Magazine Monday #58: Energy Balls

I found this recipe in Appeal Magazine, which is published by Save-on Foods. I happened to have some time to kill one day in Nelson, so I bought a copy and sat down with it and a cup of coffee while I waited for my dad to finish his walk. There are some pretty good recipes in here, and this one comes from Shelley Adams, author of the Whitewater Cooks and Whitewater Cooks at Home books (Whitewater is a ski resort is located near Nelson, BC).

Energy Balls

1 cup sunflower seeds, toasted
1 cup sesame seeds, toasted
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup raisins
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 cups peanut butter
1/2 cup liquid honey
1 1/2 cups (approx.) toasted coconut, for coating

Combine all ingredients except coconut in a large bowl. Mix everything together well with your hands. You may need a bit more honey to hold it together (I didn't). Roll 1/4 cup scoops into balls and then roll them in coconut. Store in airtight container in refrigerator for up to one week or in freezer for two months.

I didn't put raisins in but instead used some of the dried sour cherries Jodi sent to me in her amazing Christmas package. That worked out most excellently.

This is a winner! Loved these! Super easy to make, and a really nice snack to munch on at work. I will definitely make these again.

Laughs & Stuff...

Still on hiatus. I'm not sure how long this is going to go on...I'm having some issues with food blogging right now. Perhaps I need to write a post to get it all out there, but perhaps not.

My first day on the job was stressful and overwhelming, but the second day went better. I cannot cook with salt there; these are seniors and salt is a no-no. So, the food is bland. No salt = no flavour! I go back for 2 more training shifts next week and start to fly solo the week after. The paycheque is going to be sweet!

Anyway, here are some LOLs for you. Enjoy!

Work Weirdness

We had a whole bunch of twins show up in our shipment of eggs last week! Out of the 12 eggs I cracked for one recipe, I had seven sets of twins. Last Easter was the first time I'd seen twin yolks, and you can find more information about this oddity on a post I did here.

And here is something gross that arrived in an order a few months ago. It looks like the can had been punctured, but no one had noticed, it and it had gone moldy. Ew!

And...I start my new job tomorrow! Wish me luck!

Saturday Laugh

My Big News

Read it here.

Dinner at Drift

Rossland has a fantastic Asian tapas place called Drift, which I finally got a chance to try when my SIL chose to have her birthday dinner there at the end of December. This place is WAY out of my price range (my dinner cost me $40) but it was so worth it because it was absolutely outstanding. Here are some photos from around the table, where we shared a variety of dishes.

This is a mixed veggie tempura - fabulicious.

Seared tuna.

A bowl of pho, complete with tempura veggies - outstanding.

I am still thinking about this sushi roll - a tempura salmon roll with cream cheese and leek that was deep fried...ORGASMIC.

Fish tacos made with halibut.

Edamame.

Beef tenderloin skewers with blue cheese butter.

Tofu something.

Spicy ginger beef rice bowl.

Do Not Mess With the Dairy Milk!

Kraft has purchased Cadbury for $19 billion.

Dear Kraft:

Please to not f*ck up the chocolate, OK? Cadbury's rocks as it is and to start messing with the formulas and recipes would be disastrous. I cannot live without the odd Dairy Milk or the Dark Chocolate Fruit & Nut. Please also don't f*ck with the Creme Eggs and Mini Eggs. Please just don't f*ck with anything.

Thank you.

WC.

Haz Waffles!

For Christmas, I asked for and received a lovely new waffle maker! It was a gift from my SIL's parents, C&R, who have always been very kind to me. The new gadget is a Cuisinart, and let me tell you, it makes awesome waffles! Very easy to use, with an alert that tells you when it's heated up, 5 darkness settings, and an alert that tells you when your waffle has been cooked to perfection! And it is truly non-stick. I love this thing so much I have been eating way too many waffles. For the time being, in order to use up stuff in my pantry, I have just been using pancake mixes, but the recipe book that came with the waffle maker contains some seriously amazing-looking stuff that I cannot wait to try!

Saturday Laughs

This first one comes from one of the best web sites ever, People of WalMart. I highly encourage you to check it out - it's a scream!
These others come from the usual sources.

New Year's Nibbles

Yes, still on a blog break (and kind of enjoying it!). Here are some pictures of the food my SIL made for us on New Year's Eve.




Bacon-wrapped scallops, lobster skewers, scallop skewers, baked brie...Not pictured: chocolate fondue, crostini & bruschetta, chips & homemade salsa, my baking...

And, I couldn't resist posting another picture of Crushy the mushy doggy!

Here he is sitting on his master's lap on New Year's Eve. Crushy provided me with the only New Year's kiss I got!

Kitchen Kitteh

In recent months, Juno has taken to hanging out in the kitchen with me when I cook, bake, and eat - curling up on a kitchen chair at the table. I love it when she hangs out with her mum!

Skor Cheesecake

My SIL, Shan, has a birthday just after Christmas. This year, she requested a cheesecake for her birthday dinner dessert, so I made this one, only covered it with caramel sauce and broken up Skor bars instead of Toblerone. My cheesecake sunk quite a bit when it came out of the oven, which really upset the perfectionist in me, but the crowd who ate it loved it.

Coyote's Kitchen: Latest Article

Here is my latest article, published in Bread & Molasses Magazine's January 2010 issue! Bakewell Tart rocks my socks!

Toblerone Birthday Cake

I'm still not ready to get back to regular food blogging, but I do have a huge backlog of photos, so I thought that I'd start posting them, just to clean up my hard drive a bit. Enjoy!

Let's start off with my dad's birthday cake, which I made for his birthday on Dec. 24. He loves Toblerone; in fact, we have a long-standing family tradition that we get Dad a big Toblerone every Christmas and we always wrap it up. Because it has a unique shape, Dad always knows what it is, but every year, he says, "Oooh, I wonder what this could be?" And we all have a good chuckle. We've done this every year since I was a kid, and I can tell you that sticking two Toblerone's together to try to disguise the shape doesn't work, but Dad still plays along.

So, for his birthday, I made him a Toblerone-topped cake. Chocolate cake baked in a bundt pan, topped with ganache, some left over dulce de leche, and crowned with the telltale Toblerone triangles. This was a big hit.