Recent foodie-ness

I went to the Chocolate Festival at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens yesterday. It was great. I am mildly tempted to try to enter the chocolate cake or cupcake competition next year, but it seems to be more of a decorating contest than a taste contest. Decorating isn't my strongest point.

I got to see Hedy Goldsmith from Michael's Genuine Food and Drink do a cooking demo. I am totally going to try the Milk Chocolate Jellies. S is a jellies nut. I am a Michaels' Genuine nut. I was so happy when they opened here. For a major city with no shortage of restaurants, there was a real dearth of excellent food. I was not surprised to read they won a James Beard award last year. Hedy, the pastry chef, was fun to listen to and gave good demo. She not only makes killer doughnuts and pop tarts, she also has a great personality.

Interestingly enough, I have found blogs called Almost Healthy and Foodie Loves Picky. Both were started after my blog and my blog name change. Do you know how I know? I did what these bloggers evidently didn't do. I googled the names before I used them.

I don't care all that much. I am not making any money off this blog, and I only post about once a month now. I just, well, I don't know. I don't think they stole the names, and I don't think they are going to make any money off of them, either. I kind of wish they had done a little searching first before they picked those titles.

If I ever do try to do any cooking for money, ever, which is a not-so-secret dream of mine, I am planning on using the name "Almost Healthy". I have said that on this blog before, and I am repeating it now. Just in case.

Since we've been back

I made a great spread on the spot when my sister in law and her friend came over with their kids to swim in our pool. I love cooking informal food for a group like this. So much less pressure than dinner, to me.

I made some delicious mojo chicken wing drummettes and sliced mild Italian chicken sausage on my new panini grill pan. (Thanks MIL! It worked great. Works well for bacon, too! Now I just have to make paninis...) We also had shrimp skewers, mostly for S, who has been asking for them.

Dessert was also for S. Mango shortcakes, with homemade vanilla whipped cream. I followed the Cook's Ill Best Recipe recipe for strawberry shortcake. But, Z is allergic to strawberries (which he feels the need to tell me every time we eat) and S loves mangoes. I picked up four beautiful mangoes from Robert is Here farmer's market on the way back from the Keys, and they were taunting me. They turned out so good, even Picky, who normally doesn't like fruity desserts, scarfed his down.

I actually think this is a good photo. Am I crazy? Am I improving? Look back at the photos of the frittata and the boar...not bad, right? (Ignore the biscuits and gravy and the cheesecake...)

Father's Day dinner was good, but suspiciously similar to last year's. Ribs, peppers, shells and white sauce (instead of mac and cheese), chocolate brownies.

Where to begin?

Just because I haven't put up any posts on here in a little while, it doesn't mean that I haven't been cooking. Like a fiend. I went to Sugarloaf Key to stay with my in laws and cooked the entire time.

Most of the stuff came from Paula Deen's new all chocolate special edition cooking magazine. Why did I buy it?

Here are some of the highlights.

This is the flourless dark chocolate cake. I thought it looked so pretty puffed up out of the oven. It is supposed to fall, however.

I served it with a white chocolate sauce (recommended in by Paula) and with a dark chocolate sauce, in homage to the Two Chefs restaurant in Miami. That is how they serve their chocolate souffle. I thought it was much better without the sauce, it was so sweet. Next time I make it it will be sauceless, maybe with whipped cream or berries, and I may reduce the sugar a bit.

This is an awful photo of the malted chocolate cheesecake. It was excellent. The crust (which contained a box of whoppers, chocolate graham crackers, and butter, was way too hard. But, I used a 9" springform pan instead of a 10", and probably didn't reduce the amount of crust material enough. Or, whoppers could make hard candy like crusts no matter what, who knows. I will have to get a 10" springform pan and find out! Bummer! *adding to Christmas list*

I also made creme brulee, but that is so old hat I don't even take pictures anymore. I have perfected the art of not scorching the tops as much. Yum! The other stuff was normal breakfast and dinner stuff. I made tilapia with a recipe that Picky's mom supplied. It was very similar to my tilapia and greens recipe, but instead of the greens on top, it called for a crust with breadcrumbs, parmesan and potato chips. It was tasty. Picky's mom made johnnycakes, like her mom used to, in that kitchen, every time she made fish.

Picky took camera phone pictures of our fancy lunch out. I will post those later.

A new twist on an old muffin

You can teach an old muffin new tricks. My latest makeover for my chocolate chip banana muffins" happened at about 9 p.m. before the last day of school, when I realized that I didn't have any chocolate chips. Huh? I always have a plethora of chocolate chips. I had already started making the muffins, so it was too late to switch. I split the batch in two, and added cocoa powder to one half. I put it in two ziploc bags and cut the tips off to make bobo pastry bags, and squeezed them into the cups together.

Sorry for another horrible picture. I need to read an article on food photography.

Happy breast cancer awareness month

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. So, get aware, y'all!

I haven't posted in a while, since I am now in medical school. Not as much cooking, not as fancy cooking, not as much picture taking, and not as much blogging.

But, I had to share my breast themed banana chocolate chip muffins that I made for the bake sale. Yummy!

Mini molten chocolate cakes with mocha sauce

Served with French vanilla ice cream. Mmmm mmmmm.

Bad mommy, good cookie

I am a bad mommy. I gave Z the cookie with the burned bottom, and I kept one that was perfectly done for myself. Of course, this cookie monster will eat a cookie that's covered in dog turd. Not that I have ever tried to feed him one, but S may have.

These are killer cookies. As my pastry chef roommate says, the dough is delicious. Best raw dough around, and the cookie part of the cooked cookie ain't bad either.

You can put anything in this dough. I am sure it will work unadorned, although I am not sure why you would want to. We have put leftover chopped up Halloween and Valentine's candy in, and I am planning on trying them soon with macadamias and craisins. (For me and S. I have a feeling Picky will turn those down, if he can resist. We'll see what happens late at night.)

This is the baisc recipe, and even though Picky bitches every time about their being nuts in them, he says they are the "best chocolate chip cookies in the world."

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup high cacao-content chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans or slivered almonds

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla. Slowly mix in the flour.
Stir in 1 1/2 cups of accoutrements of your choice. I pretend these are semi-healthy due to dark chocolate (high in antioxidants) and nuts.
Drop heaping tablespoonfuls (or, as I do, use a mini ice cream scoop) onto the prepared baking sheet.
Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown around the edges.
Cool for 3-5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes about 3 dozen.