*Celebration of Chocolate*

As I was perusing through Borders looking through cookbooks and magazines for inspirations, I came across this The Best of Fine Cooking magazine. All about CHOCOLATE!!!

I knew I had to buy it. Now, as I skimmed through the magazine, recipe after recipe, image after image, got me excited to test it out. I knew I had to dedicate a blog post, and the entire month of April, to chocolate!

Here is the list of all the recipes that caught my eye and taste buds, along with the pictures that accompanied it...

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mocha Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Bittersweet Mocha Cookies

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Sandwich Cookies

Chocolate Souffle Cookies

Pistachio-Chocolate Shortbread Wedges (except I want to substitute the pistachio for hazelnuts or macadamia nuts)

Chocolate Dipped Espresso Shortbread Cookies

Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Brownie Cream Cheese Bites

Double Chocolate Glazed Peppermint Brownies

Double Chocolate Chunk Fudge Brownies

Nutty Butterscotch & Chocolate Bars (aka Blondies)

Kahlua Fudge Bites

Hazelnut Toffee Squares

Chocolate Strawberry Shortcakes

Mocha Chip Cupcakes with Sour Cream Frosting

Chocolate Caramel Tart with Macadamia Nuts and Creme Fraiche Whipped Cream

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

Triple Chocolate Ice Cream Pie

Chocolate French Toast Sandwiches

Truffles!!!

Molten Lava Cake (even though it is not in this magazine I am adding it to this list, because I can)

I'm pretty sure I gained 5 pounds just writing this list.

After I make a dessert I will take a picture and blog about it of course. And if you have any suggestions on other chocolate dreams I should make or would like to suggest which dessert I should attempt, feel free to let me know.

Until then...

Happy Chocolate!

ps-all pictures are from The Best of Fine Cooking: Chocolate Magazine. please don't sue me :)

*SAD (Single Awareness Day) Dinner*

First, sorry about my lack of posts. It has been a busy couple of weeks...actually, month. Going to San Fransisco, work, school, cooking, and other things coming up I couldn't dedicate my time that this blogs deserve. I actually started this post (and another post about San Fransisco, but more on that soon) several times, but either got interrupted or lack of dedication. But have no fear, yours truly is back, and this time, with a vengeance.

So as all you lucky couples know, this past weekend was Valentine's Day. What my friend and I decided to do was to cook dinner for ourselves to celebrate our "choice" to not have a date. If I keep saying that then I might actually believe it :P

So anywho, our dinner date soon turned into a threesome, which quickly turned into a quintet when her parents

also decided to join us. I didn't mind and thought more the merrier. This way I get to cook for even more people and show off my bad@$ culinary skillz.

The menu that we decided with was Chicken Linguini w/ Alfredo sauce, Polenta w/ Marinara and Mozzarella, garlic and Parmesan bread, some steamed veggies and some wine. For dessert we had a chocolate fondue with strawberries, bananas, and angel food cake as dippables. All-in-all a pretty "romantic" dinner for five.

I was responsible for the pasta and dessert, one of which I have made many times and one that I did some research to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into. I'll let you decide which dish is which.

This is what the finished result looked like. I was very happy with the dinner. Hopefully, everyone else thought the same. What really caught me was the fondue. That turned out nomnomnommy!

It was basically like making a chocolate ganache. We used Hershey's chocolate bar, 2 milk and 1 dark. *Note-for any fondue do not use a chocolate with more than 68% cocoa* We set up a double boiler system. That's basically two pots, one on top of the other. In the bottom pan you want to have some water boiling and in the top pot (preferably a glass bowl) you want to cut up your chocolate and let the steam from the water melt it. In another pot you want to scald some heavy cream. Scalding is cooking liquid *almost* to the boiling point. Pour the heavy cream into the chocolate and mix away. Drop in 1-2 tablespoons of cold butter to give it a shine. You can also add in other flavors such as vanilla, some liqueur, or even hazelnut. The possibilities really are endless. As for dips, we used these three...

You could use whatever your heart desired to dunk into this chocolate goodness: marshmallows, pretzels, apples, graham crackers, oreos, brownies, cake, etc...

Melting Pot, eat your heart out!