Chocolate Bird's Nests

Chocolate Bird's Nests

1 can shoestring potatoes

14 oz. chocolate

(I used Wilton's Candy Melts - 7 oz mint and 7 oz. dark chocolate)

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Melt chocolate in the microwave.

Combine with shoestring potatoes.

Press into muffin cups and refrigerate overnight.

They can be made ahead - just keep them in the fridge until you serve them.

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To serve: Fill with mint ice cream and decorate with Chocolate Snowflakes

Can Jam January - Citrus

The first Tigress in a Jam - Can Jam!

The theme for this month is citrus.

Pure Gold Marmalade, my own recipe of orange, lemon, passion fruit, mango and peach, is my first choice for citrus, but I still have quite a few jars of it in my pantry and I couldn't find any frozen passion fruit, so I made something new.

I combined Minneola oranges, clementines, peaches, mango puree and guava puree.


The Minneola orange is a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit.

Deep red-orange and sometimes called the minneola tangelo, sometimes misspelled mineola, is easily recognized by its characteristic slightly elongated "neck" on one end.

At its peak of maturity, its pebbly peel turns to a very attractive bright reddish-orange color.

This tasty fruit is easy to peel, has a high juice content.

The ingredients above.

I like to buy fruits like mango, guava and passion fruit as frozen puree.

Because (a) it's easier - I hate peeling mangos (b) I feel like it might be fresher - the difference between tomatoes frozen at their peak in summer and fresh shipped tomatoes in the middle of winter might hold true with mangos too. (c) I can't buy local exotic fruits and it's cheaper to ship flat packages of frozen fruit than fresh fruit.

Just my opinion.

Above: The clementines in the food processor.



Some of the fruit before cooking.

I also added one bottle of ginger beer, 3 Tbs ground ginger and 1/3 cup bottled lemon juice.

Plus one pound of white sugar.



Jars bubbling away.



Removing jars from canner.




Finished orange/citrus ginger sauce.



Mmmmm, yummy!
Good for sauces or salads.
Or just on bread.
I think it is a little too runny to call marmalade, so I'm calling it Citrus Sauce.




Tilapia with citrus sauce.

Citrus sauce tilapia on a bed of shredded cabbage slaw.

The orange and ginger really taste amazing together.

I had a lot of fun with this Can Jam!

I know that on my own I never would have canned anything in January.

Now I have a nice gift to add to the gift baskets I'm making for the dinner party on Saturday.

I think I might include a card with recipe ideas for this Citrus Sauce.

DC's Challenge - Thai Tofu Satay

The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.

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Obviously, I wasn't going to make this with piggy.

So, I used tofu.

(On a side note - this Jan. 2010 marks the 10th anniversary of my vegetarianism)

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I love Thai food - love, love and I've eaten a lot of it. On the west coast, on the east coast....in my house in the middle of nowhere.

I did not enjoy this recipe and the Ladies ate it.

(Anyone seeing a pattern with my Daring Baking/Cooking stuff being eaten by the Ladies???)

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I like tofu, but I have specific ways of preparing it.

Not coating it in onion and garlic. Uncooked onion and garlic!

I drank pots of mint tea to get the taste out of my mouth!

I pressed the tofu.

Then added the "flavoring" mixture.


And let in marinate overnight.

Then I baked it in the oven.

The tofu was still white inside! Yuck.

And it didn't have any flavor, besides onion/garlic.

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In my opinion: The mix needed much more liquid. Tofu is like a sponge and it will soak up whatever flavor you put it in. Much, much less onion and garlic. And cook the onion - caramelize it, before putting it with the tofu. Add more soy sauce, some rice vinegar, rice wine, a little chile pepper, ginger, ground pepper, maybe some smoked salt.

And cook it in a dish with the sauce, don't bother with the skewers.

Sunday Dinner At Grandma's

I had dinner at my Grandma's house on Sunday.

My whole family went to visit Grandma - all 3 of us!

My Mom brought the dinner, so Grandma wouldn't have to cook.

And so she could eat something different.

It's always nice to eat someone else's cooking occasionally.

Above is the yummy salad with avocados, peppers, feta and tons of yummy veggies.

So nice to eat something fresh in the winter!

We also had lasagna.



And this yummy Butterscotch Pumpkin pie that my Grandma made.



There's my Grandma with a slice of pie.

And my Dad eating the pie.

I Feel Tiny

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately.....a LOT of blogs.
It's a little overwhelming. There are so many of us!
But I really like reading every one's blog - meeting new people.
But wow! there are so many to read.
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Do you feel tiny sometimes too?

Frosty Window Panes

These are pictures of the frosty windows in the chicken coop.

I think they are amazing.

And beautiful.


I get to look at them every time I visit the Ladies.

This one looks like a flower.

What do you think they look like?

Brrr! Chilly Chicks

I took a few pictures of the Girls on Tuesday.

"Can I get a little privacy?"

I love this picture for some reason. The purple chick on the right and the hawky on the left.

Fluffy!

Zela checking out the cold snow.

Brrrrr!

"No thanks! It's too cold!"

Look at those fluffed up feathers!

One of the red girls chasing Ray the cat.

Zoom!

Watch out below!

"I'm outta here! Too many chicks for one man(ly cat)!"

Such a pretty girl.