Taza Chocolate

What do salt and pepper, salted almonds, chipotle peppers and ginger have in common? They each accent the wonderful, stone ground Mexican chocolate made by Taza chocolatiers. A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of touring their Somerville factory along with Slow Food BU and the Nutrition Club.

While we were warned early in our tour that the owners hate any reference to Willy Wonka, you couldn't help but make the comparison. The factory contained a mix of vintage equipment from Italy and the Dominican Republic. These machines were huge, imposing looking things that roast and winnow (shell) the cocoa beans. You can learn more about their process on their website.

Taza Chocolate is the country's only maker of stone ground organic chocolate. The chocolate is made as pure as possible (as few as three ingredients in some of their flavors) and tastes amazing because of it. If you haven't tried stone ground chocolate before, I highly recommend that you do! It will be unlike any other chocolate you've had -- almost gritty and crumbly and absolutely delicious.

Below you can see the tempering machine (a repurposed donut machine) as it drops measured amounts of chocolate into a mold.

Pumpkin Oatmeal

This is the perfect way to finish off an open can of pumpkin puree. When your oatmeal is almost done, just stir in about 2-3 Tablespoons of pumpkin and a few sprinkles of cinnamon and nutmeg. Top with a drizzle of maple syrup and you are set for an AMAZING breakfast.

Too Much Pumpkin?

Never. But for reals, it just came to my attention that at least 4 of my blog posts thus far have mentioned pumpkins. I would try to argue that I do have food interests other than pumpkin, but right now, I see few dishes that wouldn't be improved with the addition of some orange squash. Below are 5 fall-ish recipes that I'm currently lusting after (believe it or not, that's the abbreviated list).

1. Homemade Pumpkin Spice Lattes. You could probably sub in this Pumpkin Spice Coffee that I saw at Trader Joe's last Friday.
2. Pumpkin Oatmeal (Which would mean two of my favorite things of all time combined in one bowl). Wouldn't that just be delightful?! And after snooping around to find a recipe, it seems that pumpkin oatmeal requires nothing more than stirring a spoonful of canned pumpkin into your oatmeal during the last few minutes on the stove. But if you're feeling extra decadent, this recipe looks pretty amazing.
(Obligatory dietetics note: aside from being delicious, this is an excuse to have a VEGETABLE FOR BREAKFAST. Awesome.)
3. Homemade Pumpkin Butter. 'Nuff said.
4. Pumpkin Bread Pudding. Ditto.
5. Pumpkin Pie Dip. I saw this on Pinterest (my new favorite toy) and it looks amazing! I'm trying to think of a few ways to lighten it up a little and maybe something that could sub in for the Cool Whip. I'll let you know what I come up with.

I'll let you know when a few of these get made it my kitchen...hopefully it won't be too long!

Photo from Boston.com Tumblr

Apples + Yogurt

A winning combination. Let me elaborate on my current snacking obsession:
Equal parts plain yogurt and apple sauce, drizzled with honey. That's it. Plain and simple. Top it with granola and you get my breakfast/lunch/dinner/dessert on any given day during the past few weeks. I'm obsessed.

P.S. Later this week I'll share my favorite granola recipe!

Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Chili

Delicious. And fibrous. We made this for a Nutrition Club meeting a few weeks ago, so naturally I had to run home and make a pot for myself. Between the sweet potatoes, spices and lime juice, this warms your throat with every bite. It is really thick (as you can probably tell from the picture, before everything was stirred together) but it makes it more filling and wintery, I think. The recipe is from the cookbook Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. 

I had to finally post this after reading about other lentil chili recipes here and here. 

P.S. Please excuse my dirty oatmeal pan in the background :) Sometimes the oatmeal pan has a tendency to linger...

Mama Leone

She sure knows how to make some delicious soup. Well, more accurately, Elephant Deli in Portland, OR knows how to make delicious soup. This is an amazing recipe. It's as comforting as your favorite chicken soup but creamy and garlicky and just a little bit spicy. And it has spinach. What's not to love?! You can find the recipe here. I made a ton so that it would last me most of last week...it lasted until Tuesday. Oops. It was just so good.

I love that the recipe calls for fat-free evaporated milk to thicken without adding much fat. I also didn't add quite the full amount of butter that it called for and instead increased the olive oil by a smidge. It didn't taste any different to me!

My friend Alex pointed out that the name Mama Leone is from a Billy Joel song. I wonder if that's where the soup got its name from. Hmmm...the things I think about.