If you love chocolate...

Anyone who knows me well enough could probably tell you I'm not exactly the most domestic gal on the planet. While my sister would do our late (and very talented in all things homey) mother proud, I can't really sew, I'm not particularly into crafting, and I haven't scrap-booked in about 10 years. Well somehow, somewhere along the line I became interested in, and learned to enjoy, cooking and baking. (a.k.a. I got married and decided that my husband deserved better than ramen noodles and peanut butter & jelly, even if he did eat them willingly).

The problem with deciding to learn to cook after you leave the nest, is that aside from the few (albeit very helpful) tips your parent/grandparent/etc. forcibly impressed upon you, you're pretty much doomed to regular dinner time how-to phone calls to grandma, and watching Food Network to try to pick up on what you weren't smart enough to learn at home in the first place. While sorting out the programs that didn't require me to keep caviar and truffle oil in my pantry, I came across a true little gem. If there ever was a cooking show that could gain a cult following (change that to HAS gained a cult following), it would have to be Good Eats - Alton Brown has become one of my favorite teachers of all things culinary (next to grandma of course), and it doesn't hurt that he has a certain quirky, OCD approach to cooking that I can relate to.

I recently watched the first of three shows he's done on chocolate, and he demonstrated a recipe called "Chocolate Lava Muffins" - I love it so very much that I decided to post it here. (All credits for this recipe go to Food Network, or Alton Brown, or Good Eats... yadda yadda yadda) You can find it on the Food Network website, but somewhere between the show & the web page, the recipe changed slightly. Personally, I stick to the version he presented on his show & it works wonderfully, so that is the one I will post here. :)

Chocolate Lava Muffins
yield 12 muffins
prep time 20 min. plus 2 hours inactive prep

Ingredients -
8 oz (by weight) semisweet chocolate chips (scant 1 1/2 cups)
1 stick butter (plus extra for muffin tin)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c sugar
4 T flour
1 T cocoa powder (plus extra for dusting muffin tin)
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs

Directions:
Place a small metal bowl over a saucepan with simmering water. Melt the chocolate and butter in the bowl. Remove from heat & stir in vanilla. Smooth mixture with hand mixer. In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients.

Beating with a hand mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating each egg completely before adding the next. Continuing to mix, slowly sift the dry ingredients into the chocolate mixture. Once added, beat mixture on high until batter is creamy & light in color, about 4 minutes. Chill mixture thoroughly (at least 2 hours)

When you are ready to bake, pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Coat the top & cups of a muffin tin with butter. Dust cups & top with cocoa powder, shaking off the excess. Spoon mixture evenly into each cup. (4 oz scoop or ladle works well) Bake 10-11 minutes, or until outside is cake-like and center is still jiggly. Serve warm.

(I like a really oozy center so I watch them very closely during the last minutes of baking and take them out just before the center has baked completely over, as they WILL set up a little more once removed from the oven - these are great served with ice cream, but there is a recipe for an espresso ice cream sauce on the foodnetwork.com version of this recipe, if you like that sort of thing :)

Slow Blogger...

Well, I'm a little behind in the blogging world - and this is going to be short to-boot. The holidays flew by, but I can't say that I'm not glad for the new year! For one thing, the days are getting longer (woooo hooooo!) - for another thing, every day is another day closer to spring (and therefore summer!). It has been bitterly cold here in the Basin this winter (where 5 degrees is our high for the day, and it's 15 to 20 below at night)... we have also received a ton of snow, but it's been too cold to go outside and enjoy it. Winters like this make me seriously consider moving to a place like Arizona.

On the bright side, it has been slightly warmer lately - the 20 degree day we had yesterday was certainly a warm welcome (har har har!!! get it?! warm?!...he he) The other up-side to spending lots of time indoors during the day is that I have Todd's Xbox all to myself... Guitar Hero 3 has become my new friend... :) (so if any of you play, let me know and we'll jam!)

Happy Friday to everyone :)

Steph

Pumpkin fun

Obviously we didn't make it up to take any nice fall pictures with pretty leaves, and they're all dead now, so I guess it's a wee bit too late. Ah well.

On a happier note, we all went for a hay ride to a local pumpkin patch & picked our pumpkins. Rendan decided that they looked much better lined up in front of our front step than down on the patio, so he packed them ALL up the stairs. (including the big one he has his foot on)

If you're wondering what the white stripe is on his forehead, he took a nose-dive the other day in our driveway & cut his head open on a rock. Fortunately, he didn't need stitches but we did need to butterfly his forehead. Never a dull moment...

Haircut?

I think it's safe to say that it's time for one - I put them off as long as I can because a - he doesn't think too much of them and b- I just really like his hair! (ask me for baby pictures sometime - I only cut it then because I got tired of people telling me what a cute little girl I had). However, when I have to practically stick the poor kid's head under the sink to saturate it enough to hold it down (and then usually end up putting a hat on him anyway unless I want him looking like he could play a miniature part in "Grease" after I do comb it) it's time to bite the bullet and just get it done. Haircuts are tricky for this one - it is so thick that if you get it too short, no amount of gel, wax, or mashing will get it to look like anything less than the back of a porcupine - too long, and you'll be back to the haircutter in a week because it grows so fast. (One of these days I'll get a "first-thing-in-the-morning picture of his dad, and you will have no question of where he inherits THAT particular trait from - can you say, poofy?)

With that out of the way, I think it's also safe to say that winter cometh speedily here in Utah and the fall temperature is falling just a little too fast for my liking. The up-side is that the autumn leaves are beautiful this time of year, and I am going to try to take the kids up on the mountain to get a picture of the trees in their fall adornment. It really is pretty spectacular, and I hope I'm not too late to see them!

It's later

Cookies accomplished! (And what would cookie making be if we didn't end up with a little flour on our face?) Kayla discovered that being sick has it's advantages when it comes to cookie making - namely our very own cookie shape so no one else eats your sickly cookies... the rest of the cookies are maple leaf shapes that we're going to decorate with gold & red sprinkles for autumn. I am still sulking about my oh-so-short summer being over, but it doesn't mean we can't be festive. (humbug!)

No major plans for the week so far- General Conference is this weekend in Salt Lake - we've never been & thought it would be a great experience to go, but thanks to my amazing lack of foresight I have been unable to get any tickets... but maybe next time! (And maybe next time I'll decide it's a good idea to find tickets more than one week beforehand... hmmm)

For all you family members that I emailed this link to, howdy! Make me feel special & post a comment, eh? ;) Love ya!

Howdy :)

Hey, my first blog! Kinda sad, but better late than never! Hopefully I'll be a good little blogger and keep this updated (and more importantly, hopefully my family actually reads it???) Though I won't be telling Gma Nae Nae about it until I send her my family reunion recipes - I don't think she'd be impressed that I was blogging when I am supposed to be typing up recipes to email her... um, as of last night... and I was late then. (Sorry grandma)

On a lighter note, Kayla is home sick this morning... ok, maybe that's not light, but we're making sugar cookies! (and I wish I could claim THAT recipe, cause it is yummy!) I'll post pictures later... if I can find my camera. *sigh*