Chocolate Dipping, At Home, Alone...

This evening some of the ladies at church were having a chocolate-dipping party in preparation for Valentine's Day. I planned to go; in fact, I had made some coconut cream hearts this morning to refrigerate over the day and had measured out the Ghiradelli chocolate and coconut oil I was going to use for dipping. I had even prepared a container with some red and some pink Wilton candy melts for decorating.  After a day of activity I had a sick headache and knew I would be very poor company.  Also as the time arrived to leave, I did not feel up to the drive so I stayed home.

By the middle of the evening I thought I might as well bite the bullet and do the chocolate-dipping even though I would miss the company of so many dear sweet sisters...so I dipped.

This is the result:  homemade Twix and homemade coconut cream hearts.  No, you are certainly right, they do not look very good, but Dear One had no problem choking down a few samples.  The rest have been put into the freezer until another day. In fact, for the Seminary kids on Monday.  Don't you think these would be a fun early morning treat?

Coconut Cream Hearts

Homemade Twix

Massaman Curry!

In the past week I have had the opportunity to participate in the interviewing process for the hiring of a new administrator at my most recent alma mater.  The people managing the interviewing process were thoughtful enough to provide food during the mid-day meeting times. I was introduced to Massaman Curry". It was so delicious that the second time I saw it I asked about it.  Today I made it for our supper with a few changes.

Massaman Curry, the way I made it.

3 Tablespoons brown sugar
3 Tablespoons lime juice
3 Tablespoons fish sauce
3 Tablespoons curry paste (I used red curry paste)
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1/3 cup peanut butter
4 cups cubed potatoes
1 cup sliced carrots
1 13.5-ounce can coconut milk

In a small bowl combine brown sugar, lime juice, fish sauce, and peanut butter. Add the coconut milk and stir.  (In actual fact, I just realized I failed to put in the peanut butter!!! Oh well, next time...)

Put the sliced carrots in a steamer and start steaming while you cube the potatoes.  Leave the skins on the potatoes or take them off if you want.  When you have the potatoes all cubed, toss them in on top of the steaming carrots while you do the next step.  I did this because I wanted the carrots to be fully cooked which concerned me if I followed the actual recipe.

Put the vegetable oil in a saucepan then add the curry paste and ginger. Stir and cook for about one to two minutes then add the bowl with the seasonings and stir well. Finally, add the steamed carrots and the partially steamed potatoes.  Mix well then cover and cook on medium low for ten to fifteen minutes.  Serve plain or serve over noodles or some other thing.  We ate it over black beans.

Most times you will see this as chicken or beef massaman curry. And there is almost always tamarind paste as part of the seasoning.  We did not have any in the pantry so I just left it out.

This tasted very good even with the glitches in it.  If you have inflammation in your body, you will probably begin to get better because the ginger is VERY apparent. I may have overdone it a little bit but it was still edible...

Cake Pops!

In the past I have seen several "cake pop" recipes.  They seemed interesting to me.  Earlier this week I was talking with our daughter who had a need to make some cake pops.  She need to make a sample batch prior to working with the Young Women who may be the makers of cake pops for one of their upcoming big events.

This morning we received a call from her.  She said, "Mom, did you see the picture I sent?"  I had not so I immediately checked it out on my iPad.  WOWEE!  Those are some beautiful cake pops!

She said she did not use frosting to mix with the cooked cake.  She used strawberry jam.  It tasted delicious. 

She did have multiple problems with creating the pops especially after dipping them in chocolate.  Apparently they like to crack.  She said one cake mix makes about 30 pops but your net cake pops with one cake mix is actually about 20 pops due to breakage, etc.

She browsed for "troubleshooting cake pops" and found lots of useful information.  She found the first one she looked at to be the most helpful.

This is such a great idea but I don't think I have enough self-control to make any.