One of our favorites: Orange Twigs. Photo courtesy Charles Chocolates.
We have two favorite products from San Francisco’s Charles Chocolates.
The first, Orange Twigs, delicate milk chocolate butter truffles that melt in your mouth.
They have a hint of fresh orange, a divine combination. The ganache is coated in a thin layer of 65% bittersweet chocolate and finished with a sprinkling of confectioners’ sugar.
A 6.3-ounce box is $ 16.00.
How about a gift box made from chocolate, filled with more chocolate?
Second on our menu are the company’s signature chocolate boxes. The square gift boxes made entirely of chocolate are filled with assorted bonbons (details below). After the chocolates are consumed, you eat the box!
Three seasonal designs include:
Christmas Collection Edible Chocolate Box (shown in photo): a bittersweet box bottom and a white chocolate top
Hanukkah Collection Edible Chocolate Box, a bittersweet chocolate box
Cinnamon Spice Truffles, Orange Zest Truffles, Pecan Fleur de Sel Caramels, Peppermint Cremes, Bittersweet Peanut Butterflies, Poire William Caramels, Maple Truffles, Fleur de Sel Caramels and Bourbon Truffles.
Each box is 17 ounces, $65.00.
An edible chocolate box filled with holiday bonbons. Photo courtesy Charles Chocolates/
Get yours at CharlesChocolates.com. There’s free shipping on all orders over $75.00 shipped before Christmas.
White hot chocolate with stevia sweetener. Photo courtesy 5 Sparrows.
Five Sparrows is a line developed by coffee shop owners, who wanted commercial products created specifically for handcrafted beverages. They are now available to consumers as well.
The company makes hot chocolate, chai and frappe mixes, which are available in versions sweetened with sugar or a combination of stevia and xylitol.
Today’s recommendation is for the stevia products. It isn’t difficult to find a quality hot chocolate mix made with sugar, but good sugar-free versions are hard to come by. These taste very natural—no “artificial sweetener” aftertaste. They dissolve easily into milk.
Just because Thanksgiving is over doesn’t mean sweet potatoes are over.
You don’t have to make an elaborate Thanksgiving-style dish, or even take the energy to mash or whip. Simple baked sweet potatoes with a pat of butter are delicious. Add a sprinkle of cinnamon if you like.
You can go whole hog (pun intended) with little extra effort by stuffing the baked potatoes with pulled pork barbecue.
This recipe is from Byron’s BBQ, which sells a delicious barbecued pull pork shoulder, cooked and frozen, at Sam’s Clubs. If you don’t like sweet potatoes, there’s a variation using the pulled pork with white baking potatoes, below.
RECIPE #1: BARBECUE-STUFFED SWEET POTATOES
Ingredients For 4 Servings
2 pounds Byron’s Pork BBQ, thawed
4 large sweet potatoes, unpeeled, scrubbed clean, and dried
1. PREHEAT the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with foil and set aside.
2. PIERCE each potato with the tines of a fork and place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until tender, about 45 minutes.
3. HEAT the barbecue according to package directions.
4. MAKE a slit in the top of each sweet potato and season with salt and pepper. Top each potato with BBQ. Garnish with a dollop of sour cream and chopped chives if desired.
The U.S. government makes mistakes. There are no buffalo in America; the big, wooly animal that roams the Great Plains is a bison—a different genus entirely. Yet, our mint produces a buffalo nickel. Hmm.
So it goes with many other items, including the tomato (classified as a vegetable, but it’s a fruit) and the sweet potato or yam—the words used interchangeably, although like the buffalo and bison issue, the yam is from a completely different botanical family.
4 large baking potatoes, unpeeled, scrubbed clean, and dried
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup sour cream
4 green onions (scallions), finely chopped and divided
1/2 cup shredded extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
1. PREPARE the pulled pork according to package instructions.
2. PREHEAT the oven to 425°F. Poke holes in the potatoes and wrap in foil. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes until tender. Alternative microwave directions: Poke holes in the potatoes and microwave on high for 10 minutes or until done, turning the potatoes after 5 minutes. While potatoes cook…
3. COMBINE the sour cream and 2 tablespoons green onions. Set aside.
4. SLICE the baked potatoes lengthwise and fluff the flesh with a fork. Top each potato evenly with the barbecue, sour cream mixture, shredded cheese and remaining green onions.
ABOUT BYRON’S BBQ
Byron’s has been making authentic American barbecue since 1957, when Byron Charleton started selling the homemade BBQ recipe that made him famous in his hometown for years.
The barbecue is still made the same way on the same plot of land in Gallatin, Tennessee where Byron set up his first smokehouse. The pit master slowly smokes quality meat over an open-pit hardwood fire and slathers on a signature spicy-sweet sauce. The quick freeze technique enables the company to avoid any added chemical preservatives.
Who else but the folks at California Pizza Kitchen would create a Christmas Tree Pizza?
For fun this weekend, how about making this recipe for Christmas Tree Pizza, decorated with your favorite “ornaments.”
The recipe, from California Pizza Kitchen, makes 1 large pizza, 2 medium pizzas or individual pizzas
If you’re making individual pizzas, let the people decorate their own.
Deck the pizza with your favorite “trimmings.” Photo courtesy California Pizza Kitchen.
Optional garnish: carve a piece of yellow bell pepper into a star for the top of the tree
Preparation
1. PLACE a seasoned (or oiled) pizza stone in the middle of the oven and preheat to 450°F for at least 30 minutes.
2. SHAPE the dough. If making more than 1 pizza, divide the dough into 2 or 4 pieces; then roll and shape each piece into a tall triangle. The pizzas will be decorated after baking, so prepare all of them at once.
3. SPREAD the sauce over the dough to within 1 inch of the outer edge. Top with the mozzarella and bake for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Meanwhile…
4. COMBINE the spinach, arugula and basil leaves in a large bowl. When the pizza is cooked, place on a serving plate and allow it to cool slightly. Then top with overlapping leaves of greens, making sure that the three different types are evenly distributed.
5. COVER the leaves with tomato halves, cut side down, add any other garnishes and sprinkle with Parmesan “snow” before serving.
