Not Your Mother's Cookbooks

I come from a long line of movie buffs. I mean hard core movie lovers from way back. I went to the movies every Sunday with my Aunt Marge all the years starting from about age 6 growing up in northern New Jersey. My aunt had all the old Dell Publishing Modern Screen and Photoplay movie magazines form the 1930s on up, as well as books written by the movie stars about their lives.

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Chocoholics live in a world that is defined by passionate words-everything from love and crave to addiction and indulgence. Some prefer milk chocolate, others dark. Europeans have a developed palate for white chocolate that Americans haven’t got yet. Everyone loves chocolate baked into cookies. It is culinary luxury in a bite and even the most timid baker longs to bake the perfect batch.

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Chocolate truffles are rolled into rough balls that look like their name-sakes, the earthy subterranean fungi that grows under oak trees and is a savory culinary delicacy and quite rare. They are intensely sweet and able to be devoured in one bite, a satisfying treat for the most discerning chocolate addict.

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The gooey childhood delights composed of melted marshmallows and chocolate bars sandwiched between two graham cracker squares are one of the newest members of the creative home kitchen.

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The microwave is the true home for popping popcorn. While there are quite a few specialized types of microwave popcorn poppers on the market, the good old brown bag method reigns supreme in my mind, especially if you are without any other contraption in which to pop.

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Robert is my friend Robert Lambert, who is a wiz in the kitchen. He knows his stuff about chocolate, having been a private dessert chef making designer-style, lip-smacking good fantasy chocolate desserts for the likes of Joan Collins and Lily Tomlin in his cooking-in-Hollywood days.

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And then there’s the groom’s cake. For this wedding, McVitie’s part of the British conglomerate United Biscuits Group that make those barely sweet wholemeal tea biscuits that have the texture of a graham cracker, will make a chocolate biscuit cake specially requested by Prince William. This is a family favorite for tea time with Earl Grey Tea.

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The Tunnel of Fudge Cake is somewhat of a legend in cake making land and precursor to the now-hot restaurant dessert of individual chocolate cakes with a oozing, under baked center that looks like a thick sauce. Tunnel of Fudge was a Pillsbury Bake

Its still going strong/ the 44th Pillsbury Bake Off for home cooks last April at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando hotel/photo courtesy of FoodGal Carolyn Jung, who was a judge for the Sweet Things category/the grand prize is a cool $1 Mil Cash

Off Winner decades ago and has never lost its appeal.

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Love hot chocolate as much as life itself? You have come to the right place for inspiration.

One of the taste sensations of cultural cuisine is the emergence of the combination of chocolate and chile powder. As it happens, chiles are a counterpoint to dark chocolate and accents its natural flavors just like coffee or vanilla does.

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This cheesecake is as close to divine as food gets. It is a uber creamy standard cheesecake with lots of sweet-hot candied ginger and a hint of ground ginger in the cake, and a gingersnap cookie crust. It is a perfect Easter dessert. Make the day before, as the cake needs to chill overnight in the refrigerator to develop the proper texture. Beware. This is truly addictive and everyone’s favorite.

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