Dark Chocolate Candy Cane Kiss Mini Cheesecakes

Oh boy...I saw this recipe and started to drool.  I adore dark chocolate and peppermint together, and cheesecake?  Let's just say I think it's a perfect food!  Click here for the recipe.  Great for a holiday party...or a party for one!  ;-)

source:  Lauren's Latest food blog

Short-Rib Beef Stew with Ale

It's an autumn weekend, and I'm in the mood for a hearty stew.  Just came across this recipe on Simply Recipes, and it looks ah-ma-zing!  I'll make it this weekend and let you know how it turns out.  Need a dessert?  Pop over to Dancing Branflakes for an Apple Pie Crescent Roll recipe!

baked apple french toast casserole

Well, it's getting to be that time of year when comfort-food cravings kick in...just had to share this yummy recipe from One Perfect Bite!

 Baked Apple French Toast Casserole...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
French Toast
1 (1 pound) loaf French bread, torn into bite-size cubes
6 eggs
1-1/2 cups skim milk
1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons white sugar, divided use
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 medium Golden Delicious apples - peeled, cored and cut in 1/2-inch dice
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Syrup:

1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup skim milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:
1) Spray or grease bottom and sides of a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.
2) To make French toast: Scatter bread cubes in bottom of prepared pan. Place eggs, milk, 1/3 cup sugar and vanilla in a large bowl and beat to combine. Pour mixture over bread cubes. Mix cinnamon, nutmeg and 2 tablespoons sugar in a medium bowl. Add apple cubes and toss to coat. Spread apples over bread cubes. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Thirty minutes before baking, remove casserole from refrigerator and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake casserole for 60 to 75 minutes, or until custard is set and golden brown. Serve casserole hot with warm syrup. Yield: 8 servings.
3) To make syrup: Combine white sugar, flour, and melted butter in a small saucepan. Stir in brown sugar, skim milk, and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Cook, stirring, until thick.

Lime Sorbet Margaritas

I love this clever recipe for margaritas courtesy of Real Simple.  No blender mess!

Serves 8| Hands-On Time: 10m| Total Time: 10m

Ingredients

• 1 lime, cut into 8 wedges
• 1/4  cup  sugar
• 2  pints lime sorbet
• 1/2  cup  tequila

Directions

1. Rub the lime wedges around the rims of 8 stemmed glasses. Place the sugar on a small plate. Turn each glass upside down and dip the rims in the sugar to coat.
2. Place 2 scoops of sorbet in each glass and pour 1 tablespoon of tequila over the top of each. Serve with a spoon.

Grilled Sweet Potatoes

If you love sweet potatoes as much as I do, this recipe from Simply Recipes is a must!  Find it here.

Georgetown Cupcake comes to Boston

For all my fellow New Englanders out there, great news - Georgetown Cupcake just opened a new shop on Newbury Street in Boston!  I can't wait to check it out.  There was also a recent opening in SoHo, and one coming up in Los Angeles in September.  For more info, click here.

spring soup recipes

As is typical in New Hampshire, just when you think spring is finally here, cool weather returns, so I'm thinking about making soup.  Here are a couple of great recipes I'd like to try - not too heavy, perfect for spring.

Click on the photos for complete recipes.

Creamy Asparagus Soup ~ Simply Recipes

...and Curried Potato and Vegetable Soup ~ Simply Recipes

Poires Belle Hélène

One of my favorite blogs, Fabulously French, has a delightful french food post every Friday.  While going through some of her older posts, I discovered this delicious recipe.  I had this dessert in France years ago, and they're heavenly...not to mention very sensuous to look at!  I just make these this weekend for The Fabulous Boyfriend.  ;-)

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

So, The Fabulous Boyfriend got me a jug of fresh maple syrup (literally fresh, part of a friend's batch made last week), so I've been cruising the net looking for unique pancake recipes....and I stumbled upon this amazing goodness:

 Sure, you don't need the maple syrup with this cream cheese topping, but I bet a smidge drizzled over the top would be yum-o!
Find the recipe here.

Chocolate Guinness Cake

Well now, this sounds delicious!  I bet choco and guinness makes for a great cake marriage. And yep, perfect for St. Patrick's Day.  Find the recipe here.

Southern Corn Bread Recipe

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The Fabulous Boyfriend loves cornbread.  A restaurant up the street from us makes a delicious version served with maple butter.  My previous attempts at making (or, sin of all sins, buying) it for him were a miserable failure, but since my mom bought me a cast iron skillet for Christmas, I'm going to try it again and see if I can redeem myself.  The cast iron skillet is, apparently, a must for cooking this bread (what do I know?  I'm just a Yankee).  I'll let you know how it turns out!

Recipe courtesy of One Perfect Bite: 

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups white cornmeal, preferably stone ground
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups buttermilk
4 large eggs, beaten

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Put butter in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet and melt the butter in oven.
2) Meanwhile, mix cornmeal with cream of tartar, salt and baking soda in a large bowl. Add buttermilk and eggs and stir to blend.
3) Remove skillet from oven and swirl to coat with butter. Pour melted butter into batter and stir just until incorporated. Scrape batter into hot skillet and bake for about 35 minutes, or until crusty around edges and springy to touch. Invert corn bread onto a rack and let cool completely. Yield: 1 10-inch cake.

Chocolate as Art ~ Dancing Lion

   Have you ever tasted something so divine that it moved you to tears?  That is precisely what happened to me upon my first sip of Dancing Lion's drinking chocolate. The flavor was exquisitely beautiful:  delicately nuanced, yet rich, bold, and intoxicating. I knew that not only did the person who created this possess great technical skill with chocolate, but had a deep, passionate love affair with it.  I was enraptured.

My partner, George, first learned of Dancing Lion while watching a feature on a local television show.  Knowing how much I adore chocolate, he excitedly told me about it, and we planned to go the following weekend.  Prior to our visit, I explored their website, and knew it was going to be a very special experience after reading this about owner/chocolatier, Richard Tango-Lowy:

I first encountered the True Soul of chocolate in 1995. For fifteen years I have sought her subtle nuances, studied her moods, struggled to understand her complex temper. She is a most difficult mistress; coquettish and proud, quick to anger, open only to the most patient of overtures. I’ve learned to prepare her in the ancient ways of the Maya and in the gleaming kitchens of the finest Parisian chocolatiers. I have studied her at ecole Chocolat in Vancouver and at the prestigious Ecole du Grand Chocolat Valrhona in the Rhone Valley of France. I am proud to count among my friends some of the finest chocolatiers from Montreal to Melbourne to Guatemala. Chocolate is my passion. I will never master her–who can master one so willful and tempestuous? But I will continue to woo her and to craft a small bit of her soul into each truffle and bonbon I create. For chocolate is art. And as art she is magnificent.

Richard Tango-Lowy, January 2010 

The shop was very busy during our first visit, as many others who had seen the TV special were also there.  The decor was lovely - earthy, warm, and relaxing.  A bit unsure where to start, we finally decided to order the drinking chocolate with blood orange (in a "frothy bowl")...and the swooning began.  We also purchased several truffles which we savored at length later that day.  The woman working the counter, Kathy, was very kind and knowledgeable, helping us with our purchase and talking about Rich's background.  I was hoping to tell Rich how much I loved his chocolate, but we only got a brief glimpse of him that day.

The shop was more quiet during our second visit, so George and I got the chance to speak with Rich at length.  He talked about each of the truffles and bars as though they were beloved children.  From his meticulous selection of his cacao suppliers, to how he gently coaxes the exquisite, complex ingredients to blend and mingle into one perfect truffle, bar, or drinking chocolate, his passion is beautifully manifested in his art.  I told him about my "teary-eyed" experience, and he smiled and said, "Our tagline was almost 'chocolate that makes you cry'."  Try it, and I bet you'll agree.  And don't miss the croissants; they're the best I've tasted outside of Paris.

I can't believe how fortunate we are to have such a place less than an hour from home!
If you live in New England (or plan to visit), I can't implore you enough to visit Dancing Lion.  If you're not closeby, call them...they may just be able to deliver some heaven to your door.
Find their website here, and watch the TV feature here.

Rich, preparing our "frothy bowls" of drinking chocolate

Be sure to speak with Kathy while you're there!

This beauty came home with me :)

My Valentine's Day box from George....he's so good to me!

this card was inside...beautifully romantic!

each piece is to be admired and savored

Caramelized Onion Tart with Gorgonzola and Brie

How does "crispy, pillowy puff pastry, balsamic caramelized onions, topped with sprinklings of gorgonzola, brie, and tarragon" sound to you?  Sounds like heaven to me!  I'd pair it with a nice red wine (Apothic Red is my current favorite).  Find the recipe here.

Honey Mulled Wine Recipe

Winter has officially arrived, and in my corner of the world, it's time to hunker down and try to stay warm...I think I'll try this as an accompaniment to a warm fire and a good book this weekend!

Honey Mulled Wine Recipe

• Cook time: 10 minutes

Make sure you use a wine that you like to drink! If it isn't good cold, it's not going to be any better hot.

Ingredients

• 1 750ml bottle of zinfandel, or other full-bodied robust red wine that you enjoy drinking
• 3/4 cup of water
• 3/4 cup of honey
• 15 black peppercorns
• 3 inches of cinnamon stick for the wine, more sticks (optional) for serving
• Thin peels of lemon zest for serving

Method

Into a 2-qt saucepan, put the wine, water, cinnamon stick, peppercorns, and honey (if you are unsure about the sweetness level, start with less honey and add more to taste). Heat until steamy and lightly simmering.
Strain into glass mugs. Serve with a thin strip of lemon zest and a bit of cinnamon stick.
Yield: Makes one quart. Serves 5 to 6.

{photo and recipe via Simply Recipes}

A Danish Christmas

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 When my mother was a toddler in the early 50s, my grandparents moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, for five years while my grandfather worked at the American Embassy.  When they returned to the States, they continued to celebrate the Christmas traditions of their beloved adopted country, eventually sharing them with all of us.

One of them was making heart ornaments like these...

I have really happy memories of making these as a child.  Want to learn how?  Visit this link.

And then there is this dessert:

 Ris a la Mande (rice pudding with almonds).  The cherry topping is a must. I just adore it!  To follow tradition, add one whole almond to the batch, and the person who ends up with the almond in their serving gets a special little gift. Find the recipe here.

And because the Danes can't get enough cherries, finish off the night with some Cherry Heering.  It was the first liqueur I ever tasted....wonderful.

Glaedelig Jul!

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