Chocolate meets coconut

Coconut: You either love it or you hate it.

I happen to love it. I don’t understand those people who tell me they hate it. But the reporter in me wants to get to the bottom of it: Did you always hate it, or did a certain experience in your life turn you against coconut? Are there any coconutty foods that you enjoy (Almond Joy candy bars, Girl Scout samoas, pina coladas)? Is it the texture or the flavor that turns you off?

I can ask all the questions I want, or I can give up trying to change anyone’s mind and simply fill my mouth with coconut macaroons.

I happened to have a bag of dried, unsweetened coconut in my pantry and, since we have a tropical-themed snack day scheduled to brighten up the newsroom tomorrow, I figured coconut macaroons would fit the bill. And since a simple coconut macaroon seems so plain, I figured dipping them in chocolate wouldn’t hurt. These are nice because they aren’t too sweet (like macaroons tend to be). 

Chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons

2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut


½ cup granulated sugar


2 egg whites, beaten


1 tsp. vanilla extract


A pinch of salt


1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli)


1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, combine coconut, sugar, egg whites, vanilla and salt, and stir until the coconut is evenly coated.

Use your hands to form tight, ping-pong sized balls. Place each macaroon on baking sheet. You’ll have about 18 macaroons.

Bake in oven about 18 minutes, until they are golden brown. Remove from oven and cool.

Place chocolate chips and oil in microwave-safe bowl and heat for 30 seconds. Remove and stir, then heat for another 30 seconds and stir again. Repeat until chocolate is smooth.

Dip each macaroon in the chocolate, covering about half to ¾ of the macaroon. Replace dipped macaroon on baking sheet.

Refrigerate the macaroons for about 20 minutes until the chocolate has hardened. Remove from refrigerator and store at room temperature, in airtight container.  

Makes 18 macaroons.

Cream puffs suitable for company

I was having one of those nights when I wasn’t about to leave the house for anything - not bowling, not a movie, not dinner at my favorite sushi restaurant. Instead, I invited Adam and Katie over for a game of Scrabble.

They came over after dinner, with a bottle of wine. I wanted to offer them an impressive dessert, something I could make quickly without much of a hullabaloo. I had a small carton of heavy whipping cream, and I remembered how surprisingly easy it is to make a batch of cream puffs.

Mimi, my French grandma, used to make cream puffs that were so airy you thought they might levitate off the plate. They were so delicate, so buttery, that I assumed (even as a small child), that they took some very particular skills. But there really are only a few steps; most of the time is spent watching them puff up in the oven. If you have heavy whipping cream and a sprinkle of sugar, you have something to fill them with.

I don’t have my grandmother’s recipe, and I’m kicking myself about that. I looked around for a suitable one and found what’s below, from the Wisconsin State Fair of all places. The cream puffs have been served at the fair since 1924. I chose this recipe because it was the quickest and the easiest. By the time Adam and Katie showed up, I had the butter and water on the stove.

The Wisconsin State Fair Cream Puff

1 cup water

4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) butter

1/4 tsp. iodized salt

1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted

4 eggs

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

2 Tbsp. milk

2 cups whipping cream, whipped with a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of instant coffee granules.

Sifted powdered sugar

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Butter and flour one very large or two small baking sheets, or line with parchment paper.

Pour water into heavy saucepan. Cut butter into small pieces and add to water. Add salt. Place saucepan over medium-low heat so butter melts before water boils. Bring water just to boil.

Remove pan from heat and add flour all at once, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon until dough forms into a ball and bottom of pan is filmed with flour. Let dough rest 5 minutes.

Add whole eggs, beating in one egg at a time. Dough should be stiff but smooth.

Immediately drop 1/4 cupfuls of dough 3 inches apart on baking sheet.

Combine egg yolk and milk in a small bowl. Brush each puff with glaze mixture, taking care not to let liquid drip onto pan.

Bake 35 minutes, until puffed, golden brown and firm.

Cool puffs on wire racks, pricking each with a cake tester or toothpick to allow steam to escape, or leave them in a turned-off oven with the door propped open for about an hour, until firm. (If baked pastry is filled before cool and firm, it will be soggy and may collapse.) Baked puffs should have hollow, moist interiors and crisp outer shells that are lightly browned.

Cut off tops, spoon with whipped cream (use pastry bag with star tip or scoop the whipped cream with a large spoon). Replace tops of the puffs and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Makes 12 cream puffs. Recipe by David Schmidt, Director of the Wisconsin Bakers Association.

*I made a box of instant pistachio pudding to fill the cream puffs with. We ate one of each - a pudding-filled puff and a whipped cream-filled puff. We all preferred the whipped cream mixture, which was lighter; the pudding seemed to weigh everything down. If you don’t like coffee or don’t have instant granules, simply whip the cream and sugar. Oh, and we drizzled the top with Hershey’s syrup, but I forgot the powdered sugar!

**If you are ever in Chicago, eat at Mia Francesca's in Chicago and order the profiteroles, which are filled with pistachio ice cream (that's what inspired me to make the pistachio pudding). It's the most heavenly dessert you will ever eat.

Stuff it!

A couple of months ago our neighbor John rang the doorbell and asked if we wanted some venison. My husband said we did, and it wasn’t until I poked my head into the garage a bit later that I realized he had dropped off not packages of meat but a whole deer - with fur, a head and everything. It was blanketed in a plastic tarp, and after making uneasy peace with the beady, faraway eyes, I embraced the idea of wild game as food. I’d be eating quite a lot of it in the near future.

I’ve never been a big fan of venison, the purplish color and gamey taste has always turned me off. But over Christmas Andy made a tender, delicious roast out of a big hunk of venison his parents brought from Pennsylvania. It simmered lightly in the crock pot all day and was amazingly tender for being such a lean meat.

A few weeks ago received the processed meat back from Echo Valley Meats in Bartonville. They did a great job - two big boxes of venison, cut various ways and packaged in tidy camouflage wrapping. To start, we decided to make stuffed peppers with some of the ground venison. We made this mostly from stuff we already had in the fridge, except for the big, fat green peppers that I ran out to the store for.

Venison-stuffed peppers

1 pound ground venison

3 to 4 tablespoons fresh parsley

1 tablespoon Italian herbs (mixture of thyme, oregano, basil)

Juice of half a lemon

1 diced medium onion

2 gloves garlic, finely chopped

3 tomatoes, diced

1 cup rice cooked in chicken stock instead of water

2 ounces pancetta, finely diced

3 ounces dry red wine

4 to 5 large bell peppers with tops cut off and insides scooped out

¾ cups mozzarella, diced

4 to 6 ounces Parmesan cheese, coarsely grated

Cracked pepper to taste

Cut the tops off peppers and scoop out the seeds. Blanch the peppers in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove, and set upside down to drain.

Brown one pound of ground venison, seasoning generously with fresh cracked black pepper, adding parsley and lemon juice near the end. Do not overcook. Set aside.

In large pan, fry pancetta over medium heat until most of the fat is rendered. Add onion and garlic and cook until onion they begin to caramelize. Deglaze with red wine.

Mix in tomatoes, cooked venison mixture, rice and Italian herbs. Simmer a few minutes then remove from heat. Mix in diced mozzarella.

Stuff peppers with mixture, sprinkle tops with Parmesan, and set in baking dish filled with a half inch of chicken stock. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or until peppers are tender. 

Serves 4 to 5. 

Chocolately goodness

Basil’s aunt Nettie recently informed me that I am lazy and pathetic, that I started this blog weeks ago and have not been back since, and I really ought to get carrying on if I am to be of any use to society.

OK, she didn’t really put it that harshly; that’s mostly my guilt talking. But I do know that if you ever need to get back into someone’s good graces, a plate of chocolate chip cookies works quite nicely. I have experimented with many recipes over the years. Once I found this one, the search was over. 

Maybe you’ve heard of the Nieman Marcus cookie recipe. As the urban legend goes, a woman who was tricked into paying $250 for a cookie recipe decided she would get revenge by distributing it to anyone who wanted it. I wish I could share the truth here on this blog and win a Pulitzer for cracking the biggest dessert mystery of the decade. But the truth is, I really don’t care what the truth is. I’m just grateful to eat a couple of these once in awhile. 

There are several variations on this recipe. I like the one that includes a grated Hershey bar because the chocolate is spread more evenly throughout. Also, I always halve the recipe because the one below makes 112 cookies. You could also freeze half of the batch and use within a week.

Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups butter

2 cups sugar

2 cups brown sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 cups flour

5 cups oatmeal (blend in food processor to a fine powder)

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

4 oz. chocolate chips

1 (8 oz.) Hershey bar, grated

3 cups chopped nuts (I like to use pecans)

Cream butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix together with assembled dry ingredients (flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda). Add the chocolate chips, grated chocolate bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies. 

I cheer for chili

I’m not a big fan of football (or any sports, really) but I am a very big fan of the food that goes along with football. That’s why we had a few friends over for Super Bowl Sunday, and my table was filled with the messy, manly food we like to enjoy on occasions like this: hot wings from our favorite local butcher, Pottstown Meat and Deli (grilled outside on our snowy deck); Italian beef on mini rolls; a veggie tray with homemade bleu cheese dip; a tray of purple grapes, cantaloupe pieces and cheese cubes; and Lil’ Smokies because we ran out of time to do anything else. 


Oh, and white chicken chili, which is one of my favorite one-pot winter dishes. I discovered this recipe a couple of years ago when the ladies of the newsroom where I work decided that instead of each person baking about 15 dozen cookies to exchange like in years past, we would simply collect five or so of our favorite recipes and pass them along. 


I loved this idea because 1) I made 15 dozen cookies the year before and remember it being something of a stress fest and 2) Several of the recipes I received have found their way into my everyday recipe folder. This chili recipe is very easy and very quick, and here it is for you to enjoy, courtesy of a news assistant.

Zesty White Chicken Chili

1 (4 oz.) can green chilies

1 teaspoon cumin

1 bunch green onions, chopped

½ cup frozen corn

Lime zest

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and cubed

2 cans (16 oz.) white beans, undrained

1 can (16 oz.) black beans, drained and rinsed

2 cups chicken broth

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup sour cream.

Combine cooked chicken, beans, broth, green chilies, cumin, green onions, frozen corn and lime zest. Cook in crock pot on low setting for 5 to 7 hours. Serve warm with cheese and sour cream on top.

I didn’t cook this on the crock pot, just brought it to a simmer on the stove then kept it on low all day so friends could help themselves. And for the cumin, I would definitely recommend buying whole cumin seed then grinding it up with a mortar and pestle - so much better than store-bought spice.    

Who's at my table

I should probably let you know about some of the people you’ll hear me talking about in the future.

I’m married to Andy, who was into food way before I was, as he worked in restaurants to pay for college. When we met I was subsisting on frozen pizzas and my usual rotation of fast food joints, so he can take most of the credit for teaching me the ways of the world. My favorite date of ours was a trip to the grocery store in college, when we selected a feast of gourmet cheeses, bakery bread, fruit and pricey desserts as if we weren’t struggling college students. We spent about $150 and ate like a royalty for a week or so.

My parents are Jac and Diane (just like the song). My favorite food memories of them are simple things - sharing pizza rolls with my dad while watching Westerns, and helping my mom frost sugar cookies for the holidays. My mom makes a tasty sugar cookie, and she might share the recipe if you ask nicely.

Oh, my sisters. Denise is next in line behind me. As a child, she was allergic to Pixie Sticks and was banned from eating them after breaking out in a rash. She also had a projectile vomiting episode with Spaghetti-Os. But she lives in North Carolina now and a few years ago introduced me to the best plate of barbecue I’ve ever had.

Annette is the youngest, she’s a diner like me. I’m pretty sure the best night of her life was the Chicago trip we took when she was 18, when she was served Appletinis and we ate lobster at Gibson’s. She loves sushi. Buy her a caramel macchiato and she’ll be your best friend. 

And then there’s Basil (sketched above, at right, by his aunt Nettie). Basil is a yellow lab who is more fervent about food than anyone I know. He will sample just about anything (usually in one gulp), with the exception of leafy greens and lemon slices. His favorites are bleu cheese, shrimp and peanuts.

So, there you have it. These are the people I am known to share meals with.

The first course

Hello, reader. I suppose an introduction is in order. For this very first post, let's take the amuse-bouche approach - just a few tidbits to get you started.

I am a journalist who has decided to start a blog - a blog that is mine, all mine, and not related to my day job. And I've decided to focus on food because I am completely, totally and endlesly obsessed. Ask anyone who knows me.

It started early on, when as a small tot my parents made me taste everything that came across my plate. I didn't fight them on it. Soon, my French grandma was fattening me up with cream puffs, bacon tomato quiche and chocolate pastries for breakfast. My Polish grandma churned out dumplings, golabki, sauerkraut, sausages.

I was the kid who, after begging for ice cream one summer evening, was directed out to the garden where I gorged on tomatoes in my nightgown.

I married for food - and love, too, of course. My husband (then just a boyfriend) won my heart by cooking the most exquisite dishes my college palate had ever tasted. I'll share those recipes another day.

I've never cooked professionally - I have never even baked a turkey on my own - and my tastes range from the elegant to the everyday (I love a big bucket of buttery movie popcorn and I'm not ashamed to admit it). In short, I love to write, I love to eat, and I'm going to write about eating here. Feel free to follow the crumbs I drop along the way.