THE SWEETEST THING

Easter weekend, I took Good Friday off and hopped on a plane back to Georgia to visit family, friends, and my boyfriend (yeah, I know, long distance sucks). The day I left, a co-worker asked if the boyfriend cooks. Cooks...no. Not at all. He does grill though (it's programmed in with the other guy things). But cooking, in the kitchen, with his lovely set of pots and pans that have never been used except once by me...no.

But of course, as soon as I said it, things in the universe started turning to prove me wrong. For at the moment these words were coming out of my mouth, my boyfriend was in Publix, getting strawberries and chocolate and coconut. These he coupled with my favorite wine for a very sweet surprise.

He even took pictures before we devoured them so I could put them on my blog. And made my cheeks hurt with laughter telling about his kitchen adventures, first with the chocolate (how to get it melted) and then with the coconut (can you put coconut with strawberries or will it taste funky? can you sprinkle it on or dip it in?) Thank goodness he's a coconut fan too, because those were the best! I suppose if the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, the way to a woman's is through her sweet tooth.

TwD: 4 STAR CHOCOLATE BREAD PUDDING

Something happened here tonight folks, and it wasn't good.

It was supposed to be chocolatey, simple yet impressive...a 4 star bread pudding - I LOVE bread pudding!

Instead, it was dry on top, gooey in the middle (dry & gooey???), ugly, and not sweet.

Perhaps I messed up during the downsizing. Perhaps it was the English muffin I used. Hey, this was a last minute bake. I wasn't even going to post today. But a funny thing happens when you usually do something. First, people expect you to.

"What are making for Tuesdays with Dorie this week?" "Well, nothing..." hmmm

Next, you expect yourself to. "What sweet thing am I going to get tonight?" "Well, nothing.." "But it's the Sunday before Tuesday..." then it's Monday and I'm still craving something sweet, then it's Tuesday and I see everyone's Chocolate Bread Pudding posts so I cave.

I divided the recipe in approximate sevenths. I say approximate because I am too bad at math and too lazy to get a calculator and convert 4/7 of a cup into tablespoons. I do this a lot, and it usually works. Usually, but not always (tonight). But to every situation, may there be an upside and mine was...(drum role)...I got to break-out the mini whisk for the first time ever! Well, first legitimate time ever. This whisk came to me from my mom (thanks ma!) and I thought it so cute that I stirred my coffee with it just to put it to use.

Once the whisking was done, I added the hot milk and poured it over the bread to sit like Dorie said. Then it went in the oven, and came out looking a little weathered. Oh well, I suppose every night can't be a 4 star night...but I'm glad I gave it a try.

SUNDRIED TOMATO HUMMUS

I can't remember the first time I ever had hummus. I must have been in my teens, and I'm guessing my sister introduced me. I'm still amazed at the amount she managed to expand my world while growing up. I still haven't figured out how she grasped such information, but I'm thankful she passed it on.

One of the perks of living overseas in West Africa and working a job with crazy overtime was the vacation. Sitting in the office one afternoon, two of my co-workers spun the globe, and settled their sights on Egypt. It didn't take long (just a few hours of making pyramid and funny sphinx shapes with their arms) and a I and another were in. We booked our tickets that day and were off in two. There's something about last-minute, totally spontaneous trips that I just love. It's like you bypass all the icky planning and waiting and just jump to the fun and adventure. I think I ate hummus every single day in Egypt. Our fallucca (boat) captain made it for us on a 3-day trip down the Nile, I had it on pita from street vendors, at lunch-time cafes. I really enjoy hummus - it's super easy and simple, and a great protein source for us veggie-lovin' peeps. It's so easy that it's pretty much instant gratification...did I mention I'm still a kid at heart?

SUN DRIED TOMATO HUMMUS

1 can chickpeas, drained

juice of 1 lemon, about 2 Tablespoons

1 Tablespoon tahini (sesame seed paste)

1 Tablespoon olive or safflower oil

1 garlic clove

3 sun dried tomatoes

cayenne pepper, to taste

1/2 - 1 cup water and chickpea liquid

1. Put first 6 ingredients in blender or food processor.
2. Blend until well combined and mixture becomes homogeneous.
3. Add water and/or chickpea liquid until the consistency is spreadable and dippable.

Hummus is good with so many things: pita, raw carrots, falafel, salad. A friend even made it into a tasty pasta sauce. I sauteed some onion, corrilini mushrooms, carrots, lettuce, and tomatoes and dipped it all in. I love eating with my hands!

TwD: CHOCOLATE AMARETTI TORTE

Chocolate Amaretti Torte, chosen by Holly of Phe/MOM/enon. Dorie describes it as 15 minute magic. Magic...yeah, I would have to agree, though not because it takes so little time and is so easy to make. Honestly, any time I have to break out (and break down and clean) the food processor (and its very sharp blade), the recipe slides into the dangerous, way too much clean-up category and I start to sneer at the ingredients list wondering if a mixer will suffice.

This time I escaped with only a tiny cut from washing the blade and a delicious, rich, velvet-textured chocolate cake. I cut the recipe in third and made four mini tortes. They rose up about three inches in the oven, then sank to a meager one while cooling. I thought they might be too little, but boy was I underestimating. Half of one little chocolate amaretti torte drenched in chocolate cream sauce and I was chugging milk and crying done.

I definitely enjoyed every bite. I loved the Amaretti, which is odd because I do not like meringue. I even smashed some up and sprinkled on top. I didn't actually know what amaretti was before I hunted it down in Epicurious - a lovely little specialy food store on the beach. Amaretti has a nice little love story attached to it, dating from the early 1700s during the Renaissance of a couple who made these for a visiting bishop and were blessed with a happy marriage.

TwD: BANANA CREAM PIES

Banana, custard creme, banana, custard creme, whipped creme...mmm, lots of creme. All thanks to Amy of Sing for Your Supper for this week's pick. Congratulations to Amy - her blog turned one last week! Happy Bloggie Birthday!
I was afraid to have a whole pie on-hand that Dorie said was best eaten that day - that's a whole lotta creme, so I made one-third of the recipe, made a bottom-only chocolate crust, and put it in four ramekins.

With all the creme and bananas, my taste buds were expecting something akin to Banana Pudding. The really good kind made with homemade vanilla pudding, Nilla wafers, and lightly browned meringue. Alas, this is no banana pudding. But it is good - especially the custard! I think it would be great with cherries.

I actually liked this best the day after, once the flavors had mixed and mingled. I wasn't completely happy with the chocolate crust, which was an experiment and so won't post the recipe here. But I'll try again.

Next week, we're back to getting our chocolate fixes. I have to say I'm looking forward to it!

IRISH SODA BREAD

I was planning on making Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick's Day, but ran out of time. So I whipped up a loaf later when things slowed down a bit. I used a super simple, no-fail recipe that I had written in my recipe book at least five years ago.

Irish Soda Bread

3 cups of all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 Tablespoons butter

1 cup buttermilk (or substitute 1 cup milk + 1 Tablespoon lemon juice mixed)

1 handful of trail mix, for those who also love nutty breads

1. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda.
2. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles course meal.
3. Add buttermilk and stir until moistened.
4. Turn out the ball of dough and knead for 1 minute. Pat into a round, approximately 9 inches. Transfer to a buttered baking sheet and cut a large cross on top.
5. Bake at 425 F for 40 minutes. The loaf will sound hollow when done.

There's something so satisfying about pulling a lovely loaf of bread out of the oven. It smelled so good baking and bread seems so daunting that the fact that it came out recognizable as a loaf of bread was delightful. You should have seen me knocking on the loaf with my ear to the crust, looking as if I expected someone to knock back and call out - come in to my loaf! because I'm sure I looked silly.

After the glee that I had produced bread wore off, I decided that Irish Soda Bread is good, but is better with butter...and even better with something fruity...something like...apple butter. So I used the Granny Smiths I had to make an apple butter that was delicious. I wasn't sure how it would turn out using Granny Smith apples, which aren't typically used for apple butter, but I have to say I was more than pleasantly surprised. Some apple butters tend to be very sweet and very clove-heavy. The tartness of the apples enhanced the sweet and the clove tastes.

I have to admit that I didn't measure anything for the apple butter. I just threw in the ingredients and surveyed by sight.

Apple Butter (Roughly)

3 apples

1/2 cup of sugar

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

pinch of salt

1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and add water just to cover the bottom.
2. Bring to a boil and cook on medium heat.
3. Stir and mash the apples and continue to cook.
4. Cook. Cook. And cook some more. Until a dark brown color and thick enought to spread.

TwD: COCONUT BUTTER THINS

Up until the age of about 20 or so, asked my favorite food, and I would respond: coconut. Beyond this one word, I could never decide how I liked it best, whether sweetened and shredded or nibbled fresh from the hull. So I've been looking forward to Jayne's pick this week even though shortbread is not my favorite.

I ran into a few bumps. Believe it or not, the grocery store had zero macadamia nuts. I had no coriander, and only unsweetened coconut in the house (and again, none at the store. I guess this is what I get for trying to shop for baking goodies at a health food store.) So I decided to use slivered almonds, unsweetened coconut, and lots of lime zest.

The cookies were very crumbly, both before and after baking. I wasn't able to prick them with a fork before baking. Any and all attempts to softly press down resulted in a huge crevice and many unsightly cracks and crumbs. I was even caught "cleaning" up these crumbs as I chatted on the phone with a "What are you eating?" Oopsy. My cookies didn't turn out to be that attractive, but they did taste good. I think my mom, who loves shortbread, would be able to appreciate them much more than I can, even with the coconut.

These little squares disappeared way too quickly. I nibbled away all night thinking of lime in da coconut pie. And the boy who isn't here, but at his home many 100s of miles away. So the cookies, and all the crumbs, were put to very good use.