Things I Cook: Hotcakes With Strawberry Compote

Tonight's recipe comes from Mr. Curtis Stone, from his book, Relaxed Cooking With Curtis Stone. I first made these pancakes last year for a jewelry party I hosted, and I've been hooked ever since. I've been spoiled with these pancakes, and have since become disenchanted with Bisquick. If you decide to make them for yourself, I am 100% positive you will agree. They are light, yet super flavorful, and the best part is, THEY ARE STUPIDLY SIMPLE TO MAKE. (P.S. Compote is WAY better than heavy pancake syrup. It pwns it so hard.) Anyway, I made these pancakes tonight for breakfast-dinner with a few modifications. Here's how they turned out: (I'm going to apologize right now: I'm no food photographer, and I'm also too lazy to spend a lot of time trying to get that perfect snapshot. Plus, I was hungry. Trust me, they taste better than they might look.)

The original recipe calls for blueberries, but as you can see, I substituted strawberries because they were cheaper and I knew for sure they were in season. That's the beauty of this recipe: you can use whatever fruit you want and it'll still be delicious. The compote recipe also calls for the zest and juice of one lemon, but I used lime juice because that's just how I roll. And I already had it in my fridge. I also omitted the mint because I didn't have any and didn't want to buy some just for this recipe. My pancakes still turned out great.

If you'd like to try your hand at making them yourself, you can view the recipe here.

Things I Cook: Hot Chocolate Cookies

Back when I still had a Facebook account, I started posting pictures of the food I'd cook, along with the recipes. To be honest, I started doing it to prove to loved ones that I can indeed cook, and am no longer the girl who burns food in the crock pot (true story). Since I no longer have my account, I thought I'd resume the food blogging here. For my first post, I bring you Hot Chocolate Cookies.

This recipe comes from Best Holiday Cookies, a book I received for Christmas from a co-worker. The Hot Chocolate Cookies immediately caught my eye because they looked delicious, and the recipe was simple (taken directly from the book):

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk chocolate chips, melted, divided

1 cup all-purpose flour

mini marshmallows, cut into small pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

2. Beat butter, sugar and salt in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add 1/4 cup melted chocolate; beat until well blended. Gradually add flour, beating after each addition.

3. Shape dough by level tablespoonfuls into balls. (If dough is too soft, refrigerate 1 hour or until firm enough to handle.) Place 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets; flatten to 1/2-inch thickness. Bake 15 to 17 minutes or until set. Cool on cookie sheets 5 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

4. Spread about 1 teaspoon remaining melted chocolate onto each cookie. Sprinkle with marshmallow pieces; press gently into chocolate. Refrigerate at least 1 hour or until set.

Tip (not from book, but what I learned by watching Take Home Chef): Chocolate can be easy to burn. In order to avoid this, heat a pot of water on the oven. Place the chocolate chips in a bowl and place the bowl over the hot water. The heat from the water will melt the chocolate without burning it. Thanks, Curtis Stone!

Here's how mine turned out:

Mine were considerably bigger and flatter than the ones in the picture, so I think my tablespoons were too big. I also didn't melt enough chocolate, as I only eyeballed it and melted it as I went along.

The verdict: They didn't blow me away. It seemed like all I could taste was the butter, sugar and salt. The melted chocolate on top and the marshmallows did help somewhat, but not enough to warrant making these cookies again.

Discovery Channel and TLC are Sexin' Things Up!

Remember the days when you could tune in to either the Discovery Channel or TLC and, without fail, catch a mind-numbing documentary about wildebeests humping? No matter what time of the day or night, you were sure to see those damn wildebeests mating or, on a day when the programming directors wished to spice things up a bit, a close-up of an insect doing...something. Thank GOD those days are over, am I right? Both channels have really stepped up their programming game in the past decade, broadcasting shows that are not only interesting, educational and funny, but also feature extremely good-looking male hosts. Tonight I wish to shine the spotlight on two such hosts: Curtis Stone and Mike Rowe.

I discovered who Curtis Stone was back in 2006 while idly channel surfing one day after classes. I landed on "Take Home Chef," a show he used to host on TLC, and couldn't bring myself to change the channel. His good looks and Aussie accent sucked me right in and I was hooked. I watched that show faithfully until its last episode. Curtis turned out to be instrumental in getting me to actually give a crap about cooking; up until then, I hated it. But by watching "Take Home Chef," I saw that cooking was actually interesting and could be--gasp--fun. And I was tired of eating Hot Pockets all the time. A surprising bonus was that even though I was watching it for the sole purpose of ogling Curtis, I found myself actually learning things about cooking I didn't know before. For example, did you know that the sharpness (or lack thereof) of your knife determines how much your eyes will tear while chopping onions? Oh, you did? Piss off, then. My point is that I didn't know that, and learning such tidbits of information I think made me a more competent cook. (Although I think a few friends and c0-workers would beg to differ; in fact, I can just hear the laughter now.)

Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs" is proof that I will watch a man shovel poop for an hour, provided the man is attractive. Enter the very manly and rugged Mike Rowe, who, in addition to shoveling poop, chums for sharks, collects trash and does a myriad of other disgusting tasks that allow the show to live up to its name. And yes, I am trying very very hard not to make a pun using the words "dirty," "job" or "dirty job." It's killing me. Anyway, Mike Rowe is the only man who can make shit look good. The dirty jobs he performs also happen to be very labor-intensive (Must. Not. Make. Pun.) and his body shows it. I LOVE his arms and chest. LOVE them. Every time I watch an episode my thoughts wander to what I would do if--well, I'll stop there before things get all X-rated up in here. Let's just say that I have a dirty job Mike can do if he's ever interested. (Yep, see, I knew I wouldn't be able to get through this post without making some sort of pun. Man, I feel better!)

I've noticed a theme appear from watching these men do their thing on television: I start out watching the shows just to gawk at the hot hosts, but I end up actually learning something in the process. So here's to Curtis Stone and Mike Rowe: Curtis, thanks to you, I now know that if I ever decide to cook a whole lobster, I should put it in a freezer first so the experience of taking a swim in a boiling pot of water won't be quite so traumatic. Mike, if I am ever faced with having to sex an alligator, I know from watching your show that I need to stick my finger up its ass to feel for a penis or lack thereof. Honestly, I'm not sure if I'll ever actually need to use this information, but if anything, it's a good conversation-starter at parties. So thanks guys! You make learning look good.