dark chocolate balsamic truffles

When I saw Giada make this on her show, I fell in love instantly. I tried it her way, and was a bit bored with it, so I decided to kick it up a notch by rolling them in crushed salty pistachios. Wow, what a difference it made. I'm certain it was the extra salt in the pistachios and the actual crunchy texture that pulled it all together. This is a very rich truffle, so you only need a little bite to satisfy your chocolate craving. After all 70% cacao is an instant fix of chocolate cravings. These would be the perfect holiday gift to give to your friends and family that are foodies.
Note: I did not want to roll them into balls, I wanted a more rustic look since I added on the pistachios. I'm certain using crushed, salted almonds would work too. I don't know about peanuts though--I think the balsamic might not meld well with peanuts.

dark chocolate balsamic truffles
Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis

8 1/2 ounces good quality dark chocolate (70% cacao), chopped
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup cocoa powder (I did not roll them in cocoa powder, I rolled them in about ½ cup of chopped salty pistachios)

Melt the chocolate and cream in a double boiler over hot but not simmering water.
Place melted chocolate in a small bowl. Stir in the balsamic vinegar.
Cool the chocolate in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Remove from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 2 hours, until firm but moldable.
Use a teaspoon to scoop out chocolate. Use your fingertips to shape into balls about the size of a cherry. Set the chocolate balls on a parchment-lined tray.
Place the cocoa powder in a small shallow dish. (this is where I used my chopped salty pistachios instead of the cocoa powder).
Place 6 truffles at a time in the cocoa powder (or the chopped pistachios) and roll the truffles around to coat, and return the coated truffles to the baking sheet.
Continue with the remaining truffles. Place the truffles in a serving dish or airtight package.

devil's food cupcakes w/ salty mascarpone frosting

Is it just me or do you all love to use mascarpone cheese as much as I? Seriously I keep finding new uses for it, good yes, but bad because it's so expensive and I use it a lot in my experiments. Why is it so expensive? Is it hard to make and/or arduous to make? Well, I do love the flavor it brings out in frostings, glazes, and then we have the whole pasta-family too. What other uses am I missing here? Candy? I'm drawing a blank because of my lack of sleep. Well, anywho, it's obvious I love to bake and create with mascarpone cheese. I love that it has a slightly sweet flavor and not an overpowering cheese flavor, hence my latest creation. I came up with this frosting based on my never-ending love for the salty & sweet. This frosting is the show stopper here. It's not that salty, just a hint because the marscapone cheese has a nice delicate sweetness to it so I really didn't want to make it too salty. And the devil's food cake wasn't too chocolately. I wanted a mild chocolate cake base because the frosting has a delicate taste. I used a basic devil's food cupcake recipe from Bobby Flay (Note: when you click on the link you'll see Bobby Flay added in a peanut butter filling, I obviously didn't do that, but let me know if you try it--it sounded good though). If you don't want to use his recipe you can use your own, but I do suggest trying to keep with the devils food theme.

devil's food cupcakes w/ salty mascarpone frosting
cupcakes adapted from Bobby Flay
print recipe

1 1/4 cups cake flour
1/2 cup Dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup strong, hot coffee

Set rack in the middle of oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Line a 12 slot muffin pan with large paper or foil cupcake liners.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt together 3 times. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together at high speed for 15 seconds until combined. Add the eggs 1 at a time beating until each is incorporated. Continue beating until light and fluffy, about 6 minutes longer. With the mixer at its lowest speed, beat in 1/3 the flour mixture. Beat in the buttermilk and vanilla, then another third of the flour. Beat in the coffee and then the remaining flour. Fill the sections of the muffin tin 1/2 full and bake for 15 minutes or until the centers spring back when lightly pressed. Set pan on a rack to cool.

Salty Mascarpone Frosting
By Dawn

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, very soft/room temp
½ box of confectioners' sugar, sifted (16 oz box, used half)
8 ounces of mascarpone cheese, slightly room temp.
½ TB sea salt
1 TB flour
1 - 1 ½ TB half & half

In a mixing bowl, cream butter until smooth, slowly add in sifted confectioners sugar, the sea salt, the flour and mix; you should add in a touch of the half & half--you might not need all the 1 and ½ TB of half & half. Start with a little at a time, I used “barely” 1 TB, but I like my frosting very thick. So use your own judgment and preference.

crispy chicken rollups w/ buttermilk-blue cheese dressing

Not a very glamorous post indeed, but lately I've been strapped for time. Quick meals are my thing lately. When you get strapped for time, stressed, over-worked, etc... you tend to want to eat more comfort foods to well, comfort you. I'm in the process of finding a new home to buy to call my own (yeah!). No more crappy landlords, no more small kitchens, no more burning your money away on rentals.
I'm so guilty of eating bad foods when I'm stressed or lacking time. I've been trying to be good about it by making the comfort foods at home that are semi-healthy, but still tasty so I don't pig out. With all the working out I do I also have to make sure I get enough protein to help stop those cravings of being "prison hungry" and eating everything in sight. Granted this rollup isn't the healthiest, but it's better than my other choice of food which is a bag of salty pistachio's with a couple cans of ginger ale and some dark chocolate. Nice eh?
For me, nothing says quick, satisfying comfort food like fried chicken breasts with crisp veggies, cheddar cheese and a good sauce, all rolled up in warm flatbread. There is this sauce/dressing that is always my go-to. I got it from Martha Stewart. It's good, it's really good, one of those dressings that keep you coming back for more, and finding new ways to use it.
So all I did was deep fry some battered up chicken breasts, let them cool, slice into strips. (I like to fry up a large batch and make them last throughout the rest of the week). Then pile them into a warm flatbread, add any veggies you crave, then that tasty sauce. (I did not add the chives to this, and I pureed the sauce it in a blender--wasn't up to having chunks this time around).

Buttermilk-blue cheese dressing
by Martha Stewart

3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup finely chopped shallot (about 1 shallot)
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 cup crumbled domestic blue cheese

Whisk together buttermilk, mayonnaise, shallot, chives, lemon juice, coarse salt, pepper, and celery salt in a small bowl. Fold in blue cheese. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes.

I didn't even give you what fried chicken recipe I use. Sorry--see how busy and fried my brain is? I use Ms. Paula Deen's recipe found here . I double dip mine in the batter so I get twice the batter on the chicken as the crispy crust is the best part. Make a largee batch of them once, keep what you don't eat in the fridge, and use the rest (cold is great) for the next few rollups and/or sammies for the upcoming week. I've also just bought some of those chicken strips at Whole Foods and used them in this rollup when time is short.

pumpkin scones w/ cinnamon-cider cream cheese glaze

Wouldn't that be cool if you could scratch and sniff this? I used to love those scratch & sniff books as a young kid. You know you're going to be a foodie when you had a collection of the 'scratch & sniff' books as a youngster. Didn't matter that the sniff part lost it's 'sniff'--you could still smell it, no matter what. I had 'pat the bunny' book too; loved the part of dad's rough skin.
I hate to be one-sided here, I know the scone is supposed to be the best in show here, but in all honesty the cinnamon-cider cream cheese glaze just steals it. Not too sweet, and just the right amount of cinnamon to cider to cream cheese ratio. I love when it all balances out. Try these, that cider bite with the gentle pumpkin scone? Oh heavenly.



Don't get me wrong, the pumpkin scone is stellar, I'm just bragging about the glaze--it melds perfectly with the slightly sweet-pumpkiney scone. Of course I had to add sprinkles. I know scones don't really call for sprinkles, but I got these all natural sprinkles from Whole Foods. There's no dye, no chemicals, no junk--love that. That orange color is just so fabulous for these scones. And they have a taste to them as well. Look for them at Whole Foods as they have beautiful array of colors.



pumpkin scones with cinnamon-cider cream cheese glaze
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2 cups all-purpose flour
1 TB baking powder
1/2 ts baking soda
¾ ts salt
¾ ts ground cinnamon
½ ts ground nutmeg
¼ ts ground all spice
6 ½ TB cold butter, grated with cheese grater (store in freezer till ready to use)
½ cup canned pumpkin (not the pie filling, just plain old pumpkin puree)
7 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
3 TB heavy cream
1 large egg

Glaze:
¾ cup +/- confectioners sugar, sifted
4 oz. cream cheese, room temp (nice & soft)
1 ts ground cinnamon
A dash or three of pure apple cider

Grate your butter with the large holes of a cheese grater. Then back into the freezer until you’re ready to use them. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. (I have a confection so I did 400 degrees). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and all the spices, set aside.
In a medium bowl combine the pumpkin, sugar, cream and egg. Beat well until nice and combined.
Get out your butter from the freezer, and add that to the flour mixture. Mix with fork or pastry cutter until you have bread-like crumbs.
Then fold the wet ingredients, in 2 batches into the butter/flour mixture. Use a wooden spoon or spatula. Make sure to not overbeat and get all the dry crumbly bits at the bottom of the bowl.
Dust your work space with generous amounts of flour and place dough down. You might want to dust your hands with flour as you will need to shape this dough into a large circle. Dough will be sticky. Once you have a ball, gently press down and out, forming the dough into a flattened circle. About 8-10 inches round. Dough will crack when you press down, just pinch & repair as you go along.
Dust a large, sharp knife with flour and cut the dough into six triangles. Slide the knife under each triangle to help you lift and transfer it to the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 14 – 16 minutes, or until the scones begin to turn light brown in color. Mine were done at the 12 minute mark so check them at 10 or 12 minutes.
While scones are baking assemble the glaze by adding in the soft cream cheese to a medium size bowl, add in the sifted confectioners sugar, cinnamon, and a couple dashes of the apple cider. Don’t add in all the cider at once; it’s better to add in small doses than larger ones. Get out the handheld mixer and beat until well mixed, no lumps are present. You can add as much or as little apple cider depending on how thick you like your glaze.
Let scones cool a bit on a rack before glazing.

tangy meatloaf bread

I love meatloaf I do, but I hate it. I hate plain old meatloaf: a loaf of meat blah. I will eat meatloaf if it has a nice thick char-crust, full of flavor inside, and a lot of texture on the top. I've always felt that meatloaf needs something else: a coat, a jacket or something to add to it. Like a coat of bread. Just a plain old loaf of meat is, well, ick. Am I explaining this right? All mushy tasting with nothing to help it out. So I love to make my meatloaf enclosed in bread, BUT I still want that nice sticky, salty, sweet char-like topping--so I put that on the bread because if you put it on the meatloaf inside the bread it will just dissappear, melt away. The tanginess of the sauce on top of the bread is wonderful. Even if you don't eat meat you can fill this loaf with veggies and cheese, but use that tangy glaze! OK?

That end piece? Totally mine.

tangy meatloaf bread
print recipe

1 (1 pound) loaf frozen bread dough, thawed
Some EV olive oil
1 lb. 85 lean ground beef
Few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
1 sweet onion chopped, lightly sautéed
1 green pepper chopped, lightly sautéed
1 cup +/- shredded mild cheddar or whatever cheese you like
¾ cup to 1 cup of caramelized onions, optional but wonderful
Cornmeal (for bottom of bread dough)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a skillet heat up a little bit of extra virgin olive oil, lightly sauté the onions & peppers; add some salt & pepper. Remove from pan then thoroughly cook the ground beef; season with salt & pepper. You want to cook the beef till almost done, not all the way as it will finish cooking in the oven. At the last minute of cooking the ground beef drain off the fat, leave a bit in there for flavor, then add in a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce. Then add back in the sautéed peppers & onions; mix all together; turn off heat; set aside. Get out your silpat and jellyroll pan and sprinkle with a bit of cornmeal (optional). Roll thawed bread dough out into a rectangle onto a silpat sheet.
I place the filling on one side of the dough, I don’t sprinkle it around as I want the center to be one layer. But feel free to do as you like. Place the cooked meat mixture on the dough, then add a layer of caramelized onions, then top off with cheese. Roll up dough like a jelly roll and pinch seams to seal; place, seam side down. If dough is really sticky dip your fingers into some flour, repeat if necessary as you continue to roll. Bake for about 30 – 40 minutes, depending on your oven. While this is baking mix up the tangy glaze and get it ready to put on the loaf. At the 15 – 20 minute mark use a pastry brush and smear the tangy glaze over the top of the loaf. Bake for remaining time or until the bread crust is lightly golden brown.
You need to wait about 10 minutes before slicing this bad boy.

Tangy Glaze
1/2 cup ketchup
4 TB dark brown sugar
4 ts cider vinegar
Couple dashes of hot sauce, optional but wonderful

Mix all together in a dish. Put on the loaf about halfway thru its cooking time.