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Have we talked about this yet? Is it possible I forgot to post this here? Of course, you’ve probably all seen this over at Instructables, but it’s remiss of me not to mention it here.
Magic Shell! It takes two ingredients and you can make it in five minutes! Plus you can make awesome flavors like chocolate mint, creamsicle, butterscotch, and peanut butter (chocolate optional).
What brings this lovely treat back into my mind is that I made up a fresh batch of the Vegan Dark Chocolate this morning and legged it over to the corner store. I’ve secretly been harboring fantasies of becoming a runaway ice cream shell celebrity with crazy twists like Chipotle Chocolate or Milk Chocolate Bacon topping. So today I took a step. It’s a small step, sure. But if this one batch gets a good review from the lovely people at Le Beau, then I might just consider taking a bigger batch to the SF Underground Farmers Market!
How much would you pay for a jar of designer Magic Shell?
For more details, go here!
It’s a beautiful day in San Francisco – the kind that almost makes you think the fireworks won’t get fogged out this year. We’re off the to the beach for a BBQ, but first I wanted to share a little yummy something with you to get you in the mood. 
It’s called Stained Glass Jell-o, and it’s super easy (if a bit time consuming) to make. Not only is it visually impressive, it’s super delicious too! All you need to do is make up some flavored Jell-o, but with half the amount of recommended water. Once that’s set, cut it up into little cubes, and toss them in a cake pan. Then take some gelatin, mix it with water, add some sweetened condensed milk, and pour it over the cubes! 
Now, you have to let that all set! Cut it up and you’re ready to go. Get all the details here. Enjoy!
When the corner shop had tiny pickle-sized cucumbers for sale in a handy zip-lock carrying bag, I couldn’t help myself! I decided it was time to learn the fine art of pickling. Dill pickles are my favorite, but as Kieran and I sat and discussed all the possibilities, it became clear that we would need to experiment with several varieties.
 Dill Pickles  Sweet Chili Mint  Rosemary and Sage The top batch is the traditional method of making dill pickles. They’ve been heat-sealed and need to sit for 8 weeks before we can try them! Cruel.
To offset this, I made three other batches that only require 24 hrs – a week to reach maximum deliciousness.
Kieran likes spicy. So I started his batch with hot red pepper flakes (mainly because aforementioned corner shop doesn’t seem to carry fresh hot peppers). To give this recipe a Thai twist, I added a bunch of mint and a hint of sugar.
We went out on a limb with the batch on the bottom – rosemary and sage in an apple cider vinegar. It looks pretty anyway.
 Ice Bath First the tiny cukes get a 2-hr ice bath.
 Herbs Then I gathered a bunch of crazy herbs and mixed them up with some garlic and onions.
 Bottled These got stuffed in jars along with the sliced cucumbers, and drenched in various vinegar baths. After 24 hours, we sampled the ones we could. Turns out Kieran’s favorite was the refrigerator dills (not pictured), and mine were the sweet chili mint pickles! Who would have guessed? And the sage and rosemary pickles are quite subtle and elegant. I think they could use another week to fully develop their character, and will turn out to a surprising hit.
What would your favorite pickle be?
Check out these little beauties from Austin Cake Ball.
No amount of scratch ‘n’ sniff or taste-o-vision could do these babies justice. You think they look good? Just wait until you taste one!
These are absolutely out of this world. My FAVE is the new Dark Chocolate Orange with Sao Thomé single origin 70% dark chocolate. Just a sniff and you’ll have to sit down. I hope you’re sitting on a couch, because one bite will lay you out.
And the Red Velvet is more than you ever dared dream red velvet cake could be.
If you’re in the Austin area, be sure to get a custom package made up and delivered to your door, or check out their selection at Whole Foods. Stacey Bridges is definitely on to something here.
If you haven’t tried one of Austin Cake Ball’s tiny treasures, you haven’t experienced everything that cake can be.
p.s. this is not a paid advertisement. trust me, once you try these, you’ll be telling everyone about them too
 don't believe the reviewers. this is not good. Allrecipes.com, you have let me down. Last night’s meal was an abomination. So bad in fact, it was determined inedible, and we had to instead cobble together makeshift tacos from leftover ingredients. A trip to the corner shop was briefly discussed, but it was already after 9pm, and the shop was closed. Pizza would certainly not arrive before 10 at the earliest, and we were hungry.
I suppose I can’t lay all the blame on the folks at allrecipes or even Campbells, who sponsored the recipe in question. In retrospect, this was an avoidable debacle, had I stopped to consider what the ingredients called for might taste like once combined. And I can tell you now, with all authority, chicken in tomato soup tastes like. . . chicken. In tomato soup. Not even that good, actually. And when paired with rice pilaf from a box and frozen Brussels sprouts. . . need I say more?
I figure in the law of averages, this day was bound to come. We manage to cook up some really amazing meals in this San Francisco-sized kitchen of ours, on an almost daily basis. This was our smack-in-the-face wake-up call to stop taking it for granted!
Lessons learned:
- Take some time to consider the flavor profiles of your raw materials in order to get at least a vague idea of what the finished product will taste like. (in my defense, I did try. I was just terribly wrong this time)
- Never again use a corporate-sponsored recipe. Ever. I’m sorry honey, I don’t know what I was thinking.
- No amount of convenience is worth a repeat of last night’s dinner.
Allrecipes.com, you have let me down. Last night’s meal was an abomination. So bad in fact, it was determined inedible, and we had to instead cobble together makeshift tacos from leftover ingredients. A trip to the corner shop was briefly discussed, but it was already after 9pm, and the shop was closed.
I suppose I can’t lay all the blame on the folks at allrecipes or even Campbells, who sponsored the recipe in question. Kieran did (so lovingly) ask me what I expected this combination of ingredients to taste like, and that this should have been an avoidable debacle. In retrospect, I agree. Chicken in tomato soup tastes like. . . chicken. In tomato soup. Not even that good, actually.
I figure in the law of averages, this day was bound to come. We manage to cook up some really amazing meals in this tiny kitchen of ours, on an almost daily basis. This was our smack-in-the-face wake-up call to stop taking it for granted!
Lessons learned:
Take some time to consider the flavor profiles of your raw materials in order to get at least a vague idea of what the finished product will taste like. (in my defense, I was just terribly wrong this time)
Never again use a corporate-sponsored recipe. Ever. I’m sorry honey, I don’t know what I was thinking.
Kick Ass Granola
I love to cook, right? We all know that. What you might not know is that I hate being bothered to find something to eat.
If every meal I had to encounter during a day could be separated into crunchy, soft, sweet, savory and/or salty, and be packaged in a bar, beverage, or biscuit form, I would be a much happier girl.
More than once now, I’ve wished I could eat cookies for breakfast. Especially since I discovered “Digestive Biscuits.” They sound good for you, right? They’re not too sweet or gooey to make you think you’re eating a cookie, but in reality, you are eating a cookie. Which should not become a part of my morning habit.
But then, why not? There’s got to be some awesome way of combining oatmeal and granola and some other yummy things into a compact cookie shape that will fill me with energy and focus, while still giving me the untethered joy of eating cookies for breakfast!
Thus I begin my journey to find the perfect Breakfast Cookie.
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Hi, I'm Sarah. I live in San Francisco and work for instructables.com under the alias scoochmaroo.
I love artichokes. I could eat them every day.
I like to write about the projects that I'm working on and all the cool stuff I find hovering around the interwebs. Oh yeah, and I'm getting married in a year, so you'll probably see a lot of stuff about that too. Cheers!
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