If you have a yen for marshmallows and want to make some for yourself, here's an easy recipe. It doesn't involve anything much more complicated than boiling liquid. The only thing I can add to the recommendations is to make sure to LIBERALLY coat the baking dish with powdered sugar. This is some seriously sticky stuff. I made some last week and covered a few in dark chocolate. I also threw bite sized pieces in hot cocoa made with real milk and Hershey's syrup. I honestly don't think I can go back to store bought.

I saw a link to this article Trial by Fryer - Food - Hombre - FHM Online - FHMonline.com on SuperSized Meals and now I want to try this:

Chocolate Chip Cookie-Dough

Be sure to use cookie dough that’s safe to eat raw. Tubes are usually fine. Use pasteurized eggs or Egg Beaters if you make your own dough. Deep-fried, it tastes like freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, only ten times better—the best of all our tests.

FAQs About Serving Guinness and Guinness Drinks

Add 8-10 ounces of BOTTLED Guinness to large English pub pint glass (20oz).
Allow a few seconds to settle so there is NO head.
Add several scoops of quality vanilla ice-cream very slowly.
Wait 1 minute, serve with a long ice-cream spoon.
Under no circumstances should the ice-cream be added to the glass first.
The drink is called the "Golden Cream" after the creamy golden colour of the result.

Why have I never tried this?

Somewhere while tripping through the food-blogosphere I ran into Pure Chocolate: Divine Desserts and Sweets from the Creator of Fran's Chocolates. After I apologized to the book for the nasty bump I immediately added it to my wish list, intending to purchase it. As with most things, that never happened, but I was pleasantly surprised when I unwrapped it as a Christmas present from my mother-in-law (Thanks Mom!). I call this a dangerous book because 1) it makes me want to make everything in it and 2) Fran of Fran's Chocolates doesn't skimp on fat, sugar or the titular ingredient. None of the recipes seem particularly difficult, especially if you are a reader of the English language. Every recipe is well explained and several include pictures and diagrams where necessary. The pictures themselves look good enough to eat.

To date, in the two weeks I've had this I've made three deserts, more than I've made in as many months. A few of the recipes require "special" kitchen implements, like a quarter sheet pan or a tart pan. All of them recommend high quality ingredients (naturally) and she lists some specifics. In addition there are also sections on how chocolate is made and on a few special techniques, like how to temper chocolate. At no point did she talk over my head, so if you've a sweet tooth, particularly a chocolaty one you should go get this.

I made a chocolate torte (a very dense cake), a semisweet chocolate sorbet that was smoother than Bill Clinton's pick up lines, and a white chocolate/key lime/ginger ice cream. And no I'm not sharing.

So last night I got a wild hair (hare?) and decided to whip up some more recipes. I fixed up a batch of Truffle Brownies, Meringues and Chocolat au chocolat ice cream. I love to cook, it's good for my soul. Not so much my wasitline, but I brought several samples to work today and got quite a bit of positive feedback. The ice cream is all ours though. It's kind of hard to transport.

The truffle brownies turned out great. I used bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate, so the flavor was intense. They were somehow dense and light at the same time. The meringues were MESSY, especially since I didn't have a tip big enough, or didn't chop up the chocolate finely enough, or both. They were interesting to make because once piped out onto the baking sheet (via a ziploc baggie with the corner snipped off) I baked them in a 200 degree oven for an hour, turned the oven off, and left them in overnight. They were crisp and incredibly light. They also weren't overly sweet. I'm really looking forward to the ice cream though. The base is pretty much a hot cocoa flavored custard with semisweet chocolate and Kahlua mixed in.

Next up, truffles!

So the above (slightly blurry) cheesecake came from Chocolata, a chocolate bar (heh) down here in the Woodlands where I've been for a couple of days of training. I'd say it's representative of yesterday's sensory overload. It's a chocolate cheesecake topped with bananas, Nutella, and powdered sugar (and more Nutella). I don't even want to think of how many calories I consumed in just this one desert. This was after having dinner and a couple of beers at 221B Baker Street.

Oooooh, the beers. Okay, if you're a beer snob this may annoy you. If it does, well I guess you'll live. The first was a "Black Castle", half Guinness/half Newcastle. It was good. The topper though and a beautiful thing indeed was the "Snakebite". It was Guinness floated on top of what I'm thinking was Woodchuck Pear Cider. Looooovely No other word for it. These works of beer art/science/mixology accompanied three great little mini-burgers with home made chips.

I needed all of this rib-stickingly good food, beer, and chocolate because I had witnessed something that blew me away. I saw Cloverfield. No, that's not right. I experienced Cloverfield. This isn't a movie you watch, it's a movie that rolls over you, stomps you flat, wrings you out. It's not the greatest film ever made. Truthfully it's a bit gimmicky. Blair Witch did it first (that I know of). Cloverfield, however, did it better. I won't tell you any more than that. Okay that's a bit of a lie. I do need to mention that this is the only movie I've seen in this decade that I can remember that caused me to stomp my feet, wring my hands, anything to bleed some tension out. When it was over I didn't really want to get up, almost couldn't. I was literally shaking. Now let me tell you that this isn't so much because the acting was fantastic (it was good though) or that the story blew me away (we've all seen very similar stories). It was because this movie overloaded my sight, hearing and yes even touch. I was a wreck. So, if you consider this a ringing endorsement, then go see it. If you suffer from motion sickness or don't like loud noises or bright flashes, do NOT see this.

I'll quite likely be seeing this again. Let me know what you think.

Well thanks to our new Cuisinart Ice Cream maker I've been cranking out the frozen treats. And thanks to Kieran Murphy at Ice Cream Ireland for the inspiration that came from his Irish Cream Liqueur Ice Cream.

I followed his recipe almost exactly (gonna make you follow the link for that) except that I split the 2 tbsp. of Bailey's into one of Bailey's and one of Kahlua. It's not much, but it added all the flavor needed and any more would impede the freezing process. Not that drinking this through a straw would be a bad thing. Also I added semi-sweet/white chocolate swirled morsels. A yummy way to end the day? Why yes, yes indeed.

Next time I might find a way to add a ganache swirl instead of the chips.