CREPES Encore!!! Crepes a la apple-caramel

Cut Irish Soda Bread

Jose making the Irish Soda Bread

Jose's Irish Soda Bread

Stephanie's Frangipane Cake

Jose making the Japonaise

I made this the other day as a quick Hors d'oeuvre for a party. I was out of crackers so I did some toast + goat cheese and sliced cucumbers topped with Razpotle Sauce!!! My guests loved it! BTW Razpotle is a sauce sold at COSTCO and it has raspberries and chipotle it is MMMMMMMM!!!!!!

photo by Katie!

I probably have never had so many types of chocolate in one day... We tested several choc. varieties. Also we did chcolate work and centerpieces... Lots of fun but by the end of the class I was so hyper and chocolate sick!!! LOL

TRUFFLES

TRUFFLES!!!!! Chocolate ganache (nice and creamy) with a almost crunchy cover of more chocolate + cocoa!!! MMM

Alison making the truffles!!!

Making the roses...

Making the petals..flatten the molding choc.

Making the chocolate leaves with real lemon leafs. 1st you temper the chocolate then you brush the leafs and let them set in the freezer for a few min. then peel and voila!!!!

Rose production!!!!!!!! A chocolate rose garden in the making!!!

Close up on my roses

Close up on Jose's roses

my group's roses...Tu, Stephanie and Jose's

Jose's white choc. leaves

everybody busy making their roses!!!

The assembly 4 of 4, Making the white choc. butterflies

The assembly 3 of 4

The assembly 2 of 4

The assembly 1 of 4

Finalized centerpiece by: Evelyn

Alison's butterflies / Plastic sheet with stencil

All the centerpieces

Jose's centerpiece

Alison's centerpiece

Mark's centerpiece

These 2 had too much chocolate!!! Coretta was chasing Aaron with the lemon leaves which he swears give him goosebumps or something like that... LOL it was Hilarious!

This is the most complex tasting,ethnic thing I've made in quite a while... It is Coconut Goan Curry (India) it is this spicy and complex flavored sauce/curry for the chicken then some rice pilaf & grilled eggplant and green beans! it was MMM!!!!!!! : )

Red bell peppers and pinenuts MMM!!!

DINNER!!! Rice & Chicken topped with a mushroom cream sauce and colorfull red bell peppers and pinenuts

Ok so I got this book to polish my knife skills and this pinapple cutting technique cought my eye. It is a fancy swirl like design that removes the eyes on the pineapple and leaves you with this centerpiece pinapple or sliced with fancy garnish! Try it!!!! it is fun!!! but don't do as i did and get your self a nice pineapple...mine was overipe :( so the color wasn't the best and the flesh was a bit soft. But never the less fun to try.

Start by removing the bottom, leaving a flat sturdy base.

Peel away all the rough outter skin leaving the eyes.

Start by making "V" angled cuts very close to the pineapple's eyes. Follow the eyes in a sort of diagonal "s" shape. Keep cutting until you remove all the eyes and you are left with clean pineapple "rows"

more cuts....OH!!!!!!! and don't trash the eyes and flesh attached I used all the scraps plus a couple of sliced clean chunks of the pinapple to make virgin pina-colada!!!! drink. It was very good!!! THE RECIPE: put all the pinapple you want to use in a blender then add water and make a pulp base. Strain the twice to eliminate the most of the fiber and eyes. Then put the "juice" and more water enough to diluted but not to the point where it tastes like water, just enough. Add sugar to taste then bring the mix to a boil. Turn off let it cool down. by then the juice developes in to a sweet kinda syrup base. Then when ready to serve. Add more water if needed. Add a can of cooconut milk, sugar & lots of ice TT. DELICIOUS!!!

Finished pinapple. You can use this as a garnish (sliced) or to make a center piece for a buffet

Cutting the pinapple! oh had I bought a better pinapple the "star" slices would of held better! but well... never the less it was a decent first attempt.

Finally cut the centers with a round cookie cutter. And Voila fancy cutted pinapple with no eyes. yhou can use this for a garnish ot a fruit platter.

Can't get enough of our Bavarian Roulade!!! it is SO SO GOOD frozen!!!

To avoid the hassle of cutting the pinapple I used Del Monte's Cored pinapple which is fresh not canned.

Voila! Grilled pineapple with Nutella. Delicious!!! The grilling brings out the sweetness and juices in the pinappple!!!

My Favorite Cookies!!!! the recipe comes in one of my favorite cookie cookbooks "Unlimited Cookies" by Nick Malgieri. VISIT: www.nickmalgieri.com

Where can I begin... with Nutella!!! some History:
Nutella, was first created in the 1940s by Mr. Pietro Ferrero, a pastry maker and founder of the Ferrero company. At the time, cocoa was in short supply because of rationing due to World War II, so chocolate was very limited. So Mr. Ferrero used hazelnuts, which are plentiful in the Piedmont region of Italy (northwest),to extend the chocolate supply.
It was such a hit that Italian food stores started a service called "The Smearing". Children could go to their local food store with a slice of bread for a "smear" of what was known as "supercrema gianduja" later renamed "Nutella" in 1964.

www.nutellausa.com

www.nutella.it

Making good use of Nutella in my favorite way! With Crepes!!!! The best way! I learned this years and years ago. Thanks to a good friend I made when I lived back in San Antonio,TX. Her name: Mirsada Keserovic a kind soul with love for the kitchen and no recipe book! LOL she could cook and bake entire cakes with no recipe books or measurements of any kind! and they usually turned out good! She was a refugee from Bosnia here in the US and I haven't seen her in years but I keep and cherish her recipes and specially this one for what she called: PALACINKA (serbo-croatian for Crepe). One day she invited me to her apartment to have some dessert and she made PALACINKA = crepes with Nutella!!! Heaven on earth!!!! Before this I thought one: crepes where boring and complicated and two: Nutella was an overpriced chocolate spread. Now a days it is my weekend favorite snack!!! And what a way to start off my SPRING BREAK!!!! LOL!!!

Caramel Spread or "Dulce de Leche" from Colombia!(Arequipe in Colombia) the Best!!! it is so creamy and pleasantly sweet. Nice caramel taste. SEE: http://www.alpina.com.co/
for more info.