they stick to parchment, turn the paper over, take a damp paper towel and gently wipe the bottom of the parchment paper to loosen the cookie.

These cookies are a little chewy when still warm, and become nice and crunchy after they cool.


Come back tomorrow to see and drool over the cheesecake that... quote from a coworker "that cheesecake has ruined me to any other cheesecake, it was amazing!"

Chow!

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Operation Baking Gals Thank YOU!!

The large ship in the front and the close up below are images of where all our cookies went!

I was very excited to receive in the mail last week a large envelope containing pictures of air craft carrier that we all sent cookies to back in September! Along with the pictures was a great thank you note! (click on it to see it larger) Our cookies fed over 100 hungry men and women! Check out the note, it's super sweet.


To all the ladies and gents who helped make Operation Baking Gals possible that month, THANK YOU!!!

If you are interested in joining on for round 6 check out the site and learn more.

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Soup to warm you up

I don't know about you but it's been COLD here. And the other day we got all types of snow and the plows didn't seem to be out at all. What's up with that? It took one friend an hour and a half to make it into work! That's just wrong.

For days like this everyone should just stay home and make up a nice pot of soup. This is super easy, fast, no fuss soup. No boiling for hours, just toss it all in the pot to heat up, and you're good to go. I added turkey kielbasa and shrimp to mine, but you could easily leave them out and have a nice vegetarian soup.

I'd like to thank Donna and Frank for the awesome new bowls!!
I love these things.

Beantastic Soup
spray or drizzle of olive oil
4 scallions green and white parts chopped
1/2 cup salsa (i used medium heat)
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 can low sodium black eye peas (not rinsed or drained)
1 can low sodium red beans (not rinsed or drained)
2-4 glugs Franks Red Hot (more or less to taste)
2 cups low sodium vegetable stock (I LOVE wegmans low sodium vegetable and chicken stocks, you can find them in the organic aisle, they are flavorful and only have 4% sodium per serving!)
1/2 a package turkey kielbasa sliced
1/2 lb frozen cooked shrimp thawed and tails removed
chopped scallions for garnish
thickly grated sharp cheddar cheese for garnish

Saute kielbasa in a soup pot until nicely browned, add garlic, ginger and scallions until aromatic (1-2 minutes)
Dump in half the beans and mash with a potato masher, then dump in the rest of the beans in un-mashed.
Add vegetable stock and red hot and stir to incorporate. Simmer until heated through (about 5 minutes). A few minutes before serving add the shrimp (you want them to heat up but not over cook since they are already cooked).
Serve topped with scallions and grated sharp cheddar.

This soup is done in under 30 minutes start to finish.

If you can't find low sodium beans, it's ok, just drain and rinse one can and not the other. That will still give you a little of the thickness with some less salt. If you used both full on sodium without rinsing, it may be a bit overpoweringly salty.

Chow!

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