Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte

This week's recipe challenge comes from Amy of Food, Family and Fun. Thanks Amy!

Let’s see. . . . ooey gooey chocolate mixed with cool, tart raspberries. Yum.

I will say this dessert took some time to make. I did feel a bit chained to the kitchen for several hours even though it was just really waiting time. Not literally chained of course, and no, keep those comments to yourself! Just don't go there. My second layer of ganache did not seem to freeze as well or as quickly as my first layer. As you can see from my pictures, my layers are not quite even. I was also worried about the raw eggs so I put the chocolate into the microwave for a couple of minutes. Then I worried that I was messing up the ganache, but it seemed to turn out fine. I doubt the microwave got the mixture hot enough though in just two minutes to kill any bacteria, but it made me feel a bit better. Also, there was a slight techno difficulty along the preparation process. My food processor decided it was the energizer bunny and kept right on running even when I turned the button to off. I finally had to unplug it, plug it in, unplug it, plug it in. Not really safe, do you think? So I guess it will be off to the store to purchase myself a new one this weekend. I cannot live without a food processor, can you? All in all, I thought this was a very elegant dessert and very tasty! And as always, darling husband was licking the spoon.

GRANOLA GRABBERS

This week's recipe was chosen by Michelle of Bad Girl Baking and thank you Michelle! I'm not a huge fan of granola so I was really not excited about the cookies, plus I am on vacation and short on time. But I made the cookies on Saturday before we left on our trip to the lake and let me just say, DELICIOUS, DELICIOUS, AND DELICIOUS. Darling husband and I managed to eat our way through about a fourth of them in one sitting. I froze the rest for future snack attacks. I also shared with my next door neighbors, Melissa and Patrick, who were in the process of finishing off their own pan of brownies when we handed over the grabbers.

I had a hard time finding granola without fruit, so I ended up getting granola that was vanilla with almonds. That way I got to leave out the slivered almonds. I also added just a few milk chocolate chips, but I'm not sure they really added to the flavor that much. I would leave them out next time.

The cookies were easy to make, and it made a ton of them which was great.

Unfortunately, my pictures will not be posted here until Thursday because my computer is being obstinate this morning and is refusing to load my pictures. Also, there was the little matter of me taking pictures while baking and then discovering later that I did not have a memory card in my camera so there were no pictures. I did manage to get two nice pictures of the finished product.

Lame, I know.

Give me a break this week. . . it is a special week for me. It is my tenth anniversary with Chandler and we are having just the best time celebrating! A big thanks to all our friends who helped us with our celebrating at The Club - the Powers, the Beards, the Speegles, the Arnolds, Ms. Hardin, and the Johnsons! And let us never forget Happy Ammiversary, Cham and Peggy!

Pictures will be coming - I promise. On Thursday!!

BLUEBERRY SOUR CREAM ICE CREAM

This week's recipe was chosen by Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity. We have just returned from a great weekend at the lake with my children, so after being hot all weekend this week's choice was perfect for me. I doubled the recipe and wish I had tripled it! It did not take long at all to freeze and we were excited to try it. I did use lime juice and zest instead of lemon.

No, my sink is not dirty as it looks in this picture. That is the salt water from the ice cream freezer that has made its way all over the place!Can you say yum. . . . .. LOVED the sour cream taste mixed with the tartness of lime and blueberries. Just slides right down your throat with a coolness and tingle that cannot be matched with any other food choice.

Let me just say we 'tried' to share with my neighbors next door, but they were not at home when the ice cream finished so we just had ourselves a little bowlful while watching tv. There were lots of ooohs and ahhhs going between us. Finally we both wanted to lick the bowls with our tongues to clean them, but our good table manners took over and helped us to resist doing that. So with purple lips and tongues, we made our way back to the kitchen to rinse out our bowls. Completely satisfied and happy. Thank you Dolores for choosing this! I will definitely make this ice cream again and again.

First let me say that I am really glad I joined this club. This week’s recipe was chosen by A Year In The Kitchen by Ashlee. I was really glad I named my blog Pantry Revisited because my first loaf was a disaster and I was quite sure everyone would know for certain that I had not baked in a while once they viewed my pictures. Maybe baking is like exercising and you do need to visit your pantry often to keep in good baking shape! I did not have dark rum so I substituted spiced rum. By the time I removed the loaf from the oven, I felt as though I would have been better off just drinking the rum than wasting it in the loaf itself. Even though I baked it an hour and a half, and used the foil teepee on it, the loaf itself was very dense and rubbery. My husband says he likes dense and rubbery so it did not stop him from devouring it. Of course we are talking about a man who could eat a piece of firewood if it had some ketchup or pesto rubbed on it and a dark beer to help flush it down. In the world of smells and tastes, there are some seriously great ones and rum does not seem to be one of them to me.

Then, in a forehead slapping moment, and because I do not respond well to failure, I was challenged to try again and make this loaf work. I mean, I was not going to let a little banana loaf get the best of me. After all, I’m bigger, I’m stronger, I’m smarter than that! So it was back to the store to buy more staples and start all over again. Remembering Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither are great bakers, was also a great comfort to me.
I figured since Love is Lovelier, the Second Time Around maybe banana loafs are too? So the flour, the sugar, the bananas, the chocolate, and me decided to go at it again together. The first picture above is the disaster loaf complete with its friend the bottle of spiced rum which I am going to permanently retire to the liquor cabinet.
This time, I followed the recipe’s instructions I 'thought' to the letter and was very happy when I placed it in the oven. While the texture turned out much better, the chocolate seemed to overpower the banana taste. I did not realize until I got here this morning that I had made one giant mistake yet again! I had not mixed some of the batter in with the chocolate before filling my loaf pan.
Let's just end this with, it's back to the pantry for me. . .. . .