use real butter

Recipe: chocolate-dipped strawberry cake

Figs are not only delicious on their own or with prosciutto, but they are also fantastic with balsamic vinegar! Case in point, I put some in our salad tonight:

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: rocky road brownies

No – not the way Cartman refers to… I’m talking about literally making brownies.

Never really satisfied with that earlier experiment of fudgy versus chewy brownies, I was flipping through some old issues of Chocolatier the other day and found brownie recipes worthy of a kitchen test. In my youth (back in 1994) I subscribed to Chocolatier because I liked baking with chocolate. I found I was mostly in over my head with that magazine. I tried again in 2000 and the same thing happened. Mind you, their other publication is Pastry Art and Design, if that’s any hint. I’m glad I hung on to those issues though, because now that I have perused the recipes, the three truffle (most difficult) ratings look to be on par with the more advanced stuff I did in pastry class. I mean to say – they are now within my ability level, and that feels pretty good!

When I said I was done baking until I returned from Canada, I did not lie. But I decided to whip up (literally) some chocolate espresso mousse tonight. Jeremy finished his proposal and sent it off to the university grants office for review before submission. He said he was in the mood for some sort of celebratory drink or some such yummy. I love being able to think of a dessert on the fly and make it on the spot. When I was a kid and I wanted to make something like meringues, I couldn’t because we never had enough sugar (a cup!) in the house. My mom did not bake and the cupboards told that tale time and again. Not in my house, not in my kitchen. Shazaam! Like that – chocolate espresso mousse!