Repost: Ginger Chocolate Cookie Bars

Ginger Chocolate Cookie Bars

These started pretty much the way most of my favorite treats do: I was making chocolate chip cookies, decided I wanted them to be Chocolate Chocolate Chip and well, here you go!

3 tbsp vegetable shortening

5 tbsp coconut oil (I used Tropical Traditions)

1 c brown sugar
1/2 c cane sugar
1 tsp vietnamese cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups chocolate (I used dark, semi-sweet & white)
1/4 c candied ginger, chopped
2 c pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line a baking pan with parchment. melt shortening, oil and chocolate. Don't overmelt that way you can have some chunks if you like. set aside to cool.

add sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and ginger. mix together with a wooden spoon. add flour and baking soda. mix together with wooden spoon.

Add eggs (make sure batter is not warm at all before adding eggs!) go to it with the wooden spoon.

Spread batter onto baking sheet evenly. bake for approx 25 min. let cool. eat!

Mad Scientist Cookies: Kalamata Cocoa Paprika

What do you make when you're invited to a mad scientist party? Well that is a tough question. I settled on one thing and then at the last minute went in a totally different direction that you might find surprising.

While you might say a cookie is a cookie is a cookie, you can't say that when it's got some new and surprising elements. May I present to you my Kalamata Cocoa Paprika Cookies. Go crazy!

For the cookies you will need:

2 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/8 c cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
1/2 c dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 c kalamata olives, drained and chopped

Whisk together flour, cocoa poder and baking soda. Set aside. Use a bowl and a wooden spoon, toss in butter, sugar and paprika and mix it all together. Add the dry ingrediants and mix. Add the egg, mix until you can't see any more flour.

Set the dough aside for a 1/2 hour. Line baking sheets. Preheat oven to 325 F. Using a regular teaspoon, measure out the dough, roll, press down and place on the baking sheets.

Bake about to 5-6 minutes. Turn off oven and let sit 3 minutes before removing from oven to cool.

You can serve these alone or with some fresh ricotta!

Oh and look at how gorgeous all these woman are! Thanks to Tracy Lee for the picture!

Molasses Whoopie Pie

Last week, overcome by the urge to make whoopie pies, I used this recipe by Vegan Visitor:

http://veganvisitor.wordpress.com/2008/05/24/molasses-cookie-whoopie-pie/

I have made the cookies previously with great success. The whoopie pies got their seal of approval from Monkey, from the SO and from my friend Chris, who gobbled it down about 2 minutes after I handed it to him. Make and enjoy!

I think the next batch is gonna be chocolate....!

Street Food Crawl, episode 1

Tuesday as we chatted on Twitter, I got a message from my friend @eastbaydish asking if I wanted to go have street food. I threw on some clothes, grabbed the recorder and was out the door before I even had the chance to realize I had said yes!

We started with getjerked and their delicious tacos. Christina preferred the chicken's spiciness, while I loved the fish taco's zippy creaminess.

Then we moved on to Vamos Primos where had a fantastic empanada. It has the kind of crust that made me think of an enclosed mini pot pie.

Then we had an alfajor, the most delicious of dulce de leche filled cookie sandwich. If you can't see, its rolled in coconut. Next time, we will be sure to get two!

 When we got to Seoul on Wheels, all that was left was meat, veg and kimchee! So Christina went for Chicken and broccoli, while I went for the rib eye and kimchee.

Want to know what we thought? Listen to the show!

Luna's Kitchen Magic airs at 4 pm PST and 7 pm EST!

podcast

Food & Memory; an ode to remembering some favorite foods

Gearing up for the SF Chocolate Salon, here is an ode I wrote last year that was inspired by one of the chocolates I experienced at the Fancy Food Show, which happens just before the Salon.

Each of us has memories that are tied to food. Lately, a lot of those memories have been surfacing for me. There are so many foods associated with memories, good, bad and otherwise.They can deeply affect how you eat later in life.

As a girl, I hated soul food, to my aunts disgust and ate mostly fruits and veggies, as well as seafood (to my older sisters' horror). Now, more willing to try new things, I also try to eat enough protein,, drink enough water and skip white bread.

But, oh for the days when we would eat toast (burnt for my family, they like it that way) & jam, light pouring into the dining room. Sitting around the table laughing, enjoying each others company.

Or Saturday morning cartoons, my grandmother yelling at us for eating cold pizza. Okay, well, I don't miss the yelling. But those moments, the innocence of childhood and eating with abandon....

Every Saturday, I got to go to my dad's work meeting. We would stop at the gas station, where he would buy me a small carton of orange juice & the box of chocolate cookies with the cat on the front. I was born to be a chocolate addict! And I lived for Saturdays.

Or going with my grandfather to the Dairy Queen, then owned by my family, for a cherry dip before my sisters' came home from school.....

Can anyone not say they have enjoyed fresh fruit, sun warmed and thought "This is what heaven might feel like"? Peaches, blackberries, strawberries, loquats, cherries, tangerines!

The Chuao Firecracker bar reminded me of something else: my grandfather used to sneak us poprocks! and soda! He thought it was hysterical and silly that his own daughter thought our heads would explode.

Food and memory serve us well, thus we should remember to honor both. The joy of what it feels like for the first berry of spring on your tongue. The memory of the first time you drank a glass of fresh cold lemonade.

The taste of fresh cut green onions on lemon seasoned fish.

A sip of wine or a sparkley drink. Take the time to slow down & enjoy your food, your memories will pay off in amazing ways.