Truffle Shuffle

I made these delicious truffles for my book group since we just read the book Chocolat.

Ingredients:

12 ounces bitter sweet or semi sweet chocolate chips

1 cup heavy cream

pinch of salt

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Toppings:

Andes mint baking chips

toffee,

macadamia nuts

sifted cocoa powder

Put chocolate chips in a medium size bowl and let it hang out. Next heat cream and salt in a medium sauce pan until it simmers. Take it off the heat, stir in vanilla then add your cream mixture to the chocolate chips. Wisk until smooth. Refrigerate covered for about 4 hours till it's thick.

When it's thickened up, ready plates or bowls with spoons with your chosen toppings. Take a spoon and scoop out a section of the chocolate and roll it into a ball in your hands. Use spoons to help you roll the ball in your toppings so as not to mix them together. Put the covered truffles on a lined cookie sheet with parchment paper and back in the fridge to set up over night. Then enjoy!

Cakes and Things

For Drew's birthday she wanted a Polka Dot theme. Unfortunately the only place we could incorporate the theme was in the food, particularly the cake. I made a simple box cake, the funfetti one to be exact, because it looked like polka dots when you cut it, covered it with a simple buttercream icing, mixed my marshmallow fondant, colored it, then cut and applied the dots by brushing the tiniest bit of water on the back to make it glue together.

Have you read this?

If not get this book, make this cake and eat it while you read it. The book is great and the cake will take care of your chocolate cravings you get from reading it.

Death by Chocolate! A flour less chocolate cake with ganache.

The only thing I did differently was make two cakes each in a 9 inch round spring form pan. Layered a cake, ganache, cake, ganache and frosted the outside as well and put it in the fridge to let the ganache set. It tasted better the day after so let it sit in the fridge overnight and take it out as soon as you're ready to serve it. This cake is SO rich that each person only needs a sliver and a glassful of milk! I really only had to do one cake but I love the layered look and didn't want to chance cutting it in half and having the whole cake fall apart on me. Also to get your cakes, brownies, bread loafs anything you bake in a pan to come out nice and clean make pan release. It has a long shelf life so save the leftovers of your pan release in an air tight container in your cupboard and use it till it's gone.

If you like chile...

You'll like Dominican Chili Beans with Coconut Rice!

2 cans of kidney or pinto beans

1 to 2 lbs hamburger

2 t. salt - of these spices I used what I had and eyeballed it

1 t. pepper

1 1/2 T. chili powder   

1 T. garlic powder

1 t. onion powder

1 t. cumin

1 t. oregano

1 t. ground coriander

1 t. tumeric

2 Green peppers, chopped  - Kurt hates green peppers but I had a Serrano on hand that I used

1/4 - 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

1 qt. diced stewed tomatoes

1 onion, chopped

3 small cans tomato sauce or 1 big one

Brown the hamburger then add the beans and everything else.  Simmer 1 hour stirring occasionally.  Server over coconut rice.

Coconut Rice

For every cup of dry rice add 1 T. dry milk and 1 T. coconut extract.  Cook rice according to package directions.

But what I did is for ever cup of dry rice add that many cups of coconut milk.  Then add 1 3/4 cup water, 1 t. veggie oil, and a little salt.  If boiling on a stove bring up to a boil then turn it down and let it simmer on low for about 20 min.  Stir once or twice.

Seriously this is SO good and easy.  Sorry if I made it sound harder than it is but I always seem to do things differently than the directions.  And I love this recipe because you can change it to your liking.  I also usually have everything on the list in my kitchen at all times and I love recipes that I don't have to go out and buy things.

Giada's Family Dinners: Lasagna Rolls, Serves 6

Sauce

 2 T unsalted butter

4 t flour

1 1/4 C Whole Milk

1/4 t salt

1/8 t pepper

pinch of nutmeg

Lasagna 

1 (15-ounce) container whole-milk ricotta cheese

1 (10-ounce) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed really dry

1 C plus 2 T parmesan cheese

3 oz thinly sliced prosciutto, chopped

1 egg, lightly beaten

3/4 t salt, plus more for pasta

1/2 t pepper

12 dried lasagna noodles

butter, for baking dish

2 cups good marinara sauce

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

To make the sauce

Melt the butter in a medium, heavy saucepan over medium-low heat.  Add the flour and cook for 3 min., whisking continuously.  Whisk in the milk.  Increase the heat to medium-high.  Whisk the sauce until it comes to a simmer and is thick and smooth, about 3 min.  Whisk the salt, pepper, and nutmeg into the cream sauce.

To make the lasagna

In a medium bowl, stir together the ricotta, spinach, 1 cup of parmesan cheese, prosciutto, egg, the 3/4 t salt, and pepper until blended.

Bring a very large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.  Ass the lasagna noodles and cook until just tender but still firm to the bite, stirring frequently to prevent the noodles from sticking together.  Drain.  Arrange the noodles in a singe layer on a baking sheet to prevent them from sticking.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.  Butter a 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish.  Spread the cream sauce over the bottom of the prepared dish.

Lay out 4 lasagna noodles on a work surface, then spread about 3 T of the ricotta mixture evenly over each noodle.  Roll the noodles up and arrange the rolls, seam sides down and not touching one another, atop the cream sauce.  Repeat with the remaining noodles and ricotta mixture.  Spoon 1 cup of the marinara sauce over the lasagna rolls then sprinkle with the mozzarella and remaining 2 T of parmesan cheese.  Cover the dish tightly with foil.  Bake until rolls are heated through and the sauce bubbles, about 20 min.  Uncover and bake until the cheese on top is golden, about 1 min longer.  Let stand for 10 min.

Meanwhile, heat the reaming marinara sauce in a small, heavy saucepan over medium heat until hot.  Transfer the sauce to a sauceboat and serve alongside.