Ricotta Chocolate Chunk Cookies

So, we ended up with having about six pounds of ricotta cheese in our house, all at once...it happens. Therefore, I was willing to try and recipe that had ricotta in it, especially if it wasn't lasagna. This recipe was good too, because I could therefore give the cookies away to people that had sent me grad presents. Hopefully they like ricotta, but the flavor is not really there, its mainly for the nice puffy-ness that these cookies get. Putting them in the freezer also makes them more puffy instead of getting flat when you cook them. Try them out if you one day also have tons of ricotta to use!

Adapted from La Kocinera

1 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese

1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 bar dark chocolate

1/2 cup dried cranberries

In a large bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar, whipping until well blended and slightly fluffy. Mix in the egg and vanilla.

To the wet mixture, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, mixing well to combine. Take a sharp knife and cut up the chocolate bar into smallish hunks. To this mixture, add the chocolate bar chunks and cranberries (or any dried fruit you like), again stirring until well blended.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Once chilled, form the cookies into balls (about the size of golf balls) and put them on the greased cookie sheet, or as I used, a Silpat (which you don't have to grease). Cook them for about 14 minutes, maybe a little more, depending on your oven. I cooked them for seven minutes and then rotated the cookies sheet so that the ones in the back didn't get too brown, then put them back in for 8 more minutes. There will be about 24 cookies.

Father's Day special

What to serve to the dad that loves all things lemon? Well a lemon brunch, of course! I'm thinking lemon waffles or pancakes, and then later of course a lemon dessert! Yum! Lemon cocktails, perhaps?

Look's like it'll be lemon meringue pie! This is dad's favorite kind of pie, and I have never tried making it before...

I borrowed Martha Stewart's pie recipe, from her 1985 edition of "Pies and Tarts"

AMERICAN CAKE

I made this cake for our last quarterly party. Yes, its true usually at keg parties there is not cake provided, but I always hate being disappointed by the fact that cake and keg sound vaguely familiar...therefore, the america cake!

Vanilla Lime Poundcake: adapted from here

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 limes, zest and juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease and flour a standard 9-inch loaf pan. Set aside. Or, if you want to make the flag cake, use a rectangular pan that's a little bit bigger.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the lime zest, lime juice, and vanilla extract.

Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir until the dry ingredients are just incorporated. Note, you can add baking soda (1/2 tsp) if you want it to be a little bit fluffier. However, this makes it pretty poofy at first, so do not be alarmed.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, smoothing the top. Bake for 60 – 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (or with a few wet crumbs). Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 – 10 minutes. Then, take the cake out of the pan and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

Strawberry Rhubarb Galette

coming soon...

AVOCADO GELATO

coming soon...

BEER FEST 2011

Oh dear, when you pay $43.56 to go to an all you can drink beer fest, well, the results aren't pretty. Being cheap, as well as a beer fanatic, I was darn well going to drink $43 worth of beer. Let's just keep it at that.

Winners of the beer fest, in my book was the Raging Bitch by Flying Dog brewery. I don't really like IPA's that much, and so I never really tried this one before. Sure, you can buy it anywhere, but here I got to try it and I really did like it. I guess that's because its a "belgian style" IPA, and since I love belgians, I liked this too.

I also tried Blast...this is like the new Four Loko that Snoop Dogg is promoting. It tastes like caffeine laced jungle juice because that's exactly what it is. It has a 12% abv and comes in four flavors: strawberry lemonade, blueberry pomegranate, grape (purple!) and raspberry watermelon. My prediction: it will sell wildly at small gas stations and some 7-11's until it is pulled off the market in 9-12 months. You heard it here first.

ARTISINAL LA

creme caramel la

Today we went to Artisianal LA at the Santa Monica Place mall. There we so many wonderful things! Wow!

It was $15 at the door and well worth every penny, here are some of the highlights:

VeeV acai vodka: They made this amazing drink with lemonade. Very light and refreshing, and I would definitely drink it again. It would be perfect for a beach party, I wish that they gave me the recipe! Oh wait, here it is:

Skinny Acai Lemonade

1 and 1/4 ounces VeeV Acai spirit

2 lemon wedges, squeezed

1/2 ounce agave nectar or simple syrup

club soda

spring of mint or basil

Creme Caramel LA: their creme caramel (like a French Flan) is delicious, but their bread pudding was amazing! there were some pretty unique flavors, but I think that I liked the original the best.

Soladad Goats: oh goat cheese, you will never do me wrong. This is delicious! They served it on French bread with some orange marmalade, and it was so good. I mean, that is basically my favorite food anyways, so how could I not want to buy all their products?

Plush Puffs: Okay, usually, I'm pretty okay about marshmallows. Plus, their not even vegetarian. But these, well, these are not your jet-puffed whatevers from your childhood. The caramel swirl one! Yummy! They even had little sterno cans where we could roast them before sampling. How could you not love them?

Gotta Have S'More: ever wanted a cupcake and a s'more? Were you truly unable to choose between them, leading to a mental breakdown. Well look no further! These were delicious little s'mores in cupcake form, gram cracker bottom and all. There is chocolate and caramel to choose from, I like the caramel better!

Green Leaf Chop Shop: this place is all about the basil pesto dressing. That is what you should get from there, and you should get it right now. You will get this, and want to put it on everything. You might gain 80 lbs, but I am not responsible for this.

The Olive Press: there are a lot of olive oil options out there. there are even a lot of amazing options out there. This place is delicious, but that's not really the point here. The read reason this place stands out is that they will let you refill your containers for 1/2 the price! And not just the bottle that you bought from them, but any glass container! just bring it to the farmer's market, like the Brentwood one on Sundays, and they will fill you up with their remarkably delicious olive oil. Do it! Its sustainable!

Le Bon Garcon: their salty caramels are the best. They offer macadamia nut as well, but the salty caramel is where its at, for sure.

All Spice Cafe: I have seen some of their sauces at Whole Foods, but I've never bought them. I will now! The guys are super nice and friendly, and their ghost-pepper infused jam is amazing! ya, it sounds intense but its soo good.

Crust: crust, by Stephanie Jane is good, but there are a lot of pie places out there. Why is crust different? because Stephanie Jane is adorable and decorates her booth like a old fashioned county fair. Therefore, I will quickly hand her my money and buy her addictive cracker brittle and individual little pocket pies. Mini pies! what could be cuter?

San Angel Mole: Mole! I love mole, but I am a vegetarian. Therefore, my mole experience has been relegated to only liking the sauce off the plates of my dining companions. I don't get why they only make chicken mole, so its seems. Anyway, this company has come to my rescue in the mole department, because they have 2 kinds and they are both delicious. I like the black mole the best. You can buy it at Whole Foods in some places, but they were not clear which ones. However, you can definitely buy it at the Bristol Farms in Westwood. Hurray!

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