I love the taste of chocolate mixed with coffee. In desserts. But not in beverages. That’s right, I don’t care for mocha in beverage form. But I cannot get enough of it in desserts.

Coffee in its various forms (actual coffee/espresso, Kahlua or espresso powder) is probably my favorite flavor to add to chocolate desserts (although peanut butter is hot on coffee’s tail). I’m heavy handed with coffee in any dessert that calls for it and quite frequently I throw a tablespoon of espresso powder into any recipe I make that contains chocolate. In my opinion, the addition of coffee amplifies the chocolate flavor.

So, a couple of weeks ago when we needed a super quick dessert made, this recipe for mocha nut balls was an easy choice. I’d eaten them before at someone else’s house so I knew they were delicious. The cookies themselves are a dark and caffeinated version of the ever popular Mexican wedding cookies. They’re extremely easy to make and as long as you like pecans, coffee and chocolate, you’ll love them. I made the mistake of sharing a few with coworkers and they’ve been asking for more ever since.

The recipe I used is from the Taste of Home website and I think it was originally featured in their print magazine. The only alteration I made was my substitution of 1 1/2 tablespoons espresso powder for the 1 tablespoon of instant coffee granules called for in the recipe. My reason? I prefer espresso over regular coffee.

Mocha Nut Balls

Recipe from Taste of Home

Makes about 50 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup baking cocoa
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules (I used espresso powder.)
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
• Confectioners’ sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325°.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.
3. Combine the flour, cocoa and coffee granules.
4. Gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.
5. Stir in pecans.
6. Roll into 1-in. balls. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets.
7. Bake at 325° for 14-16 minutes or until firm. Cool on pans for 1-2 minutes before removing to wire racks.
8. Roll warm cookies in confectioners’ sugar.

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Blueberries. Wonderful fresh blueberries that I picked myself. Some tart, some sweet. All delicious. These pretty much speak for themselves…so what more could I possibly have to say?

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I’m referring to coconut. Like cilantro, Brussels sprouts or sushi, coconut is one of those foods that people feel strongly about in one direction or the other. Fortunately I’m pro-cilantro, Brussels sprouts and coconut. No, I don’t like sushi. It’s a raw fish and/or seaweed thing. But that’s not the point today.

Today the point is this: If you love coconut, you will love these coconut lime cupcakes. Assuming that you like limes. But I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone who was opposed to limes.

I’ve made these cupcakes numerous times in the past and they’re frequently requested by people who have tried them before. I think they’re second only to carrot cupcakes. This most recent batch was made for a cookout on the 4th of July. Joel requested that I make them despite the fact that we didn’t know how the people at the cookout felt about coconut. Fortunately I think most of the people liked coconut and the rest of them just had to go without a delicious cupcake. Their loss. I also shared some with a neighbor and her mom liked them so much that she requested the recipe. And since I needed to post something on my website anyway, here it is!

The recipe for these is from the fantastic Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook. If you haven’t ever flipped through this cookbook, it’s worth doing just for cupcake ideas.

I did make a number of changes to the original recipe and my version isn’t vegan as I used real dairy products instead of soy ones. I’ve made them the true vegan way as well and really couldn’t tell the difference. The recipe below is my non-vegan adapted version as it’s a lot cheaper to make them this way. Also, the original called for coconut oil and quite frankly, I am not willing to buy coconut oil as it’s grossly expensive and these cupcakes taste plenty coconutty without it.

Coconut Lime Cupcakes

Slightly adapted from recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

Makes 12 regular or about 40 mini cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup coconut milk (I use the light variety)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp coconut extract (if you don’t have it, I’ve subbed extra vanilla before and all was well)
• 1 tbsp lightly packed, finely grated lime zest
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup sweetened coconut

Lime Buttercream Frosting:

• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 tsp finely grated lime zest (I like lime a lot and I used more like 1 heaping tablespoon. But that’s your call!)

Optional topping:

• 1 cup sweetened coconut, toasted in the oven until browned and crunchy

Directions

Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a cupcake pan with liners. If making mini cupcakes, you’ll probably want to bake these in 2 batches.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the vegetable oil and sugar. Add the coconut milk, milk, vanilla, coconut extract, and lime zest. Mix to combine.
3. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix until smooth. Add the coconut and mix to incorporate.
4. Bake for about 20 minutes for regular cupcakes and slightly less for mini cupcakes, until the cupcake top springs back when touched and a toothpick inserted through the center comes out clean.
5. Cool completely on racks before icing.

Frosting:

1. Beat the shortening and margarine together until combined well and fluffy.
2. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes.
3. Add the vanilla and lime juice, beat for another 5 to 7 minutes or so until fluffy.
4. Add the zest and mix to distribute.
5. Chill until ready to use.

To Assemble:

1. Heap the frosting onto the cupcakes or pipe onto cupcakes using a pastry bag and decorating tip of your choice.
2. If using toasted coconut on top, sprinkle the cupcakes with the toasted coconut and press lightly so that it adheres to the frosting.
3. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

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No long, drawn out descriptions from me today. All you need to know is that you need to make this gingerbread cake with coffee icing. Why? Because it’s easy and delicious and I loved it even though I don’t particularly like gingerbread. With loads of spices, dark beer, coffee, cocoa powder and molasses, how could I not love it?

The recipe is from The Craft of Baking by Karen Demasco and Mindy Fox (which is a pretty cool cookbook that I’ll purchase someday soon). The actual recipe is for 18 cupcakes. I made a bundt cake instead because I currently don’t own any muffin tins for making cupcakes (that’s a long story for some other day). I didn’t alter the size of the recipe at all. Batter for 18 cupcakes is apparently exactly the right amount of batter for a bundt cake.

Other than making cake instead of cupcakes, the only change I really made was the use of porter instead of stout. Yes, I live on the edge when it comes to recipe alterations. I also skipped the candied ginger on top as I truly believe that would have been weird on a cake.

Since this is a lazy post and since NPR was kind enough to post the recipe on their website, I’m not posting it here.

P.S. If you’ve read this far and care, I have no wedding plans to blab about at the moment. We’re still figuring out the when and where.

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Rather than writing about food as I should be, I’m going to talk about getting engaged!

Before I bore you to death with the details, know that I’m mostly writing this entry for posterity. I don’t actually think everyone reading my blog really  cares about me getting married. You’re all here for the food!

On Good Friday, I got out of work early and we headed across the state to spend Easter weekend with the boyfriend’s fiance’s family. We’d looked at the weather days earlier and since it was going to be warm and beautiful, Joel suggested that we take a little afternoon detour into Shenandoah National Park/Skyline Drive. Nothing about this suggestion was at all suspicious as it was something we might have done anyway. Little did I know what was up his sleeve…

We approached several scenic overlooks but didn’t actually stop at any of them for whatever reason. This seemed a little odd to me but I figured we were looking for a good spot to take a few pictures of the view. Again, nothing suspicious. We finally pulled over at the Sawmill Ridge Overlook. We got the camera bag out of the trunk and I pulled out the camera to take a few pictures. Joel wandered off and took the camera bag with him despite my offer to hold onto it or put it back in the trunk.

He wandered back, we took a few pictures and sat down on the stone ledge to admire the view. After talking for a few minutes, Joel all of a sudden said, “I’ve got something to ask you.” He reached into the camera bag and pulled out a little black box. I, being the weepy wuss that I am, immediately started tearing up and then he pulled a note out of his pocket. Written by his grandmother many years ago (just before Joel’s mother passed away), the note read that Joel’s mom wanted her engagement ring saved for him to use if he chose to do so. My ring has 3 diamonds, one of the smaller ones is from his mother’s engagement ring. At this point, I said, “Yes!” and then realized that he hadn’t actually said, “Will you marry me?” yet. At which point he asked and I said, “Yes!” for real.

This is where I admit that I’ve never really cared about weddings or engagements very much. When other people got engaged and eventually married, I was happy for them but never super, hyper excited about it. I was kind of apathetic about having an actual wedding myself and always kind of thought I’d just run off somewhere and get hitched. The ring and the actual proposal changed my mind. I want a real wedding and I’m ecstatic about being engaged. We’re also both really amazed at how excited other people seem to be about our engagement. The outpouring of happiness from everyone we know makes the whole thing a little more awesome. Being told that the news of our engagement made someone else’s day is pretty cool. So, after all these years of not quite understanding why weddings are such a big deal, I finally get it.

There aren’t many details to share about the actual wedding yet. We haven’t finalized a date, a venue or even the wedding party. About all we do know is that I won’t be making my own wedding cake!

P.S. I promise to try my best not to turn this into a wedding blog.

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Every weekend, we sit around and plot our meals for the week. Generally one trip to the grocery store follows the meal planning and we rarely stray from the plan. We may not get around to cooking everything we planned to cook but we don’t usually decide to make something completely different once the shopping is done.

Despite having done this for about 2 years, planning meals for the entire week is a challenge for me. I used to be the type that would make a zillion trips to the store and would decide what I wanted to cook on a complete whim. This ended up costing a lot of money and I wasted a lot of food. I also worked in a restaurant for a long time and quite honestly didn’t have to cook that many real dinners. I pretty much never had to think about what to eat for lunch since the restaurant fed me. In addition, I detested leftovers and rarely wanted to make something that would last for several meals.

Fast forward to now and life is pretty different. Instead of working 4+ nights a week, I’m home every night and need to have something to eat for dinner just about every night. I also take lunch with me to work most of the time. When we plan our meals for the week, we think about what we want to eat for lunch and dinner for a full week. To make decision making a little easier, we keep a list of all of the meals I’ve cooked that we liked enough to eat again. We also have to think about leftovers. It’s rare that I don’t cook something with the intention of eating it again at least once. All this planning is not an easy task. For me, it takes a little bit of the fun out of cooking. I liked the old way…where I would wake up and decide what I felt like cooking. Fortunately I still get to bake on a whim as we don’t plan desserts or baked goods in advance and I keep enough supplies in the house to bake nearly anything we might crave.

So…here’s what we’ve planned to eat this week. Pretty much everything on the list will be eaten more than once.

Pork Fried Rice - I use a variation of the recipe in Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. I’ve made this enough times that I don’t actually need the cookbook anymore. This is great reheated in the microwave and even better if you fry it a second time. Also, my version is made with brown rice.

Potato Leek Soup – I like mine pureed and topped with cheese and chives. The topping is not necessarily traditional but it’s delicious. The version I’ll make is from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters.

Shrimp Cakes with Tartar Sauce - Like crab cakes…but with shrimp. I found a great recipe online last year at Je Mange la Ville and this will be the recipe I use again this week.

Turkey and Muenster Cheese Sandwiches on Homemade Oatmeal Wheat Bread - I could eat turkey sandwiches every day so they’re a common item when we plan meals. The bread recipe is slightly adapted from one found in the February 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living. It’s great tasting and doesn’t get stale as fast as a lot of the homemade breads I’ve made.

If all of the food above doesn’t last until Saturday, we’ll have baked potatoes or eggs or vegetables or even a bowl of cereal. We probably won’t have to resort to any of these as I usually make more than enough food.

And then there’s dessert. I don’t have anything planned for later in the week but I did already bake a batch of dark chocolate oatmeal cookies – minus the oatmeal and white chocolate chips in the recipe. Instead I used toffee bits and peanut butter chips. Still very delicious…so much so that they won’t last all week. By Wednesday or Thursday, I’ll need to dream up something else.

P.S. Let me know if you want to stop by for dinner…we’ve usually got plenty of food!

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Like everyone else, I want to eat better. Trite but true.

In order to aid my evolution towards better eating, I’ve come up with some food oriented goals for 2010 and beyond. I’m posting it here to hold myself somewhat accountable. The good thing is that none of these goals really require giving up anything. I just have to try a little harder and think about what I’m eating.

1. Eat fish (or seafood) at least once a week. We eat it about twice a month now…but I’d like to start eating fish or seafood more often instead of heavier meat-centric meals. Added bonus: fish and seafood are quite often easier (and faster) to prepare than meat dishes.

2. Eat vegetarian at least once a week. That’s vegetarian…not vegan. I can’t promise to go that far. I like eggs and dairy too much. Not much more than a year ago, I scoffed and “icked” at the idea of vegetarian meals. I’m a carnivore at heart. But I’ve slowly come to realize that I’m okay with a lot of vegetarian choices. And if you throw mushrooms into the mix, I’m nearly as happy as I would have been with beef or chicken or pork or duck or lamb or turkey. I’ve also realized that just a hint of meat in a dish can sometimes satisfy my carnivorous ways. A few slices of bacon in a quiche or a little bit of sausage in a bean soup actually gives the dish enough meaty flavor for me!

3. Eat vegetables and lots of them. And make them local if at all possible. Once farmer’s market season is in full swing, I plan for the farmer’s market to be my first source of food ideas each week. We’re also already planning a larger garden this year. We’re trying to learn about when to plant what so that we’ll take full advantage of all of the growing seasons we have here in Virginia. In addition, I’d like to pick lots of fruits (and veggies) at pick-your-own farms when they are in season. There’s a chance we’re going to need a bigger freezer and a very large pot…

4. Eat non-industrial meat and poultry. Yes, it’s going to hurt the wallet but I’d really like to find local sources of grass-fed beef, humanely raised pork and cage-free chicken and eggs. We’ve got plenty of possibilities between the local farms and the farmer’s market. And the somewhat famous Polyface Farms (located on the other side of the state) actually delivers their goods once a month to a home here in Williamsburg that happens to be located only about 10 minutes from my office.

5. Buy even less processed food than we already do. We’re pretty good about this already but there’s always room for improvement. I’d really love to be able to stop buying anything containing high fructose corn syrup and/or a list of ingredients a mile long but I’m not sure this is entirely possible. In trying to accomplish this goal, I’ll definitely have to bake more breads, cookies and other treats. Fortunately I’m not at all opposed to expanding my baking repertoire. This goal is also a way to help cut some costs in the food budget. It’s a lot cheaper to bake a loaf of bread than it is to buy one at the store. Same with cookies and cake and granola and so on. We can then spend the extra money on the more expensive but better for you foods I’ve already mentioned.

P.S. I’m already off to a good start on goal #5 with the bread in these pictures. I baked it myself last weekend for sandwiches rather than buying a loaf of grocery store bread!

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Everywhere I turn, there’s an article in a magazine or a news report telling us to eat more Omega-3 fatty acids. My two-person household has been doing our part for a while with foods like wild salmon and walnuts. But every report touts the extra super goodness of flax seeds and I hadn’t really gotten around to eating them yet. Fortunately for me, I stumbled upon a picture of this granola on Slashfood’s Feast Your Eyes page the other day and I’ve now jumped on the flax seed bandwagon.

Admittedly, it was the maple syrup that sold me on it. I’m a sucker for recipes containing maple syrup and I just so happen to have nearly a gallon of delicious grade B syrup taking up a lot of valuable refrigerator real estate…so maple granola seemed like a good idea.

The original recipe didn’t contain the walnuts or dried cranberries that I added to mine but that recipe did mention that other seeds, dried fruit and nuts were all very acceptable add-ins. I also added a bit more salt than the original recipe used as I really love to eat things that have a mixture of salty and sweet. If you’re not such a fan of salty and sweet together, reduce the salt to just 1/4 teaspoon. If you don’t like walnuts or dried cranberries, leave them out or add something else in their place.

Maple Granola

Slightly adapted from recipe at Sweet Beet and Green Bean

Ingredients

• 2 2/3  cups rolled oats
• 2/3 cup flax seeds
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2/3 cup maple syrup (I used grade B)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to lowest setting (200 degrees Fahrenheit for my oven). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In food processor or blender, process 1/3 cup oats and 1/3 cup flax seed until the mixture is a fine powder.
3. In large bowl, stir together oats and flax seed powder, remaining 2 1/3 cups rolled oats, remaining 1/3 cup flax seeds, dried cranberries, walnuts and salt.
4. Drizzle olive oil over mixture and stir together until olive oil is evenly distributed.
5. Add maple syrup to mixture and stir again until maple syrup is evenly distributed.
6. Evenly spread granola on prepared baking sheet and bake for about an hour. If the granola doesn’t seem quite crunchy enough at this point, bake it a little more.
7. Let cool to room temperature on baking sheet. At this stage, you can break it into large or small pieces (your preference). Store in airtight container at room temperature.

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Yes, I’ve been on a quest for The Holy Grail of chocolate chip cookie recipes. And I think I might have found it!

Published in Everyday Food magazine last fall, Martha Stewart and company dared to call these “Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies”. Ultimate is indeed a good word for these. They really weren’t falsely advertising the goodness of these cookies!

This is where I admit that I’ve wanted a chocolate chip cookie recipe that tastes like the cookies made from the stupid Pillsbury chocolate chip cookie dough that comes in a plastic tube. Despite my baking abilities and my good intentions to eat less processed food, I have to admit that I like the Pillsbury cookies as they are exactly and precisely how I want chocolate chip cookies to taste. I like them crisp around the edges yet soft, chewy and a touch under-baked. Sadly, Pillsbury always delivers on those qualities.

Fortunately this “Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies” recipe came along and I’ll never have to buy Pillsbury again. And neither should you.

The recipe make a lot of small cookies. When I saw how many cookies this recipe was going to produce, I wisely froze some of the scoops of dough for a future dessert emergency. I left them in the freezer for about 6 weeks and honestly the cookies tasted just as good then as they did when the dough was fresh.

You’ll notice that this calls for both milk and semi-sweet chocolate. I’m not a huge fan of milk chocolate but it works in this recipe. Use both kinds!

The recipe also mentions that you can add a couple of cups of walnuts or pecans to the recipe. I did add walnuts to part of the dough and they were a fantastic addition…if you’re the type to enjoy nuts in your cookies.

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe very slightly adapted from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food magazine

Makes approximately 75 small cookies

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons coarse salt (I used kosher salt)
• 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 8 ounces milk chocolate, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. Using a stand mixer (or hand mixer if you don’t have a stand mixer), beat butter and sugars on medium-high until light and fluffy, 6 minutes.
4. Reduce speed to low and beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Mix in flour mixture just until incorporated.
5. Fold in chocolate chips and chocolate chunks.
6. Using a small cookie scoop or a tablespoon, drop dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet with about 2 inches between each scoop of dough.
7. Bake until edges are light golden brown, about 10 minutes if you like your cookies slightly under-baked like I do, rotating sheets halfway through.
8. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool.
9. Bake remaining dough in same manner as directed above. Or if you’ve got more dough than you need, unbaked cookies can be frozen on a baking sheet until firm; store in a resealable plastic bag in the freezer. Bake from frozen in oven preheated to 350 degrees.

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First up are some of my favorites of the thousands of photos I took in 2009. It was really hard to narrow these down to just a handful of favorites and I hope to take just as many (or more) pictures in 2010!

Then there’s me through the year. Putting this together wasn’t so easy as both the boyfriend and I have discovered that we don’t take a whole lot of pictures of ourselves. We’re going to try harder next year…and the mosaic I create on 12/31/2010 will be easier to create!

I hope that everyone has had a great year and best wishes for 2010!

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