Yummy Magical Mystery Dessert Place

My hubby often (sometimes a little too often for my waistline) brings me sweet treats from some establishment near his work. He won't give me any identifying details...I don't even know if it is a bakery or a gas station! So I call it the yummy magical mystery dessert place! I do know that whenever I see a small white box hanging around in the kitchen, I know I am in for a yummy treat. Sometimes my sweet-tooth overtakes my willpower, and my dessert becomes my dinner. SIGH! I have never had any dessert from there that I haven't like, although there are some that I like the best!

This week he brought me a chocolate mini-bundt cake with a fudge icing/glaze. Now, I had a bite, and thought it was fine as it, but then the lightbulb in my head went off, and I said "Wow! Wouldn't this be great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream?" So, out came the ice cream maker and the milk and sugar. I whipped up a quicky (but tasty) vanilla ice cream (well, it was more like ice milk b/c we didn't have any cream). I warmed the cake up in the microwave ( 1 min. on 20% power), plopped a scoop of ice cream on top, and then the vanilla ice cream looked a little lonely, so I covered it in Guittard Milk Chocolate Sauce. Yep, sinful!


Here is a pretty picture of a custard tart topped with fresh fruit that was really tasty.

It's gettin' hot in here,

so I thought I would turn on the oven and roast some veggies!

I made veggie stuffed roasted poblanos for dinner during the week. While there were a couple of steps, the cooking was mostly hands-off, so it was fairly easy, and the results yummy!

Roasted Veggie Poblanos

recipe by ME!

Ingredients:

2-3 green poblanos

3 small yellow squash (or zucchini) (cut in half lengthwise, or coarsely chopped)

3-4 fingerling potatoes (coarsely chopped)

1/2 - 3/4 cup pinto beans (already cooked)

1 cup fresh corn kernels

up to 1 cup onions (diced)

1-2 cups cooked brown rice

2 Tbsp. low fat cream cheese (at room temp)

fajita seasoning

cheese (this can be shredded cheddar, queso quesadilla, whatever you have on hand)

To do:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a roasting pan with Al foil. Coat a second roasting pan with either non-stick spray or mist with oil (either canola or olive).

2. Put whole poblanos in foil lined pan. Roast for about 20-30 mins., turning halfway during cooking. Cool long enough to handle without burning yourself!

3. Place potatoes, squash, corn, and onions in other pan. Lightly drizzle with oil (you just need a light coating, don't drown them!), and sprinkle with fajita seasoning. Stir well to coat. Roast for about 20-30 mins., turning halfway during cooking.

4. While veggies are roasting, mix rice and cream cheese in a med. bowl.

5. Add the roasted squash veggie mixture to the rice and cream cheese mixture.

6. When the poblanos have cooled enough to handle, gently peel the roasted skin off (go ahead and discard this, compost is acceptable if oil has not been involved in the roasting). Gently slice the poblanos in half, and remove seeds -- discard.

7. Put 1/2 cup (or more if it fits) of the veggie/rice/cream cheese mixture in each pepper. Wrap sides of pepper over mixture, sprinkle with cheese of choice.

8. Put back in oven and roast for about 10-15 mins.

Channeling my Inner Julia

My friend, KIG, gave me Baking with Julia a few years back as a gift. I have to admit, that when I first received it I wasn't sure I would ever use it. Julia Child....WOW! I have no where near her skills, and was just intimidated. So, here I am years later, thumbing through the book...I LOVE THIS BOOK! The picture are gorgeous and inspiring. I lay in bed at night and read it like a bedtime story.

Last weekend I decided that I would no longer fear such beauty, and such directions! I decided to make the vegetable galette for dinner, followed by a berry gallette for dessert. The Gallette dough recipe is enough for two gallettes, and this is the dinner menu that Julia Child suggests.

The savory gallette was made with tender baby crookneck squash, sweet Vidalia onions, a scattering of mozzarella, and topped with roughly chopped backyard-fresh tomatoes. The result....OUTSTANDING! My hubby kept singing the praises of the crust. The ONLY drawback was having to heat the oven up to make it.












The dessert gallette was a little trickier. I rolled the dough out too thin, so it was harder to work with, and I didn't put enough sugar on the berries -- raspberries leftover from my berry picking trip, and blackberries fresh my the farm of a friend's grandfather (the same friend that told me about the peaches). Here it is: