Category: eden cooks?

Genius

Rather than get into all the stuff I keep promising to, I’m going to let you in on something awesome I invented today: coffee candy.

The inspiration for coffee candy comes from Maggie Brown’s (a restaurant/bar near Pratt in Brooklyn).  There, after eating an $8 burger or $11 hot wings, patrons are served a delicious piece of chocolate with coffee grains in it.  Chocolate with coffee grains in it is exactly what I invented today.

I’m aware that it isn’t considered “inventing” if you just copy something someone else has already made, but I figured out how to replicate it without a recipe or any guidance, so I’m taking what I call “credit” for it.

Here’s how to enjoy some yourself:

  1. Melt some chocolate chips of your choice.  I used Milk Chocolate Chips (which I’m told you should never use for chocolate chip cookies) because that’s what I had.  I’m told some people also like Semi-Sweet Chocolate and still others like Dark Chocolate.
  2. Add the coffee grains of your choice.  I used a dark breakfast blend whose name I forget because I threw the package away back in January, but if you don’t like caffeine or you plan to eat these chocolates before going to bed, I’d suggest using your favorite decaf.
  3. Stir.
  4. Drop on wax paper or tin foil, whatever.
  5. Cool.
That’s it.  You may think I’ve got a lot of nerve taking credit for something this simple, but I may think you’re stupid.  It’s hard to say.

Been a Long Time Gone

But that’s because I’ve been busy with my life outside of cyberspace.  Settling into a routine of feeding Oak, clothing Oak, changing Oak’s diapers; getting sliced and diced as a revenge prank on my gallbladder; re-reading some old favorites.  Pretty standard stuff.  I’m sure you understand how a person falls behind now and then.  Keep an eye out for a future post about how the doctors who did my surgery tried to convince me that I had post-partum depression.  In the meantime, I’m cooking something awesome today that my mom made for New Year’s Steve this year.  If you like fruit and and you like cookies, you’ll love this.
Fruit Cookie
  1. Take some sugar cookie dough and roll it out flat on a pizza pan.  I’m using pre-made stuff because I’m not a superhero like my mom, but if you are feel free to use homemade dough.  It will probably taste better (unless you’re a bad cook).  Bake for however long the package says to.
  2. Remove from oven (duh) and cool.
  3. Apply icing liberally.  I am using homemade icing because I do have powdered sugar.  Most icings are some variation of powdered sugar, milk, butter/margerine, and vanilla extract.
  4. Sprinkle with your favorite chunks of fruit.  I’m using papaya, strawberry, mango, and pineapple.  I wish I had some kiwi and blueberries for more color, but them’s the breaks.

Unlike the crap I make up, this is something my mommy makes.  If it doesn’t turn out good, you didn’t make it right.

Score 1 for eden

Joshua loved the salad and dressing even though he was skeptical at first. He loved it so much that we had it again less than two weeks later with minor alterations (I don’t have every ingredient all the time), so I’m counting that as a complete success.

As promised, here’s the recipe:

Salad:
Iceberg Lettuce
Cranberries
Bacon (stew chunks or flavoring pieces)
Grape Tomatoes

Dressing:
Vegetable Oil
Orange Juice
Mustard
Honey

It’s pretty simple to make. Basically, you fry the bacon pieces to however crispy (or if you’re like Joshua, floppy) you like your bacon. Then throw all the salad stuff together.

For the dressing, just dump the ingredients into an empty bottle (preferably with a lid). The vegetable oil is the base, so add your juice, mustard, and honey to taste. I used a lot of honey because I only had the standard yellow mustard, not the Dijon or fancy brown kind. Then shake that stuff up like crazy (after you put the lid on).

Add salad to dressing and enjoy. I ended up picking the cranberries out of mine because I don’t like cranberries, but that’s the good thing about salad-the stuff doesn’t get unalterably mixed together until you eat it.