cook

Dude Food: Chocolate Delight

Posted on February 7, 2010 at 12:01 am

by Richard

You’re really going to love this one, especially with Valentine’s Day coming up in a week. (Hint. Hint. HINT!) We all know the most clichéd gift for Valentine’s Day is chocolate and we still go out and buy it every year.

This year, however, why not do something a little different? Why not make your own chocolate confection creation? Oh, yeah. And it’s really quite easy.

When I first found this recipe, it was called Chocolate Balls and that’s what I called it when I made it. Well, I called it that once. Only once. At that point, the little dudes started laughing and laughing and laughing. “Chocolate. . . BALLS!” Apparently, the little dudes thought it was funny as all get out. I’ll leave it to you to decided whether it was juvenile garbage or the height of humor. Anyway, they’re now called Chocolate Delight. By me, at least. The little dudes still chortle Chocolate Balls.

So.

The great thing about this recipe is just how easy it is to make. Yeah, it does take a while, but it’s not hard at all. Even if you’re a novice cook, you’ll be able to do this quickly. Here’s what you need.

1 pkg Oreo cookies
1 8-oz package cream cheese (softened. Do this by letting it stand outside in the room for a couple of hours)
2 pkgs of semi-sweet baker’s chocolate. You’ll find this in the baking aisle. Normally it’ll be in the red package.

That’s it. Once you’ve got all the ingredients assembled, go get out a large food processor. Break up the Oreos into the food processor and grind them to a fine powder, or as close as you can get. Once that’s done, spoon the cream cheese into the cookie crumbles. Mix them all up until you’ve got a bit of a gooey mess inside the food processor.

Get out a large plate and cover it with wax paper. Using your fingers, take the Oreo mixture out of the food processor and mold it into little, um, balls. Put the balls of chocolate on the wax paper and then put the plate in the fridge for an hour or so. Just before your hour is up, get a large microwave-safe bowl and dump the baker’s chocolate into it. Microwave until melted. Get out a pair of tongs.

Use the tongs to dip the Oreo mix into the melted baker’s chocolate. Put the resultant mess back onto the wax paper. When all the chocolate is used and all the Oreo mix is covered, put them back in the fridge for several hours or, for best results, overnight.

Once you get those out of the fridge, stand back. You’ll be overwhelmed by folks wanting to eat them all up. Just be careful to keep them in the fridge until they’re eaten (as well as what’s left after the first attack) as the baker’s chocolate does best in cold temps.

Share on Facebook Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Freaky Friday: Chocolate’s Health Benefits

Posted on February 5, 2010 at 12:01 am

by Richard

‘Tis the season to start gulping down chocolates like they had been out of style for 63 years and you were trying to spark a revival, but no one was interested so you were downing chocolates by the handfull every second you were out of the house. Well, either that or it’s Valentine’s Day and chocolate is the traditional gift of the holiday.

I bring good news to those who don’t keep up with the science. Turns out that chocolate might actually be good for you.

Great news. Well, for the wives at least. I mean, sure, I like chocolate, but it’s not something I’ll go out of my way to buy or even ask for. If I really wanted something sweet to celebrate a holiday, I’d just as soon order a cookie bouquet. Still, let’s hear it for flavonoids. Yeah, I know. It sounds like the invading aliens from some horrible 1950’s SF epic. But, no. They’re actually naturally-occurring compounds found in plant-based foods recognized as exuding certain health benefits. And they’re what makes chocolate good-ish for you.

Flavonoids provide important protective benefits to plants, such as in repairing damage and shielding from environmental toxins. When we consume plant-based foods rich in flavonoids, it appears that we also benefit from this “antioxidant” power.Antioxidants are believed to help the body’s cells resist damage caused by free radicals, formed by normal bodily processes such as breathing or environmental contaminants like cigarette smoke. When the body lacks adequate levels of antioxidants, free radical damage ensues, leading to increases in LDL-cholesterol oxidation and plaque formation on arterial walls.

Well, in dark chocolate at least. That’s the — you should pardon the expression — skinny so far as we know it. Dark chocolate, having more flavonoids, is better at promoting good health. Not only is it good for reducing damage caused by free radicals, it also has other supposed benefits:

  • Lower Blood Pressure: Studies have shown that consuming a small bar of dark chocolate everyday can reduce blood pressure in individuals with high blood pressure.
  • Lower Cholesterol: Dark chocolate has also been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) by up to 10 percent.

All in all, not bad.

But what about all the fat? you ask. Well, it’s actually not that bad. See, the fat in dark chocolate is made up of three different kinds of fat and, it turns out, only 1/3 of the fat is the bad, saturated, kind of fat that hurts your arteries and heart.

So, let’s hear it for chocolate. In moderation of course. Like that ever works.

Share on Facebook Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Dude Food: Orzo Salad

Posted on January 31, 2010 at 12:01 am

by Richard

In most of these Dude Food posts I’ll talk about delicious foods that are designed to be scarfed up by dudes and, maybe, enjoyed by wives. This time, though, I’m aiming straight for the wives. Well, at least the stereotype of the wives.

Seriously, though, how many times have you gone out, your wife has ordered a salad and you’ve just sneered and asked for more meat? Yeah. What I figured. Still, this recipe is something I enjoyed, so I thought you might like it as well. And, the fact that you’ll be able to cause your wife to smile in glee. . . Well, that helps.

Here’s what you’ll need.

1 16 ounce box orzo pasta
1 cup dried cranberries
1 small diced red onion
1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper and 1 green pepper diced
1/2 cup pine nuts
4 pieces of celery diced

First, cook the orzo according to directions. For those of you who don’t know, orzo is a kind of pasta about the size and shape of rice. Once you’ve got the orzo cooking and the rest of the ingredients chopped and diced and sliced, you can start on the dressing. Here’s what you’ll need for that.

1/2 cup sugar (I used splenda)
1/2 cup white basalmic vinegar ( I found it at Harris Teeter,
you could probably use just basalmic vinegar but it might affect how it looks..)
1/4 cup of light virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
few sprigs of fresh dill or sprinkle dried dill in the dressing.

Once you’ve got the dressing assembled, drain the orzo. Put the orzo in a large bowl and combine it with all the other solid ingredients. When that’s done, pour the dressing over the orzo mixture. Mix and then chill for about an hour before serving.

Be sure to make a big deal about this when you’re serving. Make it look like it was harder than it really was and you’ll get even more bonus points. Always helpful for when you forget you’re actually married and start slobbing around the house.

Share on Facebook Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Top