Today someone asked me how I made that quick hot fudge sauce for the our banana split dessert last night. Quite simply, it’s the easiest recipe in the world. If you’re scared of burning the chocolate, I’d do this over a double boiler on the stove (to do this, put an inch of water into a pan, then put a heat proof bowl larger than the diameter of the pot on top of it, then bring the water to a gentle simmer). But to be honest, I have enough faith in every single one of you that I think you can pull this off in the microwave. Really.

Step 0 – Get a microwave safe bowl out. Glass is fine. Make sure it’s completely dry, with no little droplets of water in it (as can happen when something is fresh out of the dishwasher). Why? If you add a little bit of water to chocolate, it causes it to seize up. This is not delicious.

Step 1 – Pour some chocolate chips in the bowl. I like Ghiradelli semi sweet for this, but whatever you have is fine. If you don’t have chips but have a bar of chocolate, chop that up and throw it in the bowl.

Step 2 – Microwave this on 80% power for 15 seconds. Take it out and give it a stir. Then stir it some more. Hey, stir it gently! If you stir too vigorously, little bubbles will form.

Step 3 (more…)

Well, we all made it through Thanksgiving 2009 with no major battle wounds (although root causes of any future required angioplasty could probably be traced back to yesterday’s mac and cheese), and now it’s time to look forward — to the holidays!

Though I don’t have too big of a sweet tooth, there are two desserts I simply can’t refuse: ice cream (of any kind, really), and a well done cookie. Put the two together? Oh me, oh my.

Joe’s absolute favorite type of cookie is oatmeal chocolate chip. I won’t be surprised if you tell me you’ve never had one. (more…)