Food In Many Forms

Happy Valentine's Day from your favorite blogging RD! I melted chocolate in a double boiler and molded them in cupcake liners for the holiday. It was a ton of fun mixing and matching cranberries, walnuts, sprinkles, and white and milk chocolate! For more inspiration, check out these Youtube videos: How to Temper Chocolate How to Pick a Chocolate Mold How to Add Filling to a Chocolate Mold

... it's delicious. And difficult to do well. Here's what I've learned: 1) Add butter to the melted chocolate to improve the consistency for dipping.  2) Toppings are delicious and add variety (ever seen  Shari's Berries ? Good source of inspiration). Also use different types of chocolate, like dark and white chocolate.  3) Keep your chocolate-dipped creations in the fridge , especially when you are OCD, like me. Just try to keep the moisture level down in the fridge, and wipe off any condensation that appears.  4) Buy twice as many wrappers as you think you need, some will get messed up.  5) White chocolate does not like to cooperate . My white chocolate would not stay melted for more than 15 seconds, and then I had to stir it again vigorously. From all the forums I read, there is a small consensus that Trader Joe's makes the most meltable white chocolate. Also see rule #1.  6) Keep the double boiler dry and free of excess water - any...

For the past couple of years, I have always stayed in and cooked for Valentine's Day. I never wanted to face the crowds or the extra expense, and in college these things just don't seem as important. When I would go to the grocery store on February 14th, I always laughed at the poor husbands and boyfriends struggling to find that last ingredient, or agonizing in front of the spice rack for 20 minutes before finding what they need. I love grocery stores, and learning how to cook new foods.  It will be nice to take a year off and go out to dinner tomorrow night to celebrate, but since I can no longer pretend that my gift is the dinner, I actually had to think of a gift. Luckily, I had an extra night to plan and prepare. I ended up making mostly milk chocolate and dark chocolate strawberries because the white chocolate was not cooperating. I had no idea white chocolate was so difficult to work with!  I'll be sure to post the recipe after I've been thoroughly romanc...

For my first single Valentine's Day in a couple years, I felt I owed it to myself to keep up the tradition, and cook myself a nice meal. My roommate was also home last Tuesday, so we teamed up and made a meal that we could be proud of. This salmon recipe from Giada De Laurentiis was perfect for our purposes. By the time we got home from work, we didn't have much patience to wait around for a nice meal. Really, this is a perfect every day meal, but we felt like we were eating gourmet food just the same. I made it even easier for myself, and instead of mixing all of those vegetables, I just steamed up some snow peas, and covered them with glaze too. Couscous was an easy addition as well. After dinner, we made cupcakes :) Giada's Balsamic-Glazed Salmon Ingredients Glaze: 3/4 cup balsamic vinegar 2 tablespoons maple syrup 1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed or chopped 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (optional) Salmon: Four 6-ounce center-cut salmon fillets, skinn...

The months of February and March are filled with so many great holidays that are made better by homemade food. Valentine' s Day is one of my favorite occasions to cook and avoid the crowds, Purim is a great excuse to cook some of my favorite desserts, and St. Patrick's Day brings Irish Soda Bread and Scones. Easter is around the corner too, which means Cadbury Creme Eggs and Chocolate Bunnies.  For a Valentine's Day at home, I used grape tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil to make these cute appetizers on colorful plastic swords.  I cooked up some wild rice while I was preparing the appetizers. Then it was mixed with dried currants, dried apricots, craisins, toasted pecans, thyme, chopped celery and chopped onion .   Next came the Cornish hens. I found them in Whole Foods, and they were all ready cleaned and prepared. All I had to do was unwrap them, stuff them with the wild rice, and brush a little melted butter on top.  Voila! Beautiful Dinner for Two, with l...

If you recall, Valentine's Day 2010 consisted of crostini appetizers, stuffed peppers and rack of lamb . See February 17th . But until now, there has been no photographic evidence. This makes me want to make those stuffed peppers again... they were sooo delicious!

I was fully intending on doing a practice run the week before making Valentine's Day dinner for my boyfriend, but I was prevented by the " Snowpocalypse " as they are now calling it. I had decided on a recipe for Rack of Lamb  weeks ago, and I had my heart set on doing it, so instead of backing out, I enlisted the help of my boyfriend for the scary parts (i.e. cutting the meat ). I would have done it myself, if I had been able to practice, but it was a $55 piece of meat and I wasn't about to mess it up. The directions for stuffing the lamb were surprisingly clear and easy to follow. Using a wooden spoon to widen the hole and push down the stuffing was quite clever. I just wish I had prepared it earlier so the lamb could have marinated for longer. (Tip: While we were waiting for the lamb to marinate, we toasted a some french bread, lathered on some olive tapenade and covered it with the remains of the feta cheese stuffing.) The only thing lacking in that particular ...