100 Percent Chocolate Bars

Chocolate Television reviews Chocolate Bars made of 100 Percent Chocolate with Jack Epstein, owner of the Chocolate Covered shop.

Blood Orange Mojito

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A good blender is a kitchen “must,” especially when you need to mix a tropical cocktail using fresh fruit. The orange flavor in this drink is an interesting combination of sweet and sour.

Recipe provided by Blendtec, who created the meme, “Will it blend?”

 

Ingredients
1 lime, juiced
2 blood oranges, peeled and halved
3 fl oz rum
2 Tbsp sugar
11 mint leaves
1 Cup sparkling water
1 Cup ice cubes

Add ingredients to FourSide jar in order listed. Secure lid and select “Ice Crush” on your blender.

If you are wondering if there are any health benefits: NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Servings 3.0 Sodium 4 mg Serving Size 8 fl oz Carbohydrates 21 g Calories 155 Fiber 2.5 g Fat 0 g Sugar 8 g Saturated Fat 0 g Protein 1 g Cholesterol 0 mg

 

Strawberry and Blueberry Fruit Crisp

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This is what you do when you have a lot of fruit around and you don’t want it to spoil before you can eat it all.

This particular recipe was inspired by an article on “Fresh Fruit Crisp “by food writer and chef Jodi Liano, but which we of course made our own by changing quite a bit of it for our own needs and tastes:

 

Recipe for Strawberry and Blueberry crisp:

4-7 cups of fruit (whole or cut into pieces)

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2 T flour or cornstarch

3 T of sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cups of flour

1 T of cinnamon

1/3 cup of butter (cold, cut into pieces)

 

1. Put fruit, cornstarch, regular sugar in a bowl and mix together.

2. Put other dry ingredients in another bowl, then add butter pieces and mix together with your hands until the make crumbs (big and small. don’t worry about having butter lumps)

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3. Put bowl of fruit into a casserole dish (or whatever you bake with) and spread around.

4. Spread the crumbs across the top

 

Bake at 375-385 F degrees for about 35-40 minutes. Make sure at least of the crumble topping is a bit browned, but not all of it.

 

 

 

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You can also make a fruit cobbler very quickly as well with even less ingredients, but you have to use something that is not strawberries, since they have a lot of juices in them.

Let’s say you have some blueberries or cherries:

 

Fruit Cobbler

A bunch of fruit (3-7 cups)

1 stick of butter

1 cup of water

1 cup of milk

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of brown sugar

1 cup of flour

1 T baking powder

Dash of salt

2 T of cinnamon and/or nutmug

 

0. Heat oven to 375-385 F. Put stick of butter in casserole or baking pan, and place in oven to melt

1. Put flour, brown sugar, salt, baking power and milk in a bowl and mix into a batter. Add spices.

2. In a saucepan add water and sugar and fruit. Bring to boil and let cook on med-high for about 10 minutes (so it reduces a bit)

3. Take casserole from oven, and pour batter into dish over butter. Do not mix, just spread it evenly.

4. Pour fruit and syrup from saucepan over batter. Do not mix, just spread evenly. DO NOT MIX.

5. Bake for 35-40 minutes until top is  crust is brown (crust will rise up around the fruit)

 

Done… now you too will look like you can cook anything

TASTEABLE California Restaurant Award Winners Announced

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TasteTV is pleased to announce the winners of the:

 

1st Annual Viewers Choice TASTEABLE CALIFORNIA Restaurant Awards.

 

The Restaurant Award Categories are for:

  • BEST CALIFORNIA CUISINE
  • BEST LATIN RESTAURANT
  • BEST PASTRY SHOP
  • BEST SEAFOOD RESTAURANT
  • BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANT
  • BEST PAN-ASIAN/CHINESE RESTAURANT
  • BEST SOUL FOOD RESTAURANT
  • BEST SOUL FOOD RESTAURANT
  • HONORARY: BEST IN SOCAL / VEGAS

The full list of winners can be seen HERE

Congratulations!!!!

Wine Picks at the Fifth Annual Lamb Jam

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Wine was flowing from several excellent vineyards at the 5th Annual Lamb Jam in San Francisco, a national event produced by the American Lamb Board. The event spotlighted a number of local restaurants and their signature lamb-based dishes.

We found not only some old favorites, but also some new ones as well.

Among our picks:

 

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Truett-Hurst White Sheep 2012 Pinot Noir

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Madame Truchard presents Truchard

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Gary Miller of Miller Wine Works pours his Syrah

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Vina Moda 2010 Petite Syrah

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E16 Wine Company

 

 

 

 

Portuguese Sausage Musubi

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We recently discovered an alternative to Hawaiian Musubi at Noelani’s Bar and Lounge in San Carlos, California (near Palo Alto). It is their version that uses Portuguese Sausage instead of the traditional Spam.

As anyone who has been to Hawaii knows, Spam is one of the state’s most favorite “meat” ingredients, and it is key to a good Hawaiian musubi. Musubi itself is defined in Wikipedia as “Spam musubi is a popular snack and lunch food in Hawaii composed of a slice of grilled Spam on top of a block of rice, wrapped together with nori dried seaweed in the tradition of Japanese omusubi“.

Regardless of the Spam, the snack is quite good and filling, and we can see why it is addictive.