Cook and Brew.

You Are a Sweet Person

When it comes to snacks, you’re more likely to grab some candy than heat up a pizza. There’s a good chance you’re female (women prefer sweet snacks)… Or at least, you prefer to be in the company of women. Your tastes are simple and predictable. You are young at heart. You tend to crave food you can just grab and eat.

Are You Sweet or Salty?

Blogthings: A Fine Line Between Insight and Stupidity

Wow..this is so true. Aside from my being affectionate, which the husband can attest to that, I truly have an incredibly sweet tooth. In fact, the barcode scanners in the grocery could actually break down whenever we shop for my sweets stocks for the week. I stock our cart a lot! From ice cream, to chocolates, cookies, donuts, etc. My latest sweet cravings lately are Goldilocks Polvorons which I’m currently munching as I blog.

One of the tables that got stormed by my son’s 1st birthday party guests was the Chocolate Fountain table. A dear friend who happens to be my son’s godmother volunteered that she lends her chocolate fountain and likewise, offered her services to set it up and make the necessary dippers. Check out her Chocolate Coated Apples, the recipe of which she got from Foodnetwork.com:

Ingredients
* Medium sweet-tart apples, such as Fuji or Gala
* Barbecue or popsicle sticks
* 1 pound semisweet chocolate, cut into chunks
* 1 cup M & M’s and candy sprinkles. Optional ingredients are chopped pistachios, shredded coconut, toffee pieces, or crushed Oreos

Directions:
Twist off the stems from the apples and push a stick down into the core. Put the apples in the fridge while preparing the chocolate; they’ll coat better if they’re cold.

Slowly melt the chocolate in a double boiler over hot water or in a microwave set on high for 2 minutes, stirring halfway through the heating time to smooth it out. Remove from the heat and stir until completely melted and warm, not hot. Dunk each apple into the chocolate, allowing the excess to drip back into the bowl. Roll the apples around in the chocolate, turning with the stick, so it’s coated all the way up to the top. Use a spoon to baste any hard to get spots.

Put the desired coating in a separate bowl and roll the dipped apple around so it is completely covered. Set the chocolate dipped apples on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Refrigerate until the chocolate is set.

***

I was so busy entertaining the party guests that’s why I wasn’t able to taste it. But I heard great raves about it from the guests.

“My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished 2 bags of M&M’s and a chocolate cake. I feel better already.”
~ Dave Barry

I’m literally drooling while posting this picture. And all the more I salivated when I noticed that my recent snapshots share are all food…so tempting and alluring. This is the husband’s shot of his special Father’s Day cake…Red Ribbon’s Chocolate S’mores Cake: moist chocolate cake with layers of heavenly marshmallow and grahams. Topped with caramel and chocolate squares.

Chocolate Banana Parfait…yummy!

More Wordless entries here.

Tokyo Cafe's Chocolate Banana Parfait

For our Father’s Day lunch dessert at Tokyo Cafe, we had this very sinfully delicious Chocolate Banana Parfait. I can’t actually find the perfect word to describe how my taste buds went gaga over this. All I know is that I suddenly felt heaven when the sweet blend of the chocolate, cream and banana touched the tip of my tongue. I researched on the web the recipe for this one and this is the simplest I got from dole.com. I am yet to try this recipe so I can’t guarantee yet if this recipe is as heaven as Tokyo Cafe’s.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup boiling water
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 DOLE® Bananas (1 extra-ripe, 1 firm)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed
1/2 cup DOLE Fresh or Fresh Frozen Raspberries

Directions:
* Pour boiling water over chocolate chips in small bowl; stir until smooth.
* Combine extra-ripe banana, brown sugar, vanilla and melted chocolate, in blender or food processor container. Cover: blend until smooth. Fold in whipped topping.
* Spoon half of mousse into 4 parfait or dessert glasses. Slice remaining firm banana over mousse in glasses. Spoon remaining mousse over bananas. Chill at least 30 minutes. Top with raspberries.
* Garnish with additional sliced banana if desired.

***Photographed by my beloved husband.

Coleslaw

Ingredients:
2 cups finely shredded cabbage
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
1/3 cup crushed pineapple, well drained
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup white sugar

For dressing:
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup thick whipping cream

Procedure:
1. Put all ingredients in a bowl.
2. Mix well and chill before serving.

Source: Christine Lee’s Best Loved Foods For Everyone

Mai’s kitchen notes:
For my first trial of salad, I didn’t follow the exact proportions of the ingredients as I didn’t have raisins and whipping cream that time.. I made some adjustments on the quantities of the other ingredients. And luckily, I still managed to pull it off. Hubby liked it so much.

Mallow Mud

A creamy mixture of mallows and chocolate cookies

For my first ever recipe share, here’s one of those maiden oh-so-easy-to-do desserts I made. Except for the butter that needs to be melted, there’s no cooking involved. I got this recipe from Nestle’s Best Recipes Book which I bought when a cooking demo was conducted at Nestle years ago.

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups cream filled chocolate cookies, coarsely chopped
2 250 ml. bricks NESTLÉ All Purpose Cream
3/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

Preparation:
1. Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl.
2. Pour into an 8×8x2 – inch container.
3. Top with extra mallows or chunks of chocolate cream cookies.
4. Chill for at least an hour before serving.

What I like about their cookbook is that it includes Cooking notes such as:

Nutritional info per serving:
Carbohydrates 11 g.
Fats 29 g.
Protein 1 g.
Calories 309 Kcal.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 8

**It’ll be your instant ice cream when chilled for more than an hour.