Comfort on a Plate
After making French Onion Soup for the first time a few weeks ago, Rich told me that I HAD to make it more often. I wanted to make a nice comforting soup for dinner the other night but knew that a hardy bowl of soup …
Tag: food
Venison Meatballs
When I found out that my custodian (who is wonderful and amazing) got a deer last month I so graciously offered to take some meat off of his hands if he ran out of room in his freezer. A few weeks later he walked into …
Jello shots – grown up
I found the Jelly Shot Kitchen & Food Librarian weeks ago and vowed that I wanted to figure out some fun ways to make “grown-up jello”. Now, we have all had Jell-o shots (unless you are one of my students OR friends under 21 who are reading my blog – then I know hope that you have just had regular jello!) I decided that instead of making those gooey pieces of Jello that are so hard to get out of their cup, that I had to figure out how to make JIGGLER versions of Jello!
After much (much, much, much) discussion I decided I was going to make “Chocolate Covered Strawberry Grown Up Jello” and then really go out on a whim & try to make “Beer Jigglers” for New Years! I was quite concerned about how well these were going to set up, so I did them in containers so that in case of failure, we would still be ok 🙂
Beer Jigglers – consistency was awesome, but the flavor was a bit off. I think next time I will use a bit of honey to bring out more of the beer flavor since these almost tasted watered down a bit and could have been mistaken at times for a strange iced tea! SO, to make BEER JIGGLERS: combine 1 bottle beer and 2 packets of Knox gelatin. Then slowly heat this in a pot to fully activate the gelatin. Fill the mini-muffin liners (in your mini-muffin pan) with the beer jello. Once its solid (at LEAST 5 hours please – play it safe with this Jello, don’t rush it), peel them & turn upside down for your own version of Beer Jiggler Body Caps!
Chocolate Covered Strawberry Jello – the taste of these were awesome. When I un-molded in, I think that I let it in the warm water for a bit too long since it ‘melted’ a bit on the outside. Overall, this was a success. To make your CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRY JELLO take a package of Strawberry Jello & combine it with 3/4 cup boiling water. Once that is dissolved, pour in about a cup of Creme de Coco (chocolate liquor). Place into your desired serving vessel (I used a plastic bundt pan) and chill overnight. Turn out of your pan & slice (you can make this is chocolate molds or in a pan and slice or whatever you’d like to try).
EXPERIMENT & remember there is always room for Jello. Leave me some feedback here on my blog and let me know what you think, other good recipes I should try, or anything else!
New Years Black-Eyed-Peas
Traditions mean a LOT to me – I think they help us hold on to our past and always remember where we came from and who helped shape us. There are some traditions that are family related, some that are regionally related, and some that …
Cookie Dough Truffles
Rich LOVES Cookie Dough (reminder here) so when I saw this recipe I knew that I needed to make it for his family’s Christmas Celebration! The best part about these truffles is that they are egg-free so you CAN eat your raw cookie dough (although …
Chocolate (mousse) Cups
YUM – I love Chocolate (although I hate headaches – one of which I had a pretty major one while everyone else was enjoying these at Aunt Pat & Uncle Mikes during our annual tree decorating this year)! Every year we bring dessert to Tree Decorating (and in recent years I have begun to take over the cooking from mom – and it is almost always chocolate) while Aunt Pat makes her Bacon/Cheese wrapped Hot Dogs in Buns with bacon beans – YUM (earlier mentioned headache kept me from taking photos of them like I had planned). The eclairs were made for this event and I also wanted to attempt to make these mousse filled chocolate cups.
To make these chocolate cups I melted down chocolate and put them in mini-cupcake paper liners. ADVICE… when if you try this, do it in two batches: first just get a very thin base on and then go reinforce the cups (since the bottoms were really thick). You must make sure to get it thick enough though so that after chilling in the fridge for a while you can peel off the paper.
To make this mousse just take a pint of heavy whipping cream (with some sugar) to make whipped cream & add about 8oz (my mouse was more like whipped cream – I did not add enough chocolate) of melted chocolate OR use your favorite mousse recipe! Then just fill the cups with the mouse (and top with whatever) and enjoy.
CHOCOLATE heals all – so get out there and enjoy it (and be sure to leave some feedback for me here on the blog)
One last thought/quote (found on the net) on this Christmas Eve: “IÂ don’t understand why so many “so called” chocolate lovers complain about the calories in chocolate, when all true chocoholics know that it is a vegetable. It comes from the cocoa bean, beans are veggies, ’nuff said.”