Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Have you see these ingredients yet?

One of the things I look forward to this time of the year is the flood of new baking products that seem to hit the shelves before the holidays. While I was browsing the aisles this weekend at the markets, I picked up a couple of them and then put them back... well after doing that a couple times, I went ahead and bought them anyway. I didn't and still don't have any plans for them yet, but I figure I will come up with/across a recipe where we can fit these two ingredients in!

The first are these caramel chips - really, I could just cut up a chunk of caramel if I needed to, but these just looked fun.

They are small and kind of squishy - I'm wondering how they will handle the heat in the oven. I have a feeling they are just going to melt into little puddles, unlike chocolate chips that keep their shape, but we will have to see. It does, of course, come with the obligatory sticks to make caramel apples if you so desire!

Next, this bag of Jet-Puffed Chocolate Marshmallows caught my attention.

Now, we have made homemade chocolate marshmallows before, so I highly doubt this will compete taste-wise, but I bet these will be fun to use in a recipe or tossed in a mug of hot cocoa. We tried the strawberry flavored ones when they came out a few months ago, however they were a little heavy on the artificially-flavored side and were just OK.

Has anyone else given these a try yet?

On the weekends, I will often cook up a big batch of brown rice, portion it out and keep it in the freezer to speed up weeknight dinners or if I happen to need a quick lunch. I was happy that I did this last Sunday as it greatly sped up the time it took to make tonight's dinner of Stuffed Poblano Peppers. We halved 4 big poblano peppers, stuck 'em under the broiler to char the skin and then removed said blackened skin (never wash it off, you don't want to wash the flavor right down the drain!) after they were cool enough to handle. We mixed the cooked nutty brown basmati rice with some gorgeous mid-summer sweet corn that I had previously blanched and frozen to use throughout the fall and winter season. Some red kidney beans are also tossed in and the mixture is quite simply dressing with extra-virgin olive oil, salt and fresh ground pepper. Each of the pepper halves are stuffed with a generous portion of the rice mixture and topped with a helping of creamy crumbled goat cheese. While this is suggested to be served at room temperature, when we've done stuffed peppers in the past, they are typically baked to finish them off. Don't get me wrong, this was hearty and pretty good for being so easy, but I thought it would have been a little better if they were served warm right out of the oven. We both happened to comment after finishing our plates that we especially liked the tang from the goat cheese and would use that again in other stuffed pepper recipes.

Stuffed Poblano Peppers

12 comments:

  1. I am a marshmallow fiend and as soon as I saw the chocolate marshmallows I snatched them up. I actually really, really liked them, at least by themselves. Great for roasting :)

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  2. I bought the marshmallows, too. I think they're pretty good. I haven't used them all yet.
    The caramel bits look really cool. I'll have to buy some. You could put a caramel in the center of some spiced cookies.

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  3. The caramel bits kind of look like chickpeas.

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  4. Yay! I have a great recipe that calls for caramels but unwrapping them was such a pain I never wanted to make that recipe again. Now I can look forward to it.

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  5. Those caramel bits would be worth it to be able to skip over all that tedious unwrapping. I'll be on the lookout for those. Thanks for the heads-up!

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  6. Keep us updated on the caramels and marshmallows. Both look appealing to me, so I want to know if they need to be added to my baking collection.

    Thanks for commenting on my blog. I love fresh garden tomatoes, but they don't ripen fast enough lol :)

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  7. We don't have any of these fun products in Canada. Please keep us updated about the caramels, if they are worth it, I may need to take a trip!

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  8. I just made something with carmel and after all the unwrapping I did I WISHED I had found this product sooner. I did get the Chocolate Marshmallows... I loved their Strawberry ones but these were just OK. I made some rice crispies with them and after they sat for a day they were really yummy...

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  9. Ok-I take back what I said about the caramels. I found them at the store today, and they're a lot smaller than I thought. I guess you could just stir the caramels in the batter??

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  10. Joe-

    I couldn't find your recipe for the cocoa marshmallows. Could you point me in the right direction please? Thanks!

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  11. Lauren - we have a small fire pit now that sounds like a great plan!

    Emilie - What have you used them in?

    Lauren - hee hee!

    TCJ - Yes! Plus, they will melt much quicker.

    Jennifer - So very true!

    Carla - Will do!

    Emily - I'm not quite sure what I want to do with them yet, but the wheels are turnin'!

    Chloe - Check by the apples, we've found them there most of the time.

    Emilie - Possibly, but I'm afraid they might just melt into puddles - I am hoping they will retain some shape though.

    Molli - I don't think we ever posted that recipe. If you could shoot me an e-mail, I will forward you the recipe.

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  12. I found the caramels and will keep my eye peeled for those marshmallows. I just want to float them on my hot chocolate.

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