This week in our local basket, we got some of the most beautiful roma tomatoes that I have ever seen. I decided to make Paneer and Tomato Curry with them and attempted to make my own paneer. Paneer is a really simple pressed Indian cheese that you make by bringing milk to 180 degrees and adding buttermilk. It separates and you drain the curds in cheesecloth for a couple hours. It’s pretty much ricotta with less liquid. I’m not sure that I did everything right with the paneer but it still tasted good and it was a nice vegetarian addition to our weekly meals.

I’m still singing the praises of the New Best Recipe Cookbook. This French toast is pretty much perfect and you can make it with simple sandwich bread, which is kinda ridiculous. I have never made a French toast that I want to eat again with regular sandwich bread – it’s always something fancy, like brioche, challah or some sort of raisin cinnamon bread. And then I was introduce to this goodness. It’s amazing. And simple. You should try it!

I had made sushi at home once before, so we decided to give it a go again. This is nice for a couple of reasons – one of which is that you can control the sustainability of the fish. I usually have to turn off that part of my brain when we go enjoy sushi. . . Alaskan sockeye salmon and wild caught blue swimming crab were our ‘fish’ of choice. I wasn’t going to mess with raw fish. The most complicated component is the rice and I used Alton Brown’s simple straightforward recipe. Our other roll components were cream cheese, jalapeños, cucumber, asparagus, avocado, panko, wasabi, ginger, and spicy mayo.

Everyone rolled their own roll and then we all shared. It was pretty delicious. And I think it was pretty beautiful as well!

What have you been cooking lately?

Chocolate pudding is one of those things that it took me quite some time to realize that there were other options besides Jell-O. And then, enter Smitten Kitchen and this recipe. For whatever reason, it took me quite some time to actually MAKE this recipe. I would frequently go to the website and drool at this recipe, resign myself to make it soon and promptly forget. Something to do with a fried mommy brain I guess. Somehow even chocolate pudding can’t seem to stick.

Well I finally made it. Oh yes. And Jason doesn’t even like pudding and he loved this. I even dreamed about it – it was that delicious. I’m just warning you, this won’t stick around your house long. If you do make it, be sure to cook the pudding until it really is almost the thickness that you would want to eat it at. It thickens some in the fridge but not as significantly as the Jell-O version I am used to.

Silky Chocolate Pudding
Adapted from John Scharffenberger, via Smitten Kitchen

Serves 6

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk
6 ounces 62% semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used good quality semisweet chocolate chips; use 70% bittersweet if you want more of a dark chocolate kick)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Combine the cornstarch, sugar and salt in the top of a double boiler. Slowly whisk in the milk, scraping the bottom and sides with a heatproof spatula to incorporate the dry ingredients. Place over gently simmering water and stir occasionally, scraping the bottom and sides. Use a whisk as necessary should lumps begin to form. After 15 to 20 minutes, when the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of the spoon, add the chocolate. Continue stirring for about 2 to 4 minutes, or until the pudding is smooth and thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

2. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer (or skip this step if you’re a slacker like me who is absolutely certain that there is nary a lump her puddin’) into a serving bowl or into a large measuring cup with a spout and pour into individual serving dishes.

3. If you like pudding skin, pull plastic wrap over the top of the serving dish(es) before refrigerating. If you dislike pudding skin, place plastic wrap on top of the pudding and smooth it gently against the surface before refrigerating. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days (ahem, good luck with that).

Before cold temperatures descended on us, dumped snow all over our ground and froze our pipes, we were enjoying 75 degree weather. Thank you Texas for the mere hours between 50 degree swings in temperatures. Anyways, I decided to pull out some chalk to see how Jude liked drawing on the driveway. He’s a big fan of coloring things in that I draw, so here you see him coloring in a stick figure of ‘dad’. Don’t judge my poor stick figure drawings. Seriously, it’s not like I used to be paid to draw and color or anything. . .

I also made another batch of play dough – this one a little more traditional than my peanut butter/cocoa powder/dry milk concoction. I did add cocoa powder to make it smell yummy and turn it brown without food coloring. I gave him some cookies cutters, tooth picks and his toddler scissors to try and teach him how to snip into the play dough. Here’s the recipe:

1 c water
1/2 c salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup flour

Combine water, salt and cream of tartar . Stir over medium heat with a wooden spoon. As the mixture heats up, add oil and flour. Stir until mixture starts looking dry and pulls away from the side of the pan. Remove pan from heat Pinch a piece between your fingers and if it is not sticky, it is done. Knead until smooth. Store in an air tight container.

Another reason I added cocoa powder to the play dough was because I had this activity in mind as a bit of a nod to Valentine’s day. I used a left over candy tray and showed Jude how to press the play dough into the spaces that hold the candy. Then we popped them out and squished our fake candies.

And of course, we had to make the ever popular play dough letters. Jude loves letters – he pointed at each letter over and over again rambling in toddler speak about each one.

And thanks to a blog reader for this fun idea! Jude and I decorated a couple paper plates, filled them with dry beans and stapled the plates shut to make a giant maraca. He was only mildly interested in this activity but I think that might be due to the fact that he has a drum set, djembe, piano, guitars and other various noise making instruments within his everyday access.

Here’s another idea that Jude hasn’t been super interested in, but it’s worth sharing. I took an old water bottle and filled it halfway with some cheap olive oil, and water dyed with blue food coloring. I used some gorilla glue to glue the top on and then glued a piece of fabric over the top to keep him from trying to open it. When you rock it from side to side, it makes some neat looking ways. Or you can shake it up and see it turn green. I think I’ve been having more fun with it than Jude. . . but you know, each kiddo likes different activities, so maybe someone else’s kiddo will enjoy this one!

Keep the suggestions coming! What are you doing with your kids to keep them entertained?

Enter this recipe. Buckeyes. What’s a buckeye you ask? This is a buckeye.

It’s a nut from the Buckeye tree, most frequently spoken of in the buckeye state, Ohio. But what is the buckeye that I speak of? Oh. It is chocolate. And peanut butter. And addictive. And they look like the buckeye from the tree. See?

Now, I had a hard time dipping the peanut butter filling in the chocolate because my filling ended up a little dry. I’m going to blame this on very dry peanut butter, so you shouldn’t have this problem. But that’s why you see those holes in the top of each buckeye. But you know what? No one cared. They were all devoured in two days. Christmas candidate? You bet’cha.

Buckeyes
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Yield: 36 to 42 tablespoon-sized candies

1/4 cup (2 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups peanut butter (smooth, but you can use chunky if you are looking for more texture)
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (from about 14 graham crackers)
Salt (optional, see note up top)
3 cups confectioners’ (powdered) sugar
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks or 5 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
12 ounces dark chocolate (60 to 72%), coarsely chopped

Make the filling: In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and peanut butter together until combined. Add the graham cracker crumbs and beat for 10 seconds. Add the sugar and butter, and mix on the lowest speed until it stops floating off everywhere, then increase the speed until the ingredients are combined. Scrape down the whole bowl well, then mix again. The mixture will be quite sturdy and a little dry — perfect for shaping. Set it aside while you prepare the coating.

Make the coating: Melt the chocolate either over a double boiler, stirring until it is completely smooth or in a microwave in 30 then 10 second increments, stirring before you start it again until it is completely smooth. Let it cool to tepid (about 100 degrees, though I’d go a little cooler next time for a thicker coating; I had a few ounces of chocolate leftover) while you shape the peanut butter centers. [Alternately, you can temper the chocolate (fairly simply instructions here) for a perfect showy finish.]

Assemble the candies: Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silpat. Scoop out slightly more than one tablespoon’s worth of filling and use your hands to form it into a ball. Place the ball on the prepared sheet and repeat the process until all of the candies have been shaped. They can sit close to each other but make sure they are not touching.

Using a fork or large skewer, dip each ball into the chocolate and roll it about so that almost the entire candy is coating, leaving a small circle uncoated. Play around with a few practice pieces; I found it easiest to stick the skewer in the side, angle the bowl I was using towards it and make sure it became submerged as I rolled the candy around. But don’t fuss too much; even the “ugly” ones won’t go to waste.

Chill the buckeyes until they are set, about 30 minutes.

Do ahead: Buckeyes will keep in the fridge for at least a week.

Aren’t we cute? I love my book club girls.

The one thing that the book had going for it was it’s discussions of food. There were recipes included in almost every chapter (although towards the end of the book the recipes no longer related to the chapters they were included in. . . ), so we decided to do a potluck for bookclub, using recipes from the book. Fun, right?

We had goat cheese toast points with herbs and garlic:

I made the orange cous cous (which was just . . . ok in my opinion).

And I think the star of the evening was the chocolate cake with mascarpone chestnut cream made by Jenn. Delicious!

We tried to talk about the book some but really we ended up talking about food and eating the food that we all brought. So in light of that, I thought I would share the recipe that Jenn made with you.

Chocolate Cake with Mascarpone-Chestnut (ahem, nutella) Cake

8 oz bittersweet chocolate
1/2 c unsalted butter, softened
1 c powdered sugar
3 large eggs
1 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 8 oz container sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt chocolate in microwave safe bowl at high for 30 second intervals until melted, or on stovetop. Stir until smooth.

Beat butter and powdered sugar at medium speed with a mixer, about 5 minutes or until blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating until just blended after each addition. Add melted chocolate, beating until just blended.

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add to chocolate mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended afte reach addition. Stir in vanilla. Pour batter into a lightly greased and floured deep 9-inch round cake or springform pan, or a 9×13 glass pan. Bake at 350 for 28-30 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pan on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove cake from pan and let cook completely. Served with a dollop of Mascarpone-Chestnut Cream (recipe below).

Mascarpone-Chestnut (Nutella) Cream

1 7 oz container mascarpone, softened
1 8.75 oz can creme de marrons (chestnut spread (or, nutella, because where in the world do you find chestnut spread in the states?)
1 tsp grated lemon zest

Beat mascarpone and chestnut spread together at medium speed, about 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat whipping cream in a medium bowl until soft peaks form. Fold whipped cream into mascarpone-chestnut mixture. Stir in lemon zest. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

We had the ingredients on hand to whip a batch of these up (sadly, only 24 cookies and they went FAST) and we baked them off. The addition of the instant espresso powder is perfect. It is barely detectable when the cookies are warm but develops into a bit of ‘je ne sais quoi’ when they cool.

I think Jason was especially appreciative of these cookies as they were simple chocolate chip cookies. No nuts, nothing else, except for that tiny hint of coffee flavor that just amplifies the chocolatey goodness. I can certainly see why these cookies are the staple chocolate chip cookie for Neiman Marcus’ cafe.

Recipe for Neiman Marcus Cookies

Recipe for Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons

You make these in the style of a traditional souffle (which, contrary to popular belief, is not as difficult as you may think), whip the eggs whites, add sugar, whip egg whites more, fold everything together, bake until puffy. . . just in cupcake tins. You allow these mini souffles to cool and fall, and mine actually shrunk up a little bit and pulled away from the sides of the tin. The nice thing about letting the cupcakes fall is that you don’t have to rush to get them anywhere and you have a little indention to fill with decadent white chocolate mint cream. Oh yes. I don’t even like white chocolate and I loved this. Not to mention the method used to make this cream. (Warm cream. Add chopped chocolate, stir until melted. Chill. Whip.) The possibilities of chocolate whipped cream make me a little giddy.

But yes, these are delicious. It’s amazing what the lack of flour can do to a cupcake.

Recipe for chocolate soufflé cupcakes with mint cream

They didn’t last an hour.

Oh smitten kitchen, stop taunting me with all of your amazing recipes! This is starting to get a little stalker-ish if you ask me. Deb, please don’t put a restraining order on me. I couldn’t help myself on this one. You posted it and I had all the ingredients and friends and family to feed. And it was obviously a success.

These are not fancy brownies. I will tell you that. Not like the grasshopper brownies, or the cappuccino brownies I’ve made before. But just because they aren’t fancy doesn’t mean they aren’t delicious.

Such a simple recipe, so few ingredients (all of which are staples in my kitchen) and so many different directions you could go with it. Add some chocolate chips, andes mints, some espresso powder, pinch of cayenne, nuts. . . the opportunities are endless. I was in a bit of a hurry, so I melted the butter in the microwave until I got the consistency that the recipe called for – as Deb noted, it worked perfectly.

I do believe that these brownies would work well to ship since there is no cocoa butter from chocolate chips/bars in it. Delicious. This will certainly be a go to recipe for me whenever I need a quick dessert.

recipe for best cocoa brownies

Well, of course I turn to Deb from Smitten Kitchen. I found her recipes for Crisp Salted Oatmeal Chocolate cookies, and I wanted to make them. She had me hooked at salted. Salt. My weakness. One of many.

The original cookies had white chocolate chunks in them, and I’m not a big fan of white chocolate (as it’s not chocolate at all, just cocoa butter) but she adamantly said that white chocolate was the way to go with these. I thought I bought white chocolate. I really did. The wrapper of the chocolate bar I bought was white while the dark chocolate bar of the same brand was dark! But it was semi-sweet chocolate. So, instead of getting white chocolate, I just used what I had. And I’m happy I did. I mean, I’d still like to try them with white chocolate,  but this batch was not disappointing at all! They are thin, but not too thin. There’s a bit of chewiness but a good amount of crunch around the edges. I think she described them as ‘shattery’ which is definitely a good descriptor. A worthy cookie.

Recipe for Crisp Salted Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies