Have I mentioned that I’ve also been mostly off sweets since January? I decided that I was tired of having that craving for sweet desserts and, as I am definitely an Abstainer rather than a Moderator (information that has given me tremendous peace of mind – thank you Gretchen Rubin!), I had to quit cold turkey. Wintertime raspberries that are $5 per pint don’t seem so expensive when you’re fighting buying five cupcakes on the way home, so I made sure I had lots of fruit in the house every day so I could have something sweet after dinner. If I went out for dinner, I’d get a special glass of port or a nice cheese when everyone else got dessert so that I didn’t feel like I was missing out. That worked. After about a month I felt the craving was pretty under control, and after two months I stopped wanted sugary things – for the most part.
I love losing the cravings for sweets and not feeling beholden to the desire for sugar. However, I take short breaks from my sweet fast during which I can have whatever I like, and one of those breaks is now. This way, I don’t feel like I’m deprived forever. I know a break is coming up, and I know I can make it until then, when I can have whatever I like.
So on my first full day on vacation, when I had absolutely nothing I had to do, nowhere I had to be, and nothing I had to learn or turn in, I decided to go back to the beginning and make Brown Butter Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies (recipe here).
God, I love these cookies. SO good. Just so good. I came away awfully proud of myself for making them the signature sweet of BB&B. One batch made 22 cookies, and I once again ate nothing else for dinner. Which I feel fine about, since I’ll go off sweets again next week! Until then, I’m eating as much my tummy can handle.
I was eating some vanilla ice cream the other night and had the thought that it was a little boring and I wished I had a sauce with it. Then I realized I had blueberries in the fridge, and fifteen minutes later I had the loveliest sauce for my boring vanilla.
I’m minorly (read: totally) proud of myself.
Chocolate Blueberry Sauce
- About a cup of fresh blueberries. This would work equally well with frozen, just use a little less water
- ½ cup of water
- ¼ cup white sugar
- ¾ teaspoon cornstarch
- zest of half a lemon
- 2 heaping teaspoons cocoa (or to taste)
Stick all the ingredients in a small pot and bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Smash blueberries with the back of a spoon against the side of the pan until you get bored. (A potato masher would also work really well, but I don’t have one.) Add two heaping teaspoons of good cocoa and whisk it in. Let it simmer until it thickens to your preference.
Either eat it when hot, or put it in the fridge to cool down. Personally, I couldn’t wait (hence, the meltiness in the photograph). I did have some the next day though, when it was cold, and it had thickened up even more and was SO good.
This would also be a wonderful sauce over brownies alone, ice cream with brownies, a meringue, pound cake, or even over coffee cake in the morning.
http://livinginthewoodsandmakingstuff.com/2010/03/29/monkey-bread/
Torrey made Monkey Bread this weekend! Look at all that heavenly cinnamon and sugar. I really need to get around to it now :)
I’m working on my menu for Easter Brunch, so maybe I can add it in. Check back tomorrow for menu and decor plans!
http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/02/monkey-bread-with-cream-cheese-glaze/
I had never heard of Monkey Bread before reading Smitten Kitchen’s recipe, and now I’m OBSESSED. Think about making it all the time. Maybe because of the cream cheese frosting? Entirely because of the cream cheese frosting? Maybe because of the cinnamon roll-esque balls of bready goodness dipped in brown sugar and cinnamon? Entirely because of the cinnamon roll-esque balls of bready goodness dipped in brown sugar and cinnamon?
- http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/02/monkey-bread-with-cream-cheese-glaze/
It’s hard to say.
Unfortunately, I haven’t had a few hours to make Monkey Bread yet, so in lieu of tasting it myself I thought I’d let you all know about it. You know, in case you’re looking for a dessert that takes a lot of rising time and hands-on time. I think I might make it for my happiness group this weekend.
Rhubarb pie is my dad’s favorite dessert, and I made it for his birthday this year. It has to be ONLY rhubarb – none of this hyphenated craziness with strawberries or raspberries – and it has to be only very lightly sweetened, and most importantly, it has to be eaten cold. Not room temp. Cold.
I don’t know where or how my dad discovered the perfect flavor that the cold lends the tart rhubarb, but I have to agree that it works unbelievably well. It’s also impossible to find a cold tart rhubarb pie anywhere, so if you want one, you have to make it yourself.
A note on choosing rhubarb: look for ripe red rhubarb that’s firm. Don’t bother with limp rhubarb. If you can only find greenish rhubarb, that’s fine; just add about a quarter cup more sugar to the pie. Wash the rhubarb stalks with cold water to remove any dirt, and cut off and discard the ends.
Chop the rhubarb so all the pieces are of roughly equal size, about half an inch long.
Now you’re ready to make the pie!
Rhubarb Pie
- One double pie crust (I’m still working on my recipe, so I’m afraid I’m no help in this department yet)
- 4-5 cups chopped rhubarb, cut in roughly half-inch pieces
- a little less than 1 cup granulated sugar (just estimate roughly 1/8 cup less)
- 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- zest of a small lemon
- 1 tablespoon butter, cut up into small pats
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Roll out pie crust and place in pie plate.
Combine sugar, flour and cinnamon. Sprinkle 1/4 of it over pastry in the bottom of the pie plate. Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Zest the lemon evenly over the rhubarb. Sprinkle with the remaining sugar and flour mixture. Dot with small pieces of butter. Cover with top crust and affix any extra decorations with either an egg wash (one beaten egg mixed with a tablespoon of water) or if you’re lazy like me, just a little water.
Place pie on lowest rack in over. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool at room temperature for at least half an hour (preferably longer), then refrigerate until cold.
Eat standing over the pie plate at the counter because it’s SO good that a fork just seems superfluous.
I’m so lucky that I have a wonderful friend with an apartment in the middle of New York City – with a working fireplace.
That’s right, kids. Real logs and everything. And she used it to throw an intimate s’mores party! If you have a fire source of some kind, I highly recommend it.
Instead of graham crackers, she used thin ginger cookies and they were purrrrrfect. I can never go back to normal grahams again.
For extra yumminess, pair the s’mores with White Russians (or as The Dude calls them, Caucasians). I make them with skim milk instead of half-and-half, and just a touch of vodka.
All we could talk about was how the fire made the party. Something about staring into it makes you feel like there’s a purpose to you being there.
