Ohio Buckeyes

A Ted’s hot dog with a side of cheese. A stack of pancakes with a pile of crunchy hash browns. A Hershey bar and a jar of peanut butter. These are a few of my favorite things. What? You’ve never sat down with a chocolate bar and a jar of peanut butter? You should definitely give it a go. Chocolate and peanut butter is one of those quintessential combinations that so many people love. Well, most Americans. Seems like non-Americans can live their lives quite happily without a jar of peanut butter in the house.

I am a huge fan of the peanut butter and chocolate combo, so I’m not sure why it’s taken me this long to make this candy. If you are from Ohio, you know these candies as Buckeyes. They look just like the nut of the Ohio buckeye tree, just like horse chestnuts! (Seriously, have a look, it’s uncanny!) My roommate in grad school made something very similar to these and I loved them. In fact, I would sneak a few from the fridge when she wasn’t looking. They were so good! Why did I never make them myself?

So far in Candy Challenge 2011, I haven’t made something so simple and so delicious. The whole recipe took less than an hour (including chilling time) from start to finish. There is no boiling sugar, for once, there is no need for a candy thermometer and you don’t even need any fancy equipment. So get out your bowl, spoon and baking sheet.

Creamsicle Fudge

WARNING!!! This has been described to me as “The best thing you’ve ever made.” It was also described to me as “Disgusting, I think I’m going to lose my lunch.” These might sound like contrasting opinions, but they are in fact telling me the same thing. This fudge is downright amazing.

Perhaps some explaining is in order. The first compliment came from my candy-loving boss. If there is any candy or chocolate in the building he will find it, and eat it. Which is fine, until I want an Oreo… and they’re all gone. He is always telling me I should go into business as a candy-maker. I don’t know how I should take that, since he’s my chemistry boss…

The second of the two comments came from my coworker. Last year, we were a small group of chemists, but by mid-year we had ballooned to a much larger bunch. Competition for the sweets and snacks that I brought in became more and more cutthroat. The compliments turned from praising to degrading, especially when others were within earshot. A little reverse psychology warfare was being played and it continues today.

Asparagus and Tortellini Salad

Can you believe that I have been the proud owner of a pasta maker for five whole months and it's only now that I've actually used it?  I kept looking at it, thinking of all of the delicious pastas that I wanted to try out, yet there it sat.  It was just crying out to be used and I ignored it.

This year has been one of the busiest times of my life.  I've hardly had time to do my laundry, nonetheless hand make pasta.  With trying to complete two projects at work, visiting boyfriend every other weekend in NJ and searching for a job, almost every minute has been spoken for.  Buying storebought pasta just seemed like the easy thing to do.

Last week I decided to ignore the calls of the pasta maker no more!  I was going to make one of my favorite pasta dinners and I would make the tortellini!  With a DVR full of shows from the past two weeks, I set out on the journey of making my tortellinis.  It was fun!  It was easy!  It was not a short process.  First I made the pasta dough (same one I used in this recipe), then I stirred together the filling, then it was time to roll.

I secured the pasta maker to the countertop.  It's a heavy little guy, but you still need to clamp it to your countertop in order to roll out the dough.  So I rolled and rolled the dough, slowly closing the wheels to get a thinner and thinner dough.

I stamped out litle circles using my trusty 2-inch biscuit cutter.

I added a 1/2 tsp of filling to the circle...

Folded it over and went pinch pinch pinch to close...

Then pinched them in the center.  Not exactly what a tortellini is supposed to look like, but I thought they looked cute this way.  Then I set them on a baking sheet and into the fridge they went.  Overnight they sat and dried out.

The next day I had adorable little tortellinis. 

See, aren't they cute! 

Then I boiled them up with some asparagus and yellow peppers, tossed them in dressing and I had dinner!  Phew, quite the process, but totally worth it.  I'm looking forward to trying out other filling recipes, fresh pasta is just the best.