I recently entered a national contest for the chance to host a series of 2-minute televised cooking shows. In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m hoping that if I win this contest, it will catch of the eye of the Food Network folks and they’ll finally accept one of my many applications to be on Chopped!
I’m being intentionally vague about this contest, because the winner won’t be decided for a couple of weeks and I don’t want to mess up my chances by saying too much now.
I will tell you that one of the judges is one of my all-time favorite chefs, Jacques Pepin, who, btw, was a good friend of Julie Child.
Speaking of Julia Child, have I mentioned lately in the last 5 minutes that I once interviewed and met (in that order) Child for a story? True. Her thank-you postcard – complete with her “Fred”-like signature – is one of those prized possessions I’d grab if the house were in flames.
Julia Child sent Doni this thank-you postcard after Doni’s interview with Child for a story that appeared in the newspaper. Doni was able to meet Julia and hand-deliver a bed desk made by her then-husband.
I will also tell you that if I had entered this contest six months ago, my POV (point of view, as they say in the business), would have been more along the lines of the way I used to eat and cook: homemade pasta, homemade yeast breads and lots of desserts. Basically, my former area of culinary expertise was anything where flour or sugar were the main ingredients.
If Doni looks tired, it’s because taping a 2-minute cooking segment took far longer than she had imagined. See in the comments section to learn how long the taping took Doni and her twin.
My POV did an about face three months ago, when I started my new weight-loss and healthy journey with Matthew Lister at Align Private Training. That’s when I decided that my best POV was to lose the FAT.
Now, I still bake, but I don’t eat what I make. In fact, when I cook for myself, flour or sugar are NEVER among the ingredients. These days, my shopping list is extremely short: leafy greens, celery, bell pepper, cottage cheese, apples, lean meat, fish and Greek yogurt.
Oh, about Greek yogurt. I was going through so much of it that I decided to make my own, after I was inspired by a Greek Airbnb guest who told me how simple it was.
This little gadget makes seven containers of yogurt.
I bought a little yogurt incubator that comes with seven glass jars. I’m loving the whole process, and have experimented with adding cinnamon and a little honey to it, since that’s what I end up adding to the Greek yogurt any way.
I’m often asked how long I will be on this diet, and when I can start eating “normal” again. OMG, I’ve turned into one of those people who reply that it’s not a diet, but a lifestyle change. The thing is, I really, really mean it.
I truly have a hard time imagining myself eating a bucket of popcorn at a movie, or having a piece of pie at a restaurant, or, God forbid, creme brulee, which, fyi, is one of the most fattening desserts of all time, right up there with cheesecake.
But sometimes there are special occasions and celebrations. For those times, celery sticks just won’t cut it. Even so, I don’t want to totally fall off the wagon.
My POV for the cooking contest is that I still want to be a foodie, but not a fatty. I still want to create special treats once in a while, but without a lot of carbs and sugar.
With that in mind, I created a recipe for some little low-carb, sugarless, flourless chocolate souffle cakes. The inspiration was an adaptation of a flourless chocolate cake recipe I got from Maddalena herself of Cafe Maddalena in Dunsmuir another lifetime/marriage ago. Now that I think of it, at the time I got into hot water for writing in my newspaper column that IMHO, the best restaurant in Redding was in Dunsmuir, referring to Cafe Maddalena’s.
My youngest son was with us at the time, and he’d ordered Maddalena’s flourless chocolate cake, and as we left the restaurant, I told Maddalena how much we’d loved that dessert. She took about 10 seconds to rattle off ingredients and ratios. I still have the little scrap of memo paper upon which I scrawled Maddalena’s “recipe” as soon as I got inside the car.
Maddalena’s recipe used almond paste instead of flour, but almond paste has a lot of sugar. So my recipe uses finely ground almonds. I also used unsweetened chocolate and a sugar replacement designed just for baking. (I used Truvia, but you can use what you want.)
To make it extra flavorful, I added espresso, grated orange and almond extract, which goes nicely with the ground almonds.
I baked the desserts in little ramekins in a water bath, which keeps them nice and moist, and helps prevent the bottoms from getting browned.
I submitted my 2-minute video to the contest with a few hours to spare before deadline (typical for me). I had help making the video, of course. My wonderful, patient twin was my videographer, and even allowed the recipe to be attached to her nose during taping so I could look at her as I spoke.
Sister Shelly is the ultimate good sport. Doni owes her twin for not just helping with the video, but allowing herself to be a human cue card.
This human cue card method is a version of what I did many years ago, when I worked at the paper and was one of the columnists who appeared regularly on KRCR to talk with Jennifer Scarborough and Mike Mangas about whatever we’d written that week. This was back when the paper and TV station doing a collaboration thing. TV is not my forte, so I asked for an enlarged photo of Jennifer to be taped to one of the cameras, so I could feel I was looking at her, not a black piece of machinery.
No segue, but would you care to guess how many hours it took for us to create one acceptable 2-minute video? (Leave your guess in the comments.) Let me just say it took us longer than 2 minutes.
I’m happy about the recipe. It’s dense, it’s chocolatey and it’s not too sweet. I think it’s best topped with fresh raspberries and some lightly sweetened whipped cream.
Mind you, it’s not something for every day, or even every week. But it’s perfect for every once in a while.
And that’s my – hopefully winning – POV.
Meanwhile, I’m hanging in there with my exercise and nutrition plan. I’m still at the 18 pounds lost that I reported last week, although as of yesterday I’m down another 1/4 inch at my bra line and 1/2 inch at my hips. I’m also down three pants sizes. I’m extremely excited about that.
Matthew continues to push me to my absolute physical limits. This week I was asked to do a 2-minute plank, which I was able to hold for 1 minute 45 seconds. Maybe by next week I’ll make it to 2 minutes.
But right now my sights are set on that 2-minute video, and the contest that I hope to win.
While we wait for the results, you can try out my recipe and tell me what you think.
Doni’s Flourless, Sugarless, Low-Carb Chocolate Souffle Cake
8 ounces of butter, softened
8 ounces almonds, finely ground
8 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and slightly cooled
8 ounces sugar substitute
6 eggs yolks
1 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. orange zest
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup cold espresso
6 egg whites, beaten to soft peaks
With a mixer, cream together the butter, ground almonds, the cooled melted chocolate, the sugar substitute and yolks until creamy. Blend in the almond extract, orange zest, salt and cold espresso.
Use a spatula to gently fold the beaten egg whites into the mixture.
Divide the mixture into 8 to 10 (depending upon the size of the dishes) buttered ramekins or custard dishes. Place the dishes in a deep baking pan that has about a 1/2 inch of hot water in its bottom. Carefully place the pan into a preheated 375-degree oven for 10 minutes, and then turn it down to 350-degrees for 25 minutes more.
Serve either warm or at room temperature with lightly sweetened whipped cream, chocolate shavings and fresh berries.
