Chocolate

I recently watched the movie Chocolat. I have always been impressed that they can make the sheer bliss of chocolate a character within that movie. It evokes feeling and personality, depending on how it is used. And every time I watch that movie I find myself wanting to explore with chocolate. One of the ways I do this is with this quick and easy recipe for chocolate fondue:

CHOCOLATE FONDUE
1 c. semisweet chocolate
1/2 c. evaporated milk
Dippables such as strawberries, banana pieces cut into 1-inch chunks, dried appricots, candied ginger, apple pieces

Put in a pan over low heat. Cook until melted. Add to the fondue pot on low. Add vanilla if flavoring is not strong enough.

Variations
Add a tablespoon or two of Bailey's Irish Cream to the chocolate. Other liquors such as Grand Marnier, Amaretto, or Kirsch are equally yummy.

Add a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and ancho chili pepper for a nice Mexican Chocolate.

The contents of a vanilla pod or some vanilla extract are always a decadent touch to chocolate.

A good pinch of espresso powder can do wonders!

Orange zest or grapefruit zest is a nice way to create a slightly fruity chocolate.

A few tablespoons of Torani flavoring syrups (the kind used for coffee or Italian sodas) can add a nice dimension of flavor as well.

White chocolate is always a nice change, and spiked with a little liquor or citrus zest becomes heavenly.

Success!

Yesterday's meeting was a huge success! I want to thank all the nice people who joined us! We are thrilled to be starting this new book club and we hope you and others will join us next time. Doug, a chef from PLU dining services, did a cooking demonstration on Moules Mariniers. His knowledge and expertise is what made the demonstration so much fun and educational!


Our next meeting will be Thursday April 1st at 6:00pm. We will be discussing The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister. Here is a quick teaser about what it is about:

Once a month on Monday night, eight students gather in Lillian’s restaurant for a cooking class. Among them is Claire, a young woman coming to terms with her new identity as a mother; Tom, a lawyer whose life has been overturned by loss; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer adapting to life in America; and Carl and Helen, a long-married couple whose union contains surprises the rest of the class would never suspect.
The students come to learn the art behind Lillian’s dishes, but it soon becomes clear that each unknowingly seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. One by one they are transformed into the aromas, flavors, and textures of what they create. Over time, the paths of the students mingle and intertwine, and the essence of Lillian’s cooking expands beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of their lives, with results that are often unexpected, and always delicious.

School of Essential Ingredients is Erica's is a resident of Seattle so as a special treat Erica will make a guest appearance during our meeting! She will also be doing a reading from her book, answering questions, and signing books as well! Check out some of the recipes from her book here: http://www.ericabauermeister.com/recipes.html Can you guess which recipe we will be doing as demonstration at our next meeting?

That's all for now! I will be starting the book this weekend so I am looking forward to sharing my insights and experiences with you.

2 Days Until Our First Meeting

In honor of our upcoming meeting I thought I would share with you the recipe we are going to do a cooking demonstration for. This recipe is also from Ruth Reichl's book Garlic and Sapphires.

Moules Marinieres

4 pounds mussels
1 onion, diced
2 shallots, diced
1 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Chopped Parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Wash the mussels

Combine the onion, shallots, and wine in a large pot and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the mussels, cover, and cook over high heat, shaking from time to time, for about 4 minutes, or until all the mussels have opened. Discard unopened mussels.

Add the butter and chopped parsley. Season the broth to taste with salt and pepper. Serve in individual bowls, with an extra bowl for empty shells and a loaf of crusty bread to mop up the sauce.
Serves 4

We will have a chef from Pacific Lutheran University come walk you through this recipe at our meeting so please come join us for this delicious meal! Also there have been rumors of a free take home prize too!

Remember Wednesday February 24th at 6:30pm! Hope to see you there!

Dinner Party Recipes and Games

The sun is finally starting to make its appearance in Pacific Northwest! Sunshine has a way of inspiring us to be more productive and also entices us to go outside! What would be the perfect way to spend a sunny Saturday? Why a dinner party of course! I was inspired to write about dinner parties because Ruth Reichl, author of Garlic and Sapphires, has to go to many many dinners. She describes dinner parties gone horribly wrong and dinner parties where the food was delicious and the wine was flowing.

We would like to help your create your own perfect dinner party!

To start the party out right the perfect appetizer is needed. We thought Gougeres would be ideal since it is one of the recipes Ruth raves about in Garlic and Sapphires


Gougeres

1 cup water
1/4 pound (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
5 eggs
1 cup diced Gruyere cheese
Pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Combine the water, butter and a teaspoon of the salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring until butter melts. Remove the pan from the heat, let cool slightly, stir in the floor, and mix well. Return the pan to the heat and stir with a wooden spoon over high heat until the mixture comes away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the heat.

Stir in the egg, one at a time until well combined. Add the diced cheese, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper, stirring well.

Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons onto a well-buttered baking pan. Smooth the top and side of each gougere with a knife, and sprinkle with grated cheese.

Bake in batches for 25 minutes, or until puffed and golden.

Serve immediately.
Makes 8 cocktail servings

Another ingredient to make the perfect dinner party is games! Check out this website for inventive, quirky, and fun games that will make your dinner party the talk of the town. http://www.partygameideas.com/ Do you have any dinner party tips about decorations, recipes, or games? We would love your input.

Remember Food For Thought's first meeting is Wednesday February 24th at 6:30pm. There will be a cooking demonstration, prizes, and great discussion. We hope to see you there!

Belated Valentine's Day

The day of love has came and gone, but that does not mean that we can't appreciate the better parts Valentine's Day has to offer all year round! Chocolate, pastries, chocolate, cookies, and did I mention chocolate!?! With that in mind I thought I would share a recipe from Garlic and Sapphires which combines my two favorite things in the world: chocolate and cake!

Last-Minute Chocolate Cake

This cake just calls for a scoop of vanilla ice cream on each slice.

4 ounces fine-quality unsweetened chocolate

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter

3/4 cup brewed strong black coffee

2 tablespoons Grand Marnier

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt


Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
Butter and flour a 9-inch-by 5-inch loaf pan.
Combine the chocolate, butter, and coffee in the top of a double boiler or in a very heavy pot, and stir constantly over low heat until melted. Let the mixture cook for 15 minutes. Then add the Grand Marnier, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Stir well.
Stir the flour, baking soda, an salt together, and add this to the chocolate mixture. Pout the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until toothpick is inserted in the center comes our clean.
Serves 6

I am half way through Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl and am learning a lot and also getting very hungry while reading it. Last-Minute Chocolate Cake is a recipe from her book and I can't wait to try it. What do you think of putting coffee in a chocolate cake?

Remember our first Food For Thought Book Club meeting is February 24th at 6:30pm. We will have a cooking demonstration from one of Reich's wonderful recipes and there have been rumors about a take home prize at our first meeting!

Banana Bread

My name is Brianne Sorensen. I'm a baker at heart, and love to take old favorites and spice them up a little bit. Recently, I've been making a lot of banana bread, and so I thought I'd share the recipe. I got the basic recipe from elise.com/recipes, but spruced it up a bit to give it more flavor.


This is the original recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

METHOD

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

To give this recipe more flavor, I use brown sugar instead of white sugar, add about a cup of walnuts, and a teaspoon of nutmeg. I also sprinkle a little brown sugar and more walnuts on top.

The great thing about banana bread is that it's incredibly easy to make and can be altered to fit individual tastes. I hope everyone enjoys this recipe!

Brianne

Before we get to know each other more, I would first like to introduce myself. My name is Lindsay Mackert and I am a junior at Pacific Lutheran University. My passions in life is books and food so it is only appropriate I help with this book club. My contribution to this book club will be unique because you the reader will be right along with me as I learn more about cooking and to speak plainly how to cook in general. I am a novice to say the least and am thrilled to embark on this book club with you.

Being a college student I would like cooking to be quick, simple, and inexpensive. That is why I wanted to start my first blog post sharing the easiest and best recipe I have ever made....Pizza Spaghetti. It may seem weird at first, but prepare yourself to be pleasantly surprised. I got the recipe from AllRecipes.com:

Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 45 minutes
1 (8 ounce) package spaghetti, broken into 2-inch pieces
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1 (16 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
4 ounces pepperoni sausage, sliced

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add spaghetti and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain and cool.
Beat egg in large bowl, add milk, 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese, salt and garlic salt. Stir in cooked spaghetti, mix well.
Spread mixture evenly in greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and reduce temperature to 350 degrees. Spread sauce over spaghetti. Sprinkle with oregano, basil and the remaining 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese. Top with pepperoni, return to oven and bake for 30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before cutting.

I liked the idea of it being a casserole, spaghetti, and pizza all rolled into one! It was also one of those recipes that called for stuff I already had in my kitchen so it made for a stress free experience. A few things I would add is don't worry about the noodles in the oven for 15 minutes I was worried about them burning, but they didn't. If I could do it over again I would add a bit more milk to keep the noodles more moist. Also you can never have enough cheese or pepperoni!

I started Garlic and Sapphires last night so I will have more on that later! I hope to see you at the book club February 24th at 6:30pm.

February's Book

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
by: Ruth Reichl

Our first meeting of the Food For Thought Book Club will be February 24th at 6:30pm. We chose Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl because it is also the Pierce County Read for 2010.

Description:
"Ruth Reichl, world-renowned food critic and editor in chief of Gourmet magazine, knows a thing or two about food. She also knows that as the most important food critic in the country, you need to be anonymous when reviewing some of the most high-profile establishments in the biggest restaurant town in the world—a charge she took very seriously, taking on the guise of a series of eccentric personalities. In Garlic and Sapphires, Reichl reveals the comic absurdity, artifice, and excellence to be found in the sumptuously appointed stages of the epicurean world and gives us—along with some of her favorite recipes and reviews—her remarkable reflections on how one’s outer appearance can influence one’s inner character, expectations, and appetites, not to mention the quality of service one receives."