Crab Fest 2009 Recap and BSI – Nutmeg!

We had such a fun time with our neighbors last night!  We had a couple errands to run yesterday morning, and since we I didn’t get up until 9:45, we decided to hit up Mama Rini’s for breakfast.  We both had corned beef hash on our mind!  It never fails – crispy crunch on the outside, nice and tender on the inside.

Okay, Tony made me take a picture of this sign:

A few weeks ago, we were walking into 7-11 and I saw this sign and said “Ha, this guys last name is “francheezie!”   Tony thought I was kidding, but when I didn’t laugh, both he and Hannah started laughing hysterically!  Turns out Alka Atel is the franchisee!   I am never going to live that one down! 😀

Does anyone watch Chef Academy on Bravo?   In the second episode, he showed them how to make a Chocolate Pot.  It looked so simple, and everyone loved it so I decided to make it for our neighbors last night.  His directions were kind of hard to follow, but it came out PERFECT!

Chocolate Pot

• 6 ounces 70% dark chocolate. broken in pieces
• 3.4 fl. oz full fat milk
• 6.8 fl. oz. of heavy cream (he called for double cream, so I am assuming he meant heavy cream)
• 1 oz. honey
• 2 oz. cocoa powder (he called for organic, I used Hershey’s

Warm milk and cream just enough to melt chocolate.  Once the chocolate is melted, add cocoa powder – mix well.  Add honey and whiskey.  Pour into small cups and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

Caramel Sauce

• 1 cup of sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Put sugar in a heavy pan and put heat on medium.  Once the sugar is melted (takes about 15 minutes) add butter.  Remove from heat, let butter melt and finish with heavy cream.  This will keep in refrigerator for up to a month – just microwave before using.

Vanilla Whip Cream

• 12 ounces heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

They key to great whip cream is to put your mixing bowl in the refrigerator.   I put my bowl in the same time I put my chocolate pots, so it was nice and cold.  Whip until fluffy – it only takes a few minutes – too much and it will start to separate.

To assemble:  pour about 2 tablespoons of caramel on top of the chilled chocolate and finish with the whip cream.

Um, this was SO INSULIN WORTHY!   It had the perfect balance, and we all agreed you had to scoop from the bottom and make sure every bite has each layer.  My neighbors said it was restaurant quality and Tony loved the fact that it wasn’t overly sweet.  This is a keeper!

While the crab was baking, we munched on cheese, guacamole and salsa:

And then the star of the evening!

Special thanks to Hannah for watching the neighbors kids so we could have an Adult Crab Fest! 

Now on to BSI!  Julie is this weeks BSI hostess, and she chose nutmeg!   I decided to kill two birds with one stone and make a Chai Tea Mix to put in my brother and sisters gift box.

Biz’s Chai Tea Mix

• 1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
• 1 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
• 1 cup French vanilla powdered non-dairy creamer
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant tea
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons NETMEG
• 1/4 tsp. white pepper

Mix everything together.  Put in jelly jar with instructions to use two heaping tablespoons of mix with hot water.

Things on my To Do List:

• still need to do my Christmas cards!
• make homemade spicy caramel corn for gift boxes
• make hot pepper jelly
• NAP! 😀

See you tomorrow – enjoy your Sunday!