Tuesday Tastings: Quick & Easy Appetizers

Today, Los Angeles Pierce College's radio station KPCRadio.com celebrated one year of broadcasting. Mel is the Communications Director of KPCRadio.com and for the first anniversary she was designated the task of providing appetizers for guests.

We tried to accomplish this feat hoping to find simple yet inexpensive recipes.

After resorting to a few quick searches on the web we decided on making deviled eggs, individual jello cups, a scallion spread for crackers, a platter of croissant sandwiches, sparkling lemonade and purchased a vegetable platter.

The sparkling lemonade combined sparkling apple cider, club soda, lemonade concentrate, slices of lemonade and ice.

Water crackers with a spread are an easy option. Mel chopped scallions and mixed them into cream cheese. We found that after a couple hours of refrigeration the scallion flavor set into the cream cheese and the spread was more flavorful. This was quite good and really simple with just two ingredients!

We boiled eggs, sliced them in half, took out the yellow middle and mixed it in a bowl with a few other ingredients. Not very difficult to make at all.

Jello is definitely one of the most inexpensive desserts one could make. It really doesn't require much work. You just let it sit in the refrigerator.

We made the jello in disposable cups in order to avoid a messy situation and also strive for a tasteful presentation.

Funny thing is, we had never made jello. We learned quickly through trial and error. Initially, we made a sheet of blue colored jello hoping to create flower cutouts with a cookie cutter. This did not turn out at all as planned. The flowers immediately fell apart.

In hopes of creating something presentable we cut strawberries and attempted to shape them into flowers. We were able to achieve this. It took three layers of the same flavored jello for the strawberries to set (if you completely cover the pieces, they will float to the top and you won't have a flower).

In order to have the strawberries in the center of the cup we poured a layer of jello that filled about half of the cup. After that solidified, about 3 hours later we put the cut strawberry pieces in the cups and poured enough jello to partly cover the strawberries. We let that second layer solidify. Later, we were able to add a third and final layer that completely covered the strawberries.

The cups were topped off with whipped cream.

Tuesday Tastings: Elementary My Dear

I few weeks back, we volunteered to work the polls for the city elections. It was a pretty uneventful day. I hadn't eaten breakfast in the morning, before heading out because I'm usually never up so early. Though I wasn't in a foul mood because I made a quick morning coffee run, I wasn't the best company.

The elections took place in the auditorium of a local elementary school. I'd never even heard of the school prior to election day.

As teacher's began to pour in and breakfast was being prepared for the students in the adjoining cafeteria, our team began deliberating what we would eat.

It was a topic of great interest to each of us.

The cafeteria workers then informed us that we could purchase food from the cafeteria. Though this may seem very strange, we became completely thrilled at this notion.

We purchased our breakfast and honestly couldn't be any happier. The cardboard food tray, plastic cereal bowls, mini milk cartons, and juice boxes brought us a whiff of nostalgia. LAUSD cafeteria food is notorious for being repulsive but I hadn't eaten school food since my days in Middle School.

I thoroughly enjoyed every bite of my breakfast.

When breakfast was over, we counted down the minutes until lunch was ready. As far as school food, our lunch did not disappoint. The broccoli was severely dry and flavorless, the packaged grapes were apparently not edible, the burger buns were stiff as a board and the chicken patty was nice and bland. I couldn't be happier.

The hot sauce was exactly as I remembered it. Amazing!

With all this said, I definitely would not want to eat this on a daily basis, however, it was nice to hit up memory lane.

I was remise however, for not having been given a spork, napkin and straw packet.

Tuesday Tastings: Top 10 Favorite Chocolates

Several of these chocolates that can be purchased in Grocery Markets and taste pretty amazing!

1. Perugina Baci

I first tried these when I was at a gas station somewhere between Rome and Florence on recommendation of an Italian woman. I'm not sure if this is true but according to this woman, when I man wants to propose to a woman he presents her with Baci.

"Baci" means kiss in Italian. These small pieces come wrapped in either a box, tube, or bag of various sizes. Once opened, each piece contains a multilingual love note.

What other chocolate tells you of love?

Besides having adorable packaging they are extremely delicious! They are made of dark chocolate with hazelnut filling and each contain a whole hazelnut.

I have a soft spot for hazelnuts.

These can be difficult to come around but I find that they are usually stocked at Cost Plus World Market.

2. Godiva Hazelnut Praline Truffle

I worked at Godiva for a short term and during that time I got very much acquainted with their chocolate which is pretty spectacular. While they do carry various excellent truffles, I have to say that this is the best one.

These are traditional Belgian praline truffles made of milk chocolate and coated in bits of toffee-coated hazelnut pieces. These can be pricey at $48 a pound but are definitely worth it.

3. Ferrero Rocher

Ferrero Rocher may be a bit cliche but that doesn't stop it from being delicious. There's something so simple yet genius about these small pieces of heaven. I'm not the biggest fan of milk chocolate but every time I bite into a Ferrero Rocher, I am forced to reconsider.

Perhaps it once was the food of the gods and is now being enjoyed by us mere mortals.

4. Milka Milk Chocolate Confection With Hazelnuts

I remember a high school friend once telling me that she loved Milka and she really wanted a bar but couldn't find it anywhere. Sometime later I stumbled upon Milka while I was shopping at Cost Plus World Market.

Milka makes several different bars and after trying most of them I concluded that this was the best one. This Milka chocolate bar is made of smooth German alpine chocolate with hazelnuts throughout.

Nowadays these bars can be found in practically any market. It's pretty amazing stuff.

5. Ritter Sport, Milk Chocolate With Whole Hazelnuts

Ritter Sport makes so many different kinds of chocolate bars and while I haven't gotten around to trying them all, this is my personal favorite as of yet.

This Ritter bar is made of German milk chocolate with whole roasted hazelnuts.

Put simply it's, "quality in a square."

6. Ritter Sport Butter Biscuit Chocolate

I ended up trying this bar when I was on a Target run, they didn't have the whole hazelnut Ritter Sport bars in stock so, I decided to buy this one as an alternative.

I was skeptical at first but the woman paying ahead of me at the cash register told me that it was amazing and that I had to get it. She said she used to eat them sporadically while she was pregnant. Since she insisted I had to try them, I did.

Needless to say, she did not let me down.

This Ritter bar is basically a wonderful butter biscuit covered in milk chocolate. Yum!

7. Godiva Dark Chocolate Truffle Gems

I got around to trying these while working at Godiva. These gems were some of my favorite Godiva pieces because of their sheer simplicity and amazing taste! The truffles come individually wrapped and are made of dark chocolate with a creamy dark chocolate ganache filling. Sheer genius.

8. Milka Alpine Milk Chocolate

My brothers brought Mel and I heaps of Milka bars (contained in cute cow cases) when they returned from their ventures in Kosovo. I must say that this alpine milk chocolate is divine.

9. Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Kisses With Almonds

Kisses are so plain and ordinary but that's no reason to count them out, they remain a small bundle of joy. While I do not eat them frequently, when I do, I love leaving the kiss in my mouth until it melts. The almond is an added bonus.

Ah. Plain deliciousness.

10. Twix

I'm still not too sure if this is the right choice but the number 10 spot goes to Twix. For the sake of not having another chocolate piece with hazelnuts, I've opted for Twix.

While Twix isn't necessarily the chocolate bar that I always reach out and grab right before paying at the cash register, it is pretty good.

I'm not even the biggest fan of caramel but there's something about the crunchy combination of chocolate, caramel, and a biscuit that always gets to me.

Meiji Comes To Costco!

I'm a big fan of Japanese treats so imagine my wonderful surprise when I was in Costco today and came across Hello Panda & Yan Yan in bulk. A pleasant surprise indeed!

The Hello Panda comes with 10 boxes and is about six bucks. The Yan Yan cost about the same however, those only come in the chocolate flavor.

5 lb Monster Burrito

El Tepeyac Cafe, a Mexican Resaurant in Los Angeles, has an eating competition in which one fearless contender must devour a 5 pound pork burrito.

This is not a task for the faint hearted.

Frank, undertook this enormous feat and he came out of it a victor.