Pages, Pucks and Pantry

Small Plates - November 30, 2007

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE - Am I the only one who as a child thought that Chocolate Mousse was Chocolate Moose? As a kid I never questioned it but I have a vague memory of being surprised when I was an older child that the dessert wasn't named after the big beast. But I do remember that back when I was younger Chocolate Mousse was THE dessert. When you went to a fancy restaurant and this dessert was offered it made you feel like one of the big kids.  It was not only on every dessert menu but every buffet menu as well. Don't  remember anyone ever making it and serving it at home. I do know for a while, it pretty much was the only dessert I'd order...until I found Creme Brulee of course.

QUICK MOUSSE - I do remember working at an electronics company many (many) years ago where one of the guys used to make Chocolate Mousse for his dessert after lunch. This meant taking a small tub of cool whip and adding a package of instant hot cocoa mix. Whip it with a spoon and...well...gotta love those engineers.

MANITOBA MOOSE - So why is the logo for the Manitoba Moose up? Well, it's National Mousse day, not National Moose Day, but I just thought the blog needed some hockey content.

Small Plates - November 27, 2007

THE LUTHER BURGER - Now I love me a good bacon cheeseburger. And I also love me some fresh Krispy Kreme donuts. But both of them together? Well...The Luther Burger, named after the late Luther Vandross is a bacon cheeseburger sandwiched between two glazed Krispy Kreme donuts. I hear this has been served at the Google cafeteria. I can hear the arteries hardening from here.

THE HAMDOG - Hey, if that gutbomb doesn't work for you how about The Hamdog...a hotdog wrapped inside a hamburger patty, deep fried, covered with chili, cheese and onions, served on a Hoagie roll and topped with a fried egg. You can find this concoction at Mulligan's Tavern in Decatur, GA.

BEER BARREL BELLY BUSTER - And if that hotdog doesn't do it for you, try the Beer Barrel Belly Buster at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, PA which weighs in at 15 pounds, has 25 slices of cheese, a full head of lettuce, three tomatoes and two onions (it's the diet version of their "Main Event" burger which weights 125 pounds and no that's not a typo). Check out their site for the largest dang burger I've ever seen!

BAVARIAN CREAM PIE After you've eaten your gigantic burger or hotdog why not polish it all off with a full Bavarian Cream Pie since it is National Bavarian Cream Pie Day.

Image Source

Small Plates - November 25, 2007

I SCREAM Okay, take a real good look at that photo. Yes, it looks exactly like a toilet with some poop in it. But don't be alarmed. It's only ice cream shaped like poop...served in a replica of a toilet. And before you think this is all a joke, it's not. It's part of an island wide chain in Taipei with a toilet theme. The seats in the diners are made from toilet bowls. Now I ask you, would this be appealing? Image Source

HOUSE OF TOILETS Well, if you don't want to eat out of a toilet, would you want to live in one?  Like a house shaped like one? The guy who built his toilet shaped house says he hopes his house will highlight the global need for better sanitation. To see the house go here.

GIVE-A-POTTY Don't even ask me why there is a World Toilet Organization. Or why they have a world summit. But there are over 2.6 billion people in the world that don't have, er "improved sanitation". I'm sorry that I failed to inform you of World Toilet Day (it was November 19th)..a day to increase awareness of toilet user's right to a better toilet environment. Give-A-Potty is thier slogan. I honestly don't have anything more to say. To find out more go here.

Hot Chocolate

Along with our Batter Blaster pancakes we had some pretty good hot chocolate for breakfast this morning. We used "Trader Joe's Sipping Chocolate" and "Whole Foods Natural Vanilla Marshmallows".

The Sipping Chocolate says it's not quite hot cocoa, but they do give you a recipe for Hot Chocolate (which is basically stir some hot milk into the mix). I used whole milk as they say it tastes the best but they state you can use water or skim milk if you'd like. Ingredients are cocoa powder, cane sugar, chocolate liquor and cocoa butter. Not low cal (90 calories a serving), these have lots of sugar too.

The marshmallows are nothing like the artificial ones you usually buy to take on a camping trip to make Smores. These are so much tastier and melt so perfectly into the hot chocolate.  They are basically just sugar and corn syrup so lots of calories, but the taste is so worth it. They are much more expensive than standard marshmallows ($3.99 for a container of about 16) but cheaper than some of the gourmet marshmallows I've tried (upwards of $15 for ten) but taste pretty dang good.

All in all with the canned pancakes and hot chocolate it was a great, fast Sunday breakfast to eat before starting on all those Christmas decorations.

Blaster Pancakes

The Batter Blaster pancakes turned out okay. I found them sweeter than my normal pancake mix. They also had a little "crunch" to them...hard to explain, it was like a thin layer of crunch surrounding the pancake...but actually I LIKED the crunch. Both Mr. L and I were very surprised that these tasted edible. I just used plain butter on mine whereas Mr. L just used some really top quality maple syrup. But we had no problem scarfing these pancakes down.

As you can see Mr. L got creative and made Mickey Mouse pancakes....he also shaped some pancakes that I can't show on my blog...lets just say they were parts of the male anatomy and I giggled hysterically while I ate them.

This obviously was very easy to use. No bowls or pans to clean up except the one we cooked the pancakes in. This would be great to have on hand to do quick breakfasts when time is short, or for kids (either for them to use, i.e. less mess or for adults to make cute shapes or the kids initials) or to just freak out the parents when you offer to make pancakes Christmas morning.

Not sure we'd buy this again, but it will come in handy during the holidays when time is short.

Organic Batter Blaster

I've been seeing this product on food blogs for the past month or so. Pancake and Waffle batter in a can. Organic even. But I figured how hard is it to make pre-made pancake mix anyway, why even make the process simpler. But on a trip to Whole Foods last week, Mr. L and I came across a can of the Batter Blaster and decided to give it a try.

It does say it's organic and the list of ingredients isn't super long...filtered water, organic wheat flour, organic can sugar, organic whole egg solids with a few other things. It needs to be refrigerated. We figured what the heck, we'd give it a try.

The can we bought has a shelf life of a couple of months. It says it will make approximately 28 4" pancakes. A half cup of batter is one serving and has 112 calories.

The concept is simple...it's like a can of whipped cream, just turn it over press against the nozzle and the batter will blast into the pan.

The entire can is recyclable.

The web site is here. You can put in your zip code to find where they sell it near you. It sells at Zanottos, Cosentinos, Whole Foods and Lunardis in the San Jose area.

Small Plates - November 22, 2007

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I hope everyone has a great Turkey Day today!

QUIZ - If you are bored today, try out this Turkey Trivia quiz. I honestly had to guess at most of the answers. The quiz can be found here. Thanks to my Dad for passing this on to me.

FACTS - And if the quiz made you want to hunt (no pun intended) for more Turkey facts go here. Who knew that Turkeys can drown if they look up when it's raining?

HUNT 'EM - Want to go out and hunt for your own turkey next year? Did you know there was an entire magazine devoted to hunting turkeys?  You think I jest? To subscribe to Turkey and Turkey Hunting magazine or just to find out I'm not kidding, go here.

GARBAGE CAN TURKEYS - Yes, you can  cook a turkey in a garbage can. Thanks to The Phantom who sent me this article with detailed instructions. So if you have a 15 gallon metal trash can hanging around, freak out your guests and pull Thanksgiving dinner out of your garbage.

THE PRESIDENTIAL TURKEY - Wait, maybe that came out wrong...anyway, the photo is of our President pardoning a turkey back in 2004. Yes, there were photos of this years turkey pardoning but the name of this years turkeys? "May and Flower". I prefer the two names that were given to the turkeys back in 2004..."Biscuits and Gravy".

TODAYS FOOD DAY - You would think today would be National Turkey Day, or National Cranberry Sauce Day or National Undo the Top Button On Your Pants Because You Ate Too Much and You Are About to Explode Day, but no...it's just National Cashew Day..which gives you an excuse to pick out all the cashews from the assorted nuts dish Aunt Helga has brought to the gathering. Enjoy!   

Small Plates - November 21, 2007

BLAME IT ON OPRAH - So the annual Oprah's Favorites show has aired and there are some interesting food and kitchen related items on her list.

THE CUPCAKES - Oprah has Perfect Ending Cupcakes from Williams-Sonoma on her list. They look yummy and I am all about Williams-Sonoma...but the cost of these cupcakes are, gulp, $59 for 9...that's over $6.50 a cupcake...they better be DAMN good cupcakes. Personally I'd rather just buy the Sprinkles Cupcake Mix from Williams-Sonoma and make my own fresh. But you can have these Perfect Ending cupcakes shipped fresh anywhere in the country and if you want to send a loved one a treat (maybe that college kid of your's who is asking for care packages of food) this might be a good idea. Go here.

THE MEASURE - Another Williams-Sonoma find are Melamine Bowls, measuring cups and spoons. I actually like these. They come in cool colors, are practical, have that cool rubber ring on the bottom so that they don't slip and slide and can be stacked so you save shelf room. $8 to $32. Go here.

THE MIXER - I love my Kitchen-Aid mixer. I've even named mine. It may be a boring color (white) but it's a kitchen item I can't believe I ever cooked without. Okay, wait...I never cooked so I never needed it, but that's another story (did I mention I had the mixer for about two years before I even took it out of the box? Sigh). I think the mixer now comes in something like twenty colors with lots of special colors being available at certain times ( currently they have a pink one where proceeds go to cancer research and at one time they did have a teal one available though I doubt it was Sharks related). $349.99. Go here.

THE PRESS - Almost looks like Oprah is shilling for Williams-Sonoma cuz this next item also comes from them. It's the Breville Ikon Panini Press. It looks like a cool item, and it's not just a panini maker, you can do grilled cheese sandwiches and quesadillas too. Of course I think my little old sandwich maker I got years ago would also do the trick but this puts the nice grill marks on the sandwiches. It also has a "high sear" setting to make that sandwich crispy (instead of steaming which most of the cheap ones do), and it says it can be used for grilling meat, fish and veggies. Hmmm...maybe my little ole sandwich maker needs an upgrade? $99.95. Go here.

THE FRIDGE - Not something I'm going to be going out and getting anytime soon, but a cool item to think about going in my dream kitchen, the HDTV Refrigerator with Weather and Info Center.  You can watch high def programs on the 15" TV. It has DVD hook up, radio and can serve as a slide show for your digital photos. Funny, no information on how it functions as an actual refrigerator! $3,799. Go here.

THE SORBETTO - This is the one food/kitchen related item on Oprah's list that I may go out and see if I can find, Ciao Bella Blood Orange Sorbetto. Maybe not the thing to crave when it's 20 degrees outside but for a hot summer day? Yummy. Locally it's sold at Whole Foods Markets and Andronicos. $4.99 a pint. Go here.

For more information on Oprah's Favorite Things Holiday 2007, Image Source, and to find out how you can win these items (you have to sign up for Oprah's newsletter to be entered) go here or you can go directly to Oprah's website to see all twenty of her favorite holiday things.

(Secret Ingredient) Peanut Butter Fudge

So let me start at the beginning and let you know how this all came about.

I was innocently sitting in my scrap room watching TV...sorta watching. I was putting away some embellishments while the Food Channel was on in the background. Paula Deen was on. It was her show Sweet Endings which was about desserts. As I haphazardly listened to the show while trying to figure out where the Memory Maker ribbons should go, something on the TV caught my eye. Paula was making fudge. Yum, I thought. And then she put something in the fudge that made me stop in my tracks. "No she didn't just put (secret ingredient) into that fudge did she? Holy Crap! So, thanks to Tivo, I rewound and watched it again. Holy Crap...that really is (secret ingredient) she just put in that fudge. Still not really believing what I was seeing I went to the Food Channel web site and looked up the recipe. Yep, there it was in print, the peanut butter fudge recipe with the (secret ingredient). Wow. I knew then and there that I HAD to make this recipe (and that nobody would believe what I was putting in it!).

Knowing I was headed to a scrap retreat in a week and was in charge of desserts I e-mailed the girls and let them know I was bringing (Secret Ingredient) Peanut Butter Fudge...and asked them to guess the (secret ingredient). I got lots of guesses, none which came close.

Even while making the fudge at the scrap retreat people couldn't guess the (secret ingredient). I even had it in the pot melting with the peanut butter, had one girl come up and look in the pot and...nope, she still couldn't guess what the (secret ingredient) was. One girl, after twenty questions, did figure it out and she along with a few other girls who were there listening went "ewwww"...they no longer seemed very interested in trying the fudge.

So I made the fudge. When it was done I cut it up and passed it around. The girls really liked it, but they still couldn't figure out what the (secret ingredient) was. When they found out, yeah, there were a few "you have to be frigging kidding us", and "Uh maybe I don't like this anymore"...but mostly just complete and utter disbelief in what the (secret ingredient) was and that the fudge tasted good.

Without knowing, Mr. L, mom and even The Former Right Hand Woman tried the (Secret Ingredient) Peanut Butter Fudge and liked it. The (secret ingredient) really made the fudge smooth and you really can't taste it in the fudge.

So, guessed what the (secret ingredient) is yet? Well, let's just say Paula calls it her "Peanut Butter Cheese Fudge".

PEANUT BUTTER (SECRET INGREDIENT) FUDGE

1/2 pound sliced easy-melt cheese (recommended: Velvetta)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped nuts
2 (16-ounce) boxes confectioners' sugar

Lightly spray the bottom of a 9 x 2-inch square pan with nonstick cooking spray. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt cheese and butter together, then add peanut butter and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and add vanilla and nuts.

Empty confectioners' sugar into a large bowl and pour cheese mixture over sugar. Stir until completely mixed. Candy will be very stiff.

Using your hands, remove candy from the bowl and press evenly and firmly into the pan. Because of the amount of butter in this recipe, pat top of candy with a paper towel to remove excess oil. Place the pan in refrigerator until candy is firm. To serve, cut in squares. Makes 36 squares.

Note: I used Velvetta, Skippy Peanut Butter and chopped walnuts.

Note: I would do the patting with paper towel to remove excess oil thing as I could tell it made a difference.

This fudge was very good, secret ingredient aside. It's also obviously, a great conversation starter. Very rich and creamy. Freak out your family and make some and don't tell them the (secret ingredient) until they've had a bite...or two.

Paula Deen has a new book out called "Christmas With Paula Deen".  You can find this recipe in that book.

Small Plates - November 20, 2007

NO CRABS - I'm so bummed that crab season has been put off here in the Bay Area due to the oil spill. I've always enjoyed this time of year where you could get cheap crab at the local supermarkets. I'd wait for the Wednesday food flyer's to show up and then figure out who had the cheapest crabs and plan a crab supper. Up until 4 or 5 years ago I had no clue how to clean my own crabs so I'd always ask the guys behind the seafood counter to do it for me (usually costing about a buck extra a pound). Though I can do it on my own now, I admit I usually have the supermarket or Mr. L clean them. Alas, I don't think the $2.99 a pound crab will be around this year. To check out more on the local crab situation go here. Not a photo of a dungeness crab but I liked it Image Source.

EXPENSIVE RODENTS Remember my post on the most expensive dessert? $25,000 for the Frrrozen Haute Chocolate? Well...seems the place that had this for sale has closed down due to a rodent problem (not to mention fruit flies and cockroaches!). Wonder if THAT gets into the Guinness World Book of Records?! For more information go here.

PEANUT BUTTER AND FUDGE And if you are wondering what to have for a snack today, how about some peanut butter fudge? It being National Peanut Butter Fudge Day, it's the right thing to do. And I just might post a peanut butter fudge recipe today for you to try out.