Chocolate Pudding - Sweet Melissa Sunday's

Does chocolate pudding remind you of your childhood? It's one of my earliest kitchen memories. My mom would make Jello Chocolate Pudding for dessert. I remember when I was maybe seven? she let help me stir the pudding on the stove. I don't remember it seeming to take as long to cook as it does today!

I love dessert! It's my favorite food group! I make a lot of desserts from scratch. Pudding, however, I don't think I have ever made from scratch. When I saw this weeks SMS recipe was Chocolate Pudding, I knew I wanted to participate. I also realized pudding is on my Top 50 list, so apparently this isn't the first time it occurred to me I'd never made pudding from scratch.

I made 1/4 recipe and ended up with 2 five ounce ramekins. The recipe called for checking pudding after 45 minutes. To be safe, I checked after 40. Was it done? It didn't appear soupy but didn't really look done. Melissa suggests using an instant read thermometer and if it reads between 150 - 155, it's done. Okay, 152! Interesting though the top of my pudding doesn't appear smooth like I would expect it to look. I wonder if I cooked it too long.

The pudding is denser and thicker than I expect a pudding to be. The flavor is nice, with just the right amount of chocolate. I liked it but I didn't love it!



Thanks to Leslie of Lethally Delicious for choosing this week's recipe. You can find the recipe on her blog. If you want to see the other SMS baker's pudding, you can find the links to their blogs here!

I'm hosting SMS in two weeks, Irish Soda Bread!!

A Winner and Little Bit of Everything in 2011

Happy New Year!! The winner of my CSN Stores Giveaway is Debbie of Debbie Does Dinner Healthy. Thanks to everyone for entering and congratulations, Debbie!!

As 2010 came to a close, I took a look back at my blogging goals. My goals were to participate in Adopt a Blogger, create more recipes on my own, take a cake decorating class, bake more homemade bread and make better use of my cookbooks and my mom's recipes.

How did I do? Adopt a Blogger, Cake Decoating check! One of my homemade bread recipes produced a funny loaf of bread. Mom's recipe, Dorothy Mackey's Apple Dapple Cake delivered one of my favorite dessert recipes of the year. All in all, not too bad. The only real failure was using my cookbooks more. I really need to work on that one. What do I do? I just keeping buying more cookbooks.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been jotting down my 2011 food and blogging related goals.

Entertain More - I love to entertain. In 2011, in addition to having friends over for dinner, I'd like to host a wine and cheese tasting party.

Read My Recipes Well - I tend to glance over the recipes. I think I understand prep or pre cooking times. When I start preparing, I realize I didn't understand and the recipe takes longer than the time I'd allotted.

Advance Prep - To help reduce the time it takes to cook a recipe and have healthier snacks in the fridge, wash and prep fruits and veggies when I bring them home from the store!

My Top 50 - Continue to focus on the recipes on this list.

What are your 2011 blogging goals?

Penne With Sage Brown Butter Sauce

We've all experienced it, life getting in the way of blogging. I feel like I have a good routine for blogging. For the most part, my posts come together pretty easily. I try to plan out my posts for the week and whenever possible bake for my baking groups in advance. This week wasn't one of those weeks. We were out of town last weekend. I've been working on securing in home help for my 91 year old father and step mother. Life just got in the way!

As I was looking through my drafts folder, I find I have drafts with photos but no content. I was pleased to see NO dessert recipes in the folder. I think that's a first. :) Lots of pasta recipes in there though, guess you can't win them all! I don't consider myself a writer. I often find myself struggling with what to write and where to find my inspiration. There's so many of you who write beautiful, funny and inspiring blog posts. Where do you get your inspiration?

With winter just around the corner, I am savoring the fresh ingredients from my garden and the farmer's market. My sage seems to be thriving in the cooler weather. Pasta With Sage Brown Butter Sauce is on my Top 50 list! It's always a good feeling to post a date next to an item on my list. Don't you just love browned butter and the flavor it imparts?

Pasta With Sage Brown Butter Sauce
Recipe courtesy of Sidewalk Shoes

•6 tablespoons butter
•20 or 30 fresh sage leaves (or 1 tablespoon dried)
•salt and fresh black pepper to taste
•1 pound pasta (like ziti or penne)
•1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
•Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Add the sage, salt and pepper. Cook until the butter turns light brown, about 10 minutes.

Salt the boiling water and cook the pasta per package directions. Reserve 2 or 3 tablespoons of the pasta water and place in a warm serving bowl. Drain the pasta and in the serving bowl, toss it with the butter mixture and half the Parmesan cheese. Serve with additional ground black pepper and the rest of the Parmesan cheese.

Serves 4

I am linking this recipe to Foodie Friday's. I am submitting this to Presto Pasta Night's, hosted this week by Ruth at 4Every Kitchen.

Pink Saturday & Chocolate With Francois

It's not often that I have two blogging events on the same day! Today's one of those days. Both of these events deserve their own post. However, this blogger saved Chocolate With Francois until the last minute and after a long week at work didn't have the energy for two posts.

First we have Pink Saturday! Today I am featuring a beautiful pink flower from my garden. I have seen these called "Dinner Plate Hibiscus". This description is so fitting, these flowers are the size of dinner plates.

Now we're switching from beautiful pink flowers to delicious chocolate treats. This month's Chocolate With Francois creation is Chocolate Beignets. I love beignets but I have never made them. They're actually on my Top 50.

Since these need to be eaten right away, I decided to make 1/4 of the recipe. I had a little trouble with my math skills and ended up making the yeast mixture three times before I got it right. I know my division was accurate but the batter was way too thick. There was no way you could dip anything into the mixture. I added more beer until it was the consistency of a batter to be used for frying. I didn't feel like my ganache set up like it should but that could have been because of the heat and humidity. Once the ganache is set you roll the balls in egg, dip them in bread crumbs and then in the batter. This seemed more like something you would do for a main dish than a dessert but I assume it's to help keep the chocolate together while frying in the oil. The recipe called for a creme anglaise as a dipping sauce. It was already getting late so I skipped the creme anglaise.

Finally after an hour in the freezer, time to fry them. A couple of mine, exploded in the oil, maybe I didn't get enough bread crumbs around the chocolate? I had quite a bit of leftover batter. I put it in the fridge and am hoping to thin it down just a bit and make onion rings tomorrow night.

The verdict...I liked them but I didn't love them. They didn't really taste like a traditional beignet.This recipe is the pick of Julie from Always Leave Room for Dessert. If you want to give these a try, you'll find the recipe on her blog. Stop by Chocolate With Francois and see what the other members had to say!

My 1st Blogversary and My 50!

Happy Blogversary to you! Happy Blogversary to you! Happy Blogversary dear Little Bit! Happy Blogversary to you!

Seems like just yesterday, this blog was only a wild and crazy thought in my mind. A year ago, I was looking for something to challenge my brain and a purpose for my cookbooks and recipe clippings.

Except for a short period of time last summer when my health got in the way, I've been motivated to keep up my blog. I've tried recipes I would have never tried, like this one from Sweet Melissa Sunday's . I've met a lot of great bloggers and continue to meet new friends. There's so many talented and creative food bloggers out there, my list of daily reads continues to grow.

One thing that helps me stay on course is keeping a list of upcoming posts and recipes to try. A couple of weeks ago, I started thinking about my Blogversary, what recipe to post and what to write about. One of the reasons I began blogging was to make recipes from all of my recipe clippings and cookbooks. One of my 2010 blogging goals is to make more recipes from the 100+ cookbooks I own. What do I do? I keep buying more cookbooks. Currently I have a dozen or more on the list of ones I want to buy. My Blogversary recipe is a Creme Brulee from an old issue of First magazine. You know those recipes that are like old friends? You can always count on them? This recipe is one of those old friends. If you haven't made Creme Brulee before, give this recipe a try. You won't be disappointed!


Creme Brulee
6 Servings

2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup granulated sugar
5 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 to 12 tablespoons sugar

Heat oven to 300. Heat cream and 1/2 cup sugar in a sauce pan over medium heat until sugar dissolves and mixture is hot. Whisk egg yolks to combine. Slowly pour cream into yolks, whisking quickly so the hot cream doesn't curdle the eggs. Stir in vanilla.

Pour into 6 creme brulee dishes, custard cups or individual souffle dishes. Line the bottom of a roasting pan with paper towels and set the filled dishes on top. Set on oven shelf and pour warm water into pan to come half up the sides of the dishes.

Bake until a knife stuck in the center comes out coated with thickened custard, about 1 hour. (For souffle dishes and custard cups bake about 1 hour and 30 minutes). Let stand in water bath 10 minutes. Remove and cool completely. Chill overnight.

To glaze, sprink about 1 tablespoon evenly on top of the custard, smooth the surface. Using a kitchen torch melt the sugar to form the carmalized top.

I've been working on My 50, a list of recipes I haven't made before. There's lots of other recipes I want to make but these are those more "Julia Child like" recipes. With the exception of gnocci, I have never made anything on this list. I've made gnocci a couple of times but it's been at least 10 years ago. It wasn't all that good, certainly not that melt in your mouth gnocci you get at a good Italian restaurant. Compiling this list wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I had a hard time coming up with 50 but in the end, I am happy with my list.

Julie's Top 50

BREAD
1 Bagels
2 Baguettes
3 Brioche
4 Croissants
5 Focaccia
6 Pretzels

DESSERTS
7 Baked Alaska
8 Baklava
9 Bananas Foster
10 Beignets
11 Carrot Cake
12 Crepes
13 Decorated Tiered Cake
14 Filled Cupcakes
15 French Macaroons
16 Lemon Curd
17 Merinque
18 Panna Cotta
19 Pie Crust
20 Pots de crème
21 Profiteroles
22 Pudding
23 Shortbread
24 Tres Leches
25 Trifle
26 Truffles
27 Bubble Tea

MAIN DISHES
28 Beef Bourguignon
29 Beef Tenderloin
30 Butter Poached Lobster Tails
31 Chili Rellenos
32 Croque Monsieur
33 Dutch Baby
34 Gnocci
35 Gumbo
36 Lobster Bisque
37 Miso Soup
38 Pad Thai
39 Paella
40 Pizza Dough
41 Puttanesca Sauce
42 Ravioli
43 Sage Brown Butter Sauce
44 Sushi
45 Vodka Sauce

SIDES
46 Duchesse Potatoes
47 Caesar Salad
48 Chutney
49 Polenta
50 Rice Pilaf

Do you have a favorite or no fail recipe for any of the dishes on my list? I'd love to hear about them, let me know!