April 2nd is National Peanut Butter & Jelly Day.

Sure, you could have a sandwich; but how about a PB & J pizza?

Peanut butter was considered a delicacy in the early 1900s. It was only served in New York City’s finest tea room, to an elite clientele.

 
 
HOW TO MAKE A PEANUT BUTTER & JELLY PIZZA

Substitute the sandwich bread for a pizza crust, and you’re halfway there. A 12″ crust provides 4-6 servings.

You may have seen PB&J dessert pizzas on a pizza crust. If you want one here’s a recipe, but we’re sticking with the PB & J.

In order to have the most artistic presentation, use jelly instead of jam or preserves, and pipe it on. Before adding it to the piping bag (or plastic food storage bag), warm the jar slightly to make the jelly easier to pipe.

You can pipe it however you want. Not having the skill to make these concentric circles, we did a Jackson Pollack design, Zigzags or stripes also work.
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 375°F. Place the pizza dough on a cookie sheet or in a pizza pan. Pierce the dough in 10 places with a fork.

2. MICROWAVE the jar of peanut butter with the lid off for 30-45 seconds, or until the peanut butter has runny consistency.

3. POUR a small amount of peanut butter over the crust. Spread it with a knife until the dough is lightly coated.

4. WARM the preserves for for 30-45 seconds,, also with the top off, and place it the runny jelly in a piping bag or a food storage bag with a small snip off one of the bottom corners. Pipe the jelly on top of the peanut butter.

5. TOP with the banana “pepperoni” and drizzle lightly with the yogurt “mozzarella.”

6. BAKE the pizza for 8-10 minutes, keeping an eye on it. When the crust is golden brown and the jelly is bubbling, the pizza is done.

7. LET COOL until it’s easy to cut. Serve while it’s still warm.

[1] This variation is from Nicole at Heat Oven To 350. See her recipe, which is slightly different, to learn the easy way to make the jelly design (photo © Heat Oven To 350).

[2] Trish at Mom On Timeout makes her pizza with a sugar dough crust. She also piped the jelly in concentric circles. Here’s her recipe (photo © Mom On Timeout).

[3] Goober Peanut Butter & Jelly, available with grape jelly or strawberry jam (photo © Smucker’s).

[1] Chocolate mousse with a secret: blue cheese blended into it (both photos © Castello Cheese USA).

[2] Castello blue cheese.

[3] Häagen-Dazs Mango Sorbet (photo © Häagen-Dazs).

The name of this dish may sound like an April Fool’s Day joke: A mousse of chocolate and blue cheese.

We first had the chocolate-blue cheese combination 13 years ago.

It was a great moment in modern truffles when Lillie Belle Farms blended Rogue Creamery’s Smokey Blue blue cheese into its excellent chocolate (here’s our review).

They remain a personal favorite of ours, and you can buy them from Lillie Belle.

You can also purchase a wedge or wheel of Smokey Blue Cheese from Rogue Creamery.

Now onto the recipe: a sophisticated, delicious riff on chocolate mousse.

Thanks to Castello Cheese for the recipe.

If you want to make the sorbet quenelle shown in photo #1, here’s how.

Otherwise, a mini scoop will do.
 
 
RECIPE: CHOCOLATE MOUSSE WITH BLUE CHEESE AND MANGO

Ingredients For 8 Servings

 
Preparation

1. GENTLY MELT the chocolate and crumbled blue cheese in a bowl atop a double boiler.

2. BEAT the egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl, to a light airy consistency, approximately 5 minutes.

3. BEAT the egg whites to a soft peak in a separate medium bowl.

4. BEAT the whipping cream to a soft peak in another separate bowl.

5. FOLD the blue cheese mixture into the egg yolk mixture, then gently fold in the whipped cream mixture, then fold in the egg whites.

6. POUR into 8 individual dessert dishes; top with the diced mango and serve with a scoop of mango sorbet if desired.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE MOUSSE <
 
 
APRIL 3rd IS NATIONAL MOUSSE DAY

We usually have a well-stocked fridge and pantry.

When we’re out of something, that something is likely to be fresh mushrooms.

Fortunately, there’s a solution for that: dried mushrooms.

While nothing beats the flavor and texture of a fresh raw mushroom in a salad, side of marinated mushrooms or sauté, dried mushrooms work very well in certain recipes.

All they need is water to reconstitute into their former selves.

Voilà: You have excellent additions to eggs, gravies, quiche, risotto, soups, sauces and more. (They work less well in a dish where the mushroom is the main focus, like salads and sautés).

To cook with dried mushrooms, first cover them with warm water and soak for 10 minutes. Drain them, change the water, and soak for another 10 to 15 minutes. Then cook per the recipe’s directions.

[1] This lovely dried mushroom mix is from Northwest Wild Foods (photo © Northwest Wild Foods).

If you can’t use it this week, stick it in the freezer.
 

[2] Top-quality dried mushrooms from Melissa’s. A box of each would make a great gift for a cook; one box is a party favor or stocking stuffer (photo © Melissa’s).
  

[1] The box is made from 100% chocolate, with cute-topped salt caramels inside. This is the gift we order for ourselves every year (photo © Charles Chocolates).

[2] One of four collections of hand-painted, ganache-filled Easter eggs. This is the Greek Collection, filled with pomegranate and rose water ganache, walnut-almond baklava salted caramel, and fig and port wine ganache. They’re special (photo © Chocolat Moderne).

Chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, cream filled chocolate eggs and marshmallow chicks:

This is not the year to stroll the aisles for the components of a creative Easter basket.

Here are five of our favorite chocolate Easter giftsbek from America’s top chocolatiers.

The quality of the chocolate is top-knotch; it isn’t the sugary-sweet chocolate beloved by most children.

For more kid-friendly gifts, check out the selections at Lake Champlain Chocolates.
 
 
THE BEST EASTER CHOCOLATES
We’ve chosen these as “best” because they’re different from the typical box, bunny or filled egg.

 
It may not be Easter-as-usual, but a great piece of chocolate brings a moment of cheer, and great memories.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF EASTER CANDY <
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE <
 
 
> BECOME A STUDENT OF CHOCOLATE WITH THIS GLOSSARY <

In our neighborhood, a casual Middle Eastern place sells the classics: falafel, shawarma, shish kebab, etc.

We used to have a regular lunch of the spreads—baba ghannouj and hummus—plus grape leaves and tabouli.

Then, one day, we decided to order something new. Looking at the menu, we chose fattoush.

Fattoush (alternatively spelled fattush, fatush, fattoosh and fattouche) is a Lebanese/Levantine* bread salad of mixed seasonal greens with a dressing of lemon juice and oil (also see panzanella, Italian bread salad).

The vegetables typically include lettuce, tomatoes, bell pepper, cucumbers, and radishes, plus mint and parsley and spices (paprika and sumac).

Fattoush is distinguished by its crunchy croutons, made from stale pita (or other flatbread). The thinness of the bread makes the croutons much crunchier than any made from Western breads (photos #1 and #2).

Lebanese farmers would fry leftover pita scraps in a olive oil, to get life from stale bread. They’d toss whatever in-season vegetables and herbs that were on hand, and voilà!

After our first fattoush—guilt-free salad, light lemony dressing, and crunch throughout, we were hooked!
 
 
FATTOUSH SALAD AT HOME

As you can tell from the description above, it’s no more trouble whipping up fattoush than any green salad with homemade croutons.

Just cut the pita into crouton-size squares, and toast them in the oven:

Preheat the oven to 375°F and place the pita squares on a baking sheet. Toast them in the oven until golden brown, about 10 minutes.

The other thing you may question on the ingredients list is the sumac. Most of us don’t have it. Substitute lemon zest to approximate sumac’s tart flavor.
 
 
RECIPE: FATTOUSH SALAD

This updated fattoush concept (photo #3) was developed by Lisa Lin of Healthy Nibbles and Bits, and shared with us by the Idaho Potato Commission.

In addition to the buttermilk drizzle (buttermilk pays homage to Middle Eastern yogurt), Lisa added garlic, onions and scallions; all three are not used in a classic fattoush.

She also replaced the pita croutons with crisp potato croutons. The result: a modern take on an ancient recipe.

Ingredients
 
For The Salad

 
For The Dressing

 
For The Potato “Croutons”

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 400°F. In a bowl, mix the sliced potatoes, 1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil, salt and pepper.

2. LINE a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread the potatoes on top and bake for 20 minutes. Quickly stir the potatoes, and bake for another 5 to 8 minutes, until the potatoes have browned. When the potatoes are almost done…

3. TOSS the chopped lettuce, bell pepper, cucumbers, radishes, onions, scallions, parsley and mint.

4. MIX the buttermilk, salt, granulated garlic, sumac, and paprika in a small bowl, mix. In another bowl, mix the lemon juice, 2-1/2 tablespoons of olive oil and vinegar.

When the potatoes are ready…

5. LET them cool for a few minutes before tossing with the vegetables. Drizzle some of the buttermilk and vinaigrette on the salad and toss. Taste and add more buttermilk and vinaigrette as desired.

6. TOP with the potato croutons and serve immediately.

________________

*The Levant is a name created post-World War I for the region that comprises modern-day Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories and Syria. Here’s more about it. The recipe is attributed by some to “the Levant,” but some food historians attribute it to northern Lebanon.

[1] A delicious fusion fattoush salad from McCormick, with some added feta cheese borrowed from the Greek Salad, and baby arugula from Italian cuisine. Here’s the recipe from McCormick (photo © McCormick).

[2] Crisp pita croutons are tossed into the fattoush salad; they’re not just a garnish for the top. They’re so crunchy that they don’t soften in the dressing (photo © Cyrus Roepers | Wikipedia | CC-BY-SA 3.0).

[3] An updated fattoush concept, with potato croutons replacing pita, and a buttermilk drizzle (photo © Idaho Potato).

[4] Yukon Gold Idaho® potatoes. Here’s more about them (photo © Idaho Potato).

[5] Fresh mint, torn or snipped into small pieces, adds something special to this salad (photo © Good Eggs).

[6] Snipped parsley perks up any salad. You can use the curly or flat leaf variety (photo © Good Eggs).

‡You can make buttermilk with by adding 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice in a one-cup measure, and adding enough milk to measure 1 cup. In many recipes, you can substitute plain yogurt for buttermilk.

‡‡Granulated garlic is used for the crunch; but you can substitute a 3/4 the amount of minced fresh garlic.