Chocolate Fondue the Lazy Way

Feeling rushed this week? Broke? Out of ideas for something special you might want to do for the Valentine's Day holiday?

Consider the Lazy Cook's Chocolate Fondue, a recipe that's easy, cheap, fun to do, a little out of the ordinary and supremely decadent — all at the same time.



The nice thing about this recipe (other than the fact that it's dead simple, cheap and reliably tasty) is that it's so very flexible.

If the berries look ugly (February isn't exactly their best month), get dried fruit instead.

Don't like marshmallows? No problem: skip 'em.

Need a Valentine's Day treat for the whole family? Double the recipe. Kids love to dip things... especially in chocolate.

Prefer dark to milk? Go crazy.

Whatever your preferences, this is the chocolate treat for you and your valentine, because you can customize it perfectly to suit the occasion and the participants involved.

Chocolate Fondue the Lazy Way (Serves 2-4)

For the sauce
1/2 cup heavy cream
8oz (1/2 lb) chocolate chips, pastilles or small chunks (milk, dark or white)

For dipping (Choose one or more)
Fresh strawberries, raspberries or blackberries
Bananas, cut into 1" chunks
Pound cake, cut into 1" cubes
Dried fruit (apricots, figs, dried cherries, banana chips and pineapple work well)
Jumbo marshmallows
Graham crackers or shortbread cookies
Walnut or pecan halves
Fresh coconut, cut into 1" cubes

1. Count out forks or skewers and prepare a serving plate with the dipping items. (You'll want them at the ready so the sauce doesn't cool down completely while your fussing.)
2. Place the cream and chocolate in a small saucepan over low heat. Whisk constantly until the chocolate melts and incorporates.
3. Pour the chocolate sauce into a pretty bowl and serve immediately alongside your prepared platter of dippers.

Totally easy, right? You can whip this up in less than 20 minutes.

I'm not a white chocolate person, but I must admit it looks particularly cool on the berries.

And feel free to use broken up chocolate bars, chocolate chips, one of those huge Hershey chocolate kisses hacked into little pieces... whatever chocolate you happen to have.

Cheers!

Day 10: Dough for Play

This post marks Day 10 of Miss Ginsu's 2008 Advent Calendar. To find other days and other projects, use the calendar page to navigate.

Even if you don't have kids, you may find yourself in the company of little folks around the holidays. And wet, mucky, sleety days mean it's not so fun to go outside and play.

If you're anticipating small guests, (or maybe just playful older guests), you can plan ahead and make some homemade play dough for a nice kitchen-table activity.



To my mind, there's two ways you can go with the homemade play dough. You can make it edible, or you can make it pretty. The pretty stuff isn't toxic... it just doesn't taste very nice. The edible stuff isn't visually exciting.

I've got recipes for both, and they're both easy to make, so you should just make your own decision on the pretty vs. yummy axis.

Snackable Play Dough (Makes 2 cups)

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup honey
2 cups powdered milk

1. Mix peanut butter, honey and powdered milk in a bowl until a soft, pliable dough forms.
2. Form shapes, snacking on the dough if you like.
3. To store, keep the dough, refrigerated in an airtight container.

For this second dough, you can omit the food color until the end of the process, divide the dough in two parts, and color each part separately. If you do this, you may want to use latex gloves to avoid colorful fingers.

Colorful Play Dough (Makes 2 cups)

1/2 cup salt
2 cup warm water
2 cup flour
1 Tbsp cream of tartar
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
Food coloring

1. In a small saucepan, blend salt, water, flour, cream of tartar and vegetable oil over medium heat.
2. Whisk until smooth, adding 5 or more drops of food coloring to the mixture.
3. Stir until the mixture begins to thicken and clump. Remove from heat and cool.
4. Knead the dough to achieve a pliable consistency.
5. Form dough into shapes. This dough can also be dried and painted.

I'd advise you to keep both doughs away from the carpeting and pets. You'll also find that cookie cutters, chopsticks and dull butter knives make fun accessories to the play dough playtime repertoire.

Happy Play!

1 c4n h4s sp4gh3tti n0w?

Every office has at least one of 'em. Their tribe is despised, but essential. They are the keepers of red pens and the wielders of dubious eyebrows.

He or she is the cubicle despot in the corner who adds and removes your commas and apostrophes with seeming whimsy. She who speaks at length on prepositional phrases and compound modifiers. He who loathes your passive voice and visibly winces at your clumsy use of "it's" for "its."

I speak, of course, of the savage grammarian. And despite my loosey-goosey use of ellipses and a tendency to begin sentences with "and"... at my day job, I happen to serve as one of those go-to grammar golems.


I would have loved this book so much when I was nine. I coulda been an even bigger know-it-all in my fourth-grade homeroom class.

Imagine, then, my delight as I discovered that grammar goddess Lynn Truss, author of that English-usage gem Eats, Shoots & Leaves, repurposed that book for kids and recently published a sequel with a food-themed title: The Girl's Like Spaghetti.

I know this is only a very loosely food-related post today, but I just wanted to express how pleased I am to know that in an age of nonstop phone leet and i can has cheezburger, kids still have some fun options to help them learn how the language should actually be used.

After all, isn't it much more fun to break the rules when you know which rules you're breaking?