Busy in the kitchen...

I was given some dried raspberries a couple weeks ago from Trader Joe's and I've been looking for something to use them in. I found a new quickbread recipe that orginially called for raisins, so I replaced them with the raspberries.

Chocolate Raspberry Ginger Bread has a dark color and a subtle flavor from molasses and cocoa. The moist bread is studded with chopped dried raspberries and has a deep chocolate taste from the cocoa powder. In this recipe, use natural rather than dutch-process cocoa, as the only leavining is from the baking soda. I think this would also be good with some of the raspberry flavored chips. I found the ginger to be pretty pronounced here, but I think it will mellow out and the bite will reduce overnight. Sometimes baked goods that have a lot of applesauce can be a little rubbery, this one has a couple tablespoons of canola oil that prevented this from happening.

I also made some of the Cran-Apple Muffins today for Jeff to bring into work for a co-worker who's family was recently struck with a tradgey.

Tonight's dinner was a pretty different combination of flavors and textures for us, but it was darn good! Poached Eggs with White Corn Polenta starts out by making a creamy polenta that is full of corn kernels. I used a fine-ground white cornmeal which ended up making the polenta pretty smooth. The flavor from the parmesan permeates the soft cornmeal and the butter brings a bit of needed richness. Since we had some leftover salsa from the other night, I topped the polenta with it and then added the poached eggs. A sprinkling of crisp bacon brings a saltiness and a bit of heat from cracked black pepper that finished the dish with a bang.

Recipes

Chocolate Raspberry Ginger Bread

Poached Eggs with White Corn Polenta