I Want My Just Dessert!

by Chewy 


I think we can all agree that it is HOT! Not the kind of hot where you bask in the sun and sip margaritas. More like the sidewalk egg frying, banned alcohol (because it dehydrates),  bathtub temperature pool water, I don’t even want to go outside for the mail hot. You don’t even need charcoal for the BBQ pit. Food just sizzles when you place it on the grill. Who feels like eating let alone cooking?  Where does this leave our desserts if we ‘re barely eating a meal? I’ll tell you where….first. Not merely first but possibly “only”. Yes, dear readers, I am advocating getting your “just desserts” for dinner!

© Dallaseventsinc | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

Instead of that patio soiree with heavy brats and pork steaks, why not offer your guests an opportunity to fulfill a childhood dream, a dessert laden buffet as the main course. A true Charlie and the chocolate factory moment come true. Themes are definitely encouraged and forget the homemade baked goods. No need to heat up the house. Show Me the Sugar offers suggestions, descriptions and locations for all your “to go” sweet needs.

There is a reason that half the dessert holidays in July revolve around ice cream. Apparently that’s all we want to eat. Cool, refreshing, no cooking required, what’s not to celebrate? Gathering an assortment of ice creams, gelatos, and sorbets makes for one rejuvenating gathering. While good frozen treats can stand on their own, it would not be inappropriate to offer a smattering of toppings in order to customize your bowl. Of course, if you own a Cuisinart ice cream maker (which some of you may know I do), you may present your guests with unique flavors limited only by your imagination.

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This time of year also means summer fruits and berries. A plethora of fresh fruit makes for not only a visual treat but also one for the taste buds. Who doesn’t salivate over a fresh fruit torte or a bowl of sugared strawberries with fresh whipped cream? How about some peaches swimming in a smooth brandied sauce? Can you picture a watermelon sorbet served in it’s carved out shell (scallop the rim and do a little shallow carving and it‘s also a center piece)? Fruit also makes a great delivery system for chocolate fondue, marshmallow fluff, clotted cream and caramel sauce. Create your own dipping station with plenty of small plates, long picks and lots of napkins (neat this is not).

Not to be overlooked is your local patisserie. Nothing like a little French flair to add some exotic ambiance. If you haven’t tried the macarons yet (not the coconut macaroons), now is your chance to become acquainted with this little delicacy. Order a few Napoleons, éclairs, crème brulee, petit fours and mousse and arrange on tiered platters for optimum visual delight. This scenario also doubles as a European vacation and, may I add, it’s significantly cooler there, so crank down the air conditioning a bit.

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While I am not advocating this option as a permanent lifestyle, just dessert meals seems like a fair trade off for surviving our record breaking atmospheric conditions. I, for one, intend on staying cool and sweet!

Fruit of the Vine

by Chewy

You planted the garden, composted responsibly and spread that fertile gold around the sprouting plants. Now that they have pushed above ground they are open season for squirrels, chipmunks and slugs. Trapping slugs is fun. All you have to do is finish off most of a can of beer and place in the garden. Trapping the rodentia  is pointless. If you don’t take them far enough they find their way home (why they didn‘t use them during the war instead of homing pigeons, I‘ll never know). If you do manage to get visas for them and send them to Canada, their relatives  take advantage of the abandoned quarters. I suggest standing guard with a pea sling shot. It doesn’t kill them, it just reinforces the negative consequences of crossing the line. Kind of like a dog and a rolled up newspaper.

Pest problem solved, you devoutly water and weed, and soon little blossoms and produce appear. Then one day, as you proudly peruse plot, you realize things have gotten out of hand and you are facing massive amounts of ripened yield. Torpedo zucchinis, vines of cucumbers,  bushes of tomatoes, sweet peppers, jalapenos and eggplants. What is a gardener to do?  Make dessert of course!

What, you say? These are vegetables! Oh, contraire mi amour, these are FRIUTS.  Being the helpful person that I am, I am sharing the "fruits" of my research to lighten your garden burden.

The first comes from my own kitchen, Zucchini Crisp. This is particularly appropriate for those zucchinis that “get away from you” and attain lethal weapon status. I have never served this dessert and had anyone correctly guess it’s main ingredient. You and your guests will swear you are eating an apple crisp.


The next on the list are cucumbers. When I think of summer cucumbers, my mind wanders to that delicious and refreshing cold cucumber and yogurt soup.  So it comes as no surprise that they make a delicious and refreshing sorbet as well (see Cucumber Sorbet). Yet another opportunity to use my Cuisinart Ice Cream maker (Tired of me fawning over this appliance yet?).

Tomato crops seem to fall into two groups. Those partially eaten by vermin resulting in compost fodder, and those that reproduce like rabbits resulting in bags of them being left anonymously on neighbors doorsteps ( along with that zuke with a glandular problem). What’s needed is a recipe for Sweet Baked Tomatoes. Dried fruits, nuts, spices and honey are used to enhance this red berry (botanically speaking).

When ever I have cultivated jalapenos, they all seem to arrive at once and reproduce immediately after harvesting. The interesting thing about hot peppers is that adding sugar tempers the heat and you end up with an interesting flavor combination with just a little warmth at the end.  I managed to find a recipe that combines a couple of traditional  favorites. Dubbed Jalapeno Happiness Dessert, it’s a jalapeno pepper, stuffed with peanut butter and covered in chocolate. I can not wait to try this!

 Not to be left out are the sweet peppers. Sweet Pepper Upside Down Cake uses the attributes of butter, spices, sugars and cornmeal to make a dense dessert. No heat here, it’s sweet all the way.

Finally, we come to eggplant. It’s purple, my favorite color, so it had to get a mention. A far cry from the parmesan rendition, the Spicy Eggplant Cake delights with nuts, honey, sugar, spices, white and whole wheat flours. Topping it all off is a light cream cheese frosting.

All these recipes can be found on the website under recipes. My hope it that some of these will make it to your table and be enjoyed. I would love to hear any of your experiences and opinions and I promise to get back to you on that Jalapeno Happiness Dessert!

Sauvingnon blanc Pound cake- the experiment

By Chewy (with remarks in purple by La Confectionista)

      La Confectionista and I are decent cooks and bakers (well she is- I make makes no claim on baking), but no one from the Cordon Bleu has yet to call us to teach a seminar. That being said, we felt an obligation to not just talk the talk but also walk the walk and test out a few recipes that have been posted on this blog. We were both intrigued (by intrigued she means "sugar and booze- hooray!") with the Sauvignon Blanc Pound Cake with Sauvignon Blanc glaze and gathering all the ingredients together, we rallied in my kitchen for the afternoon’s adventure.

       The first thing one MUST do when cooking with wine is open the bottle and taste it! As you have heard me state, and really all great cooks will concur, you cannot cook with wine that you would not drink. So naturally, we poured a glass. Hmmmmm. Not bad. I would drink that. OK. We mustered ourselves for the task at hand. LC decided we didn’t need a printed copy of the recipe because she could bring it up from the blog on her fancy phone. Great, then she leaves for a moment and I am left trying to read tiny print with half century old eyes, a sip of wine under my belt and an arm full of ingredients. In mid sentence the screen goes blank and after setting everything down I touch the screen. Nothing. I push a button. Locked out. I slide a bar. It wants a password. I hide the phone and go downstairs to get the printed copy and check for more Sauvignon Blanc in the fridge just “in case”.

     The Counte (mighty CFO and general objective thinker) notifies us by fancy phone that we need to take photos of the whole process so the staging begins. Fancy phone comes in handy for this so I let it back in the room. Searching for photo worthy bowls, measuring cups and spoons, we organize and position the ingredients. Now, to check again on the wine to make sure it hadn’t gone bad since we opened it. Nope, still good.

     Gets pretty mundane for a while, measure, measure, stir, stir, sip, sip.  And when it came to the ingredients we spared no expense. Organic unsalted butter, organic whole milk, “I would drink it” Sauvignon Blanc, cage free eggs, and all topped off with my home made vanilla extract. Literally every time LC comes to my house, she opens the bottle and smells it with a smile and an “AHHHH!”. So she decides the vanilla extract needs to be taste tested too. Adding a shot to a glass of whole milk, she determines “I would drink it!”.

     Batter is now thoroughly combined and ready for the Bundt pan. I doesn’t own one so LC brought her silicone one and a lengthy conversation ensued regarding whether the size and material would be suitable to the task at hand. (I told her it would be fine) But in the end we greased up the silicone and poured in the aggregate, set the timer and sat down to contemplate the rest of the wine and how much we needed to save for the glaze.

     The recipe called for 65 to 75 minutes to bake after which, one was to stick a long wooden pick into the center to check for doneness. The long wooden sticks were downstairs. But toothpicks were upstairs. Rats! Not long enough. But two of them end to end would work, especially if you taped them together! What do you know, it worked! At least the first couple of times. For whatever reason, and we’ve decided to blame it on the silicone Bundt pan, it took an additional 25 minutes for this to reach acceptable done cake stage. Unfortunately, the last test with improvised “long wooden pick” left one pick and the tape trapped in the cake. Not to worry, we’ll just make it a game and who ever finds it in their piece gets a prize! (for the record I had no idea this was happening until the "oops"...great, who likes scotch tape flavored cake? It could be the next thing, right?)

     On to the glaze! LC insisted on handling this juncture and took the bottle of wine away from me to carefully measure the 2 tablespoons required. Glaze finished and drizzled, we get down to the business of tasting. What a mixed bag of emotions. We were not blown away.  Honestly there was so little wine in the recipe one could barely detect it. And I have had (and made) far better pound cakes. The glaze had a funny taste as well.  We’re  thinking it was the cornstarch from the confectioners sugar. And we did end up finding the toothpick and tape before someone stabbed themselves.(no cake was harmed, though the "search and rescue mission" proved unkind to the look of the cake)  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go finish that bottle of wine before it goes bad.

     Stay tuned for further kitchen escapades as LC and I endeavor to bring you up close and personal experiences from the Hall of Recipes posted right here.