Do you have any kitchen quirks? What about your partner or roommates?
Maybe you are wondering what I mean by a kitchen quirk. Basically it’s anything that drives your significant other batshit crazy.
I’ll offer some examples:
– Always sticking produce stickers on the counter despite your husband’s pleas not to (my long-time readers will get this, if you don’t, see Part 1 and Part 2)
– Loading the dishwasher in a very specific way (spoiler alert)
– Only wanting the cutlery drawer to be perfectly stacked with everything facing the same direction
– Organizing the fridge or pantry in a certain way and insisting that it’s kept in this precise order
– Debating with your partner/roommate about whether certain foods should be refrigerated or not
– Turning cans so that the label always faces the same way, are arranged by alphabet/colour/etc
I like to think of myself as a recipe creating tornado and I frequently drive Eric nuts because he is so much more organized than I am. When you are with someone for almost 15 years you learn every one of their little (and big) quirks. Day by day….by day.
Want to know what Eric’s biggest kitchen quirk is?
Aside from me, it’s the dishwasher.
The guy has a thing for dishwasher organization. It’s his pride and joy. And it’s actually impressive, the dedication that he puts into carefully loading and stacking the dishwasher every day. He has refined his technique over the years too, always improving. Impressive. At first glance, you might think that he’s just a normal guy unloading or loading the dishwasher, but you’d be wrong, very wrong. He is not normal. Eric has been trying to enlighten me with his genius dishwasher short-cuts ever since we got together. I stubbornly refused for years until I recently discovered how amusing it is to see him so proud when I use his “tricks”. He beams with pride.
My sister was over yesterday and after dinner we got talking about how her husband/my brother-in-law insists that the dishwasher is loaded in a certain way. Hmm sounds familiar. So began a hilarious conversation with us and the guys talking about how a dishwasher should be loaded. She said, “Steve will actually UNLOAD the dishes that I have loaded and then reload the machine!” Well, that rings a bell. I hear Eric tinkering away with unloading and reloading my dishes every night. He also has a system of loading my measuring spoons (because I typically use about 20+ on any given day of recipe testing). We have a dishwasher with a narrow top tray for cutlery and he has created this whole system of how to load the measuring spoons and other utensils so that they don’t collect/pool any water…right down to which direction they face for optimum drying. Like I said, not normal…but impressive.
I should also mention that we had a 10+ year ongoing debate about whether ketchup should be refrigerated or not. I said that, yes, ketchup should be refrigerated and he always said it shouldn’t (just a personal preference on his part). One day I pointed out the label which reads “Keep refrigerated” and it’s been in the fridge ever since! Case closed. Mystery solved. He finally gave in (even if it’s perfectly fine at room temperature).
Of course, this story wouldn’t be complete without Eric weighing in on my biggest kitchen quirk.
Without even blinking an eye he said, “chaos.”
Nailed it. Martha would so not approve of my kitchen ways.
Ok, it’s your turn to spill the beans. What are your kitchen quirks? What about your partner or roommates’ quirks?
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Crazy Good Coconut Oil "Chocolate" Bark
Yield
20 pieces
Prep time
Cook time
0 minutes
Chill time
15 minutes
Total time
This homemade chocolate is made with just a few essential ingredients - virgin coconut oil, cocoa or cacao powder, and pure maple syrup. (Feel free to use whichever liquid sweetener you prefer). The virgin coconut oil replaces the cocoa butter found in traditional chocolate so while it needs to be kept in the freezer, it’s a great way to sneak some coconut oil into your day. You can also use any toppings you'd like - dried fruit, nuts, + seeds all work lovely. It melts much faster than regular chocolate, so be sure to keep it chilled until ready to enjoy. I prefer it straight from the freezer.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup raw hazelnuts
- 1/4 cup raw almonds
- 1/3 cup large flake dried coconut
- 1/2 cup virgin coconut oil
- 1/2 cup cocoa or cacao powder, sifted if necessary
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon smooth almond butter, optional
- pinch fine sea salt
Directions
- Preheat oven to 300F. Line a 9" square pan or a small baking sheet with two pieces of parchment paper, one going each way. Set aside.
- Add hazelnuts and almonds on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove baking sheet and add the coconut flakes and spread out. Continue roasting the nuts and coconut flakes for another 3-4 minutes, or until the coconut is lightly golden. Watch closely to avoid burning - coconut burns fast!
- Place hazelnuts on several sheets of damp paper towel. Wrap the hazelnuts and rub them vigorously with the paper towel until the skins fall off. It’s ok if some skins don’t come off. Discard the skins and roughly chop the hazelnuts and almonds.
- In a medium saucepan, melt the coconut oil over low heat. Remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa (or cacao) powder, maple syrup, and almond butter (if using) until smooth. Add a pinch of sea salt to taste. Stir in half of the almonds and hazelnuts.
- With a spatula, spoon the chocolate mixture onto the prepared parchment-lined pan or sheet and smooth out until it's about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Sprinkle on the remaining nuts and all of the coconut flakes. Place into freezer on a flat surface for about 15 minutes, until frozen solid.
- Once frozen, break apart into bark. Store in the freezer until ready to eat. I don't recommend keeping it out on the counter long because it melts fast.
Tip:
Tip: To make this nut-free, simply omit the almond butter, hazelnuts, and almonds. It will still turn out just fine! You can try adding toasted sunflower seeds on top for a little crunch.
Enjoy!
My husband is the same way with the dishwasher – though we seemed to have come to some agreement on how to load – only to get a new dishwasher which has thrown us all off! I think it is a male/spacial reasoning thing…
Mine is people leaving recycling stuff on the counter when we have a cabinet for it. That – and bottle caps not being thrown away – such simple things that make a huge difference in how clean the kitchen looks!
Can’t wait to try some of this chocolate :-)
This kind of reminds of me of your carob almond butter fudge – do you think I could sub in some carob powder? I used a combo of raw cacao powder and carob powder for the fudge and it was ahhmazing…exactly the thing a pregnant lady needed. Now I’m not pregnant, I think this almond bark is just what a new mama needs!
Oh my god I am like, obsessive about my kitchen counter when I am cooking! I clean it ALL the time and i also do the dishes as I go because I CAN’T STAND a full sink when I am working. But my boyfriend…. he is all about those crumbs. He leaves crumbs eeeeverywhere all the time. Sometimes from things I didn’t even know could make crumbs! Ahaha it drives me nuts but it’s still worth it when he just wants to prepare a dinner for me.
These bars look awesome! Gonna try that this week-end, thanks for the recipe Angela!
Chocolate and coconut. Perfection.
My boyfriend always leaves empty wrappers and containers on the counter. One time he left the lid of an empty jar on the counter for days. I, of course, noticed it the day he first left it there and decided to wait and see how long it would take for him to throw away. A few days later he was making dinner and the lid was still there. It was in his way, so rather than pick it up and throw it away in the trash can 3 feet away, he moved it to another counter! I wavered between annoinace and amusement for a second, and then couldn’t help myself, I burst into laughter. We got a good laugh out of it.
OMG! that’s a chocolate bar. I’m in love
Pinned.
Thanks for share.
This looks so good, Ange!
Soooo good!
I used cacao butter instead of coconut oil.
Thanks for another great recipe! :)
You are amazing!
Ok first time commenting here but I just have to add my two cents because Eric and myself are clearly two peas in a pod! I don’t even let my husband near the dishwasher anymore because I have never seen someone load a dishwasher so inefficiently in my life! I was spending more time unloading and reloading the dishwasher than if i had just done it myself the first time so he has taken on other duties and stayed far out of the kitchen and even further away from the dishwasher. And its just so funny because of the two of us he is by far the more organized one – one look at our bedroom will clearly demonstrates it. His side is neat as a pin, nothing but a little travel alarm clock on his night stand. Mine? You can’t tell if there is an actual night stand there or just a massive pile of books with an alarm clock, kleenex box and iPad precariously balancing on the pile. So it shocks me how disorganized his dishwasher loading is. Unitl my MIL came over one day and took it upon herself to load the dishwasher for me. Then I knew…its genetic!!!
Lol oh this looks soo good! My kitchen quirk would have to be the way I stack the dishes in the drying rack (we don’t use the dishwasher as often cus it is really old and doesn’t get them very clean). When I’m done doing all the dishes, our drying rack looks like the leaning tower of pisa :P. I’ve got it down to an art being able to stack and unstack everything but when he goes to try and take something off, the whole pile comes tumbling down lol.
Quirks are definitely eating standing up and out of pans. I almost never plate my food. Which is how I am planning on enjoying these bars!
Do a post on his tips I would like to hear them!
Will earth balance work with this recipe? I don’t use coconut oil..
Oh good lord, where do I begin??! Dishwasher-I want the spoons all in 1 section, forks in another.etc. makes unloading so much easier. Also there are things I will not put in the dishwasher-my measuring spoons & cups & wooden spoons because I use them all the time. Ok, unloading groceries I put all the refrigerated stuff in 1 area, frozen stuff goes into the freezer right away & cupboard stuff in another area so I only have to go to that area once with all the relevant stuff.
Then there’s closing drawers all the way, including cupboard doors. I hate having them partially open. Cleaning up coffee & red wine spills… Do I need to go on or do I sound like an anal-retentive control freak yet?! Oh, forgot taking out the trash when the trash bag is full vs leaving the full bag in the hallway for me to take out before the dog gets into it… Seriously, I love my wife I just do all of the cooking so I’m picky about where things go. I hate wasting time looking for things:-)
This is ammmmmazing! I made it with almonds because I didn’t have the other nuts but it was still so good! Thanks, Angela! :)
This was super delicious; I used coconut nectar instead of maple syrup because one was on sale and the other was not. Yum!
Just discovered your blog and I love it! Your writing is fantastically hilarious! I also love that you didn’t even use actual chocolate for this bark! Coconut oil truly is taking over the world and I do not mind; I will definitely give this a try! Thank you for sharing! x Motte
http://mottesblog.blogspot.com/
YUM! This looks amazing, thanks for sharing, can’t wait to try.
NIkki
http://www.endlesshouseaffair.com
To my parents horror- I will absolutely refuse to wash the dishes NOW when I know I am just going to have to wash up the baking trays (currently in the oven) in 10 minutes. Yes- I am doing nothing now. But NO- I am not doing two loads needlessly!
I laughed all the way through this post because it is exactly the same at our house! I stick the produce stickers on the counter (I didn’t know anyone else did that – lol), dirty up every dish (so it seems to my husband), and I drive him crazy with the way I load the dishwasher all willy nilly. He is very particular about that as well. And about this chocolate bark, def making it! Yummmmm…Looks amazing!
Made this bark tonight and it came out perfectly AND it is delicious! I feel so wicked eating it and smiling because I know exactly what’s in it. This will be a staple in my freezer!