Chicken Salad with Candied Pecans
and Basil-Gorgonzola Vinaigrette

A group of us got together last night to watch the season premiere of Mad Men. I hadn't been able to get this show out of my head since catching the marathon a week ago, and I'd been looking forward to last night's episode ever since. For dinner, I made chicken salad with romaine lettuce, Roma tomatoes, candied pecans, gorgonzola cheese, and basil and gorgonzola vinaigrette. Putting together the salad was straightforward, as well as baking the chicken, but the dressing required some simple blending of a handful of cheese with spoonfuls of vinaigrette for a tangy and creamy dressing that complemented the chicken, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, and pecans very well... (click here for list of ingredients and directions...)

 

 

Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Sauce

For me, raspberries pair very well with chocolate. Here, I drizzled raspberry sauce I made a couple days ago over chocolate cake I made this afternoon... (click here for list of ingredients and directions...)

 

 

Raspberry Sauce

This weekend, I made raspberry sauce to drizzle over my daily morning bagel. The original recipe calls for 3 cups of sugar, but with only 2 1/3 cups of sugar remaining in storage, I crossed my fingers while making the sauce and tasted the result: sweet with a subtle tartness, just the way I like it. I wanted a slightly runny sauce, so I used only 3 cups of berries and reduced the liquid for 20 minutes after the mix came to a boil. For the bagel: I split a honey-wheat bagel in half. I spread Philadelphia Whipped cream cheese on the bagel, and with a butter knife, I layered a small amount of raspberry sauce over the cream cheese. I popped the bagel in the microwave for 30 seconds and enjoyed the warm bagel with a glass of orange juice. For the remaining sauce: after it cooled for about an hour, I poured the berry sauce into a washed and dried Atlas mason jar and stored it in the fridge. (... click here for list of ingredients and directions...)

 

Gooey Chocolate Lava Cake

If I could have chocolate at every meal, I'd be a very happy girl. In fact, sometimes I'll add mini-chocolate morsels to my bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats or I'll sneak in a bite of a chocolate chip cookie before chowing down on a sandwich. For the last few nights, I'd been feasting on bite-sized portions of chocolate lava cake, a recipe adapted from the "Sweet Treats Baking Blog", baking stories which I fell in love with at first glance months ago and am sad it is no longer updated. The recipe calls for baking the cake in ramekins, which I don't own, and I thought paper liners in a muffin tin would work just as well. Boy, was I wrong! As I cracked the chewy surface of the cooled cake, the gooey chocolate underneath spilled out, but the worst part was the huge chunks of cake that clung to the sides of the paper liner. I had to chew these pieces right off the paper itself. I could only imagine John's face as I devoured this cake, paper and all. So, I highly recommend using ramekins, and in place of ramekins, I believe mega-sized cappucino mugs will work just fine... (click here for list of ingredients and directions...)

 

 

Blueberry Scones with Fresh Lemon Zest

These are, by far, the best blueberry scones I have ever tasted. Two recipes for blueberry scones from reputable Food Network chefs have only resulted in a cookie-like taste and appearance; perhaps I didn't follow the directions to a tee? I turned to YouTube and found an instructional video from the helpful staff at "America's Test Kitchen", and the step-by-step detailed explanations were extremely instrumental in creating delicious blueberry scones that contained a hint of citrus lemon. This recipe utilizes the technique of folding the dough numerous times to achieve flaky layers and is the difference between what makes an ordinary scone extraordinary. Perfect for breakfast on-the-go or a late Sunday brunch, family and friends will certainly be wowed by these delectable pastries. This recipe for blueberry scones is very complex, but a definite must-try! (... click here for list of ingredients and directions...)

 

 

 

The Disappearing Act:
Triple-Chocolate Cupcakes

Watching the Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network one afternoon inspired me to bake a batch of chocolate cupcakes based on Ina Garten's now-famous 'Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes.' I replaced the ganache with individual semi-sweet chocolate chips and filled each cupcake with more chocolate chip morsels. The chocolate chips add a crunchy texture to each bite, and the decaf espresso, mixed in before baking, adds to the already intense chocolate flavor. These little cakes can be served as a breakfast or brunch item since each one contains only a hint of sweetness that is not at all overpowering. Their small size makes them great for the physique, as they are for the taste buds, and I like to save them as an occasional bite-sized treat for a midnight snack! Word of caution- these are very addicting, and you may have to make more than one batch of these delectable treats if you have a full household! The first batch I made disappeared within a week! (... click here for list of ingredients and directions...)

 

A Summertime Treat

The summer months are always a welcome time of year for me. This is the time of year when the warm summer sun shines at daybreak, when longer days grant us the sun's glow trickling into the late evening hours, when the vast realm of fragrant summer fruits invite us into the bustling marketplace. I always like to meander in the fruits section during the summer to take in the array of beautiful colors: the rich violet-blue hues of sweet blueberries, the vibrant reds, yellows, and greens of juicy mangoes, the potent aromas from the lightly speckled green and yellow pears, and the striking, deep, rosy reds of succulent strawberries, a small basketful of which I scooped up to make a home-made jam preserve. To fully enhance the flavors of the strawberries, I also grabbed a bright orange and a small box of confectioner's sugar to add to the jam; possibly the zest from the orange will add some acidity, and the powdered sugar (on sale!) will lightly sweeten the preserve? I had never made my own fruit jam and was looking forward to slathering sweet jam preserves over a small croissant or some bread (... click here for list of ingredients and directions...)