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Chocolate Covered Cherries Plus!

This recipe is based on the Easy Chocolate Covered Cherries recipe from the National Cherry Growers & Industries Foundation. My wife and I spotted the recipe in the December 2007 issue of Everyday Food. We did go for an optional variant of the recipe that they mentioned and increased the size. We made this for a holiday get together with some friends and I have to say: "This was a triumph. I'm making a note here: huge success. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction."¹

Ingredients

• 4 - 10oz bottles of maraschino cherries
• 1 - 750 ml bottle of vanilla vodka²
• 24 oz chocolate chips

Directions

1. Drain all the juice from the jars of cherries.
2. Pour in the vodka over the cherries.
3. Allow cherries to soak overnight or up to a week³.
4. Drain the vodka.
5. Pat the cherries down with a paper towel to dry them completely.
6. Melt the chocolate chips over low heat in a medium sauce pan. Take care not to burn the chocolate.
7. Once the chocolate is fully melted, dip the cherries into the chocolate.
8. Swirl the cherries in the chocolate to get a good coating.
9. Place the covered cherries onto a wax-paper covered cookie sheet.
10. Refrigerate until the chocolate sets.
11. Share and enjoy!

¹ Portal rocks!
² We used Smirnoff's Twisted Vanilla.
³ Our cherries soaked in the vodka for approximately 12 hours and had a nice zing to them when we ate them.

Tags: cherries, chocolate, dessert, Food, recipe

In response…

A friend emailed Ariesna asking if she had told me Indian-spiced Braised Chicken was a healthy recipe before making it. To which I feel the need to say PHHHHHHHBBBBBBBBBBBBBBTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!

I'm not so out of touch with reality that I insist on having soda with every meal of steak and potatoes! I quite enjoy a wide range of healthy foods. :p

Tags: comment, Food, health

Indian-Spiced Braised Chicken

This recipe is a favorite of Mark's and mine that I got from the Everyday Foods magazine.

Indian-spiced Braised Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I use white meat)
• 1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes drained
• 2 Tablespoons of tomato paste
• 1 Tablespoon grated ginger
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• course salt and ground pepper
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt (8 oz)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala (optional)
• cooked white rice for serving

Directions

1. In a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker, stir together chicken, onion, tomatoes, tomato paste, ginger, garlic, coriander and cayenne; season with salt and pepper.
2. Cook on high 4 hours (or on low 8 hours) until fork-tender.
3. Stir in yogurt, cilantro, and if using, garam masala.
4. Serve with rice.

Alternative Oven Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Follow step 1, using a 5-quart lidded heavy pot.
3. Stir in 2 cups of water.
4. Cover; bake until tender, about 2 hours.
5. Stir in yogurt, cilantro, and if using garam masala.

Notes

• Serves 4
• Prep time 15 minutes
• Total time is 4 hours and 15 minutes

This rated a 10 out of 10 with Mark. If you can't take spiciness then lessen the cayene pepper. I will have more recipes appear at Ariesna at live journal. Since I plan on more experimenting with new recipes.

Tags: chicken, Food, recipe

Coldstone Creamery

I can think of few things less appealing. I've eaten a lot of mix-in ice cream over the past year, a task that has seemed increasingly penitential as it progressed. I ordered simple French vanilla from Cold Stone; from Maggie Moo's, a concoction called Better Batter Cake Carnival (cake batter ice cream, Twix bars, cookies and fudge); both were unfinishable. Whereas a visit to Ben and Jerry's or Häagen-Dazs leaves me wanting more, a visit to Cold Stone leaves me wanting a salad and a shower.

Taken from What happened to plain old vanilla?

I have to admit that I've visited the local Coldstone Creamery a couple of times and kind of enjoyed the ice cream, but hated the store. I'm really a DQ sort of guy¹. I like to be able to go in, get my ice cream and get out. At Coldstone that game plan does not work as well due to the staff singing their bloody songs and trying to make being in the store as pleasing as eating the product. Unfortunately for them it just does not work; especially as it does not distract me from how large a price they're charging for their ice cream.

¹ Actually, I am a Ben & Jerry's fan but they do not have any scoop shops in my area. So I settle for DQ as being cheap, quick and tasty.

Tags: Coldstone Creamery, Dairy Queen, Food, ice-cream

Banana, Crackers and Gatorade… Oh my!

Well, I finally feel like I am at least partly back from the dead. But really, that's getting ahead of myself; allow me to backtrack a bit.

2005. May. 7th. Ariesna and I were joined in wedded bliss. Unfortunately with her just finishing her degree and paying for a wedding money was tight so we didn't have the cash to go some place exotic and we couldn't really afford to spend more than a night away. So I picked a B&B just a few hours drive away. A helpful friend had recommended it as the most romantic B&B in the area. After the ceremony & reception, we drove out and enjoyed our one night there.

2006. Ariesna and I went back to the same B&B for an entire weekend. We ate out at a couple of nice restaurants, did a little shopping and hit up an art museum while we were there. It was a grand time, but by the end of it we were both tired. We got home, chilled for a while and eventually went to bed. Blissful slumber was interrupted at 4:30 AM by me waking up feeling like I was choking and/or drowning. I ran into the bathroom and spent the next 15 minutes or so kneeling in front of the porcelain throne. After getting myself cleaned up, I tried going back to bed but woke up a while later with the same problem. Again, I eventually got cleaned up and tried going back to bed. Later, I got the intense fun of making a trip to the doctor on what was supposed to be the last day of my vacation. I got weighed¹, poked, prodded and a q-tip was shoved down my throat². The doctor confirmed I had the flu combined with a sinus infection. However he was worried that I was severely dehydrated and wanted to put me on an IV to get some fluids in me. Alas after much poking (in both arms), they realized I was too dehydrated for the needle to go in properly. Eventually, they gave up on the IV and let Ariesna take me home. Though they did tell her to keep pushing fluids down me and recommended she get me to drink 2 liters of gatorade that day and keep pushing the fluids at me the next. She did so, continually waking me up from some of the best sleep I've ever had to drink, drink drink. And I don't even like gatorade! *sigh* I mean the fruit punch version isn't too bad but the rest.... yeck.

Anyhoo, I ended up spending the entire week home sick and now the night before I finally go back to the office I am feeling much better. I'm just not at 100% yet. My sinuses throb (and continually drain down my throat) and on top of that I've got an evening cough³ which feels like it's going to rip my throat in half. But I'm still taking the anti-biotics the doctor prescribed and I'm hoping when the pills are gone so will be the last of my health problems.

Oh yeah, if you're wondering about the title on this post that's pretty much all the food I've eaten in the last week. It's been thrilling.

¹ No, I'm not repeating what that lying hunk of metal claimed was my weight.
² Apparently, that's part of the test for strep throat. Only nobody warned me in advance. Incidentally, the test came back negative but it has a 15% chance of failure.
³ It only happens after 5. No idea on why that is, but there you have it.

Tags: bathroom, con, doctor, drink, failure, Food, HAL, health, home, IM, journal, money, office, problem, pun, shopping, Sick, sleep, vacation, war, weekend, weight