A Valentines Dinner would not be complete without dessert and for me, this dessert should be something chocolate. Call it traditional. Call it mushy. I don’t care. I have to have chocolate on Valentines Day! So here is my pick from Rachel Ray’s ideas for the day of love – Chocolate Fondue:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
Two 12-ounce bags semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Dried apricots, for dipping
Gala apples, cored and sliced, for dipping
Pretzel rods, for dipping
Marshmallows, for dipping

Directions:
1. In a medium saucepan, combine the cocoa powder with 1/2 cup water and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Stir in the milk and sugar and bring to a simmer. Add the chocolate chips and vanilla and cook, stirring, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth, about 5 minutes.
2. Serve the fondue warm with the apricots, apples, pretzel rods and marshmallows for dipping.

There’s nothing like good old chocolate fondue to top off a romantic evening. Imagine having a very satisfying meal together. How much more romantic can you get than this – a cozy conversation while dipping fruits and marshmallows into a sumptuous chocolate fondue? You can’t get any better than that, really. The rest of the evening is up to you. Happy Valentines everyone!

Note: If you do not like the fruits mentioned above, you can always find some other fruits that you prefer. Try bananas or strawberries.

Are you up for some seafood this Christmas? Well here is something for you to try, straight out of British celebrity chef Delia Smith. She is a legend in her own right and this dish is quite simple but has enough kick to make you a star on Christmas Day. Recipe courtesy of The Telegraph.

Ingredients:
• 1 pack of six savoury pastry cases (M&S)
• 2 x 100g packs hand-picked white Cornish crab (Seafood & Eat It, Waitrose)
• 1 x 110g pack hand-picked brown Cornish crab (Seafood & Eat It, Waitrose)
• 3 level tbsp half-fat crème fraîche
• 1½ tbsp dry sherry
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• a pinch of ground mace
• a good grating of nutmeg
• 40g grated Parmesan
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• salt to garnish
• 2 cartons of mustard and cress, or salad cress

Procedure:
You will need a small baking tray. Pre-heat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6.

All you do here is put the tart cases on to the baking tray, then place the white and brown crabmeats, the crème fraîche, sherry, lemon juice, mace, nutmeg and a little salt in a medium-size bowl. Mix it all together with a large fork, and taste to check the seasoning.

Now divide the crab mixture evenly among the pastry cases and even it out using the back of a spoon. Sprinkle the Parmesan all over the crab and finish off with a dusting of cayenne.

Bake the tarts for 25 minutes until puffed and golden, and serve them from the oven with a mustard and cress garnish.

With Thanksgiving barely over and leftovers still smouldering in the fridge, theres no better time to start thinking and planning for the next big day ahead – Christmas!!

Ok, call me a bit of a sadist, but unlike Thanksgiving which really only involves a singular meal (maybe you were even lucky this year and played guest and not chef) , Christmas is so much more, especially so if you have a family with little children.

You know what I’m talking about – stockings, tree, decorations, outfits, parties, pantomimes and presents – to a list which seems to get longer every year! So yes, early preparations for this particular holiday does make good sense.

And since this blog is about chefs and therefore food, I’ll be posting about some of my favourite celeb chefs’ Christmas menus. Depending on your mood, gathering and needs this year, you can decide early on what tickles your fancy most. After all, Christmas is the season for celebration, joy, and splashing out indulgently – as Nigella so rightly reminds us in her Christmas Menu below.

“I think the mistake people make most when entertaining is to get too fancy with the food. No one is ever too sophisticated for the basic pleasures of home cooking, and there is something about those old favorites that makes everyone feel a little leap of joy in the heart………The whole point of a feast is that it is unnecessarily abundant”
Nigella Lawson

Crab Cocktail
Seasonal Breeze
Perfect Roast Potatoes
Petits Pois � la Fran�aise
Green Bean and Lemon Casserole
Standing Rib Roast
Chestnut Cheesecake

For recipes, start HERE.

Technorati Tags: Christmas, Holidays, Christmas dinner, Nigella Lawson

Children love christmas time. Maybe it’s because of the joy in the air or maybe it’s because of the gift giving. They definitely enjoy the decorating that is done for this holiday.

The gingerbread house is a fun christmas tradition. It allows you and your kids to work together to be creative. It also makes a great item for your christmas decorating. You might want to buy extra bits of the ingredients as some might get nibbled before you finish making your gingerbread house.

The gingerbread house starts with the form. Most use a cardboard house as a base. You can usually buy these in stores if you don’t want to make your own or try creating your own template, it is really easy. Of course you can always print out guides from online.
For the rest of the gingerbread house, try this recipe from Chef Bobby Flay. He introduced this recipe on his show, Food Nation.

Ingredients:

• 5 1/2 cups flour
  
• 1 tablespoon ginger
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1 cup solid vegetable shortening
  
• 1 cup granulated sugar
  
• 1 1/4 cups dark molasses
  
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  
• Frosting, either store-bought or homemade
  
• Brightly colored candies such as gumdrops, licorice, peppermint sticks, etc.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix 5 cups of flour, the ginger and baking soda in a large bowl. Set aside.

Cream shortening and sugar in large bowl with mixer. Add molasses and lightly beaten eggs. Blend well. Gradually add dry ingredients. Knead in remaining flour, if necessary. Chill dough 1 hour for best rolling results.

Lightly grease cookie sheets. Roll out dough to 1/8-inch thick directly onto cookie sheets. Cut patterns, removing excess dough. Chill 10 minutes before baking. Bake for 5 to 8 minutes.

Let cookies cool.

Next, to assemble house, you will want to make a simple cardboard house to use as your base to help hold the house together. Begin applying cookies to the cardboard using your frosting as glue. Once cookies cover the entire house you can decorate with colorful candies such as gumdrops, peppermint sticks and licorice.

Technorati Tags: Christmas, recipe, Bobby Flay, gingerbread house, decorating

Chef Jody Adams personifies the ease of being a great chef through the use of available resources found in your kitchen today. Being a good cook is a given with practice, but with more practice and a touch of imagination at that, good chefs are sure to arise. This has been one of the beliefs that have catapulted Chef Jody towards mastering the art of cooking.

Cooking in the eyes of Chef Jody would simply be like following instincts rather than the usual traditional cooking practices that people see on television or from reading the available cookbooks in stores today. It all boils down to following a cooking style which would carve out your name in the genre of food that a person would want to cook up.

This is the secret that Jody Adams shares as her ultimate success in cooking. With a wide array of recipes that includes starter meals, seasonal prepared meals and Italian tradition meals such as pasta until deserts, Chef Jody has a long list of recipes all based on her instincts and what she can do around the kitchen. People can do this as well if they know how to go around the kitchen of their homes as well.

Technorati Tags: chefs, jody adams, italian, deserts, seasonal

Here’s the perfect gift or home decor for a celebrity chef fan — cartoons inspired by celebrity chefs. These prints would look really cute framed and hung in the kitchen or dining area.

Get great tips on making the perfect drink from master bartender Eben Freeman. Great for your fourth of July party.

A perfect gift for anyone who loves cooking shows and celebrity chefs. No, not kitchen knives or another “Kiss the Cook” apron — but Celebrity Chef the Game. It’s been described as “a combination of Cranium and Bravo’s Top Chef.”

This trivia-based board game lets you test your trivia knowhow and navigate the tricky ladder up to stardom: endorsements, awards, TV deals, and the occassional mad critic. It’s fun and educational. Sample question:

Q:Which of these is a possible designation for wine?

A) Dolphin safe
B) Rabbit safe
C) Salmon safe

Celebrity chef Cat Cora, known for her online cooking show “Chef to the Rescue” and being the first female Iron Chef, gives a great solution for leftover turkey: put it in soup. Soup mixes add moisture to turkey that usually gets dry and petrified when placed in the fridge. Here’s one of her favorite recipes

Ingredients

4 slices Oscar Mayer Bacon
3 cups sliced leeks, white and tender green parts (alternatives are scallions or green onions)
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 pounds boiling potatoes, peeled and quartered
Salt and white pepper
1 1/2 cups cooked turkey meat, chopped
1/2 cup Breakstone’s or Knudsen Sour Cream
1/3 cup chopped fresh chives or flat-leaf parsley
Triscuit Rosemary & Olive Oil Crackers, for serving

Heat a soup pot over medium flame. Toss in bacon and cook till crisp. Remove (drain the oil on a towel) and then add leeks and garlic to the bacon drippings left in the pot. Cook, stirring often, for three minutes. Pour in the chicken broth and add potatoes. Cover the pot, allowing it to simmer till the vegetables are tender (usually takes half an hour). Remove from the heat.

Puree the soup (with a hand blender or food processer). Return the soup to the heat and fold in the turkey meat. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Serve in soup bowls topped with a dollop of sour cream, crumbled bacon and sprinkling of fresh chives or parsley. Serve immediately with crackers.

Many adults don’t want their kids in the kitchen. They are afraid that the kids will get hurt. They might burn themselves or cut themselves while working on a dish. Parents have a 101 fears about what could happen to their kids and they often see the kitchen as an accident prone area.

What many parents often don’t realize is that kids want to be in the kitchen, helping to make the meals. They love being legally messy – as most dishes can be. They enjoy getting to taste everything first and putting their hands in things. Best of all, they enjoy being with you and experienceing the joy of watching the family relish their cooking.

Get your kid started on making great meals from your kitchen. Make it a family affair. Use recipes from cookbooks like Emeril Lagasse’s “There’s A Chef In My Soup!” There’s A Chef In My Family!” or There’s A Chef In My World!” and you may be amazed at how well your kids do, how delicious the food is and how easy it was to make.