This Week In Munchies

Oregano Bread & Tomato Soup

2009-06-08T17:54:00.016-04:00

Oregano Bread, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

A Simple Italian Dinner

Appetizer:
Homemade Tomato Soup

Homemade Oregano Bread & House Salad

Main Course:
Homemade Spinach Lasagna

Dessert:
Are you insane? I’m too tired for small talk and dessert.

Dinner tonight was fueled in part by major doses of procrastination. That’s not to say the meal required hours of toil, both sweat and blood, but rather that many off-the-grocery-store-shelf or from-the-bakery components were replaced with their homemade counterparts. At any point in time you can replace the homemade with store bought products. Of course, it all depends on how much procrastinating you see in your future before you can successfully put out a beautiful scrumptious meal.

Tomato Soup, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Let’s start with the Classic No-Frills Tomato Soup:

4 Tomatoes, chopped
1 Teaspoon Oregano
A pinch of pepper
2 cups of water
1 Teaspoon Salt

Bring all of these ingredients to a boil and let it bubble for about 20 mins. Using a sleeve separate the liquid (soup stock) from the solids (discombobulated tomatoes). Save the liquids in a container. Throw the solids into a blender and let it go. Please don’t go with the flow and add some tequila. It’s soup, not margaritas. I know too many people who have never used a blender for any other purpose. Strain the almost soup from the blender with a strainer into a pot. At this point, the soup will be fairly thick. If that’s the way you want to leave it by all means feel free to do so. For those who want a liquidy soup add the strained soup stock until it reaches the thickness you desire. Bring the soup to a boil. Add one tablespoon of butter. Add salt to taste if necessary.

Just in case, you’ve hit the end of your procrastinating or hit the wall because your impending deadline just sunk in. Feel free to stop here and enjoy the soup with a grilled cheese sandwich.

If you have a little more mojo left in you: let’s start a 6 layer lasagna.
6 strips of lasagna (more depending on the size of your casserole)
Here are the layers:
Creamed Spinach
Ricotta Cheese & Fresh Chopped Basil Leaves
Tomato sauce (the recipe for a marinara sauce is under Red Pepper Pizza)
Repeat
Sprinkle the last layer of tomato sauce with mozzarella cheese.

At this point I’m about to collapse and I haven’t even start my actually work as yet. Oh well.

Happy Munching.

Oregano Bread, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Greek Salad & Frappe

2009-06-05T16:37:00.019-04:00

Greek Salad, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

On a gloomy, rainy day like today. I wish I were back in Greece. A mystical land where rain can be rightfully compared to Excalibur, which only the chosen ones can use to slice through the crippling dry heat. Islands (I spent more time on the islands than the cities so I can only speak from experience) as a whole stare at the weather segment chanting for rain and playfully mocking cities or islands who aren't as fortunate. Actually I take that back, rain is akin to a football (soccer) team minus the crazy riots.

The whole of the islands, expect tourist shops, close between 12 noon- 6pm. Something I wish people told me when I was in Greece: you'll need three bottles of water at any given point in time: a drinking bottle, a body bottle to pour all over yourself, and a backup bottle. The stores and just about everything else is closed for a reason. Unfortunately, the monuments and museums still observe the usual hours 10am-6pm. In the evening, almost the entire island depending of course on size (for example, Corfu is significantly larger than Paxos) can be seen on the pier, which is lined with most of the restaurants/pubs, pastry shops, benches, beaches, and sometimes fairs or carnivals.

Memories of Greece instantly bring back the taste of the Nescafe Frappes and Greek Salads. An amazing summer drink that might give a frappuccino a run for its money, or at least the entire Greek nation believes so.

Greek Frappe, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Simply described it is a frothy iced coffee without any of the caramel, chocolate, strawberry, pumpkin, orange "syrup perversions," said an Athenian restaurateur. He also explained in detail the intricacies of how to make this drink. I knew better than to interrupt, he meant business: his cafe was filled with coffee shakers and coffee glasses embossed with Nescafe. Naturally, I grabbed a slice of Spanakopita (spinach and feta filo pastry) and lazy took notes as he spoke.

Here's what he had to say, more or less:
"You must use Nescafe instant coffee. It is the only one that works." About 2 spoons (he used what looked like a slim dessert spoon so roughly the size of a teaspoon)
1-2 teaspoons of sugar
A splash of water (about 4-5 tablespoons)

Add of the above (coffee, sugar, water) to a martini shaker. He had a Nescafe Frappe Shaker that look exactly like a martini shaker so a martini shaker I shall use. Shake vigorously for about a minute. If you are a fancy Greek man you can juggle and gyrate around a bit since you've probably consumed 5-6 frappes in the last hour.

Throw some ice cubes into tall glass. Pour the foamy coffee into the glass. Add milk to about a third of the glass. Add water to fill up the glass. When you are done, the foam should be at the very top.

Don't try to make the frappe in a pitcher to share. The froth is what makes or breaks this drink and pouring it into separate glasses will ruin the froth. In Greece if you are at a sit down cafe or restaurant, the Frappe is served with a glass of water.

You can garnish the top with ground instant coffee. I've seen some cafes use stencils to create some interesting images on top of the frappes. Given the heat and thirst factor these don't last long enough to document.

Frappes while wildly delicious were not enough to sustain an entire diet. Every now and then I did actually did hungry and craved something beyond the frappe. Luckily, Greece is very kind to their vegetarians. I tried stuffed bell peppers with feta cheese, aubergines (eggplant) moussaka, olives, Yigandes Plaki (white beans, sautéed vegetables swimming in a tangy tomato sauce), dolmatas (stuffed grape leaves), hummus and tzatziki with pita wedges, tons of roasted nuts for snacks, and fresh fruits galore, and of course many variations of salads including the legendary Greek Salad.

I’m not here to instigate a debate on what constitutes a Horiatiki Salata (Greek Salad). Some people add peppers, others use different types of tomatoes, some use infused olive oil, others less kind to the dishwashers in the back served the olives in a different plate entirely, and some insist on using basil (I was told is was borderline sacrilegious. It’s Greece for heaven sakes not Rome). Based on all the versions I’ve tasted, all in the name of investigative science, here’s what they all had in common: extremely succulent, juice chilled tomatoes, crunchy cucumbers, spicy onions, and pump tangy olives. Everything else varies based on taste and sometimes aesthetic principles or so they claim.

The basic Greek Salad goes something like this:
4 tomatoes on the vine (they tend to be juicier), in wedges
1-2 cucumber, scrubbed but not peeled, diced (I prefer Israeli cucumbers)
1/2 thinly sliced red onion
Kalmata Olives
Feta cheese, to taste (Fresh is better, it comes still soaking in whey. The texture is on the outside is a close to a soft goat cheese and the inside still crumbles.)
Salt
Dried Oregano
Extra Virgin Olive Oil, cold pressed (the ones in the dark bottles taste better)

Throw the tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and olives into a bowl. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and dried oregano for seasoning. Add sliced or crumbled feta cheese. Drizzle the oil generously last.

My favorite part of the salad is soaking up the seasoned olive oil (towards the end of the salad it embraces all the flavors in the salad) at the bottom of the plate with a few slices of the super porous, spongy regional bread. Paired off with a local white wine served from a plastic two-liter bottle (very much like our water bottle. The theory behind this is “we drink our wine fresh today or tomorrow, why waste money on a pretty glass bottle. We don’t drink the bottle. Sounds fair enough.) or of course with a chilled frappe, shaken not stirred (preferably by a hot Greek man).

I'm enjoying my views:

Local Colorful Boats docked in Paxos:

Greek Boats, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Myrtos Beach:

Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi:

Delphi, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Corfu:

Corfu, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Somewhere on the Ionia Sea:

On the Ionian Sea, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Stroopwafels & Breakfast Sprinkles

2009-06-04T19:51:00.008-04:00

Stroopwafels, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

I absolute all time favorite cookie/dessert in the world is an ooey, gooey stroopwafel. Move over, chocolate chip, even the swimsuit portion of the competition can’t save you.

Stroopwafels were created by the same brilliant gastronomic geniuses that discovered the breakfast sandwich sprinkles. I say discovered because I still maintain they are exactly the same as ice cream sprinkles, except they also come in fruity varieties. Feel free to try them at least once in your life: you’ll need an untoasted slice of bread, butter, and sprinkles. Spread the butter and add the sprinkles very generously. Said geniuses were Dutch, specifically from Gouda. Yes, this is the same quaint little town (now a bit of a tourist trap) that heralds the cheese of the same name.

Chocolate Breakfast Sprinkles:

Breakfast Sprinkles, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Imagine if you will a wafel/crepe, while it is shaped like a wafel if you eat it in it’s proper way the outside is not crunchy but rather soft and chewy like a crepe, with a sweet caramel filling oozing out with every bite. That’s a stroopwafel, with just a tad bit of amoure.

Unlike most pastries, this one has more humble origins. Based on a story I was told in Delft, they were made from the crumbs of proper wafels, which is why they were so thin. Originally, it was home to a spicy, sweet syrup as opposed to the ubersweet caramel that is used today. Since stroopwafels were made from crumbs they were beloved by the peasants and plebs, for they were as economical as they are tasty.

Nowadays they magically appear on my breakfast table every other week. Hell hath no fury like sleepy old bugger denied. Especially, one with a vivid imagination and little by way of fear.

Stroopwafels, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Alright, it time to let the wafels out of the iron:
Stroopwafels are generally served on top of a cup of tea. They serve two purposes: a) the steam from the tea melts the caramel inside and softens the wafel part on the outside; and b) it keeps the heat from escaping thereby keeping your tea warmer for longer. Now you can read through the entire paper without being rudely disturbed by ice-cold tea. If you are coffee inclined, feel free to have some. The stroopwafel is an equal opportunity dessert. One word of advice: they are quite sweet, so just this once you might want to cut back on the sugar. Lastly despite what some might say there is not right or wrong way to eat a stroopwafel. If you lack patience, there is nothing stopping you from eating one right out of the box. In fact, I think I’ll do just that right now. Take that Stroop-despot.

Amsterdam at Sunset:

Amsterdam, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Proper Dutch Wooden Shoes:

Dutch Wooden Shoes, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Obligatory Souvenir:

Dutch Shoes, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Red Pepper Pizza

2009-06-03T13:12:00.002-04:00

Red Pepper Pizza, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Thin crust, deep dish, cheesy, whole wheat, sourdough, artisanal, pumpernickel, vegetable, pepperoni, pineapple, roasted peppers, and berries. Regardless of taste, it seems there is a pizza out there for everyone. To learn how to master the art of the pizza is to own the next best thing to the key to the city, or better yet to the world. Before we begin to hatch plans for world domination though (you can be Pinky, and I your Brain), we need to start at home. Woo your loved ones and reclaim your title as the world’s greatest friend, sister, brother, daughter, son, mother, father, person, primate.

Let us proceed: while this may sound strange, the first step is to figure coax out your taste buds’ preferences. Flowers and chocolate won’t get you very far this time. Ask yourself do you prefer a crunchy or chewy crust? A tangy saucy sauce or a chunky spicy sauce? Would you prefer a blizzard of cheese or slight flurries? Once you have sorted through all of this, you can make the suggested alterations or please feel free to experiment around and let me know how it goes. If all goes well after dinner you can bask in your own glory and curl up with an invigorating book, while your loyal subjects thank you by cleaning up and doting upon you. Do ahead don’t be shy, ask for anything. Except perhaps a unicorn.

Now for the plotting:

Pizza Dough
Of all the recipes I’ve tried, I consistently get the best results with Wolfgang Puck’s. Here is the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/wolfgang-puck/pizza-dough-recipe2/index.html
Two bits of advice though: 1) grease the inside of the bowl with a bit of olive oil, 2) use the wet towel to cover the top of the bowl, not the dough itself.

Sauce
This sauce is one I learned how to make in the trattorias of Florence, Italy. (I also picked up a recipe for ribollita, more on that later). It has been adapted just a tad.

Canned Tomatoes (since the tomatoes are packed at their best, canned tomatoes are perfect for sauces. You can use whole peeled tomatoes for a chunkier sauce. Or crushed tomatoes for a smoother sauce. Tuttorosso is my favorite, plus it takes care of some of the basil for you.)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 onion, diced for chunky, minced for not (type of onion is your choice. I prefer Vidalia)
3-4 basil leaves
1/4 cup of olive oil
salt and pepper

Warm the oil in a pan. Add the garlic then the onion. Let them mingle for 30 seconds or so. When they are light tan, let the tomatoes join the party. Turn on some music and let them dance for 15-20 minutes on medium low heat. It should thicken quite a bit. If it doesn’t leave the heat on until it does. If the sauce is too chunky for your taste, use a potato masher to puree the tomatoes. Every party always had a party pooper. Cue Macbeth’s witches: “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble.” Lucky for you though, there is very little that can go wrong with this sauce. If it doesn’t taste a 100% the way you want play around with it a bit. Or chalk it up to a difference in taste palettes. Actually, if the sauce burns you might be in trouble and you’ll have your fair share of toil clean the pan. To avoid this, keep an ever watchful eye on your concoction, with or without your witch’s hat.

This is a wonderful thick sauce as is, but you can add a few other ingredients to it and experiment. For spicy kick, add a few pepper flakes. Sometimes I add 1/4 cup of white, dry wine or vegetables.

Cheeses:
I use a trio of mozzarella, fontana, and parmesan. For a traditional pizza, simply shred the cheeses and mix them together.
For a pizza with some rustic charm, use some thinly sliced fresh mozzarella.

Assembling:
When the dough is ready, on a pizza sheet or cookie sheet, or pizza stone use your hands to pull and shape the dough into an 8” circle or a circle like figure. Generously top the crust with some sauce and cheese.
For a rustic pizza, try topping the pizza with some fresh whole basil leaves and a few very thinly sliced tomatoes.

Happy Munching!

Trader Joe's Chocolate Croissants

2009-06-02T23:31:00.005-04:00

Chocolate Croissants, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Generally, I'll call it a successful morning if I can gather my bearing an hour or two after waking up and after approximately two monstrously large cups of tea. Honestly, the size of this cup could double as a pitcher when hosting a tea party. Why are you looking at me like that, who drinks hot tea during high noon in summer?

Moving on... In short, time is short especially during the mornings. But we can't possibly starve in the morning lest we morph into the obligatory challenged person on the train and start gnawing on our arms somewhere between Rockefeller Center and Union Square. I'm not sure where your threshold lies, but one wiff of the burnt street vendor coffee in those blue cups with the greek key (involuntary tangent: how is the greek key related to coffee. If you are familiar with Greek coffee, it's consistency can be arguably described as mucky guppy goo. In fact, when I was in Greece and attempted to order Greek Coffee the charming, sage waiter smiled and strongly advised against it. I cooled off with a frappe instead. More on this later, perhaps.) While I enjoy making things on my own, sometimes there are recipes too tedious or too daunting to try. Just yet.

Enter Trader Joe's, a wonder emporium of sorts filled with little geniuses, with their frozen chocolate croissants. You just pop open the box, lay out the four croissants on a buttered cookie sheet and proof (in other words, leave them overnight). They will expand a bit, reminiscent of a Macy's Thanksgiving day ballon. Feel free to camp out over night with a blanket and some hot chocolate to watch them. But be warned they don't change colors. They just grow, like grass on the Nature channel only faster.

The final results are absolutely delicious and beautiful. They were flaky, oh so flaky; buttery but not overwhelmingly so; and the chocolate was smooth and rich, infinitely better than many proper chocolate brands. I had entirely forgotten this was a pastry of humble frozen origins. My what a social climber they turned out to be.

Overall, the chocolate croissants were not at all what I expected when the box was plopped into my basket under the guise of a compromise. If only I could say the same for the okra.

My okra is your okra. And your croissant is my croissant. Oui?

Caramel Iced Coffee Milkshake Latte Thing

2009-06-01T16:46:00.005-04:00

Caramel Latte, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

I nurse my hangovers (the sleep deprived sort, not at all related to the hangovers of alcoholic variety) with a ridiculously large cup of scalding hot green tea. But come summer, most people develop a waning tolerance for hot beverages of all sorts. So what are we to do: whip up some iced coffee (for the caffeine), caramel (for sweetness), and whipped cream (for everything else).

The AC is most likely taking it's last untimely breathes. So, where's my thirst quencher?

1 scoop of vanilla ice cream
2 teaspoons of sugar
1 espresso shot (or one tablespoon of instant coffee)
2-4 teaspoons of caramel syrup (more for topping)
1 1/2 cups of milk
6 ice cups or so

Dump all of the above into a blender and blend.

Whipped Cream: confectioner's sugar, heavy cream, whisk, and quite a bit of upper arm strength.

Na Zdravi (Czech for "for health")

Small Victories: Vegetable Chili

2009-05-31T20:38:00.005-04:00

Vegetable Chilli, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

What do you call a teenage birthday party without pizza and the usual array of junk food? A minor victory! At my sister’s birthday party, I served vegetable chili, Spanish rice, and 3-Cheese Quesadillas (what is life if not compromise). They loved it, or at least they were a combination of starving and not disgusted by it.

The best part with all of these is that you can make them all ahead of time and just reheat when you are ready to serve. This way you have plenty of time to join the party and tell dreadfully embarrassing stories. Who needs movies anyway?

The Spanish Rice was simple enough: rice and salsa. You can vary the proportion based on taste. I used 3 cups of cooked rice to 1/2 a cup of salsa. I seasoned it with some tablespoon of salt, a pinch of pepper, and a pinch of garlic powder.

Vegetable Chili
2 Beefsteak Tomatoes (any variety will do), diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 scallion bunch (and chives), minced
1 turn of the pot of olive oil
1 can of black beans (preferably Goya), rinsed and drained
1 can of dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can of corn, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon ground cilantro
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper powder (less if you can’t handle the heat)
1 tablespoon taco seasoning
1 1/2 cups of water
1 garlic clove, minced
Salt and Pepper
Lemon juice, by taste (wedges and zest for garnish)

Add about 1 turn of the pan of olive oil. Heat the pan for about 30 seconds. Test if the oil is done: throw, gently, a little bit of minced garlic into the pan. If Cracked and Pop (just this once we aren’t interested in Snap) join the party, all systems are GO. Add the rest of the garlic, followed by the diced pepper, diced tomatoes, and then scallions. Keep stirring the veggies. Season them with salt and pepper, ground cilantro, cayenne pepper, and taco seasoning. Once the smells beginning to percolate, we can add the beans and corn. Stir that up again. Add the water and let it simmer on medium low heat for about 20-30 minutes. The chili will thicken up tremendously.

3-Cheese Quesadillas
Tortillas
1/3 cup of Swiss, 1/3 cup of Cheddar, 1/3 cup of Mozzarella
salt and pepper

Warm up the tortillas for about 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle the cheese mix onto half the torilla.
Season with a dash of salt and pepper. Fold over. And pop it back into the over for about another 5 minutes. We are looking for light brown crunchiness on the top, since they will get dunked into the chili.

This trio is a great source of fiber, protein, veggies, and all sorts of good stuff including, the indispensable stringy cheese.

Holy S'mores!

2009-05-31T18:43:00.006-04:00

S'mores, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

What good are marshmallows without some S'mores?

You'll need fire (campfire, fireplace, stovetop), skewers (so you don't burn yourself), graham crackers, chocolate, and for maximum entertainment a pyromaniac.

The actual s'mores were gobbled before the camera could get to them.

Happy Munching!

Popcorn Cupcake

2009-05-31T18:30:00.009-04:00

Popcorn Cupcake, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

These little handsome devils are a surprisingly easy to make. Actually, I take that back. If you have the steady hands of a the terminator or a newer robot, you might find piping fun and efficient. I, however, do most certainly not find it enjoyable. Okay, maybe it’s not that extreme. My apologies, to the immensely creative proto-humans out there. But I have only advanced over to the stars and shells. My handwriting on paper is atrocious, thank you Word. You’ll have to imagine what my words look like piped out on a dolled up cake. I’ll help with just this one image… it looks confused, as if it landed on the wrong cake.

Huzzah, for cupcake wrappers! The hardest part of this assembled birthday cake was making the cupcake wrappers. Fear not, that’s actually a good thing. I simply measured the cupcake standing up and cut a piece of printer paper (parallel to landscape). Then I pasted on red triangles, and the popcorn labels. Viola, you have a retro popcorn tub.

I made chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing. Basic recipe nothing crazy just some butter, confectioner’s sugar, pure vanilla extract, and a tablespoon of heavy cream.

Now let’s add the crazy marshmallows to the mix. You’ll need a half a bag of mini marshmallows for 12 cupcakes. This next part requires a little bit of magic: the Great Munchie will now transform a regular old cylinder-shaped marshmallow into a popcorn. I’ll need a volunteer. You ma’am, please twist the marshmallow into half without breaking it. Lovely. If you would be so kind, and twist the marshmallow into the other direction. (The twists are along the t (cross), in other words, in the middle of marshmallow both horizontally and vertically.) What do you mean it broke? Does it still look like a popcorn? Yay, congratulations. As you can see, the popcorn is a very forgiving shape. Thank you, Orville Redenbacher.

Popcorn Cupcakes, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

2009-05-31T16:46:00.008-04:00

Chocolate Covered Pretzels, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

These are one of the yummiest things to eat and by far one of the easiest to make. I remember during winter, walking by a bunch of chocolate shops that sold chocolate covered everything: strawberries, nuts, dried fruits, cookies, candy canes, Santas, and dredels. My friend pointed and said, "hey you can do that." At first, I went through the nuances of how I most certainly couldn't. Chocolatiers have real chocolate, they have to work in freezing cold conditions, they need to work with precision and speed so that chocolate won't melt, they need the will power of a monk to ensure the chocolate won't be eaten, they have fancy molds to turn the chocolate into hearts, squares, dragons, bells, bridges, trolls, Smurfs. (A free association tangent for you there.) Above all, I lack skill, sometimes (let's face it all too often) lurking around as good old fashioned laziness.

Have you ever tried winning an argument with a friend armed with a point to prove and fueled by a credit card? If so, you know where this is going. If not, it's about high time you picked up the phone, called your best friend, and started a fight. Nothing traumatic that could potentially severe your friendship entirely, something small and innocuous.

Here's how (to make the Pretzels, not starting a fight):
16 Pretzel Rods
1 cup of shredded/ chopped chocolate (a little extra for snacking and bribing)
Toppings: White Chocolate, Sprinkles, Nerds

The Nerds add an interesting tangy punch.

Crank up the double broiler. if you don't have one, you can do what I did: use two pots. The small pot should fit into the larger pot without touching the bottom of the larger pot, preferably with about 2 inches between the bottom of the two pots. If this is your first time, be warned it's a noisy adventure. However, I rummage around for a colander helmet, call down the little ones in the family, and call it a Stomp worthy production. Alright, now we must head out for an intermission. Send off the significant others or kids, if persuasion is required throw them a few blocks of chocolate.

Try to figure out how much space there is between the pots. You can do this by adding cold water to one and placing the small pot on top. If the bottom of the small pot is wet, you have too much water. Dry the pots and try again with less water. In theory, you should have approximately an inch of water. It’s a guess and check, reminiscent of the baking soda volcano from decades past. When will it blow, no one knows.

Separate the two pots. Once you’ve figured out how much water, let the water come to a rolling bowl. In the meantime, fill the small pot with 1/2 cup of chocolate. Once the water is boiling, you can turn the heat down to a medium-low. Place the small pot on top of the larger one and whisk the chocolate until it has melted. Try to work fast, we don’t want the chocolate to burn. Add the rest of the chocolate little by little while whisking until all of the chocolate has melted.

Pull out your pretzels, cookie sheet, and toppings. Cover a 12” plate with your topping of choice. Try not to pick a topping that is too heavy, or it will break free from the pretzel and take your chocolate with it.

Using a spoon or spatula, cover 3/4ths of the pretzel with the melted chocolate. You can scrape the excess chocolate off with a spoon. There is no right or wrong thickness, so long as the chocolate doesn’t drip when you lift the pretzel horizontally.

If you have a solid topping, roll the pretzel in it while holding the non-chocolately end of the rod. Once you have the desired amount of topping on the thing, place it onto the cookie sheet. When the sheet is full, move it to the fridge (NOT freezer) for 10-15 minutes.

If you want to use white chocolate, melt your white chocolate the same way. Using a spoon drizzle the white chocolate onto the pretzel. Place it onto the cookie sheet. When the sheet is full, move it to the fridge (NOT freezer) for 10-15 minutes.

Happy Munching!

Chocolate Covered Pretzels, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Movie Night Menu

2009-05-31T15:45:00.005-04:00

Chocolate Chip Cookies, originally uploaded by ThisWeekInMunchies.

Appetizers:
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Butter Popcorn (with Real Butter)
Nachos with Salsa Roja and Salsa Verde

Main Course:
Vegetable Chili with Spanish Rice

Dessert:
Popcorn Cupcake
S’mores
Ice Cream Sundaes

Drinks:
Lemonade
Mineral Water with Lime
Caramel Iced Coffee
Shirley Temples

Luke, I am Your Father

2009-05-31T07:19:00.003-04:00

Terrible Title? I know, I’m sorry. But this all started with a faithful movie night themed birthday party, where I was strong-armed into starting this blog by five 13-year-olds.

Who am I?

Here’s the long story:

I would love to start off with this: I am by no means an expert! I can taste my way around wow, give me more, please; wow followed by a succession of drool; delicious; good; it is missing something; and finally, bad, bad, bad.

I started cooking a few years ago: boiling water, adding pasta, adding pasta sauce. Then, I graduated on to sandwiches, then stir fry vegetables. As I got better and better, believe me it took an excruciatingly long time, I realized I didn’t need to schlep out of my house and spend $15-20 on a meal to satisfy my cravings. Or my sister’s for that matter. I namely, started cooking for her. And that brave soul is my primary taster.

Moving right along: Yesterday was her movie night themed birthday party (more on this later). I set out an array of desserts and made a Mexican based main course. After the first round of helpings, her friends showered me with praise. I try to be a modest person, but praise is praise. Best of all, they scarfed down homemade vegetable chili (more vegetables than not), Spanish rice, and Three-Cheese Quesadillas instead of pizza and mozzarella sticks. My friends thought I was crazy for cruelly attempting to change the natural order of the universe. But long behold, I did it! Yay me. I realize I’m not the first one to do it, but I’m celebrating small victories.

I have been following a few food and photography blogs. But I never though I would have anything worth lending to permanence, much less something that would be actually helpful to a stranger who comes across this blog, especially since there are so many other, better blogs out there. But I was strong-holded into this, and I figure why not. I already now five little people who are on the look out for my first post. Thanks guys! And of course, Mom, whose advice is always sound and all too often ignored. I owe it to you.

I woke up this morning at 6:17 with ideas flying out of my head, escaping from my ears, nose, eyes, and mouth (Pixar style). At that time, I remember having at least 5 posts written, rather eloquently, and ready to reach the masses. Where’s a paper and pen when you need it the most? Sadly, most of it lost: most certainly the eloquent part. I’m going to chuck it to an advanced filtering process, through which I only remember the very best munchies of the food sort and the mind variety.

Alright, I’ve bared all… here goes nothing.