Hot Chocolate Cakes

It feels serendipitous that this was the next recipe I had planned to share with you and that I’m sharing it today. Because today is a SNOW DAY for us NC residents for whom a real blanket of snow is an every-few-years-at-best occasion. Of course if I were writing this earlier today I would not have an attitude quite this chirpy because I was actually none-to-happy about this long awaited snow day falling on this particular day. You see, it caused my GRE testing session to be cancelled, which is quite frustrating given the fact that I had spent the whole weekend preparing and had taken the day off work, which ended up being closed as well.

Snow!

But a whole day watching the snow fall while cuddling with J and the kitties has brightened my spirits. That, and the memory of these hot chocolate cakes. I tell you, this recipe is a keeper for so many reasons. I was searching for the right dessert to serve at our Christmas lunch and had just decided on something that felt a little uninspired when my December issue of Cooking Light arrived (very late… mix-up in distribution?) Immediately I knew that I’d scrap my plans in favor of the cover recipe, ramekins filled with some sort of chocolate souffle cake. By the time I turned to the page that contained the recipe I was smiling ear to ear. Because not only was this dish perfect because of the individual portion size, the festiveness, and of course, the chocolate, but it was also designed to be made ahead! Music to my ears given that we were hosting a holiday open house the night before and I had to work the morning of the lunch.

A New Favorite Salad

Right before Christmas we had a few folks Jeff works with over for lunch. Hoping to serve something fresh and satisfying, we prepared flank steak, assorted citrus, and a grilled potato salad. I’d been saving this salad recipe for just the right meal. It was given to me at my wedding shower by Ann, a family friend, whose culinary talent is much renowned. She notes on the recipe card that several items are adaptable. It’s really about the method; the ingredients can be adjusted according to your tastes. The key, I think, is choosing really great ingredients. It would be good regardless, but the baby greens from our farm share, fresh cow feta, heirloom fingerling potatoes, and thick cut black forest bacon took it to the next level.

This one is a keeper. Next up is the dessert from that day…

Whole Wheat Rolls

I bought instant mashed potato flakes for the first time in my life. As a child, when my family ate out I would always ask my mom before I ordered whether the mashed potatoes were real (or whipped cream depending on whether we were ordering dinner or dessert.) Instant potatoes are actually fine I’m sure, but they were not well thought of in our house. So what prompted my purchase of this forbidden item? I’ve been on a quest to use our whole wheat flour from our farm share in ways in which you can really taste and appreciate it. And this clipped recipe really intrigued me. So I hunted through the aisles for potato flakes, the recipe’s secret ingredient.

The results? Good. I’m not a bread expert so I don’t know if the potato flakes are crucial or not. I thought these rolls were just sweet enough but could have been a little fluffier. The oats on top were good for a bit of added texture. Great for their purpose, which was to accompany (of course) soup.

Read on for the recipe.

New Years Eve A la Daring Bakers

What is this divine looking thing you say? Our December’s Daring Bakers challenge…

This month’s challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand. It was a particularly exciting challenge because it involved a lot of elements and looked, well, rather intimidating. The word document for the recipe was a massive 18 pages long. I had never made many of the elements involved and in fact had never heard of a few of them.

Nevertheless, I found all this very exciting and eagerly anticipated the beginning of vacation when I would have the time and patience to tackle this challenge. Given our somewhat hectic holiday traveling schedule, I decided to make the yule log on the 29th, take it on a 4 hour trip to the beach (packed well with ice, of course), and ice/serve it on New Year’s Eve. Though I was a little nervous about how all this would work, it came together quite easily. The log stayed fairly well frozen in the cooler and the texture didn’t seem to suffer in the final product.

The hardest part of something like this is figuring out how to put all the smaller parts together to make the whole. Our hosts did a fantastic job writing the recipe and making it clear and easy to follow. They included all the measuring systems you could ask for and included countless variations. This, however, does make for a long (18 page) recipe. So I’m going to lead you through my approach using only the recipes for the flavors I used. Check out the blogroll for other flavor combinations. Here we go…