Sharing

Looking at all of my lovely recipes on this blog, I have noticed that the majority of them are desserts. Reading this, you may wonder "Kim, how do you eat all of those amazing desserts and stay skinny?" Well, there's a lot of reasons. I work out every day, genetics have smiled upon me, and I do eat a fairly healthy diet. But that stuff is food for my body, this blog is about what I cook to feed my soul. Plus, no one wants to read about dipping carrots in hummus, that's boring. But I do have one other secret, and it's one you may have learned in preschool: Sharing. Yup, when I cook something that should definitely NOT stay in the same room as me, I share it. My friends get to try more of my cooking, and this way I'm not eating an entire cake like the pig I know I secretly am. I enjoy the experience of cooking, so I will always want to cook even if I don't plan on eating very much of it. Sharing is a win all around.

So, of course when I have an event where there will be multiple people and food, of course I bring my cooking to share. I have literally hundreds of recipes to choose from (ah, to be alive in the age of the internet), and the more I get to try, the better. One of my good buddies from college came to visit this wee, and we decided to have a game night on Saturday. We all brought various food items and games, and had a great time. I, of course, had to be extra and bring both a sweet dish and a savory one. Both dishes received rave reviews from the elite tasting critics, aka my friends. So, you get two recipes in this post, how 'bout that?

First up is the cheese dip. I forgot to take a picture before digging in (the smell that had the entire room drooling might have had something to do with it), but it came out looking pretty much like the pictures from the original blog post. This dip is addictive, cheesy goodness. I recommend serving it with pita chips for optimum scooping and flavor. Here's the original recipe:

Garlic Herb Tomato Goat Cheese Dip

Sprinkles of Kim:
-I misjudged the amount of goat cheese called for, so I only had half of the amount, and I added extra ricotta to make up for it
-More garlic. I used at least 3 cloves and sprinkled in some garlic salt.
-I forgot to get fresh basil (I was really on top of things this week, wasn't I?), so I used dried
-I added a bunch of thyme and some rosemary
-The tomatoes are supposed to go in whole, but that seemed kinda dumb to me, so I quartered them to make them easier to scoop onto the crackers.

Okay, now for the sweet dish, my piece de resistance. Matcha truffles. Everyone had the same reaction biting into these little beauties: a slight pause as the white chocolate and green tea flavors blend, and then a loud sigh of "mmmmmm." These taste like ice cream. Green tea ice cream is a popular flavor in Japan, and these truffles show why. They're sweet, creamy, smooth, and basically little balls of heaven. I'm awful at math, but here's some math for you. I brought 36 truffles to a gathering with six people including myself. I only ate two truffles as I wanted to sample everyone else's food and make sure everyone got some truffles. There were no truffles left over at the end of the night. Now, I'm no mathematician, but I'm pretty sure that equals some darn tasty truffles. These are also very easy to make, so I'll probably be using this basic recipe to make different variations. Speaking of which, here's my recipe:

Matcha Truffles

One thing I love about matcha is the pretty bright green color it gives to everything. Very festive.

Sprinkles of Kim:
-This recipe is made or broken by your chocolate, so choose wisely. I used CandiQuick because I know I love the way it tastes and it's readily available. The brand and quality of chocolate you use will dictate whether your truffles are more ice cream-like in flavor or more chocolatey.
-I put in about half a teaspoon more matcha powder than the recipe called for because I really wanted the flavor to come through
-I dusted them in just powdered sugar rather than use more matcha because most of it falls off anyway, so it felt like a waste to use more of my very limited supply
-This recipe will come out differently based on the temperature and humidity the day you make them. It was very hot and humid, so the truffles were a little hard to roll because they got soft and sticky. I was able to remedy this by putting them in the fridge periodically while I was working.

Sharing is caring, so remember to share what you make with those you love.