In my books, there are two hostess gifts that are always acceptable: wine and chocolate. Where recipients might be less than enthused about homemade wine, homemade chocolates are a different story altogether. Chocolate truffles are a decadent and impressive, yet incredibly simple gift from the kitchen.
I know, I know. This whole month is a whirlwind of activities. There are parties to attend, potlucks to gorge at, concerts and performances and tournaments to applaud. Not to mention tree-trimming, shopping, wrapping, and watching Elf for the twentieth time while guzzling wine and wondering how you're going to find the energy to bake something for the class party tomorrow.
Have you ever had great expectations for a recipe, and then had those expectations dashed dramatically? That happened to me the other day when I set out to make these cookies. I had an image in my head of what they should look like, and the resulting cookie was, visually speaking, dramatically opposite to what I had set out to make. In fact, these cookies - while delectable and fudgy - were possibly the ugliest cookies I had ever made. They were so unappealing in appearance, that I briefly wondered if I should start a "Cookie Wrecks" site.
We are entering the festive season, and you know what that means: parties, parties, parties! It seems like there is something going on every weekend leading up to Christmas: open houses, dinners, and let us not forget the social whirl that comes with children's activities.
I don't know about you, but I hate arriving at a party empty-handed. A bottle of wine is always an acceptable (and loved!) hostess gift, but that can get expensive at this busy time of year. Why not try a homemade gift from your kitchen instead?
When you were a kid, did you read books set in the turn of the twentieth century, and did you desperately long for the olden days, where THE event of the season was the town's Strawberry Social? I sure did. I didn't know what a Strawberry Social was, exactly, but I knew it involved Sunday dresses and strawberries, and frankly, that was good enough for me.
If you've been following my recipes for any length of time, you will know that I am an enormous fan of coconut. All hail the mighty coconut, provider of energy, antioxidants, and dietary fibre! Numerous studies have shown coconut products to have antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties - and that consumption of coconut helps to boost immunity. Perhaps that makes this coconut fudge a health food!
If there's one thing I love to do, it is to create a dessert that features all sorts of nutritional goodness - especially if no one eating it can tell that there are "secret ingredients."
Oh, strawberries! Could there be a more perfect fruit? Sweet, juicy, and so tantalizingly colourful, strawberries are the stars of the berry world, in my opinion. One cup contains 47 calories and 141% of your daily total of Vitamin C, so eating them is exactly akin to boosting your immunity in a very tasty way.
May I take a moment to applaud a certain member of the palm family? If fruit is nature's candy, then the Medjool date is nature's gummy bear, and I mean that in the best possible way. Medjool dates are exceptionally sweet little things, with the vast majority of their nutritive value coming from naturally-occurring glucose and fructose. That means that they can be used to make sweet treats in a natural, no-processed-sugar way.
March is a lovely month, isn't it? Even if it's blizzarding outside - which it is, right this minute - there is still the promise of spring. There's more daylight, the weather starts to become milder, and if you're very lucky there might even be greenery starting to poke out of the thawing ground.
