C is for chocolate that's good enough for me

Since I am a lazy bum and do not keep this blog up, I failed to post any of the awesome recipes I made over the year and have forgotten a bunch of them. I have to rely on ones I have repeated to know what is good to post. I came upon this chocolate pudding recipe awhile ago and I have made it at least 5 times since then. I used to be sad because when I switched from dairy to soymilk the boxed puddings never reached my desired thickness, even if I reduced the liquid. There goes that problem with this recipe. The only trick to it, is to cook it until it thickens enough so that it coats your spoon or spatula. Even if you screw it up and it doesn't get that thick, which happened to me last night when I made the full recipe versus the halved version I normally make, just throw it in a saucepan over medium and stir it to make sure it doesn't burn and it will fix itself. How fantastic is that?! So anyway, try this delicious pudding recipe and vary it up for desired taste. I use soymilk, you can use any kind, and semisweet chocolate chips and last night I substituted the vanilla for instant coffee, you could use rum or any other flavoring you like, anyway enjoy!

mmmm this Chocolate Pudding Rules!

PS sorry for the lack of pix, too lazy although there is pudding in the fridge so I can always take some later today

Gluttony day

Valentines, the recipes

Breakfast:
Started the day off right with cream scones and mimosas. Thank god for cheap Trader Joes champagne!

Lunch: was working on my paper for the bulk of this so nothing fancy, sandwiches and chips

Dinner: We always make a pizza for valentines day, with the exception of the year I had the flu then it was takeout hot and sour soup. Anyway, it is a lot of fun to assemble, but easy, and we can make all the stuff together. Gil prepped the dough while I was working on school stuff, then I made the sauce (halved and added fresh garlic, dried herbs) and we put on the toppings (red bell pepper hearts) . The dough was a bit of a fiasco, we tried out another recipe but it failed to evolve and then we noticed the flour was expired so we had to toss it. Oddly enough this is not my first flour expiration experience, it is no fun.

Dessert: Here's where it gets good. We decided to do a pizookie for dessert because Gil became obsessed with them after trying it at BJ's months ago. Halved a blondies recipe for the cookie, topped it with some vanilla ice cream, and made caramel and hot fudge (subbed semisweet for half the chocolate) sauce to finish it off. OMG was it good! So decadent, and we only had a tiny square! The caramel was just short of burnt which made it so bitter tasting. The chocolate firmed up on the ice cream leading to little caramel chocolate gooey strips. Man, it is going to be bad to have these leftovers in my fridge for the next few days.

All in all a success, will definitely make the cream scones and caramel again, don't know if I have another pizookie in me, but if I do I will toy with other recipes that are a little less cakey. Also, I have heavy cream left in my fridge, how should I use it up? Any recipe suggestions?

Well, hope everyone else had as yummy of a Valentines day as I did!

Valentines treats

So, I am supposed to be writing a research proposal for class but I can't help ignore that and instead prep for valentines day treats! So far: cream scones are flash frozen and ready to be popped in the oven when I wake up. Caramel sauce is chillin' in the fridge, and recipes are chosen. Don't have a plan for lunch yet, we'll see if I end up spending my afternoon writing or pedal boating. More details to come as tomorrow begins with scones and mimosas :)