Cooking class + chocolates

Tonight I went to another of my cooking classes. Todays subject.... Tofu!

We made "egg" salad, mayonnaise, "egg" fried rice, and a baked sort of meaty tofu dish, that supposedly tastes similar to bacon. I didn't think so, but it did taste very good, and a lot better than bacon. So if you live anywhere near Portland or Salem, I suggest taking one of David Gabbe's classes. :D

I'd share the recipes, but all of the recipes are in his cookbook, so I don't feel qualified to share them with the world. And I'm not sure how available it is if you don't take his class, but the name of his cookbook is David's Pure Vegetarian Kitchen. He's very health conscious, and only eats whole grains, and organic soy products. And he really does his homework with nutrition and health.

Also, me going for the chocolate again. (such a bad person)

So here's some of the chocolaety delights I made tonight. However, if you really shouldn't be having chocolate you probably shouldn't read on.

Here's the list of what I made:

chocolate covered almonds

peanut butter filled chocolate

almond butter filled chocolate

strawberry almond creme filled chocolate

chocolate covered crystalized (candied) ginger

and coconut chocolate things. (very scientific name)

So I melted some chocolate in a small pan over medium heat, until completely smooth, stirring fairly often. If you aren't as careful as I am, use a lower temperature, or a double-boiler, or both. then I started dipping almonds and crystalized ginger and putting them on some wax paper. I find using chopsticks works really well, but if you aren't good at using chopsticks, use something else.

I also separated some of the chocolate into a bowl, and mixed in some shredded coconut, then put it into bite-sized pieces on the wax paper.

And then for the peanut butter and almond butter ones, I put small dollops of them on some wax paper, and froze it.

Then I put some frozen strawberries, soymilk, and almond butter in a food processor (blender works too) and blended 'til smooth, then I put small dollops of that on some wax paper, and froze it. then once the almond butter, peanut butter, and strawberry-almond creme fillings were all frozen, I dipped them in chocolate and put them on the wax paper. If you have leftover chocolate, add some flavoring, you could just mix in some peanut or almond butter, orange extract, mint extract, instant coffee, (add about 1/4 of the water so that you get a stronger coffee) etc. I make chocolates about every month  or so, so I'll keep you posted on any new ideas I come up with.

Peanut butter truffles. Courtesy of Google images.