It's Soup Time...in a Jar.

We love a certain brand of pickles that come in large mason jars. And I've been saving the jars for various purposes- such as "lanterns" with tealights outside. But when I ran out of tupperware for some homemade soup, two freshly washed jars were the perfect containers to share soup with our neighbors. Now, because I didn't actually can the soup, they had to go in the fridge to eat immediately but gosh, they sure made that soup look nice! This is a ham, bean and lentil soup that my mom made at our house. We've put our butternut squash and apple soup in these jars too and it looks fantastic.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Nothing says love like a homemade peanut butter cup and it's easier than you think. Thanks to the Hungry Mouse, we were able to quickly create our own version of the Reese's classic using peanut butter, powdered sugar and chocolate chips plus some decorations for the top. Here's the easy how-to:

MAKING THE SHELL

Melt your favorite chocolate chips (milk, semi-sweet or dark) in a bowl at 30 second intervals in the microwave- stirring in between until smooth. Because we were eating this immediately, it was no problem to use this method instead of tempering the chocolate. Once melted, using a spoon, place a large dollop of chocolate in a mini- muffin liner and spread up the sides using the spoon. Be generous with the chocolate and place in the freezer to quickly harden.

PLACING THE FILLING

We used a blend of 1 cup of peanut butter to about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and mixed well. Adjust the stickiness with the powdered sugar to your desired consistency. A less sticky mixture is easy to spoon. Be sure to put a reasonable amount in the center of the shell and not up the sides. You will be covering this in chocolate and want to encase the filling in chocolate creating a chocolate seal- mmmm. We tried peanut butter alone and peanut butter with apricot jam but the possibilities are endless...could include s'mores, boozy fruit and other chocolate-friendly fillings.

CREATING THE CHOCOLATE SEAL

Ok, I made up the chocolate seal but a large dollop of melted chocolate on the top does seal in the filling. Feel free to smooth it or swirl it. Then place in the freezer for a few minutes to harden quickly.

DECORATING

And to make this a Valentine's day treat, we used Wilton melting chips to draw designs on the tops. We also used them to make some hardened designs that were placed on the wet chocolate. The nice thing about the melting chips is that they too harden making these treats easy to bring home to your sweetie!

And there you have it...homemade chocolate peanut butter goodness in a matter of minutes. I'd like to make more of these with other fillings...

got any suggestions for me?

Kiwi Caipirinhas for Everyone!

Justin used to travel to Brazil and bring home cachaça, a spirit from fermented sugar cane. We made our own version of a caipirinha, the Platinum Caipirinha, at this past post. This year, I read about a kiwi caipirinha in Sunset magazine and we had to try it! And this is a cocktail that can become a mocktail with one easy substitution.

You can make this with cachaça or for a non-alcoholic version, substitute 7-up or mix a bit of both for a less potent version.

Muddle in a cocktail shaker

• One lime, cut into chunks

• One kiwi, peeled and sliced- reserve a slice for garnish

• 2 tbsp sugar

Add:

• 2 oz of cachaça (or substitute part or all with 7-up)

Shake over crushed ice and pour the whole thing ice, fruit and all into a glass and garnish with a slice of kiwi.

It's lovely to look at and quite delicious with or without the alcohol.

Top Ten Best from the Fancy Foods Show 2011

This year's Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco did not disappoint! From sparkling elderflower beverages to puerh tea to herb infused grapeseed oil, this year seemed to have even more unique products than last. We've posted our favorites in 2009 and in 2010

Here are a few of my favorites from the 2011 show:

1. Bacon Jam by Skillet

Okay, I know the bacon trend is overdone and even I am sick of it but this isn't your typical "bacon" novelty. This savory spread is made by rendering Niman Ranch bacon and simmering it for 6 hours with onions, balsamic vinegar and spices. As a result, it was full of incredibly complex flavors.

It was served on a cracker with brie and was the best thing I tasted at the show.

2. Fresh Ginger Ginger Ale

This isn't your airplane ginger ale...it's how ginger ale is supposed to taste! After a sip of this, I knew I had tasted it before! Twice! First at Big Bowl restaurants in the Minneapolis area and then last year at Publican, in Chicago. I had actually mentioned it in a past post! It's phenomenal- sophisticated and totally appropriate as an accompaniment to a nice dinner. Available in original ginger, ginger jasmine green tea and ginger pomegranate.

3. Cookies and Corks

We saw quite a few pairings with wine this year- chocolate, nuts, crackers, cheese. But, I really liked the idea of sweet and savory cookies that are matched with different wines. Each box contained three different flavors for a group of wines.

And to help you pair, there's a handy guide on the side of each box matching each flavor with a varietal.

4. The Bacon Pickle by Unbound Pickling

Ok, we've seen a rise in homestyle canning and Unbound Pickling has created a wonderfully hickory smoke flavored pickle that is actually vegan and has no bacon whatsoever.

5. Taste No. 5: Umami Paste

We love umami- often called the fifth taste along with sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Umami is often described as a savory or meaty flavor and is common in Asian cuisine. There are natural sources of umami in foods like tomatoes, mushrooms, and seaweed etc. These naturally occurring glutamates give that delicious umami flavor. You might recognize that another common food ingredient can provide umami- mono-sodium glutamate (MSG). However, this paste is made of foods that have naturally occurring glutamate and the ingredients list includes porcini mushrooms, olives, anchovies, parmesan cheese, tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. (There is no MSG in this paste.) We can't wait to try cooking with this!

6. Moonstruck Fortunato No. 4 Tumbled Cacoa Beans

We ate this before snapping a photo! Yum, this single origin chocolate, Pure Nacional chocolate, has been recently rediscovered in Peru. And paired with the cacao beans, it is quite marvelous to taste. There's a lot of chocolate at this show, and thankfully, one of my colleagues had read about this rare chocolate in this article in the NY Times.

7. Magnolia Ice Pops

We featured the unusual Filipino ice cream last year in the best of 2010 Fancy Foods but this year, we liked the pops just as well! From halo halo to ube to Thai tea, these were a refreshing new taste in the category.

8. FruBee Fruit and Honey Pops

This room temperature blend of fruit and honey in a pouch can be frozen at home into a delicious treat. We loved the flavors in this sweet little treat from New Zealand!

9. Peque Oliva olive oil for kids

What would your first olive oil taste like? This Spanish olive oil, meant specifically for children, has a low acidity and delicate taste. It touts vitamins and high oleic acid content as well as aims to be beneficial for growth, sleep and health.

10. The Republic of Tea travel tea cup

This was the best giveaway at the show: a travel cup made by Bodum, complete with a tea strainer that allowed you to steep loose tea and then press it out to drink ( photo coming soon). It reminded me of a French press for tea and in a travel size! It was marvelous and I enjoyed their milk oolong tea during the show. I also loved the chocolate tea line as well.

And that was the show...did you have any favorites?

A Glass of Liquid Sunshine

That's what this smoothie reminded me of on this January morning. We are having beautiful California winter weather and after Justin's morning bike ride, we made a smoothie using leftover frozen fruit from last summer. An eclectic mix of frozen mango, pineapple and honeydew melon plus a scoop of Greek yogurt yielded this sunny yellow smoothie. A perfect use of leftover rich, ripe fruit from summer to brighten this winter day!

A Taste of Summer in the Middle of Winter: Toasted Marshmallow Hot Chocolate

It isn't often that my food expectations are exceeded at a restaurant but my favorite local restaurant, the Sideboard, in Danville, continues to pleasantly surprise me. Today's unexpected delight: this hot chocolate! When I ordered hot chocolate, I didn't expect to receive a gently toasted marshmallow atop milk foam rimmed in graham cracker over the chocolatey warmth. Can you imagine the memory of campfire s'mores flooding my senses as I took an indulgent bite of that bruleed marshmallow? And that taste of summertime in the middle of winter was marvelous.

If you find yourself in Danville at the Sideboard, I also highly recommend the beet, fennel and grapefruit salad- posted here. It's my standard order with a side of pommes frites.

Vanilla Snowflake Marshmallows

This isn't the first time we've posted about homemade marshmallows on foodspiration. In fact, that link shows our step-by-step photos of how to make this deliciousness and links to the recipe I used. We've blogged twice about this because we're in love with the light, pillowy texture of these little clouds. Ok, they are so good that I just had to step away from writing this post to go and eat one of these marshmallows!

We used Martha's recipe as we did in our previous post but I wish I had remembered to spread the marshmallow into two pans not just one 9 X 13. Because we were cutting shapes, the 9 X 13 pan made very thick marshmallows which were almost too big for the cookie cutter to get through. So consider putting this sticky yumminess into two pans and having slightly less thick marshmallows. I actually had to cut the shape and then half the shaped marshmallow with a sharp knife.

For this batch, I wanted to make snowflake shaped marshmallows instead of the simple stars from before. Now, I am impatient...and I didn't let my marshmallows set for 3 hours so they were a little soft. And with some help from my neighbor, we were able to get a several large snowflake ones out- but it wasn't easy. It's good to note that complex shapes really don't work here- we tried smaller snowflakes but the detail got lost and the marshmallow got stuck in the cutters.

The marshmallows taste great on their own but they also look fantastic in a cup of hot cocoa! These required a very large mug however!

Shapes are great but they do create quite a bit of scrap which still tastes good but doesn't look as nice. We actually cut a lot of the scrap pieces into squares -some which I wrapped and gave out. I'm also thinking about what we could do with the misshapen pieces...coat them in chocolate perhaps?

These were your basic vanilla recipe but next time I'm thinking about trying a flavored recipe.

Have you eaten a flavored marshmallow that we should try? Got a recipe that you can share?

Winter Wonderland? Guess this food...

Any guesses what this food is?

It reminded me of freshly fallen snow on the ski slopes...