chocolate covered grapes

i'm back i'm back!

eggboy has resumed his life as a full-time farmer and andy griffith talker aboutter, and i have gone back to being a sprinkle psycho and bridezilla. if you were following eggboy's batching progress (or regress?) you may be glad to know that our second stop* upon my return was a bulk almond and peanut butter run, so that eggboy, who is well on his way to becoming nutboy, doesn't starve. *obviously our first stop was for pizza.

my week in la jolla was so sunny and fun! i caught up with old friends, paella-partied with new ones, spent time with family, played the big drums loudly, and then shut down the bar on the last night with my dad and our music-making home slices. luckily, when i had to be at the airport three hours later, my flight was surprise re-routed to layover in chicago, where mum met me with a big fat bagel and lox picnic. it was all sorts of perfection and i didn't even get sunburnt!

yesterday was my first day back in the kitchen and it was a lot of savory recipe testing, which was tasty, but led to a very intense sugar craving that i don't normally get since there is usually a cake or pie or something on my cake stand. my first option was gummy bears, but they were swimming in vodka and i just wasn't gonna have it, so i was v v v v v v grateful to find these little grape guys in the freezer from before i left. the first time i had chocolate covered grapes was about a year ago, after jaclyn and katie convinced me that they were something to obsess over. and they are. they're definitely sort of weird in a gusher-y way, but really really refreshing and yummy and extraordinarily fun to eat out of a cone.

---

chocolate covered grapes

ingredients

1 lb california grapes

8 oz dark or semisweet chocolate

3 tb coconut oil

sprinkles

clues

rinse and dry your grapes. freeze overnight.

line a baking sheet with parchment.

in a double boiler or microwave, melt together the chocolate and coconut oil. remove from heat and stir for a minute or two, until chocolate is smooth and not too hot.

one at a time, drop your grapes into your chocolate and then lift them out with a fork and set them on the parchment. sprinkle immediately with sprinkles.

alternatively, if you want your grapes to be smooth all the way around, stick them on the end of a toothpick, dip them into the chocolate, sprinkle with sprinkles, and then let them dry on the toothpick (this will only take a few seconds) before popping them off onto your parchment.

serve in a cute paper cone and enjoy!

store in the freezer.

-yeh!

this post is sponsored by grapes from california. all opinions are my own.

millionaire's chex bars

i sincerely hope you are looking at my breakfast. i can't find a single chex bar in this house, but i am out of oats and pretty sure i've clogged my aorta with chunky peanut butter, and the thought of these bars are all i have left. molly's been gone, what, five days, and things are dire here. ba(t)ching has become less about kicking back with a cucumber, and more about shaking out the almond jar to see if one got caught in a seam. i've seen barney lose his bullet 50 times since sunday and if i have to eat popcorn again for supper tonight, i just, holy smoke, the deep freeze!!!

(the recipe for these bars is up on betty this week!)

eggs benedict cumberbatch

when arya sailed away and the hound lay bleeding on the rocks, we sat on granny's green plushy couch with an empty bowl of popcorn wondering what to do next. i googled "best shows on netflix." (where's andy griffith??!! credibility is dead!!!) sherlock had slipped past our notice all the way to #2 on the list, but it only took a few days before i started lowering the pitch of my voice and trying to wear coats well. molly and i couldn't stop talking about sherlock and watson, but eventually it was just molly going on about how wonderful benedict cumberbatch is and she started creating recipes to honor his wonderfulness. the whole thing's a sham, though, cuz where's the hollandaise sauce? and how dare he intrude on eggs?! i am the original eggboy.

does anybody else think that batching it should be spelled baching it? that's what i'm doing this week and molly didn't turn her computer off.

-eggboy

eggs benedict cumberbatch

from bottom to top:

a slice of pre-cooked polenta, fried in a bit of butter, salted

two slices of canadian bacon, lightly browned

one egg, fried in a greased heat-safe biscuit cutter, salted and peppered

three leaves of fresh arugula

a few shavings of parmesan

optional tabasco 

hazelnut cocoa granola bars + a giveaway

my weekend in snacks:

a handful of pistachios: on a solo drive to fargo, accompanied by fred's coverage of the aspen festival. a 2013 me would have dreaded driving by myself to fargo, but i think driving in north dakota might be my new favorite thing. (as long as it's close enough to the border to pick up minnesota public radio.)

cheese curds: covered in ranch and ketchup, at the fargo street fair with some lovely fargo ladies!

raw chocolate (and tahini) fudge: made in a pre-coffee haze and enjoyed while chasing a fly all around the kitchen. calories burned from chasing the fly = calories consumed in the fudge. we are all even now! 

muhammara: on a pizza with lots and lots and lots of caramelized (home grown!) onions. i guess that's not really a snack...

hazelnut cocoa granola bars: with eggboy, sitting in our car in the middle of a beet field, discussing wedding plans. i think i only decided we'd elope once that day.

sweet potato fries: al fresco, with the egg parents, before a wild night of folding laundry and watching wet hot american summer. 

hazelnut cocoa granola bars

makes 6-8 large bars

ingredients

1 c packed medjool dates (pits removed)

1/4 c honey

1/4 c tahini

1/4 c cocoa powder

a pinch of sea salt

1 c toasted hazelnuts

1 c toasted oats*

*toast at 350º for 15-20 minutes

clues

in a food processor, grind up the dates to form a paste. add the honey, tahini, cocoa powder, and salt and process to combine.

add the hazelnuts and oats and pulse 40-60 times so that the mixture is roughly combined, and the hazelnuts and oats are coarsely chopped.

turn onto a work surface and knead the mixture so that the hazelnuts and oats are all worked in. flatten out into a rectangle on a piece of parchment paper. you can cut the rectangle into bars now, but it will be easier if you place it in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes before cutting.

enjoy! store in an air tight container.

-yeh!

ingredients for this recipe were provided by swanson health products, an awesome family-owned online company with a super cute store in fargo!! after hearing about my hazelnut catastrophe they sent me the sweetest ever care package filled with hazelnuts and other goodies. i took to it like a chopped box and came up with these granola bars. it was the most fun!

also, this summer marks swanson's 45th anniversary!! to celebrate, they're giving away a $45 gift certificate to one of you lucky ducks. you can use it for their vitamins, beauty products, healthy foods, or any other goodies on their site. (i'd probably buy $45 worth of justin's almond butter, but that's just me). they ship anywhere in the world, so this giveaway is open to everyone! to enter, leave a comment with your favorite childhood after-school snack! mine was lean pockets. oops, did i say that out loud?

update: this giveaway is now closed.