Best chocolate pudding recipe

The kids and I were craving sweets but at 9:30pm, we were out of ice cream and I wasn’t about to pile everyone in the car. So I set out to try my hand at making home made chocolate pudding. This recipe is quick and easy and full of chocolaty goodness! Total preparation time is approximately 1 hour (30 to cook and 30 to set).

chocolate pudding

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in a medium saucepan. Stir in milk and chocolate chips. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate is melted. Temper the egg yolks and then stir into mixture. Add butter and vanilla. Bring to gentle boil and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Chill before serving.

Tempering the egg yolks:

If you were to place the egg yolks directly into your hot mixture, you could end up with cooked egg chunks in your pudding… not so tasty. So to avoid this, you “temper” the eggs. To do this, you slowly add small quantities of your hot mixture to your eggs in a separate mixing bowl, stirring constantly. Continue until you’ve added at least 1 full cup of hot mixture to the eggs. Then you can pour this egg mixture into your pudding and stir thoroughly.

Note about setting:

Originally my pudding didn’t set. The recipe I had started with said to cook the entire time on medium heat which ment the cornstarch never had the opportunity to do it’s thing. After an hour in the fridge, I poured all the pudding back into a pan and heated it up again until it came to a boil and voila! just like magic it began to thicken. As an added bonus to the delayed setting… we had pudding for breakfast!

making chocolate pudding

This recipe was adapted from the Chocolate Cream Pudding recipe by Mimi

The Air Force has yummy potatoes

Actually it’s “twisted taters”. I went to my very first Air Force football game this past weekend and was surprised to encounter such yummy smells in the air. Besides the standard hot dog and burger stands, they also offered cinnamon roasted almonds, a copy cat “dippin’ dots”, hot chocolate and my favorite… twisted taters, among other things.

I wish I had been brave enough to pull out my camera at the concessions area to show you how these things are made. They have a small hand power drill rigged to a table where the potato guy sticks a potato, skin and all. The thing spins super fast against a cutting blade and when it’s all finished, they throw the potato pile into a fryer. You end up with basically a really cool looking string of potato chips. They as much fun to look at as they are to eat. There was also the option to add chee and or chili (just like their curly fries), however I opted to try them plain on the first go.

Twisted Taters

Twisted Taters photo by Jen Goode

Look at this huge box of food! I walked away feeling like I got a bargain for my buck… then I sat down with the rest of the family only to find 1 potato doesn’t last long at all.

So delicious.

If Bob Marley had a flavor

Ever wonder what the Reggae king would taste like? Ask for a Bob Marley the next time you’re near a well stocked liquor stash and you might find out. This stack of drinks was made in Nigril, Jamaica and was unexpectedly potent. There are a number of recipes you can find online, but none of them seem to have this combination of flavors, fruity and minty all at once.

Bob Marley shot

Bob Marley shot photo by Jen Goode

There are two versions, the safe and friendly and the pass out quickly… according to my sources anyway. Both start off with a layer of grenadine, then add banana liquor and top with a mint liquor. The more potent version has an added layer of Sambucca (or some other licorice liquor) which is hardly recognizable until the floor begins to spin. I’m no light weight, yet I found this shot to be both delicious and deadly.

Just remember, don’t over do it when you party with Bob.

What do you get when you combine eggs, BBQ pork, salsa and bacon?

If you’re unsure of this combination, think again, it’s delicious! In our house we tend to “invent” a lot of meals from whatever we have in the fridge. Sometimes it’s leftovers, sometimes we are missing ingredients for otherwise normal meals and sometimes we are just feeling adventurous. This tortilla happiness was the result of a lack of interest in cooking anything big for the day combined with the lack of wanting to make the effort going out to eat.

There isn’t even an official name for this meal because there’s so much going on. Feel free to create your own title, ya never know, it might just stick. Maybe just “scrumptious wrap” will do.

Tortilla yum

photo by Jen Goode

Ingredients in order from bottom to top (because that’s how you pile it).

  • Flour tortilla
  • American cheese
  • Fried egg
  • Salsa
  • BBQ pulled pork
  • Maple bacon
  • Tomato

Then wrap it all up and chow down!

Little bit of Japan in Jamaica

I recently visited Jamaica for a group family vacation at the Beaches resort. There were 4 restaurants to choose from, one of which was Japanese hibachi style dining. The entertainment was more fun (we had a happy singing chef) than the entree as the main meal was fairly standard… pork, chicken,steak with lots of rice with veggies. It was cooked well and had lots of flavor, but nothing out of the ordinary or necessarily exciting. However, the appetizer was fantastic. Not only was it pretty to look at, it was 4 tiny bite-fuls of tasty goodness. I wish my photo were as yummy as the food.

Kimonos appetizer at Beaches in Jamaica

Kimonos appetizer at Beaches in Jamaica photo by Jen Goode

From left to right:tuna sushi on tiny rice roll, potato (my favorite), pork, chilled cucumber

The miso soup was also delicious. I’d never had miso soup before, so I can’t say how it compares to others, but I really enjoyed it. The entire experience was worth the required reservation and wait. The kids enjoyed it and our bellies were happy when it was all over.