Handmade Chocolate Truffles {Recipe}

Chocolate is a classic Valentine's gift. It's a special decadent treat that nearly everyone loves. But there are problems with modern chocolate manufacturing: it often exploits the land and native peoples. Also, many big name companies use artifical flavorings and additives.

Treat your love like a king or queen and seek out fair trade, all-natural chocolate from an honest manufacturer. We like Dagoba, Equal Exchange, and Theo brands.

For an extra special gift, consider hand rolling truffles. This recipe is simple to put together and can be customized to a wide variety of tastes by changing the liquid flavoring and outer coating.

Lil and a friend made these truffles for holiday gifts. Their versions more closely resembled truffle mushrooms than a candy store confection, but they tasted fantastically gourmet.  If distractable kindergarteners can make these, you can too.

Hand rolled Chocolate Truffles Makes: approximate 30 Time: 45 minutes

12 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate 6 ounces milk chocolate 1/2 cup heavy cream Assorted toppings: powdered sugar, cocoa powder, chopped nuts, coconut, chopped candy

1. Chop chocolate finely. Transfer to a microwave-proof bowl. 2. Heat heavy cream to simmering. Pour over chocolate. Stir to mix well and melt. 3. If needed, heat chocolate for thirty seconds in the microwave. Stir well. If chocolate is still not fully melted, continue heating and stirring. 4. Chill mixture in refrigerator for approximately 15 minutes or until it is cool enough to handle. 5. Shape tablespoon-sized portions into balls. Roll in toppings until covered. Place on a sheet tray or in paper liners. 6. Chill in the refrigerator until serving.

Added to Hearth and Soul blog hop 2/7.

Announcing the Tayse Family Cookbook!

Do you remember the secret project I hinted at this fall? It's finally time to introduce you to the Tayse Family Cookbook!

Over a year in the making, the Tayse Family Cookbook contains seasonal recipes, stories, and photographs to support dining with those you love. The Tayse Family Cookbook is optimized for tablet and e-reader reading. All recipes are original, tested, and timed.

Download the .pdf ebook for $4.99 right here on Hounds in the Kitchen.

[wp_eStore:product_id:1:end]

[wp_eStore_cart_when_not_empty]

Why The Tayse Family Cookbook?

In the fall of 2010, I tried to think of the perfect Christmas gift for my extended family and happened upon the idea of a cookbook. I started taking photographs and writing up family recipes but quickly realized that I couldn't make all our family classics in the time before the holidays.

I decided to take stealth photos of all our favorite foods for the entire next year. I photographed Dad's Christmas potica, our rhymes-with-ham Easter dinner, Mom's pies, not-tomato salsa, and more.

Then I tested and typed recipes. I added header notes, stories, and an introduction. I enlisted my friend Susan McGowan to edit the work.

I attempted to print the book but wasn't satisfied with the print quality for a price I was willing to pay. I finally settled on the next best thing to a physical book - an ebook.

My Family Favorites Become Yours

It is my greatest wish that everyone enjoy the love of good food that my family shares. I hope that by sharing Tayse recipes, I can spread a bit of inspiration for your family and friends to grow closer over a meal. Enjoy!

[wp_eStore_buy_now:product_id:1:end]

200Columbus Food & Arts Events {Friday Five}

Our fair city is celebrating its 200th birthday in 2012! Bicentennial events are planned all around Columbus, OH. Below is a curated list of my top five. Thanks to travel plans, we will not be able to attend many festivities but we will celebrate in spirit.

200Columbus Best Bicentennial Events

One of our cities most beloved institutions, the Columbus Metro Library, will host birthday parties at all 21 locations at 3 pm on Saturday February 11. Nosh on some cake in your favorite reading spot.

Columbus 2012 Bicentenial Artists' Informal - Saturday, February 11, 7 – 10 PM – The Columbus Cultural Arts Center, 139 W. Main St. A *free* ball celebrating Columbus' history and future as a home for artists.

Shop North Market Spices with a 20% off coupon during 200Columbus Days February 11 - 15. Franklin Park Conservatory, a favorite photography spot pictured at right, is offering $2 off admission. Other shops and activities are discounted too; download a flyer with all the details at the 200Columbus Days website.

Finalists in the Columbus in Song contest will appear on the 200Columbus website February 14. I can't wait to hear how the talent of this city speaks for our home.

Bicentennial State of the City Address - Wednesday, February 29, 6 pm at The Ohio Theater. Join Michael Coleman for the State of the City Address and The Harmony Project who will close the event with an original song "I Call Columbus Home".

Happy Birthday Columbus!

Travelin' Hounds

Looking for a recipe today? I shared my mother's Tuna Noodle Casserole with the Columbus Dispatch for their article about potato chip toppings.

After a long draught of travel, this spring is shaping up to be a flood of trips. Check out our itinerary:

February 2 - Cleveland - Fresh Street Pop-up

February 10-11 - Cincinnati - Winter BeerFest and 5Bs Conference

February 18-19 - Granville - OEFFA Conference

end of February - San Salvador Island - Vacation with Alex's family

March 9-11 - Indianapolis - Big Ten Basketball Championships with my family

mid March - India - tentative business trip for Alex. Lil and I will stay home but may make a few local trips on our own during part of this time.

early April - Harrisburg PA and surrounds - business trip for Alex with Lil and I coming along

mid June - Big Island, Hawaii - Vacation with my family

late July - France - tentative business trip for Alex. If it happens, Lil, my sister Megan, and I will go along.

It's entirely possible that in the next six months Lil will end up with two new passport stamps and dozens of hotel stays. She will be thrilled.

I am excited too. Seeing the world always gives me new perspectives on life, lots of photo opportunities, and plenty to share with you all.

The beasts will be well taken care of at home thanks to my sisters and neighbors.

I am sure there will be bumps along the way and in all likelihood some trips will be changed or put off to other dates. Rolling with the punches is part of the life lessons included in travel.

Are you looking forward to any trips?

Many links in this post go to my inspiration boards on Pinterest. The thought that I could use pins to track places I want to visit rekindled my participation in this social network. Feel free to follow me there and share your name so I can follow you.

Bincho-tan at Freshstreet Yakitori

Freshstreet Yakitori (previously Section 8 Yakitorium) has received a good bit of press lately. The reviews are universally great but no one has picked up on exactly what makes the Yakitorium so tasty and authentic.

It's the bincho.

Bincho-tan is a special hardwood charcoal produced and imported from Japan. So far as I can find, no one else in Columbus (and possibly the state) is using this cooking fuel.

Bincho-tan is produced from oak by steaming the wood at high temperatures. The resulting charcoal burns at a lower temperature but for longer periods of time than traditional coals. More importantly to cooks, bincho-tan does not smoke.

Yakitori stands prefer bincho-tan, therefore, because it allows the true taste of the meat to come through the flames. The charcoal also powers a grill for many hours, allowing the chef to cook through a meal shift.

Yakitori the Freshstreet Way

Kenny Kim and Misako Ohba first brought Japanese street food to Columbus with their Foodie Cart crepes. They later added takoyaki (pancake-batter like savory balls filled with octopus or corn) and moved into a shack in the Short North. Yakitori is their latest endeavor, served late nights at the Double Happiness bar in the Brewery District.

Kenny and Misako import their bincho-tan from Japan through a Chicago importer. Several other ingredients including ramen noodles are obtained in this way. They invest great cost in importing these authentic goods because they are not satisfied with lesser replacements.

The pair skillfully skewer small bits of meat, some of it local, on wooden spikes so the meat rests evenly across the yakitori grill bricks. Traditional Japanese chicken thigh and skin are offered, as are more adventerous cuts like beef cheek, pork belly, tongue, and tuna. At least one vegetable is always available. Skewers run between $2-4.

Yakitori are grilled over hot bincho-tan to order. Some are served simply with lemon and salt; others are dipped in a soy-based sauce. The resulting meat has the crisp texture of a grilled product without excessive smokiness.

Wise visitors order a variety; I was surprised at how much I loved the unctuous beef cheek and also that I enjoyed okra cooked yakitori-style, as I don't like it in any other preparation.

Other Japanese specialities compliment the yakitori, including an excellent take on okonomiyaki (savory cabbage pancakes) for $4. Diners can eat at the Double Happiness bar or in their comfy lounge. The bar makes notable soju (barley spirit) and sake cocktails, well matched to the Freshstreet food.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the Japanese street food authenticity, Freshstreet Yakitori is widely appealing to many palates. Kids will enjoy meat on a stick as much as adults. There is something for every diet and adventure-level.

If you go:

• Freshstreet Yakitori at Double Happiness is a bit hard to find. It is just over the 70/71 split from downtown at Front and Brewer streets. Look for the slender building on the east side of the street across from Wasserstrom and Via Vecchia.
• Current hours are Thursday - Saturday 6:30 - 11:59 pm.
• Find parking on the street or nearby garages.
• Prepare to wait 5-10 minutes for your food. Every dish is made to order.
• Freshstreet crafts their menu to have options for gluten free, vegan, vegetarian, and low-carb diets. Be sure to specify if you are gluten free, especially, so that there is no contamination on the grill.

Freshstreet Yakitori at Double Happiness 482 S Front St Columbus, OH 43215 (614) 220-5558

http://www.facebook.com/freshstreet www.doublehappinessohio.com

NB. I will be cooking yakitori with the Freshstreet folks in Cleveland at a Brick & Mortar pop-up Japanese Festival this Thursday, February 2, at 6:30 pm. Tickets are still available for the event. Columbus Food Adventures has a few spots left for their road-trip adventure that includes the festival dinner, ride from Columbus and back, and a meet and greet with Chef Jonathon Sawyer.

Planting Edibles in Our New Zone 6

The USDA recently updated their Plant Hardiness Zone maps. The new map reflects that warmer temperatures allow less-hardy plants to survive Ohio winters. Columbus (and most of Ohio) is now in Zone 6a, an upgrade from Zone 5b. Not in Columbus? Check out the interactive map to find your Zone. It must be noted that the Arbor Day Foundation came to the same hardiness zone conclusion in 2006. Both groups say that this is not necessarily a reflection of climate change but better data mapping. I think it must be a combination of climate change, heat island effect, and natural variability.

What does this mean for fruit and vegetable gardeners?

First, some annuals can now be grown as perennials. Many herbs such as rosemary, thyme, and oregano will pop up in the spring and not require re-planting. Greens allowed to go to seed may reseed themselves.

Some fruit trees previously thought to be too difficult to keep through the winter may now be planted outside. Fig trees may grow more successfully with lessor no cool weather care. Peaches, nectarines, and cherries will have a better chance of setting fruit.

The Zone reclassification means that our last-frost date edges towards the beginning of May and the first-frost date more towards the end of October. I have long planted annuals outside starting on May 1. Cold-weather crops like kale, swiss chard, peas, lettuces, and beets, can be seeded as early as April 1.

Essentially, gardeners can move everything up a few weeks and hope to have a slightly extended season in the fall too. Sweet potatoes become a more likely success. It may be possible to fit in more succession plantings of beans.

Personally, this rezoning will not change my garden habits much as I am already accustomed to pushing the planting dates a bit. I may, however, finally plant our very overgrown potted fig tree outside this year.

How will the new Zone affect you?

Last year, she helped found an orphanage

This past weekend, I met a woman who helped create an orphanage in Uganda last year. Seventy two total orphans, those who have no suitable mother or father, now live in a place with clean water. Seventy two beds are filled every night, seventy two bodies go off to school in the morning, and seventy two patients receive care from a nurse whenever they need it.

Much of this is to the credit of a single woman who spent an extra year after her two contracted years of Peace Corp service in Uganda.

What did you do last year?

This news - the thought that someone I've known of for a long time opened an orphanage last year - spun my heart around a bit. Because what did I do last year? A whole lot of nothing in comparison.

My circulating heart hit a nerve that's been raw for awhile. It's the question of whether to live slow and intentionally or make big change.

There is a movement for people to slow down, to take in life and be fully present. I practice this philosophy very often. I cook from scratch every day, finding peace in peeling vegetables, whisking milk into pudding, and washing dish after dish after dish. I can experience beauty in cleaning windows and weeding. I focus on conversations with family and stories with Lil. These daily moments are fulfilling in their way.

But then I feel like I have it in me to do something bigger, to affect change in the huge needy world. I have dreams of starting a homestead school, an unschool resource space, and/or an organic farm. I am a passionate promoter of real, whole, local foods and I want to do something with this enthusiasm.

The rub comes when I try to manage the dreams and the present-ness.

The calendar fills with cooking classes, speaking at conferences, and invitations to do cool things that might make my dreams into reality. Normally slow family dinners are pushed aside so that I can run out the door to this meeting or that event. I become unable to concentrate on a teachable moment with Lil because I am mentally planning something else. Being present slips away.

I know I'm not the only stay at home parent who feels the pull of ideas and family. I've read that retirees and empty nest parents are similarly lost in the world. We have passions and ideas. But is potential success with something down the road worth sacrificing the enjoyment of the everyday?

I don't know. Do you? I need a mentor or an angel investor or a magic way to see in the future.

In the meantime, I will continue to learn about those who are changing the world in big ways. I'll be open to opportunity while trying to enjoy every moment of every day. It's all anyone can do.

Robert Burns All Pudding Dinner

We set out to mark Robert Burns' Day, But made the food in our own way: Haggis for meat, Wouldn't menu be neat, If all puddings were on the buffet.

Several puddings each guest did provide; Mushroom leek and corn first arrived, We made Yorkshire pud, Oh my was that good. Indian carrot completed the sides.

Sup' ended with three fine desserts; Chilled chocolate for the young squirts, J.C.'s plum pud stuck, Our only bad luck. Maple pudding cake stuffed our shirts.

Not healthy but fun nonetheless, And simple to host, I confess. End of affair, All guests did declare, The Burns Pudding Meal a success.