Crescent Rolls Filled With Chocolate

Finally ...

My first entry for my project.

Intercourses. A fun book based on the possibility that some foods are aphrodisiacs. I plan on trying most -- not all -- the recipes in the book and reporting on them. I will not make the oyster recipes. Hubby and I both cringe at the thought of slurping down an oyster on the half-shell. I don't really want to prepare and cook them either. How can something that makes us feel icky and urpy when looking at it make us want to um ... take advantage of the reported "effects" of the food? Also, we're not big drinkers, so I probably won't be making the alcoholic drinks, either. Besides, with our work schedules, the only time we have to drink is during the week, but I have to wake early for work, so I nixed that idea. Making the recipes with the edible flowers is still up in the air.

Anyway -- away we go.

First recipe I made was the Crescent Rolls Filled with Chocolate.

How were they? Scrumptous. Regular refrigerator crescent rolls, 8 blocks of bittersweet chocolate, all rolled up, basted in an egg yolk, milk and sugar wash, and baked for 13 minutes. Cooled for 15 minutes.

Next time, though, I won't let them cool quite so long. I like my rolls warm and gooey. Any aphrodisiac qualities? No. Hubby ate three of these. I ate two. A & J each had half of one. Of course, if there were any desire-ous feelings -- they were completely wiped out after trying to clean up the melted chocolate all over the boys.

First Official Food Entry

Please pardon my dust as I set things up here. I've never put a photo into a blog entry before, so I'm just trying out some things here.

This was the mise (somewhat incomplete, however, you'll notice the lack of rosemary and thyme as well as the chicken broth -- I had just received a new camera for mother's day, and I was anxious to try it out and use the "culinary" photo setting) for the Braised Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic from Fine Cooking Magazine I wish I had a picture of the final result. Here, however is what the chicken looked like before I covered the Dutch Oven and placed it in the oven.

Oh, you should have smelled it when I took it out of the oven to serve. The garlic, rosemary and thyme lent the most perfect aroma to the kitchen. I served it all with mashed potatoes and also toasted up some baguette slices for the slathering of all that roasted garlic.

The leftovers have made mouth-watering sandwichs for lunch. A toasted French roll slathered with roasted garlic and topped with the reheated chicken breast. I also placed some sliced Muenster cheese on top, nuked it to melt (I would have preferred to put back in the toaster oven here at work, but it is agreed that the toaster oven will maintain kosher standards out of respect for H. (so no non-kosher meat inside of it). The sandwich was absolutely delicious; I only wish I had some nice arugula to put on it as well.

I had every intention of making the Crescent Rolls with Chocolate last night. I grabbed the camera, started setting up the mise, and then discovered my hubby used all the eggs and forgot to tell me to buy more. So, I promise -- they will be made this weekend, come hell or high water.

Since this is the holiday weekend, I plan on taking photos of the weekend doings and will get back sometime next week.

Enjoy the holiday everyone!

Seriously . . . Who has time to cook?

Or write, for that matter. I really want to sit here and get this up and running. I had some great photos I wanted to post. But my flash drive is sitting at home on the counter. I post from work - my only real free time. Gotta love my job. As long as I get the work done in my inbox, I have the freedom to do as I wish on the computer. Thanks, H!

I want to cook. But yesterday was my father-in-law's 76th birthday. So, at 12:30 yesterday afternoon, I found out we were goingto his sister's house for dinner - KFC and pizza with a supermarket cake. Don't get me wrong - I love all that, but I really wasn't in the mood for it. I don't really like my in-laws, and the feeling is mutual. We tolerate each other. My children, A & J, love them and I think it's very important for them to spend time with their grandparents while they can.

I was tired, having met everyone there right after work, without a chance to go home and get cleaned up. The City of Cleveland shut off the water to our building yesterday at about5 p.m. so there wasn't even any water to wash my face with or brush my teeth before I left. I was cranky. Blah blah blah. Hubby, even though I asked him to buy Grandpa a present to give him from the boys - you know, "world's greatest grandpa" mug or something - didn't come through for me and only showed up with a card. I felt like I was the one who didn't come through. I didn't have anything to give to the the hostess. It was just a bad situation.

The night before last, Hubby cooked dinner -- what was it? I remember refrigerated dinner rolls -- oh, that's right. A spinach salad with lightly grilled zucchini. Interesting. And because he made (baked) dinner rolls, I could hardly justify making my Crescent Rolls Filled With Bittersweet Chocolate. I love bread, but that's just a little too much. I just wish he would listen to me. I told him I really wanted to make the Crescents. He claims to have forgotten. Again.

So today, I'm not sure what's for dinner. Lunch is leftover roasted chicken from a recipe in the latest issue of Gourmet (I think) called "Roasted Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic". I'm slicing up the meat and reheating it with some of the pan juices and roasted cloves of garlic. Then toasting a roll and smearing the roasted garlic over it, layering the chicken on it and then melting Muenster Cheese over all. Should be interesting.

I know this entry is pretty lame. Hey - I know. You didn't come here to hear me bitch and moan. I will get to the nitty gritty as promised -- soon.