The Good Plate Latest Recipes – Page 55 of 72

No Bake Mocha Fudge Pie for Halloween

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No Bake Mocha Fudge Pie

A few weeks ago, I got a few boxes of chocolate on sale at the local supermarket. I discovered that Spane and his friend, Noelle, had gotten into the chocolate one night when she spent the night. Apparently, neither one of them liked the unsweetened chocolate, but it was perfect for my Mocha Fudge Pie I made as a treat for my friend, Joanna Alexander of Strawberry Creek Crochet.

This has got to be one of simplest pies I have ever made, and it didn’t require any baking because I used a chocolate crumb crust I had in my pantry. It was just a matter of melting the fudge. I folded in whipped cream to make the pie silky, otherwise, it would have just been fudge.

I got inspiration from my friend Shem Walker, of Kobelin By Shem, who does amazing things with Swarovski crystals. Talk about Bling, and you talk about Shem. If only I were as talented as she is. I was also inspired by pictures I saw of decorated pumpkins in Pinterest, including on black one with lots of jewels. But, I wanted my pumpkin to be different.

When I was a teenager, my friends and I went to see the live production of The Rocky Horror Show at the Roxy Theater in West Hollywood. I even dressed up as Frankenfurter in my senior year in high school. A red-lipped vampire pumpkin was the only way to go.

Spane’s school has a pumpkin contest every year, for those students who want to pay the school money to be in the contest. It’s not real money, it’s the school’s money that they print with a picture of the school’s namesake on it. But even so, Spane is just too frugal to spend his hard-earned money on contests, he prefers useful things like pencils, pencil sharpeners, notebooks, etc. It’s a good thing, too, because, with all the other stuff I have had to get done, the pumpkin sat unadorned until tonight. The pumpkin found itself in the pictures of our Halloween costumes, Spane’s Tarantula costume, and my Well Dressed Black Cat costume. I wanted to serve my Mocha Fudge Pie with a completed pumpkin.

Cat Costume – the Well Dressed Black Cat

I believe that accessories are everything when wanting to look well dressed. Accessories should coordinate by color, and sometimes texture. There is no point getting overdressed, and just a few things can make a simple dress look fantastic.

Tarantula Costume for Halloween – Scary and Easy

This tarantula costume is so easy to make. You can make it for a child or an adult. For a girl or woman who wants to be a “black widow”, just add some red ribbon in the shape of an hourglass. Have a great Halloween!

Barbecued Chili Garlic Shrimp – Gambas Al Ajillo

Barbecued chili garlic shrimp makes an excellent appetizer or main dish with salad. Something different to put on the grill or even on the stovetop.

Strawberry Torpedoes – Balsamic Infused Mocha Stuffed Strawberries

I recently joined a great MeetUp, Entrepreneurs Professionals Glendale, and wanted to bring something nice for everyone to share. One of the members, Aron Ganz of Ganz Media gave the berries their name, Strawberry Torpedoes, a much shorter name, and I am grateful for that!

This is a group of entrepreneurs and professionals, who own small to medium businesses. We are not drones of the corporate world, and realize that even though being self-employed has its difficulties, it has huge rewards. Our group, led by Lynn Sarkany of MarketFinders, meets to exchange ideas to help our businesses, share stories, and network with each other. If you are a like-minded individual, you might consider joining us. Please visit Entrepreneurs and Professionals to find out more.

I had recently found a whole bunch of baking chocolate on sale, had some strawberries and a package of cream cheese. But, instead of making the Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Dipped Strawberries that I made last time, I thought I would add a little more adult flavor to the dish.

I added cocoa, coffee, vanilla, almond and cinnamon to the cream cheese filling, and I injected the berries with balsamic vinegar. When you bite into these berries, they explode flavor into your mouth.

Nancy’s Garlic Parmesan Crusted Chicken with Fingerling Potatoes

This is just the simplest, best-tasting chicken. A former Pan Am stewardess gave me the recipe – you know it’s got to be good!

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Crab Bisque

I am so happy that it is finally getting cooler in Southern California. As a matter of fact, there was thick cloud cover this morning, and I had to wear a sweater. It was a good day for soup.

After making Crab Salad with Thousand Island Dressing, I had a half a package of crab left over. I also had some cream left over from making something else. I knew I needed to use that crab, I needed to use the cream, and I wanted something warm. I have always liked crab bisque, so I decided to make that.

I had this brilliant idea when looking in my pantry and spying a can of Great Northern white beans. I didn’t have that much cream, and I really wanted the soup to be filling. To compensate for not using real crab, or real crab stock, I added a little anchovy paste for flavor. Both additions worked beautifully. Honestly, if you wanted to, you could omit the cream completely, as the beans do a fine job of thickening without all those calories.

Thousand Island Dressing with Balsamic Toasts

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Why would anyone want to write about Thousand Island Dressing? It’s yucky! It’s that reddish stuff that sits on the salad bar and congeals because no one wants it, and rightly so. It’s the “secret” sauce on the Big Mac and has become so common that you probably don’t even notice it on your sandwich anymore. That’s a pity because this is a grand dame of salad dressings with an interesting and honorable history.

Thousand Island Dressing is named for the archipelago of 1,864 islands that straddles the Canada-U.S. border in the Saint Lawrence River. Some of the islands are very small indeed. The one pictured above supports a single tree and two bushes. The dressing was popularized by May Irwin, a Canadian vaudeville star in the 1890s. She had a home in Grindstone Island, one of the Thousand Islands. She said that the dressing reminded her of the Thousand Islands, and enjoyed the dressing so much that she requested the recipe from Sophia LaLonde, a fishing guide’s wife who frequently made the dressing for her husband. Miss Irwin then gave the recipe to George Boldt, the proprietor of the famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, who instructed his the hotel’s maître d’hôtel, Oscar Tschirky, to put the dressing on the menu. In 1950 the dressing became a standard and started its decline into the gloppy mess we have today.

One of the things we do at The Good Plate is to reconstruct packaged foods, so they taste better, and don’t have the preservatives common in packaged foods. I knew that venerable Thousand Island Dressing deserved a better place, and making it from scratch would make it one of my favorites, especially for seafood salads.

I made a crab salad for the dressing, and some Balsamic Toasts to go with them. This was amid Spane and his friend making Play Dough on the stove. There are little bits of homemade Play Dough all over the place. Time to clean!

Stuffed Ciabatta Garlic Bread – Great with Antipasto

Stuffed Ciabatta Garlic Bread makes a great appetizer or side for a big salad.

We are very lucky living in Glendale, where there is a wonderful bakery that makes the best bread, including a Ciabatta bread. When I picked Spane up this afternoon and needed some things at the store, I passed by the bread aisle and couldn’t help smelling the fresh bread.

This bread was pillow-soft with a crisp crust very reminiscent of the true Ciabatta bread found in the Lake Como region of Italy. It is nothing like the stuff that comes from mass bakeries.

Since the bread is small but rather flat and elongated, I knew it would be perfect for Stuffed Garlic Bread to go with our Antipasto Salad with Original Brown Derby Dressing.

Suggestions on Making Stuffed Ciabatta Garlic Bread

When making this, you could use a relatively soft Italian bread or even sourdough would work well. Choose the cheeses that you like. Some sun-dried tomato would be good with this. Some homemade pesto would be another option. If you want to have an alfresco dinner with the grill, then wrap the bread well with foil to void burning it. Enjoy!

I highly recommend using Penzey’s Tuscan Sunset instead of Italian seasoning. It’s the perfect blend and I find myself using it a lot. It’s salt-free and has a much fresher flavor.

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Suggestions on Making Stuffed Ciabatta Garlic Bread

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