Foods To Die For

[Guest Slide On The Ice]

You know how when you eat something so incredibly good, that it's "to die for"? I don't know where that expression came from, and I don't believe in dying to achieve a food. Liberty yes, to save a baby from death yes, but not a food item. Yet the expression is still a strong indication of how much you love a certain food or food flavor. There are certain foods, flavors, candies, that are incredible to me. Flavors to die for.

Cheesecake. Holy sweetness, Batman, I love cheesecake.

A Reese’s Nutragious bar

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Reese's holiday peanut butter shapes (Xmas tree, pumpkin, Valentine's heart, Easter egg, ect.)

Entenmann's chewy chocolate chip cookies.

Checkers' (a fast food joint) Double Swiss and Mushroom burgers.

Checkers Big Buford burger.

Pistachio ice cream.

Flanagan's shrimp and linguini with garlic sauce.

Fettucini alfredo.

Salmon caviar.

Carvel vanilla or chocolate soft ice cream with multi-colored sprinkles.

Whitefish salad on a buttered matzah with melted cheese.

Montreal Steak Seasoning, on steak or anything, really.

My mother's stuffed shells.

Circus Peanuts (big and orange, soft, chewy, and so tasty).

Chewy oatmeal cookies.

Chewy Peanut butter cookies.

Bobby Rubino's baby back ribs.

Cashew chicken, from the local Chinese delivery place.

Pina Coladas.

Strawberry daquieris.

Count Chocular and/or Frankenberry cereal.

Golden Grahams cereal.

Brownies.

Grilled tuna fish sandwiches.

Tuna fish with melted cheese on a buttered matzah.

Nabisco SnackWells Devil's Food cake cookies.

I absolutely love cheesecake. I think if I was on death row, I'd make my last meal cheesecake. It's to die for.

My new favorite restaurant is Sweet Tomatoes, with their all you can eat salad bar, soup, and ice cream. They have a chocolate lava cake that is unfucking believably scrumptious. You smell this shit from 10 feet away and you're salivating on the floor. It is a taste of heaven. It makes cheesecake lame in comparison. My last meal would be chocolate lava cake.

Banana nut bread.

Pumpkin pie.

And carrot cake. Wow, carrot cake.

http://cookie.allrecipes.com/az/BananaOatmealCookies.asp

That's all I can think of for now. Am I getting anyone hungry?

[tgibson]

My new favorite dessert recipe...make this when you have folks over...so easy and can be made to present very fancy-like if you want.

(I've seen it all now, people posting recipes on the CJ board...)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_29936,00.html

Chocolate Bundles with Chocolate Ganache

Bundles:

1 sheet puff pastry

2 eggs

1 teaspoon heavy cream

8 chocolate kisses

8 miniature chocolate candy bars

Ganache:

1/2 cup heavy cream

4 ounces milk chocolate, broken into small pieces

Sweetened whipped cream, optional

Fresh strawberries, sliced, for garnish

Mint sprigs, for garnish

Bundles: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Unfold puff pastry and cut the sheet into 2 (4 by 4-inch squares). Beat eggs and cream together to create an egg wash. Brush pastry squares with egg wash. Place 2 chocolate kisses and 1 mini candy bar in the center of each pastry square. Repeat with remaining kisses and mini-bars. Pull corners of the square up around the chocolate, brushing edges with more egg wash, if necessary, to create a secure bundle. Brush exteriors of chocolate bundles with more egg wash. Repeat with remaining bundles.

Place bundles on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until golden brown.

Ganache:

In a sauce pan bring the heavy cream to a boil. Place the chocolate pieces in a bowl and pour hot cream over top. Whisk until smooth.

Puddle ganache onto a plate and place 1 bundle on top. Top with whipped cream and additional ganache, if desired.

Serve bundles garnished with strawberry slices and mint sprigs.

(we had a bunch of fresh berries, whipped cream, chocolate shavings, and chocolate sauce to cover them with...)