Chocolate Mint Tingle

My favorite dessert:

CHOCO-MINT TINGLE SHAKE
by Josh Blackwelder

Serves 4.

1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa (we like Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa, or Callebaut)
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup milk
24 cubes frozen whole milk (freeze 4 cups milk in ice cube trays)
10 to 15 peppermint discs (20 to 30 ounces)

Heat unfrozen milk and sugar over medium heat. Whisk in cocoa until dissolved. Pour chocolate mixture in blender. Add milk ice cubes and pulse blender until cubes are all blended up. Add peppermint candy and run blender on high for 5 seconds or until candy is finely chopped. Divide among four 12-oz. glasses. Serve immediately.

Note: use a high-powered blender like a Blendtec or Vitamix for best results. We burned out a few cheap blenders making these before we finally got a real workhorse.

Another (less important) note: This has a lot less fat and less sugar than the average chocolate shake made with icecream, and costs less to make too.

p.s. I would post a picture but am having trouble with the blog...can't seem to get the "add a picture" function to work. Maybe later when someone a little more tech-savvy gets home from work.

Christmas delights

This is the delightful new bedspread Amberlee sewed for me for my birthday. It makes me so happy, almost giddy, every time I walk in the room and get a shot of all those bright colors! It's exactly the picker-upper I crave in the middle of winter.

These are the Thomas Keller gougeres we made for Christmas dinner (from Bouchon, I think). Wow! Another deluxe delight this Christmas!! I have to say though, that I like the Tartine gougeres a LOT too, and the Tartine variety are so beautiful. I'd like to make them both the same day next time so I can compare them, especially the flavors, more fairly. It's been too long since we made the Tartine gougeres, so it's hard for me to be sure of which ones taste better. Josh thinks the Thomas Keller version tastes better while the Tartine version looks better.
And here I am eating a chocolate pot de creme (recipe courtesy of Cook's Illustrated) at the Christmas Eve party. The chocolate was topped with whipped cream then garnished with crushed peppermint candy and a peppermint meringue cookie. Make sure to serve these when the chocolate creme is at room temperature. They taste much better (smoother, creamier, lighter, yet still very rich) than when they're cold (too rich and overwhelming...you can only eat one or two bites when they're chilled).
Seems like I forgot to take pictures of the rest of our Christmas festivities. Oops. I was too busy making the festivities happen to also make some pictures happen. At least Josh remembered the camera on Christmas morning. The videos he took are the best. See the videos of the kids on Christmas morning.

Preparing for Easters

We dyed eggs at the 'rents place. I think Mavis and Annie (not even pictured here) dyed the most eggs — close to 2 dozen each. Izak is on his mission, and his friend, Jana, who is a girl (not officially the girlfriend, although they do write to each other every single week!) comes over every now and then to hang out. Jana and her sister Kate showed up when we were dyeing eggs. That was fun for us. It was also especially nice that Jana and Lexy watched the kids for us afterward so we (me and the sibs and spouses and 'rents) could all go to Shoga for dinner. I've only been once, but I was pretty impressed with Shoga, the new Japanese restaurant next door to Outback in Orem (kitty corner from the University Mall ... just South and West of it). Real Fresh! And flavorful. I'm excited to go back. Also, I finally made it to red mango and it was real fresh too. Great flavor! I had the regular flavor yogurt with strawberries and mango. It was exceptional!

Lastly, and more importantly, in the week leading up to Easter I ended up talking with Mavis about the meaning of Easter. We talked about Jesus' death (we didn't go into much detail yet) and His resurrection. Also, several weeks ago we visited Grandma Irons again, Janet's mom, who is quite old now, and close to death. She has soft, bony hands; thin, matted, grey hair; hunched over body; can't hear much, etc. It scared Mavis a bit, although she was a good sport and gave out hugs, danced for Grandma, and let Great-grandma hold her hand. So out of the blue, on multiple occasions, Mavis angrily told me, "I don't want to die!!" "I'm not going to get old!" "I don't like Heavenly Father's plan!" And then, when she was in trouble the other day she yelled at me "You just want me to die!" It seems that my attempts to teach her about Easter and resurrection, and our visits to Grandma have combined to cause her quite a bit of inner turmoil. She was so sad that it made me feel sad too, although I have to admit that deep down I also wanted to chuckle a bit at how sensitive and thoughtful she is. I was thinking about this in church the other day and realizing that the reason I don't suffer from the same fear is because I have felt the comforting spirit of the Holy Ghost confirming to me that there is life after death, and that there is a Savior, which is Jesus. I hope to be able to help Mavis find her answers and feel the same peace in her heart.

Pretzels and Khao Niao

Josh made some pretzels the other day. This time I shaped a few tiny ones. They are so tasty.

I made some Khao Niao something or other (Thai Purple Sticky Rice) served with a sweet coconut sauce — one of my favorite desserts in Thailand.

Spark

Last night we tried to go out to a new restaurant, Gloria's Little Italy in Provo. But the wait was too long so we headed next door to Spark. What a lucky change of plans. We've been to Spark a few times before and it's one of the top restaurants in Utah Valley, by far. When it comes to presentation they may be first. When it comes to flavor, there are a few others that can compete, such as Pizzeria 712, and, umm, well, maybe that's it.

Anyways, about the food: the fettucine dish was DELUXE! We were so in love. Also, the potato leek soup was excellent — very rich and full flavored. Both dishes were enhanced with truffle oil, and wow, that always makes for something extra special. I also had hebi (fish from Hawaii — I'd never heard of it before) served over braised carrots and a red lentil cake, all very delicious.

If you don't want to go all out for dinner, just go later and get dessert or a drink. They've got some fun drinks. I especially like the apple martini (even after it's gone it's wonderful to put your nose in and inhale the leftover aroma), and the shirley temple (to be fair, although it does taste good, I'm mostly just in love with the shirley temple because it's so CUTE, but in a chic, dressed up sort of way — all pink with a stick of cotton candy on top.

Kamut for Valentine's

Kamut Pancakes again. I used the squirt bottle technique to make heart shapes this time. Layered with strawberries and cream this was simple to make, and lovely to consume. The strawberries were macerated overnight in sugar and crushed soft green peppercorns. The peppercorns add a bright tangy flavor to the juice that releases from the strawberries. I find it delightful. I've eaten it with whole peppercorns instead, but they are much more intense and thus better paired with something a bit heavier (like a big dish of vanilla bean icecream—I got this from the dessert menu at Café Madrid, a favorite restaurant of ours in Salt Lake City).

Kamut Pancakes

These are my favorite pancakes. I like them thin, but with a light, fluffy texture inside.

1 large egg
1 cup kamut flour
1 1/4 cup milk (add a little more if you want the pancakes even thinner)
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
2 Tablespoons oil (I usually use olive oil)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt

Oil the griddle or skillet and heat to medium low. Meanwhile, fill a plastic squeeze bottle with the batter (think honey bear, or ketchup bottle with the pointed tip). When a drop of water in the pan sizzles and dances around the pan is hot enough. Use the bottle of batter to draw fun shapes in the pan. When pancake is covered with bubbles, and fairly dry around the edges flip and cook on the other side for about 15 to 30 seconds (give or take, depending on how hot your pan is).


My second favorite recipe is Janet's whole wheat & flax pancake. Someday I'll find that and post it too.

Butterflies, Princesses & Ponies for the Birthday Girl

We started the glorious morning with delectable kamut pancakes in delightful shapes. I put the pancake batter in a plastic squeezable bottle with a pointed tip (like the ketchup bottles or honey bears). It makes it relatively easy to create detailed shapes such as

a butterfly,

a princess crown,

or an initial.

Shiny butterflies adorned the invitations for the party held in the afternoon. We folded the wings before gluing to help them get their flight on.

Princess attire was the only appropriate form of dress for the occasion.The party started with plenteous carousel rides.
Then we had a royal feast of butterfly-shaped pb&js, and fanciful crudités cut out with cookie cutters.
More carousel riding ensued, followed by butterfly birthday cake (100% whole grain, and DELICIOUS!)

Softened Butter

I often make recipes (like cakes) that call for softened butter. Of course, I rarely plan ahead so I need a way to soften the butter quickly without melting it. My favorite method is to slice the butter into about 1/4 inch slices (1 tablespoon or a little less each). I sometimes turn the oven on for a minute then turn it off, open it and put the plate of sliced butter in the open oven. I leave it there, for a few minutes (with the door still open), and it's ready.

Chocolate Class for Enrichment

I taught a class about chocolate and made a whole bunch of my favorite recipes that use chocolate for everyone to samp. Here are the chocolate kamut cupcakes.

Valentine's Day Goodies / Candy Rings

I got excited about making candy rings and this is my first try. I made some to give as Valentine's Day gifts...shhh, don't tell! First I made some from a traditional hard candy recipe. They worked pretty well. Then I tried some using agave syrup. They also worked pretty well, plus they're much easier on the body. The agave candy doesn't get quite as hard as the traditional hard candy, but it is clear and tastes nice. It's the easiest recipe ever:

Ingredient: agave (as much or as little as you like)

Directions:

1 Heat agave syrup in a saucepan on High until it reaches 330 degrees Farenheit or until the syrup forms a hard ball when dropped in ice water.

2 Pour hot syrup into greased candy molds, or onto a sheet of greased parchment paper or a silicone mat.

3 Let cool for 20 min or until completely cooled, then remove candy from molds and eat! You can dust them with powdered sugar then package in an airtight container to save for later.