Berry Smoothie

One day my girlfriend asked me to make her a smoothie. So I did. I don't really have a recipe for it since it was the first time I've ever made one and I really didn't feel like going online and digging one up. So I took a bunch of frozen berries, some yogurt, some milk and a bit of sugar and made her one. I did it like this.

First, I filled up a pint glass with frozen berries. I've found frozen berries to be a bit tart and they wind up getting squishy or just disintegrating if you try to cook with them. They are easy to use in sauces because of that, but I wouldn't suggest trying to make a crisp with them. Anyway, I dumped them in the blender. Followed them up with about a half cup of yogurt, about a half a cup of milk and a couple tablespoons of sugar. Then I just whizzed it up and poured it out. She enjoyed it very much. A bit of vanilla wouldn't have hurt, or fresh berries. Or for that matter, a splash of vodka. Well, if it wasn't her breakfast anyway. Heh. Does anyone make smoothies on a regular basis? Any advice for a newbie?

So I've decided to work on my one pot baked ziti recipe. It's a good recipe, but I want... something more from it. I recently made some pasta and sauce and decided to just whip up a little baked ziti the normal way (the normal way being: mix together some pasta and sauce, cover it with cheese and bake it). It was really good. But it made me want to do my one pot ziti wicked bad. No point to that little story, other than padding out the post a bit. Heh. Although if anyone has any advice on the baked ziti that would be cool too.

Adults Only: The Best Hot Chocolate Ever

Recently one of my favorite bloggers, La Fuji Mama, did a series of posts on hot chocolate. It got me thinking. I like hot chocolate. It's good. Deep, huh? So I decided to make some myself. I used a basic formula: quality chocolate, milk, sugar and I added a little something extra. Baileys. Baileys rules. This is one of the reasons this isn't for kids. It came out very, very good. I think I put on five pounds just looking at it, but it was worth it. So, here is what I did.

First, I used good chocolate, like I mentioned. I happen to be fond of Lindt 70%. If you wanted to do this you could use whatever you like, but this gave it a really deep, rich chocolate flavor. This is the other reason this isn't for kids, not that many kids like dark chocolate. I chopped it up pretty small then heated up some milk over very low heat. I only had 2% on hand, but I found a way to fix that, which I will get to later. I added about two tablespoons of sugar and whisked it till it dissolved. Now, Fuji Mama says you should add your hot milk to the chocolate, but I added the chocolate to the pan of milk. I think that you add the milk to the chocolate so it doesn't risk scorching, but I was standing by with the whisk so nothing was getting scorched. At this point I thought "2% my ass" and added some cream. I mean, cmon. If you're going to go this far how can you not go further? Then I whisked it some more. Then I added the Baileys. About a quarter cup or so. Again, why mess around? A little whipped cream and there it is. The best hot chocolate I've ever had. It was like drinking a mug of dark chocolate. Just a little sweet and as rich as you can handle. My girlfriend didn't care for it, way too dark for her. She only likes milk chocolate. But my dad would have loved it. Well, without the Baileys. He doesn't get down like that. I strongly encourage you all to make some, changed to your tastes. It's just the best.

Frappes

So this isn't really a recipe. Mostly because, well, I didn't measure anything. But I can give you a pretty good idea of how to make a good frappe. For those of you not from New England, a frappe is like a really thick milkshake made with ice cream. You take a bunch of ice cream, a little milk, sometimes flavorings and blend it. Then you drink it. It's wicked good. I made some tonight and snapped a few pictures, so I figured I would share. Here is what I did. I started with a pint of ice cream, and just so you know you don't want slow churned or light or any of that stuff. They have too much air in them so they don't really work out well. I like Haagen Dazs. It also has the highest fat content of pretty much any ice cream. That's why it's so good. Heh. You can make it with any flavor you like, but I am using vanilla. You want to let it soften a bit, but not too much. It makes it easier to blend. Now all you really need is ice cream and a little milk. How much milk? Just enough to make it drinkable instead of soft-serve consistency. I added maybe a quarter cup this time around. I'm also adding some chocolate syrup. Again, I didn't measure it. It's kinda hard to have too much chocolate. I am also adding some strawberries, maybe a cup or so. I cut off the stems and leaves and cut them into big pieces to make blending them quicker. Toss it all in the blender and let 'er rip. Once it's smoothish it's done. Don't blend it too long or the ice cream will just melt. Pour it into your wicked cool Indiana Jones pint glass or whatever you happen to have and enjoy.