Nothing says “Holiday Season” like Chocolate Peppermint

In terms of flavor combinations, chocolate and peppermint is right up there with peanut butter and jelly, and tomatoes and basil. And chocolate and peppermint tastes BEST during the holiday season. It’s a fact.

This Chocolate Peppermint Cookies recipe has been developed using both cocoa powder and melted dark chocolate for the richest, deepest chocolate flavor. And, these cookies have a just-slight-underbaked chewy texture, so they almost eat like a brownie!

They also have both peppermint extract and crushed peppermint candy, so I guess you can say they’re double chocolate and double peppermint cookies!

These cookies are dedicated to the true lovers of the combination of chocolate and peppermint, but I think just about everybody will end up loving them!

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With Valentine’s Day coming up, I can indeed confirm that the way to my husband’s heart is chocolate. While he’d be OK with vanilla bean creme brulee or even a stuffed apple just about any other day of the year, I know what he wants for dessert on Valentine’s Day.

One year I made him decadent Nigella Lawson brownies, and he loved them. Another year, I made him the brownies from the Zingerman’s Bakehouse cookbook, and he went wild. Sometimes I’ll even make Baileys brownies as an early St. Patrick’s Day / Valentine’s hybrid situation.

So this year, I’m going to keep sticking with what I know works and making him . . . chocolate brownies (after honey mustard pork chops or maybe lamb bolognese for dinner). But with a spin, of course.

This chocolate brownie pie recipe takes, what is in my opinion, the best part of any pie (the crust) and fills it with a rich, decadent and just simply great chocolate brownie. Cut it into tiny slices or big wedges – we won’t tell anybody!

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I don’t have a ton of St. Patrick’s Day recipes around here. Truth to be told, I don’t think my family has any Irish heritage, and I’d really rather not partake when it comes to some of the traditional foods like corned beef (except corned beef egg rolls, once in awhile).

If I’m feeling in the mood, I might make mini shepherd’s pies or colcannon soup. Or even just have a nice Irish stout alongside a cheese board for beer.

So, unfortunately, if you’re looking for a treasure trove of recipes to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, this will probably never be the site for that.

BUT, I do hope that what I lack in quantity, I make up for in quality. And I can assure you, without a doubt, that these Baileys brownies are the ONLY dessert you need for St. Patrick’s Day (or any day of year, really)!

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On my list of life regrets (although I try not to have too many) is not trying tiramisu when I was IN ITALY. What was I thinking?

I had a rigatoni bolognese recipe and a lot of gelato and some other great desserts, but just didn’t have a chance to try tiramisu in its motherland.

And you know what? Maybe that’s OK. Maybe if I had had it there, it would have ruined all other tiramisus for me, and I would only like strictly authentic tiramisu while scoffing at all others.

Maybe it would mean I would never open my heart to an adaptation like these Frozen Tiramisu Cups.

Are they authentic? No. Are they decadent, delicious and oh-so-easy to put together? Heck yes!

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Last Saturday was my daughter Vida’s first birthday. Time really does fly as fast as everybody says it does. It certainly seems like it was just yesterday that I was announcing her birth. It’s been a year of watching her grow like a weed, listening to her sweet baby giggle, and (thankfully!) quite a bit of sleep.

I know a lot of people say that a first birthday party is really about the parents. About them surviving that first year. Truthfully, I don’t feel like we’ve had to “survive” at all.

We’ll be the first to tell you that we completely lucked out – V is a happy-go-lucky kid who is rarely upset except when we try to feed her bananas. So this first birthday party was really about celebrating how awesome the past year has been.

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I’m kind of a weirdo when it comes to desserts. Warm desserts just aren’t usually my thing. Freshly baked cookies? I’ll wait for them to cool down. Warm pie? Maybe, but only if there’s a big scoop of ice cream to balance the temperature out.

I’ve even been known to refrigerate brownies just so I can eat them nice and cold (try it, it’s awesome). So for years, I thought I didn’t like rice pudding because I was pretty sure it was only served warm, and the thought of eating warm, sweet rice was horrifying.

But as I learned in my Pastry class in culinary school, that’s not the case! Rice pudding can be served warm, room temperature OR chilled. Who’s with me on the chilled version?

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When I talk about building layers of flavor, I’m generally referring to savory foods. You might start by sweating garlic, adding some mirepoix, searing your protein, then finishing with acid (being sure to salt each step of the way). These techniques ensure that your finished dish isn’t just “one note” in flavor, but is more dynamic.

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What is your favorite activity to pass the time of the long, cold winter months? For me, it really depends on if there’s snow or not. If there’s a lot of snow, I like to go snowshoeing, or just take my dog for a “winter wonderland walk,” as I call it.

If there’s no snow, and it’s just cold, dreary and miserable outside, I’m happy to stay inside. I love (love!) board games. My lucky husband gets to either play board games with me, or listen to me whine about it. But I can usually talk him into it by offering a snack or drink of some sort while we play.

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In some ways, I sort of feel like a bad blogger. In all of December, I brought you just one dessert. For that matter, I didn’t do any desserts in November at all.

True, I’ve never been known as a baking or desserts blogger, and any longtime reader will know that I always choose savory over sweet. Still, I can’t let the holidays get by without at least a second dessert.  (more…)

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I start most mornings with a carrot cake smoothie made in my beloved Vitamix and a cup of coffee made in my beloved French press. The problem with this arrangement is the daily decision of which to make first.

Some mornings, it’s clear: I need coffee or the day can go no further.

Other days, I feel like having a nice big serving of fruits and/or veggies in a  lemon smoothie or blueberry lemon smoothie, and getting that out of the way for the day.

But as I’m drinking the smoothie, I’m usually like “but…..coffee….”

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