Since it's been about five zillion years since I've done a recipe post, I figured that now was as good a time as any.
Besides, after the holidays there's always the potential to feel a little aimless. All the hustle and bustle and visits and presents and craziness (not to mention the WINE...let's not go there), just lead into a cold January, that's full of things to catch up on (usually work and/or school related), weight to lose (can I get an amen on THAT one), and planning and implementing to do (hello resolutions! I, by the way, have not done a full out formal meditation ONCE since the new year).
For that reason, today's recipe will be quick, cheap, and delicious.
Since I'll be going raw (foodist) in less than a month, someone may as well be able to enjoy a melted chocolate recipe once I can't any more.
But anywhoo, on to the Peppermint Bark. (by the way, this recipe is just from a conglomeration of ones I found by googling "peppermint bark recipe" - I didn't make it up, but it's not exactly copied either. FYI!) You'll need: 1 bag of chocolate chips (milk or dark, whichever you'd prefer) 1 bag of white chocolate chips 1 bottle of peppermint extract (do the natural one, it's oh so much better - kind of like vanilla, where imitation extract tastes totally different, not that it's bad. I recall dabbing it on my wrists and neck as a little girl when I wanted "perfume" - it was awesome. I still love the smell - when using it for perfume at 5 years old, go imitation! When using it for cooking, do real vanilla. Same for peppermint. Anyway) ---also, a little bottle may be more than you'd expect to pay - mine was $7 or so, but it will last you forEVER. a few candy canes, or round peppermints, either one works just as well. a large handful will do.
What to do: - Preheat your oven to 250 degrees F.
- line a cookie sheet with foil.
- spread out the chocolate chips (not the white ones, just the milk/dark) on the cookie sheet in a layer. Don't have them go all the way to the edges, and make sure the layer is definitely touching. I'd keep it about 2 chips deep.
- bake for 5 minutes (only 5!)
- when you remove the cookie sheet, the chocolate chips will still have their forms and won't lookmelty. However, once you grab a spatula or big spoon and gently smooth them into a layer, you'll see that they're actually just about softened into a liquid. By the way, that's the next step - to smooth them into a layer (as even as you can, doesn't have to be perfect)
- pop the cookie sheet into the fridge to chill for 20 minutes.
- while you're waiting, take your peppermints or candy canes and smash them up into small pieces. My particular method was to bribe a certain fiance to take them into the basement with a hammer and go to work. This would work. So would lots of other methods. Be creative! Take out some aggression!
- once the 20 minutes have passed, rig a double boiler by placing a metal bowl on the top of a saucepan. Make sure the bowl is large enough that at least half of it is out of the pan. Also, you don't want it to touch the bottom of the pan - you need at least two inches. Put about an inch to an inch and a half of water into the saucepan, and bring it to a soft boil (which means just small bubbles and a good amount of steam). Depending on your stove, this could be at anywhere from medium-low to medium-high heat.
- pour your white chocolate chips into the bowl atop the saucepan, and stir them until melted. It won't take too long if you start once the water is already gently boiling. note: if you have the water too hot, the white chocolate will clump rather than melting nicely. That's bad. If it happens, turn the heat down. Also, if it happens, it isn't the end of the world and your chocolate will still taste yummy, it'll just be harder to deal with.
- once the white chocolate chips are melting, take the cookie sheet out of the fridge. You want to not have that layer so cold that it forms a layer of condensation (it'll make the layers not stick well enough). So just sit it on the counter to wait until you're ready for the next thing.
- after the white chocolate is all melted, pour in 3 or 4 drops of peppermint extract. Really, that's ALL you need! Any more and you'll be waaaaaaaaay too pepperminty! A little goes a long way, trust me.
- stir until the peppermint is distributed throughout. You won't really be able to tell, so just stir the chocolate well and you're good.
By about now, it should be smelling delicious. If you like peppermint, that is. If not, I wouldn't recommend this recipe. Anyway.
- gently pour the melted white chocolate over the refrigerated milk/dark chocolate layer, spreading it out to cover as evenly as possible. Again, doesn't have to be perfect. Also, work fairly quickly here, because if you dilly dally like I did, the chocolate on the bottom will start to melt and mix, which still tastes fine, but isn't as pretty.
- once the white chocolate is spread out, sprinkle the smashed peppermint bits over the top until they've covered the white chocolate. If you want, you can press them down with your hand (if the layer is good you won't come away with white chocolate fingers) - even if you don't do this they'll probably stick just fine, so it's optional. I'm just a tad OCD so I did it. Anyway,
- refrigerate for at least an hour. After that long, use a knife to cut into small pieces (remember, you're eating straight chocolate so think how big a Hershey's bar pieces, once broken along their lines, are. Do them about 1.5 to 2 times as big as those pieces)
- Eat! Take small bites and savor! Also, peppermint settles your stomach so these are great for an after dinner snack!
I'd love to hear how this recipe goes if you try it out! Lemme know!
Today's quote: The clock is a conspiracy and a crime against humanityand I would not own one except I miss appointments without it.~Brian Andreas
Or, I guess, happy half-a-week-into-the-new-year. Same difference, it's still a new year and new decade.
Makes me feel old that I can say "my, that decade went by quickly!" I've certainly never been able to say that before.
My new years celebration was amazing - we went over to Jim Thorpe to ring it in with some new friends out there, and then we spent a quiet weekend of food and drinks - - it's as I say, Hazleton isn't a place, it's a state of mind. (for me that state of mind includes lots of dessert and red wine...)
On January 1, this is what was attached to my tea bag, Chinese fortune cookie style: (I think this is true for everyone, no?) Because after all, a civilization is just a group of people and a world is just a group of civilizations, so our choices CAN certainly change it. So get to work! I think this year a great duty for us all will be to lead more mindful lives - don't waste your time, because who knows how much more of it any of us have?
Just a thought.
And tomorrow, there'll be a long overdue Carrots in the Kitchen post.
Today's quote: Most people don't know there are angels whose only job is to make sure you don't get too comfortable and fall asleep and miss your life. ~Brian Andreas
(btw, he's one of my new heroes and my quotes will mostly be from him. Here's his site.)
This morning I woke up to the inevitable ponderings that always show their faces around New Year's and birthdays.
What did I accomplish this year? Who did I interact with, and did I make their lives better or worse, or neither? Did I make any progress in my overarching life goals? Can I be proud of myself? What do I need to do next year in order to be the best version of myself possible? How should I prioritize? What would I like to do? How can I embrace practices in the upcoming year that will further me as a person and will bring me closer to my ideal self?
And on it goes. In reviewing this year, I'm satisfied - not because I got everything accomplished that I would have wanted to, but because the decisions that I've made have poised me to jump into a new year that promises amazing experiences.
So, on to the resolutions:
1) Learn the piano. (that's a big one) 2) Meditate every day (I fall off the horse all the time) 3) Keep an electronic journal. My problem this year has been that I type a zillion times faster than I write, which makes for tired fingers and un-gotten-out thoughts. My journaling has been dry and lacking, just because I don't feel like friggin writing for that long. BUT, my mom got me the best Christmas present EVER - a netbook! A tiny one by HP that fits in my purse. Sooo, that means that journaling can now be done easier than ever. Another thing that made me want to write rather than type was the ease of flipping through pages rather than opening files (which feels awfully impersonal), so to remedy that I'll make myself a promise. If I can type almost daily, and good, real journaling, not a log of where I went and what I did and what was on the radio (although that stuff certainly has its place), I'll add pictures and get it bound next Christmas. That way, through the years I'll have a log that I can flip through, sitting on my shelf. Like a journal. Just not in my handwriting.
I think that's about it. I know that a lot of my habits will be changing this year because of the upcoming shifts in place (Texas), time spent (documentary and dissertation), and diet (raw foodist). More on all that later.
In any event, I like to keep resolution lists short and sweet. You're more likely to fail if there's a bunch there, rather than a few key things to focus on, if you ask me.
So that's that! What will you be aiming to do in the new year?
But a resolution to make resolutions! I'll be typing 'em up, here, tomorrow, for the new year.
So this is a post about the potential post for tomorrow.
Kind of useless, actually.
However, shouldn't we all be thinking about our resolutions now? Isn't tomorrow the day to make them, which makes today the day to ponder them? To think about what's important? To begin to unwrap the past year in our minds, diving into the good and bad and into our own choices and behavior, and figure out what we'll be doing next year that will be different (and the same)?
That's what I'll be doing. Aside from eating my first ever batch of homemade peppermint bark, which is chilling in the fridge now. (yum)
So, resolutions tomorrow! Think about it! What promises will you be making to yourself?
As promised, here's a play-by-play of the Christmas '09 festivities...
A Hazleton holiday concert at the church... Tara's solo And after the performance (note the scarf inside, it was freezing!) My Christmas gift-giving prep. Having folks who live far away is awesome. THE Christmas eve meal setup (I'd been hearing about this for a year) One of T's presents from Tara Santa A tradition up here that I'm new to, barely understand, but after winning some dough this year, am warming up to! Scratch-offs. An awesome discovery on Christmas morning: my very first official stocking! Setting up the video camera (awkward now, but it'll be the BEST in 30 years...providing we switch it to digital by then and it's still in existence...) The obligatory Santa Hat pic Christmas Day table (lotsa eating...never before have I enjoyed treadmill time so much! Combine these meals with the frigid weather, and I'm there!) The view whilst going over the river and through the woods (check out that snow!) Blurry car pic. Wine makes me forget to switch my focus to automatic. Rain on Pine St. during more family visits... T enjoying his Xmas present (a guitar! And, for the record, I suck at keeping presents I'm giving secret. He'd known that was what he was getting for a month), as I enjoyed mine (footie pajamas. Words can't describe the amazingness) I taught my soon-to-be mom in law to crochet this Christmas. Super proud of myself there. I'm sure I'll get a scarf out of the deal sooner or later ;) At Saturday's Dom & Mr. Sax performance... (fantastic. Every other Friday at Bottleneck's. Come on out, if you're ever in Hazleton!) There were even Bongos!
And before I knew it, T had a Guiness halo. Go figure. A certain celebrity was back in our midst for the evening... Who brought us back to his buddy's house for some karaoke. And there was a really cute dog there. Karaoke pics!(that one's from Meatloaf's Paradise, if you're wondering. We got a little into it.) (Radio Gaga)
T is asleep across the room and I'm freshly de-makeuped, wearing the boots I bought today (with Christmas money! Yesss!), catching up on blogs, and feeling lucky piled on lucky as I listen to my future husband's steady breathing, and shiver myself, contemplating whether to get up from the floor where I sit and get my new purple fleece Snuggy to wear (some more loot that came my way yesterday).
It may be awhile before I turn in.
Seriously, who came up with the whole coffee-after-dinner idea? I usually stay away from caffeine, but when in Rome, do as the Hazletonians do and drink coffee and stay up until the sun rises as the house sleeps around you and create bleary eyed blog posts...
Anyway.
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. I certainly did. And I'm steadily accumulating pictures to post a holiday-weekend-in-photos post on Monday, so stand by.
Joy to the world. It's quiet outside, and the snow has been mostly melted by frigid rain from today.
Oops, T just shifted in bed and now his breathing is less even. I ought to stop clickety clacking away on the keyboard (wow was that Dr. Seusian or what)....
Ok, so I don't have my full I.Q. points after 2am. Sue me.
I still have lots of Christmas cards to write (late, much?) and lots of reading to do (the break in my semester means I have time to catch up on everything I'd LIKE to be reading, which also means I'm jam packed with to-do reads right now), so in lieu of a real post, here's a video that reminds me of the awesomeness of our world every now and then.
You'll need:
