When I was a Junior Girl Scout, the other girls sold box after box of Thin Mints, Do-si-Dos, and even those boring Trefoils, and received backpacks and beach towels and stuffed animals for their efforts.

...I sold twenty boxes and got a lousy iron-on patch.

Okay, so I'll never be an entrepreneur. That's okay. Doesn't mean I can't still enjoy the cookies, like the Samoas in Susan's unbelievably decadent recipe on her Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy blog.

Susan made some adjustments to her Chocolate Mascarpone Cheese Pie and came up with what she calls her Thank Heaven For Little Girl (Scout)s Samoa Cheese Tart, which sounds absolutely divine.

Susan's so nice, she buys cookies from all of the Scouts, but you technically only need one box of the Samoas, plus a few other things...

What is it about Southerners and coconut cake? Maybe the thick drifts of ivory icing remind us of the snow we don't get. Maybe the lacy curls of coconut call to mind the frilled white gowns at the debutante balls we're (still, seriously) so fond of.

Though, in what's perhaps a sign of the changin' times in the New South, the best "classic Southern" coconut cake I've ever tasted was from a Thai restaurant near where I grew up in Durham, North Carolina.

I adore the looks of this Southern coconut cake from Big City, Little Kitchen, adapted from Gourmet Magazine. So light and soft. I'd like to make this on a Sunday afternoon and take a fat slice out to the veranda with a good book. If I had a veranda.

At this point in the grand game we call "The Race to Finish Holiday Baking," we're looking at cookies and confections that are easy, fast, but still have that "ooooh"-inducing factor. Perhaps the easiest thing I've ever come across in this category is the coconut macaroon, with all of four ingredients and nothing but a stir-and-bake. I feel almost Sandra Lee because there's no measuring involved, really. All of the ingredients come straight from 14 oz packages or cans, and we're quite sure you can't really mess up on a teaspoon of vanilla.

Of course, the real "ooooh"-inducing factor isn't the coconut macaroon part, but the chocolate dipping - either regular or white. White chocolate just seems more "holiday," but if you use regular semi-sweet or milk chocolate, dip from the bottom, and the tiny macaroons will look like brown chocolate mountains with white coconut peaks.

I realize that I've posted nearly every day this week about one or another dish that appeared at the Philly Food Blogger Potluck last Friday. I hope I'm not boring you with all these posts, it just doesn't seem right not to share all the wonderful things that I got to taste that night. And with that introduction, let me tell you about what may be one of the best cookies I've ever tasted (and I've eaten more than my share of cookies over the years).

Elizabeth, who is also responsible for the Elvis and Fluffer Nutter cakes I've posted about in the past, brought a large container of her famous Coconut Almond Toffee Crunch cookies to the potluck. She describes them perfectly in her post as a cookie that has evolved into a treat "that combines chewy, crunchy, sweet, salty, and buttery." People who loudly announced that they didn't like coconut devoured them. Folks sneaked stacks of them out in napkins. One blogger said she was going to take the cookie in her hand home to her boyfriend but was then spotted eating it a few moments later. They are just that good.

Instead of limiting yourself to semisweet, dark and white chocolate chips the next time you set out to make a batch of cookies, consider getting some more unusually flavored chips. Vosges Chocolate has a line of three flavors of Exotic Chocolate Chips. Black Pearl Exotic Chocolate Chips are dark chocolate flavored with ginger, wasabi and black sesame seeds. Naga Exotic Chocolate Chips have a milk chocolate base that is spiked with sweet Indian curry powder and coconut flakes. Finally, the chocolatier also makes Red Fire Exotic Chocolate Chips, dark chocolate with Mexican ancho and chipotle chili peppers and Ceylon cinnamon. Each 4-oz. bag of chips sells for $8.50.

Vosges doesn't leave you on your own to come up with recipes that the chocolate chips can be included in, either. With each of the three types of chocolate chips, they list several recipes that will work perfectly with them. For example the Red Fire Martini and Love Goddess Cake work well with the Red Fire Chips and the Black Pearl Chips are the star in Full Moon Brownies.

What are the best and worst fillings that you'll find in your Halloween candy this year? Cracked.com investigates.

Naturally, they pick "caramel" for the best category, and they're OK with nougut too. But don't even mention the words "peanuts" or "coconut." Not only do they believe the peanuts don't belong in candy bars, they wonder "why would anyone voluntarily eat coconut?"

Hey, I kinda like coconut in my candy, within reason. In an Almond Joy or Mounds or in a Whitman's sampler? Thumbs up! But when they start adding it to candy bars that have peanut butter in them...ugh.

But I think we can all agree on razor blades.

We all know what the evil foods are. Stuff like candy, salty snacks, mayo, sour cream, soda. But there are some so-called "unhealthy" foods that just might be good for you.

According to Men's Health mag, foods like sour cream, chocolate, and booze can actually be good for you. We know that chocolate contains a lot of stuff that can be healthy (especially dark chocolate, the more cocoa the better) and we know that red wine has important antioxidants. But what about stuff like pork rinds and sour cream? Well, pork rinds have zero carbs, tons of protein, and while they have around 9 grams of fat per serving, that's still less than potato chips. And sour cream? While the percentage of fat per serving is high, the total isn't, and most have less fat than you'll get drinking an 8 ounce glass of 2% milk.

Of course, no one's saying to base your eating habits and all your meals around pork rinds and sour cream, but it's probably best not to eliminate so-called "bad" foods from your diet and to keep an open mind about your diet and how to eat things in moderation.

It all started with mango - the craze for tropical flavored sorbets. Now, the "it" flavor is coconut, and The San Franicsco Chronicle has done a taste test of store-bought products. Two coconut sorbets tied for first place with 69 out of 100 points: Ciao Bella and Sharon's, which is the best deal since it's only $1.99 at Trader Joe's. Palapa Azul and Mudslinger's FreeStyle tied for second, and the last two, Seattle Sorbets and Whole Fruit were dissed for an "artificial taste."

Of course, you can also make coconut sorbet at home. Sharp Cookie is Loco for Coconut Sorbet, The Scent of Green Bananas keeps it simple with just three ingredients, and Andrea's Recipe Box experiments with Cream of Coconut.

Hershey's has been doing well with their filled Hershey's Kisses. Both the limited edition and non-limited edition candies have been well received and have their loyal fans. To the list that includes peanut butter kisses, dulce de leche kisses, cherry kisses and (my personal favorite) caramel kisses, we can now add another flavor: coconut creme.

The new Kisses are limited edition and feature a classic milk chocolate kiss with a coconut filling. They were released for the summer, so it is likely that they'll only be around for another month or two. The filling tastes much like a coconut macaroon: moist, very strongly flavored, sweet and slightly grainy from what appears to be real coconut bits. To put it bluntly, they are delicious, especially if you are a coconut fan. The combination of chocolate and coconut is great and the flavors and textures play off one another beautifully. I don't know that I could eat a lot of them at one time, but the chocolate to coconut ratio seems much more balanced - and more appealing - than a larger bar, such as Mounds.

Yep, an entire site (and domain, for that matter) dedicated to defeating and enjoying the world's largest seed. Having grown up in the tropics, I've opened my share of coconuts. That's not to say I'm any good at it, but I was definitely curious to see which method this site suggested. I was with them for part about using a nail or drill to let out the milk through the three holes at the top. And, while I'm sure a hammer and towel works just fine, I've always had the best luck with a C-clamp. Just clamp it on to the sides opposite the holes made for the milk and twist it down until the coconut cracks. I've also heard of putting coconuts in the oven to make them easier to open, but I've never had to resort to that. Differences in methods aside, the step-by-step photo walkthrough on this site is a good one. Aside from HowToOpenACoconut.com, there are also similar sites for pineapples, corn, burgers and baked potatoes.

The May issue of the Observer Food Monthly -

• Nigel Slater puts the season's vegetables and herbs to good use with braised spring vegetables, grilled chorizo with almonds sherry vinegar and spring cabbage, green chicken and coconut soup and salmon with pea puree.
• Green and Black's Maya Gold, the first British Fairtrade project, is the livelihood for a whole area of Belize.
• Scottish children have the worst teeth in Britain. But can the blame really be laid at the door of sugary sweets?
• Willie Mae Seaton explains how, post Katrina,  food is the key ingredient in the regeneration of New Orleans.
• New books for foodies.
• Can you shop at the supermarket and be eco-friendly? Only if you drink carbon-neutral tea.
• Gardener Diarmuid Gavin at his favourite table in Eden, Dublin.

 

Sno Balls are snack cakes made by Hostess. They were introduced in 1947 and consist of a chocolate cupcake filled with creme filling, coated with a marshmallowy fluff and rolled in coconut. When you look closely, you can see that the interior is really  a regular Hostess Ding Dong or cupcake that has been turned upside down. Nevertheless, they have a lot of retro appeal and, like must snack foods, become even more appealing when super-sized. I found this photoset on Flickr when I was looking around for more pimped out snack ideas. The chocolate cake dome was baked in a round bowl, hollowed out and covered with homemade marshmallow. Check out the whole photoset to see all the steps.

I'm definitely keeping this idea near the top of my list for birthday party cakes. Not only is it adorable, but since it's homemade, I'm willing to bet that it's delicious.

When you hear the phrase "coconut milk," the image that might stick in your mind is the juice that is found inside the center of a coconut. At least, that is what most people assume that it is. Actually, the liquid endosperm inside a young coconut is known as coconut water. It is fat free and low in calories, but is a good source of potassium and other nutrients.

Coconut milk is made by pureeing a mixture of coconut meat and water, then straining it to remove some of the fat. A second straining will yield a lower fat coconut milk. Coconut cream is made in the same way as coconut milk, but it is made with a higher ratio of coconut to water. Sometimes, coconut cream will form on the top of canned coconut milk. The two are pretty much interchangeable in recipes, though they have slightly different consistencies. For the curious, some other drinks, such as almond milk, are made in the same way.

Cream of coconut is not the same as coconut cream. It is the creamy liquid often added to pina coladas (and various other drinks and dishes). Though it starts out as coconut cream, sugars and stabilizers are added to give it an especially creamy consistency and to make it more palate-pleasing in drinks and desserts.

I remember going to the Expo West trade show in Anaheim the last few years. It's a giant trade show for natural, whole and organic products. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go this year, but I did pop over to Epicurious' Daily Dish to find out what kinds of new products are on the horizon. One of them is coconut water.

Coconut water, not to be confused with coconut milk or coconut cream, is the liquid inside young, green coconuts that eventually gets absorbed into the coconut's flesh as it matures into those hard hairy things. Coconut water isn't of course, new, as people in the tropics have been drinking the stuff for years, but it is now being bottled and marketed as the new sports drink. Coconut water is naturally fat free, is very low in calories, and is very high in potassium and other electrolytes (just like Gatorade!).

[photo: maria brazil]