How could you NOT want at least one sleeve of Samoas? If you drink a cup of coffee with them, it counts as breakfast, I promise!

You can learn more about the best sale of the year by visiting the Girl Scouts of America website here. And because the Girls Scouts are hip and keeping up with the times (I mean, they are the future leaders of America after all…) there is an awesome cookie locator, as well as an app, that tells you exactly where girls are selling cookies in your neighborhood! They won’t be updated until closer to the sale, but are very good to keep handy! (and to learn about the origin of the Girl Scout Cookie, check out the full history!)

This year, as an added bonus, the Girl Scouts turned to food bloggers in Western Washington to see what we’d do when turned loose with boxes of our favorite sweets. That’s right – a contest – with food bloggers – and COOKIES. It’s dangerous kids, and I’m getting serious….seriously excited. The contest is to use the cookies in a recipe of our own making. And you know I love a challenge. Without further ado, I present to you my savory AND sweet appetizer – Samoa Curry Arancini!

A little sweet, a little salty, a LOT addictive!

What in the heck is Samoa Curry Arancini you ask? That’s a great question – to which I answer: I made it up.

In “old world” Italy, people would take their left over risotto the next day and roll it into balls, then deep fry it into crispy, heavenly balls of fried deliciousness. I decided to take this old Italian recipe to India, to warm it up a bit. The recipe that follows IS EASY – I PROMISE. If it looks complicated, then take a deep breath, it’s smoke and mirrors, and you can use this to your advantage the next time you have company. This is the perfect appetizer to prepare ahead, and fry up at the last minute:

Samoa Curry Arancini

Ingredients

• 1 Cup White Rice (sticky rice like Niko Niko)
• 1 Cup Coconut Milk
• 1 Cup Water
• 1/2 Tbsp. Yellow Curry Powder
• 1/2 Tsp. Salt (plus more for dusting the arancini after frying)
• 1/2 Cup boiled then chopped chicken
• 1 box Girl Scout Samoa Cookies
• 1 Cup Greek Yogurt
• 1 handful fresh basil leaves
• 1 Tbsp fresh mint leaves + a pinch of salt

Coating

• 4-6 Samoa cookies, pulsed into crumbs in a food processor
• 2 Tbsp panko bread crumbs (or regular bread crumbs – plain)

Directions

1. First get your rice and chicken prepared, this can be done at the same time. Get a small pot of water boiling and add your chicken breast (I use a frozen one). Boil till cooked through (about 15 minutes). While that’s boiling, get another small sauce pan for the rice.
2. Combine the coconut milk, water, curry powder, 1/2Tsp. salt and rice in sauce pan. Put on medium heat and stir constantly, THE WHOLE TIME, with a spoon, till it boils. Continue stirring constantly for 2 minutes while boiling. After 2 minutes, turn heat off, cover with lid and remove completely from heat. Set a timer for 20 minutes and do NOT remove the lid.
3. Meanwhile, prep your coating of Samoa crumbs and bread crumbs (I like panko bread crumbs – which are Japanese, but can be bought at any old grocery store). I put this mixture in a bowl and keep it in the freezer till I’m ready to roll the arancini and fry them. This prevents the chocolate from burning in the hot oil.
4. Take 4-5 Samoas and chop each into 4-6 chunks, set aside. You’ll stuff a chunk of Samoa into the middle of each arancini.
5. When your rice and chicken are done, stir them together and refrigerate until chilled completely. Once chilled, use a tablespoon to create evenly sized arancini balls (“arancini” means “orange” in Italian). As you create each ball, stuff a Samoa chunk into the middle and then roll in the crumb mixture.
6. I like to pop the whole batch in the freezer for a few minutes, to chill them down before frying (again to keep the chocolate cold).
7. To prepare your dipping sauce, just toss the greek yogurt, basil, mint and pinch of salt into the blender. Puree it and stick it in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.
8. When guests arrive, get a small sauce pan ready with 1-2 inches of canola oil hot on medium high heat (I set it around 7-8). To test your oil, drop a tiny bit of your rice mixture in and see how long it takes to form a crispy outer crust (this should be no more than 1 minute).
9. To fry, drop the arancini (up to 3 at a time) into the oil and let fry for 1 minute max – this will create a brown, crispy crust (that’s right, it’s a SAMOA CRUST).
10. Plate them up with a saucer full of your basil, mint yogurt sauce, and serve hot. When you bite into the arancini, you’ll get the added surprise of a warm, melted center!

Don't blink, or someone will grab up that crispy, crunchy, melty ball of perfection before you do!

As the arancini fry to a golden crisp, that Samoa chunk you stuffed into the center is liquefying into a caramely, chocolatey, coconutty surprise. The warm flavors of coconut, curry and salty chicken are wonderfully balanced by the sweetness of chocolate and mint, and refreshing basil and yogurt.  Better make a big, BIG batch, because after the first bite, you’ll want to hoard the whole batch to yourself – and so will your guests! Enjoy, and if you have any questions about the recipe, just leave me a comment!

It is such a treat to participate in a wonderful contest that will benefit the Girl Scouts of America by raising awareness not only of their fundraising activities, but also by keeping the community aware of all the great work they promote in local communities. To find out more, please visit http://www.facebook.com/GirlScoutsWW and https://twitter.com/#!/GirlScoutsWW and the Twitter hash #GSCookieRecipe.

Honey Lavender mini baked cake doughnuts with a cream cheese brown sugar glaze and dried lavender

Double Chocolate mini cake doughnuts, baked, with chocolate glaze and crushed pistachios

Ginger nutmeg mini cake doughnuts with orange glaze and coconut sprinkles

All the kids, ready for a field trip to the office to treat my coworkers!

I got the inside track on the following two face-stuffingly good items, and if you’re like me (cheap and unable to resist a chance to stuff your face) then you’ll want to be on point, so pay attention!

Both live tomorrow right here: http://www.giltcity.com/seattle, and you can indulge in The Chocolate Box and 106 Pine & Teacake Bake Shop

For the treat deets, click through to the rest of the post and more mouth watering pics!

First……..

The Chocolate Box and 106 Pine

58% Off Wine and Chocolate Pairing for Two with Urban Wine Tour for $90 (Original Price $216.5)

Includes for two:

•  Two flights of wine
•  Six pieces of chocolate to share and pair
•  Two glasses of wine after tasting
•  Two tickets to the “Urban Wine Tour”
•  Signature salted caramel bites
•  Bottle of wine to take home

And Second…….

Teacake Bake Shop

40% Off Fresh Mini Treats Deluxe Sampler for $24 (Original Price $40)

Includes:

• Eight strawberry jam thumbprints
• Eight Mexican wedding cookies
• Eight star sugar cookies
• Eight coconut macaroons
• Eight lemon coconut cookie sandwiches
• Six chocolate cookie sandwiches

Shipping is not included, not for pick up.

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Do you need an excuse? How about Labor Day?! How about back to school? How about you’re hungry? I could keep going, seriously…..

Cream Cheese stuffed lychee with exotic fruits and basil oil

The column, which runs every Tuesday online here: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/voracious/three-way/, focuses on preparing one ingredient three different ways:

“When your fridge starts to moan and groan from the monotony of the same lame ingredients, it’s time for a culinary three-way. Turning a tired stovetop into a weekday workhorse, Voracious columnist Siiri Sampson brings a fresh, seasonal, or obscure ingredient to life with three treatments: decadent, healthy, and quick-fix.”

So a couple of weeks ago I decided to embark on demystifying the lychee – a true pearl of the South Pacific.

I won’t get into the crazy nitty gritty, for that you can check out the full article, “Exotic Three-Way for Summer with Lychee.” But I did want to show you a couple of pictures like the one above. I did not alter the color, so when you see that bright pink shell/skin on the left, that is truly what the inside looks like. The lychee nut is fleshy and white with the smallest, slender pit that reminds me of a quarter of a walnut. I was able to pry them out relatively easy with a pair of tweezers.

Go check out the article to see how I prepared the lychee and if you’ve got time, stop by your local Asian market to see if they’ve got any. The prime time is about a week or so ago, but you can still find them fresh and always canned – which are almost as good.

Enjoy and happy weekend!

Today marks a couple great things: (1) My mom’s birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!), (2) Gilt City Seattle officially launched today (http://www.giltcity.com/seattle).  I sent my mom flowers and chocolates, so that takes care of item #1. Now for item #2, I wanted to celebrate by sharing some of MY favorite things in Seattle with you, my 5 ever-faithful readers!

If you don’t know much about Gilt City Seattle, you can click that name to find out more, and we highly suggest you do. I for one, am stoked that Seattle’s finally getting Gilted (is that PC?!)

I figured the best way to celebrate and welcome Gilt to the Emerald city would be by giving them (and you) the City Scoop on Seattle from my perspective.  Being a native Seattleite DOES have it’s perks – one being I know where some old, hidden treasures are.  So read on for three of my favorite things: Doughnuts, Asians and Ice Cream – wait, WHAT?!

Best Doughnut: Daily Dozen

In honor of my friend, Scott – the Seattle Food Geek (who you can find at his fabulous site: http://seattlefoodgeek.com) , I thought I’d remind folks of the best doughnut in town. Scott will be on the Food Network tonight, on an episode of Monster Kitchen at 9pm Pacific!!!!  But in case your forgot, you’ll need to stop by Daily Dozen in the Pike Place Market for a “dozen mixed” to enjoy while you watch two chefs battle to build the biggest doughnut – that is, if you can get home without eating them all first!

Best Cheap Find: Rising Sun Produce on 12th and King

Just East of the guts of Seattle’s International district, lies a couple of almost-forgotten blocks of markets and restaurants, sandwiched between commercial garages, warehouses and multi-generational churches.  It’s home to the BEST Asian market with the CHEAPEST and RAREST produce the public can buy. It’s even cheaper than MacPherson’s on Beacon Ave.  I tried looking this up to give you an exact website or map, but literally, it’s not even on there.  This is where I get my lychee, rambutan, dragon fruit, tofu, basil by the fistfuls for $.99 each, come on! They have shallots by the barrel and the most crazy melons and gargantuan jackfruit I’ve seen outside of Asia.  It’s set up like a warehouse and has a distinctly “Asian market smell” to it, but get in there, roll up your sleeves and start buying. You’ll need more than one basket.  And it’s family owned.  I now know them by name, and they’re more than happy to swap cooking secrets with me, what a find!

Best Kept Foodie Secret: Snoqualmie Ice Cream stand in Pike Place Market

I can’t even believe I’m telling you people this, because it’s only my favorite place in the whole world, and the only place I can find their Honey Lavender ice cream, since they don’t sell it in stores.  But seriously, there’s NO PROBLEM that a pint of Snoqualmie Ice Cream can’t fix.  And this stand (cash only), is a hidden gem that delivers flavors you can’t buy at QFC. So, where is it? Listen closely, because I’m seriously only telling you once: on the East side of the street, entering the market on Pike St., about 100 ft. down on the right, there’s a cheese stand and a Chinese tchocke stand. Go directly between the two, down a short hallway, to the end, on the left.  It’s so small, it looks like it might not even be a business, but it is.  And you should make it your business to go get some, okay?

Did that get your attention? I hope so, because this weekend you can drive to Maltby, just 30-40 minutes North of Seattle and insert your face into a truckload of free ice cream, hot dogs and more with the Snoqualmie Ice Creamery.

Snoqualmie Ice Cream Announces First Annual Ice Cream-O-Rama
June 25th, 11:00am – 4:00pm
FREE ICE CREAM – LIVE MUSIC – ICE CREAMERY TOURS

Here’s the skinny (which I won’t be after I eat all the ice cream), they are NOT paying me to say this, in fact, I’m getting nothing whatsoever. I have loved this company for the past 5 years, after I first discovered their honey lavender (now French Lavender) in a little stand behind a cheese counter and next to a Chinese tchotke stand in the Pike Place market. It. CHANGED. MY. LIFE. True story.

Get this, they’re also adding a sustainable farm.  That’s right, they started with ice cream, and now they’ll have a FARM. I love these people. Proof you can do multiple things really well, right?

Here’s a sketch of the upcoming farm.  Here’s a bit more info on that if you’re interested, or you can scroll down to find out who is going to be entertianing you while you lick a million licks of ice cream:

The addition of the onsite sustainable farm is just one more step toward the company’s goal of being as sustainable as possible while crafting the most perfect ice cream imaginable.  When the Bettinger’s built their new Ice Creamery in 2005 they set out to be as environmentally responsible as possible. The custom build factory was the first certified sustainable building in Snohomish County and incorporates green designs including the solar panels that help run the plant and the demonstration bioswale built to collect rain water runoff. As a result of these efforts, Snoqualmie Ice Cream uses up to 50% less energy and generates zero rain water runoff while producing some of the best ice cream possible.

WHO’S COMING WITH ME?!?!?!?!?!  I’ll be there sometime between 2-4pm, so if you’re coming too, you can tweet me or use: #SnoQuoIceCream in your tweets!

You can also find Snoqualmie Ice Cream in a handful of grocery stores. Here in Seattle I’ve found it in QFC and can barely keep my hands off it! (and I am not even a sweets person!)

For more information visit www.snoqualmieicecream.com

Get the scoop on Snoqualmie Ice Cream news and events on Facebook and Twitter.

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MALTBY, WA—June 17, 2011— Snoqualmie Ice Cream, the Pacific Northwest’s top ice cream producer, is set to kick off ice cream month (July) a little early with its first annual ICE-CREAM-O-RAMA at the company’s Ice Creamery and Café in Maltby, WA on Saturday, June 25th.  The free event will feature live music, free ice cream and hot dogs, tours of the company’s Ice Creamery, and the unveiling of the company’s new 1.5 acre sustainable farm where they will soon produce many of their key ingredients right on site – the farm will produce everything from fresh honey and eggs to lavender and blackberries for the company’s 700+ flavors of ice cream, gelato, custard and sorbet.

The event will run from 11:00am – 4:00pm and will kick-off with a short dedication for the sustainable farm which will be followed by a full day of fun including live musical performances throughout the day by some of Pike Place Market’s top performers and a special performance at 2:00 p.m. by the Presidents of the United States’ Chris Ballew as Casper Babypants. 

Snoqualmie Ice Cream, based in Maltby, is owned by Barry and Shahnaz Bettinger who have made all-natural hand-crafted ice cream, gelato, custards and sorbets for the past 14 years.  In addition to selling nearly 700,000 pints annually at major grocery stores throughout Washington, Oregon, California and Texas, the company also operates an on-site Café where visitors can try some of the company’s 700 custom flavors as well as homemade soups and sandwiches.  Additionally, the company supplies the ice cream base for many of the region’s most popular ice cream shops as well as custom ice cream flavors to many top restaurants, resorts and food service providers throughout the Northwest.

In addition to unveiling the new onsite farm, Snoqualmie Ice Cream has a lot to celebrate at the 2011 Ice Cream-O-Rama. With sales growing steadily, the company recently expanded sales into Texas and launched a fresh new package design and web site:  www.snoqualmieicecream.com. However, even with some new changes the one thing that has remained constant year after year and keeps customers coming back is the passion that Snoqualmie Ice Cream puts into each and every pint.

This week the recipe is “Warm New Potato Salad with Grainy Mustard”, and you can guess we’re getting a batch of new potatoes in our bin this week?!

source: NewRootsOrganics.com

I’m excited to give this recipe a try! Head over to New Roots Organics website to see all the other recipes they have up (and no, I’m not getting paid, or anything for free from them, I’m just excited, darn it!!!!) (click through for the recipe, and don’t forget you can always sub out for any other potato or root veggie in a pinch!)

Warm New Potato Salad with Grainy Mustard (Serves 4)

Sake #1: Junmaiginjo Jokigen. (Taste slightly of pears)

Note from Barrie: jump off the cliff, go for it!!!

Tasting note: Satori cheese, paired with Sato’s Rice Label sake. The cheese is a asiago cows milk from Winsconsin. The cheese smells of tomato and rye before you eat it.

Pairing #2:

Drink: A rum out of Martinique from a family joint.
Note: a slice of lime rather than a wedge for the drink to prevent sourness.

Espresso rinded cheese with rum??? DUHHHH, THAT'S A YES! www.TheCheeseImpresario.com

Barrie note: “Just like a relationship,1+1 should always = more than 1. Put each other on a pedestal.”

And here are some of the pictures I tweeted while there last night:

Getting ready for a delicious evening of cheese, spirits, friends and food lessons with The Cheese Impresario, Barrie!

Okay, so I ended up doing more talking, sampling and “mmmmmmm!”ing than note taking, but my phone battery was dying and can you really blame me anyway?!  Everything was amazing and Barrie blew my mind, what an amazing ability to sense the best of each ingredient and think outside the box! I hope she does another event soon, and for the larger public, because it would be REALLY fun to have a group of friends go to this together and learn, eat and have a blast!

A HUGE thank you to my girl, Keren, (www.FranticFoodie.com) for putting this together and inviting to me come along for the ride.  An equally HUGE thank you to Barrie Lynn, (www.TheCheeseImpresario.com) for being so fabulous and wonderful and letting us all experience what she’s known for years: CHEESE RULES!

Check out Barrie’s series, Cheese Rules, on Small Screen: http://www.smallscreennetwork.com/cheeserules 

I sliced them up, sprinkled a bit of raw sugar on them, tossed, then threw on top of some non-fat Greek Yogs (yes, I’m on a slang name basis with yogurt these days. It’s like a family member).

Another variation I’ve been getting into after we got back from our trip to Greece recently is Greek Yogurt with a dash of cinnamon mixed in, and a dollop of honey on top, stirred in ever so slightly. YUM! The honey does this little crystallization thingy and when you bite into it, you get the two textures and flavors at the same time. And the best part, besides all that flavor, is that Greek Yogurt (at least the nonfat variety) has about  23 grams of protein per 1 cup serving. That’s what I call a double duty food!