Image Map
Showing posts with label cherry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cherry. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Cherry Stripper Cookies

Here we go, the first full work week of the year.  And you know what?  We don't have a holiday for five whole months!  I really think that there needs to be an extra holiday thrown in the calendar around the middle of March.  Looking at our corporate calendar and seeing that the next long weekend isn't until Memorial day makes me think about last year at this time.


I'm not terribly sad about not having a long weekend because I'm still in a very happy place.  Last year at this time I was still a postdoctoral associate, working long, long hours in my lab at Yale.  It was a very stressful time of year because we were right in the midst of job hunting season and I was toiling away, trying to finish my total synthesis.  The four members of my lab would inevitably be at their hoods seven days a week, putting in 70 hours a week, easilly.  According to most professors - Evenings and weekends aren't holidays.  (Holidays generally weren't holidays either, I remember spending a few Easter Sundays in lab)


A lot has changed in 365 days.  These days I get two whole days off, every week!  Those of you who have been working like a normal person for a while might see my glee as strange, but a five day work week makes me so happy!  And do you know what I do with those weekends? 


 Whatever I want!  Go sky diving!  Build a house!  Train seeing eye puppies!  Spend hours at Starbucks thinking deep thoughts!  Make ever more creative yoga poses and name them after my friends!  Paint exact copies of the Mona Lisa!  Write profound statements in library books!


But mostly, I make cookies...



Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Coconut-Cherry Muffins

When boyfriend and I returned from Thailand, we slept a whole bunch.  For some reason we were just fine when we got to Thailand, well almost fine.  As we walked home from dinner the first night (after sixteen hours on a plane keep in mind!), my body started falling asleep.  My feet would all of a sudden go to bed, while I was trying to walk.  There are some good looking pictures of me, falling asleep at the restaurant.  I nearly fell over at least five times on our way back to the hotel.  Someone kept making fun of me and taking pictures of me as I fell asleep.

Coconut flowers and a sprouting coconut

Look, a baby coconut!
After getting a good nights sleep, we were much better.  It was much easier to walk down the street when my legs were trying to take a nap.  The jet lag wasn't too bad and I'm assuming it was because we were so excited about being in Thailand.

Cooking down coconut syrup
 
Nearly finished coconut sugar
  Returning home was a totally different story.  Jet lag hit us both, hard.  We arrived home after travelling from Phuket to Hong Kong to Vancouver to New York City, in a mere twenty-four hours.  We went from eight-five degrees and high humidity to a snow-covered, below-freezing New York, it was not a pleasant return.  When we finally got back to our apartment, things went well for an hour or two.  We emptied out the suitcases, put a load of laundry in the washing machine and showered.  Then we sat on the couch and turned on some HGTV.  That's when it went downhill as we fell asleep for about four hours, oops.

Palm sugar, cooling into their traditional shape

The bees like palm sugar too!

The first morning of being back in our house we woke up at the completely unnatural hour of four o'clock am.  The rest of the week we kept falling asleep at 9:00 and waking up at 5:00.  I was so proud of us when we stayed up until the evening news on Friday night.  Yup, we're party animals.

Getting the meat out of the coconut

The finished product, coconut oil!
There was one exciting thing about coming home, other than sleeping in my own bed again, packages in the office!  While we were gone I had a few packages arrive in the apartment office.  One was a book, one was a present for boyfriend and the third was from Kelapo!  I was contacted by Kelapo just before we went on vacation about trying some of their virgin coconut oil.  After travelling to Thailand I was even more excited about getting this package in the mail because we visited a coconut farm! 
The pictures you see throughout this post were from the coconut farm, where they made everything from coconut oil, coconut (or palm) sugar, coconut milk and items made from the coconut shell.  The farm smelled wonderful and was full of bees.  At least the bees weren't interested in stinging us, they just wanted to eat the palm sugar.  When I returned home and opened up the Kelapo virgin coconut oil I was transported back to the coconut farm.  Thank you Kelapo, for bringing me back to vacation.


Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Chocolate-covered Cherry Fondants


In the washing machine, on top of the stuffed deer head, behind the mint green ball gown. What do all of these places have in common? They sound like a pretty random series of locations, but they have one very important thing in common. The Easter Bunny thought they would make pretty good places to hide my basket of chocolate.

These are the hiding places that I remember best, because it took forever to find my Easter basket those particular years. The Easter bunny is crazy sneaky, even hiding my brothers basket in his room while he slept. It took him hours to find it, even though his whole room smelled of chocolate.




Sneaky sneaky Easter Bunny, always hiding my candy. Well, except the year you hid it in the fridge. That was silly. A girl wakes up in the morning and what’s the first thing she’s going to do? Get a bowl of Lucky Charms! Ta-da! Basket full of candy in the fridge! Who needs cereal, I’ve got candy now! That was a very hyper Easter Sunday.

Now that I no longer live in my parents’ house, the Easter bunny has resorted to using the U.S. postal service. It’s a surprise in a big brown box! It’s just waiting in my mailbox, full of deliciousness and wanting to be opened and eaten. I know there is a Easter box on its way to me soon, but until then I will have to make my own candy.


I know, two candy posts in a row, but it’s Easter time! To me, that means pastel candies and daffodils. These cherry fondants are smooth and creamy. The chocolate coating gives them a great crunch and makes them look extra pretty!


Did the Easter bunny use to stop by your house and hide your basket?  Where was the craziest place the bunny hid your treats?  I love a good, basket in the oven story!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Cherry Turkish Taffy

Is there a candy from your childhood that you miss? Something that reminds you of warm summers riding your bike around the neighborhood? Maybe a sweet that you always bought at the candy store? Perhaps it was a confection that made a trip to the movies worthwhile? I think that we all have that one treat that holds sweet memories and most likely you can’t get that candy anymore. Why do candy companies do that to us? They get us hooked on something delicious then take it away, like dealers. Sucrose dealers.



When I was little, my mom worked nights. She was the banquet manager at a hotel and had to manage the big events that occurred on the weekends. This meant that it was up to dad to entertain my brother and I. One of our favorite Saturday night events was to head to the movies. I remember watching Jurassic Park, Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country and Titanic with my boys. Guess who picked the last movie, ha ha, winner!


Before we would head to the movie theater, we would stop at the local 7-11. We would stock up on cokes and candies, because who wants to pay ridiculous movie theater prices? My candy of choice would inevitably be Tangy Taffy. A big (HUGE) slab of taffy, with a sour bite and an amazing flavor. With your choice of grape, strawberry or cherry, it was hard to go wrong with this treat. It would last for hours and turn your tongue colors. The perfect movie candy.


It’s funny that this was my favorite candy, because my mom also had a childhood love of taffy. Although oddly enough, you can still buy her favorite brand. My mom recalls heading to the theater with a dollar and being able to purchase her ticket and have enough left over for some Bomono Turkish taffy. Bomono taffy was available in strawberry, chocolate, vanilla and banana, just like a banana split!

This recent batch of candy came out more like Bomono than it did like Tangy taffy. I think it needs some citric acid to get that tangy flavor. Next batch!
Related Posts with Thumbnails