Chocolate and other food groups

This weekend Randy and I went out to the Bombay House in Provo for a yummy meal. I got the Chicken Briyani and Randy got the Baygan Bharta, which is a roasted eggplant dish. Plus their fabulous bread. For dessert, Randy got the Kheer, which is a rice pudding, and I got Gulab Jamun. It was so delicious that I came home and googled the recipe. This is the link I found: http://www.ivcooking.com/p269_18.php It has step by step directions for making your own. I can't wait to try it. The dish at the restaurant had a coconut syrup, rather than a spiced one, but I love cardamom and I'm sure this one is great too.

I had heard a lot about this cookbook. Apparently, the author is known for a food column by the name, The Minimalist, because he goes for simple, easy recipes with few ingredients. So I got this one from the library to see what I thought. At first, I was most impressed by the size. It's huge! But don't be fooled by the title. It won't really tell you how to cook everything . It does, however, teach basic cooking principles which would help you create your own recipes or analyze someone else's. But after trying several recipes from the book, I am not sure it's worth it. The first one I tried, Kale and Potato Soup, was good, but not great. I put that down to the fact that I used canned broth instead of homemade. The next one, Easy Tomato Sauce, was too bland. It was easy, but it wasn't as good as the stuff from a jar. I also made the Bruschetta, and that was good. Then I tried the Bitter Chocolate Sorbet. It sounded so easy - just cocoa powder, sugar, and water. W...