chocolate

No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Quinoa Cookies

October 21, 2013 by Erica

No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Quinoa Cookies

Well, we’re back from Moab! And all four of us survived the half marathon. I’ll have a race recap for you in the next few days, but for now, let’s just say it went better than last year! And that at the moment, I’d rather talk about cookies.

I don’t know about you all, but I absolutely love classic no-bake cookies. I ate them for the first time in our college dining hall, and I didn’t stop for four years straight. Those things are so good; they were seriously my downfall. They had them for dessert maybe once a week or every two weeks, and I had to get several every time. I would enter the dining hall planning to eat no dessert that night, but as soon as I saw those no-bake cookies, my sugar-free intentions fell by the wayside. That was the problem with dining hall desserts. There were some I had no interest in, and some I loved. God forbid they put out two of my favorites on the same night… because I had to have one of each. Never mind the fact that you knew it would be there again in a few weeks. At that moment it always seemed like you would be missing your last chance on earth for a no-bake cookie if you didn’t get one right that instant. That, my friends, is what we call the freshman 15.

My freshman 15 was made up almost exclusively of no-bake cookies, Twisted Smirnoffs, and discovering I loved cream in my coffee instead of milk. But let’s stick to the no-bakes for now.

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Vegan Chocolate Coconut Pudding with Coconut Caramel Sauce

October 3, 2013 by Erica

Chocolate Coconut Pudding with Coconut Caramel Sauce (Vegan)

This is up there with the longest post titles I have ever published. Let’s just go with it, though, because it’s a special occasion.

One year ago today, I posted my first recipe on this blog. The site wasn’t beautiful, the recipe wasn’t great, and the food photos were taken with my iPhone on my living room floor. But I posted it anyway, because I knew I had to start somewhere.

I actually registered this domain name and published an introductory post almost 2 weeks earlier. But then I was kind of… paralyzed with fear. What should I write about? Should my first recipe involve quinoa? Crap, I don’t even know how to develop my own recipes – I always follow other people’s! So my little blog sat with no content for a while, until I figured it out. And that’s why I’m considering the date of my first recipe post as my blogiversary – the day I decided to put my food out into the world and see what happened.

Chocolate Coconut Pudding with Coconut Caramel Sauce (Vegan)

I knew that a year later, I might not be blogging anymore. And if I was, I would be embarrassed to look back on my first posts. I knew there were thousands of other bloggers out there who would always do it better than me. I decided to be OK with that and just take baby steps.

So here I am, a year later! The proud mama of a little toddler one-year-old blog. Happy to say that I am still blogging and that yes, I am embarrassed of my first posts, especially the pictures. But also that I know I have a loooot further to go… and I fervently hope that a year from now, it’s these pictures I’ll be embarrassed of, because I will have progressed that much further. There are still thousands of bloggers who do it better than me, and I’m still OK with that. Because the truth is that I love creating recipes and sharing them here with you all. It’s the best creative outlet I’ve found, not to mention such a great community. That means YOU! Thank you so much for reading this food-related mumbo-jumbo that I post here. Every comment and email means so much to me – seriously. I feel so lucky to have you all as readers and invisible internet friends.

But enough of the mushy stuff. Let’s eat dessert, shall we?

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Copycat Swiss Orange Sherbet

August 23, 2013 by Erica

Copycat Swiss Orange Sherbet

Just take a look at this pretty little concoction I have for you today.

The more I think about ice cream, the more I remember the flavors I enjoyed as a kid. And this is just such a flavor: Swiss orange sherbet.

Edy’s Swiss Orange Sherbet was one of my childhood favorites, and was in constant supply at my aunt and uncle’s (hi Aunt Liz!). Did you ever try it? (The brand is Edy’s on the East Coast, and Dryer’s on the West Coast.) When it popped into my head a few weeks ago, I knew I had to recreate it for you. I was surprised to learn, when I started researching it, that Nastle has retired the flavor! So sad – it’s so easy to assume that everything from your childhood will stay the same forever.

In any case, I’m sorry if you missed out on the storebought version. It really was quite good. But I guess that’s just another reason that we should all start making it at home.

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Salted Chocolate Ice Cream

August 2, 2013 by Erica

Salted Chocolate Ice Cream

It’s Friday… and Friday calls for ice cream.

When I served some salted chocolate with ice cream a few Fridays ago, my taste testers all agreed: the sea salt totally made the dish. And so I got to thinking… why not combine all of those things into one, a salted chocolate ice cream?

Salted Chocolate Ice Cream

I couldn’t think of a single reason not to.

I love salted chocolate anything, and I’m not surprised that ice cream is no exception. This chocolate ice cream is exceptionally rich and velvety smooth, and the sea salt makes it over-the-top delicious. It’s like eating your favorite salted chocolate bar (ummm Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Caramel with Sea Salt, anyone?) in frozen form. It’s preferably done while watching The Bachelorette. And if you want the textural contrast of sea salt that you get with a chocolate bar, I recommend adding a few flakes of salt on top. Possibly with more chocolate.

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Coconut Almond Fudge Crunch Ice Cream (Vegan)

July 19, 2013 by Erica

Coconut Almond Fudge Crunch Ice Cream

Behold my first vegan ice cream!

I should have shown you this ice cream a while ago. It’s a little unforgivable that I haven’t, actually. But you see, some things got in the way.

First, I needed to work on the recipe.

Next I needed a batch that could actually stay in my freezer long enough to be photographed.

Then I needed my friends to try some.

Last, I needed to take some good pictures… you know, before the subject of my photographs disappeared from the bowl.

Coconut Almond Fudge Crunch Ice Cream

It’s actually a wonder that this whole post isn’t just empty bowl pictures like the one above. But, four batches later, despite my best efforts, I am finally showing you this ice cream.

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