Here are some terrific Chocolate Dipping Tips (and an easy recipe) if you want to create Valentine’s Day enchantment!

What to Dip

Fresh Fruit:

• Make sure it’s fresh and ripe. Even the richest chocolate can’t hide the sour taste of an unripe, mid-winter strawberry.
• Remove the fruit from the fridge about 10 minutes before dipping in order to take the chill off and prevent the chocolate coating from cracking.
• The fruit needs to be absolutely dry and free of moisture before dipping.

Nuts:

• Whole or halved nuts work best, but sliced almonds, or pecan pieces are great, too. Put them in small clumps on a parchment  paper-lined baking sheet and spoon on the melted chocolate.
• If you’re buying a large bag of nuts from a big-box store, taste them as soon as you’ve purchased them. If they taste stale, take them back!

Other Dip-ables:

• Pretzels, potato chips and other salty junk food can bring a delicious balance to the sweetness of the chocolate. If you’re buying these in a super-sized quantity, make sure they are fresh!
• Bacon! Thick cut bacon works best. Fry it until very crispy. Cool completely before dipping.
• Marshmallows and cookies.
• Dried fruit. Apricots, pineapple and apples are addictive.
• Zucchini. I’m not kidding. Slice fresh zucchini sticks and dip them in powdered sugar… then into chocolate. Amazing.

Chocolate Dipping Tips:

• Water or moisture in your chocolate will cause it to “seize.” This means it will get hard, crumbly and grainy.
• Chocolate that gets too hot will also seize. That’s why you need to melt chocolate slowly and at the lowest possible heat until smooth.
• If chocolate seizes, blend in 1 tablespoon shortening for every 4-ounces of chocolate and stir constantly until the chocolate is smooth again.
• Chocolate bars and squares are best for melting. They put additives in chocolate chips so the chips will keep their shape. You want the best and purest chocolate you can afford with only these ingredients: cocoa beans, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin (an emulsifier) and vanilla.
• Chocolate should be warm (not hot!) and have a thin consistency so it gently coats what you’re dipping. If it’s too cool it will be thick and ugly.
•  Use a potato masher to dip fruit, pretzels or cookies in hot melted chocolate.
• Don’t waste the last bit of chocolate in the pan! Spoon the remaining chocolate into a plastic re-sealable bag and seal. Snip off a tiny piece from the bottom corner and drizzle it over anything still left to dip!
• Cool your dipped items on a tray lined with parchment paper.
• After coating the goodies, tightly wrap the chocolate and store it in a cool, dry place. You can also refrigerate for up to 2-days.

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Summer may be far, far away, but you needn’t be deprived of the crunchy happiness of a delicious salad.

The sweet curly kale and roasted potatoes play nicely off the subtle bite of the chili vinaigrette. The tomatoes add a little color (I know, I know, they’re not in season but it makes the salad look brighter). I added chopped thick-cut bacon to give it a little depth, but you don’t have to if you want to make it vegetarian.

This is a great recipe to serve hot or cold… say, later this summer when it’s miserably hot and you’re complaining about the heat!

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A really good New England clam chowder should be loaded with clams, but just the thought of all that scrubbing, steaming and shucking keeps most of us from ever preparing the dish.

This New England clam chowder recipe uses frozen clam meat (you can find it in Asian markets or at a seafood store), but you can also substitute canned clams. Bottled clam juice and water add a nice depth to the broth and the thick cut bacon gives the chowder a subtle smokiness.

There’s cream in this recipe (it’s a New England chowder after all), but not a lot. You can actually use whole milk (but why would you? It’s chowda!).

Quick. Easy. Deliciously comforting.

Sounds like dinner to me.

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Leftovers don’t bother me… I always look at it like this: “Well, dinner is half-way made, I just need to figure out the rest.”

What DOES make Mama a little high strung is having just a little bit left of something. Too little to feed everyone, too much to throw away.

So… 2 cups of leftover cooked elbow macaroni became a terrific after school snack in the guise of these cute Bacon Crusted Mac and Cheese Cups.

It helps that I always have cheese in the fridge  and that I had leftover panko (Japanese breadcrumbs from a recipe I made last week. You can use regular breadcrumbs, too.

No, leftovers don’t bother me… it’s just that with the crowd at my table, we rarely have them!

Bacon Crusted Mac and Cheese Cups

prep: 15 minutes
cook: 10 to 15 minutes

you’ll need…
2 cups cooked elbow macaroni
2 tablespoons butter, divided
1 tablespoon flour
½ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup milk
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
3 strips cooked bacon, chopped or crumbled

let’s get to it…
Move oven rack to the center of oven. Spray 6 muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. Heat oven to 425°F.
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a small skillet. Add panko and stir over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes or just until panko begins to brown. Remove from heat and stir in chopped bacon; set aside.
Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter in a medium saucepan over moderate heat; whisk in the flour and salt and cook 2 to 3 minutes. Whisk in the milk and cook 3 to 5 minutes, whisking constantly until thickened. Add the cheese and continue to whisk until melted. Remove from heat. Add beaten egg to sauce and whisk until blended; stir in cooked macaroni.
Spoon Mac and Cheese evenly into muffin cups. Top each with a little panko-bacon mixture.
Bake for 10 minutes or until panko is golden brown. Cool 5 to 7 minutes or until set. Carefully lift out with a spatula and serve.