I'm a big fan of French author Mireille Guiliano who burst onto the publishing scene in 2005 with her book, French Women Don't Get Fat. She has gone on to write several more books, including French Women for All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes, & Pleasure (Vintage) Mireille Guiliano (and as I also aspire to) lives her life by the seasons. In French Women for All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes, & Pleasure (Vintage), she writes chocolate isn't strictly seasonal, so it can be certainly be enjoyed year-round, but she emphasizes that chocolate lends itself much better to the fall and winter seasons. I agree, and therefore must share with you one of my favorite winter desserts, Jim Dodge's Bourbon Chocolate-Pecan Cake.

Jim Dodge's Bourbon Chocolate-Pecan Cake
I was given this rich dessert recipe from my dear friend, Janet Leutel, nearly a decade ago. Janet annually compiles a short softcover cookbook of her favorite recipes over the past year, and gives it as a special gift around the holidays.

This is a very rich, dense flour-less cake. Use good chocolate and cocoa powder. The "bourbon" ingredient is optional in this recipe. I generally make it without. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 cups pecan halves
3/4 pound unsalted butter (divided)
12 oz. bitter or semi-sweet chocolate (divided)
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
6 eggs
1/3 cup bourbon (optional)

Method:
Spread pecan halves on a baking sheet and toast in 350 degree oven until fragrant, about 10 minutes. Set aside and cool. Separate out 1/2 cup for decorating top of cake layer. Grind until coarse, 1 and 1/2 cups pecans in food processor, which will be added to the cake mixture later.

Cut circle of parchment to fit bottom of 9" spring form pan. Butter pan well, and line with parchment circle.

Melt 1/2 pound butter and 8 oz. chocolate in top of double boiler over simmering water. Stir until very smooth and set aside to cool.

Mix sugar, cocoa, and eggs just until well combined. Add melted chocolate, stirring to combine. Add coarsely chopped 1 and 1/2 cups pecans, and stir in. Add bourbon if you are using it, as this point.

Pour batter into prepared spring form pan and place this pan into a larger pan with simmering water. Water level should come to 1/2 of spring form cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees in oven until cake is firm to the touch, about 50 minutes.

Cool cake on wire rack, and remove side of the pan. Leave parchment paper on and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. (I like to refrigerate cake in spring form pan overnight).

Remove cake from refrigerator, and place upside down on wire rack, or serving dish. Peel off parchment paper and drizzle with glaze. Drizzle the sides, and then the top. Smooth with a spreader. Decorate the top of cake with remaining pecans.

Glaze Recipe:
4 oz bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate
1/4 pound unsalted butter

Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler over simmering water. Stir until completely smooth. Cool about 5 minutes, before spreading on cake.

Please share if you have a traditional dessert you make every holiday. Please share if you are known for a signature gift you make for others each holiday.

Attention chocolate lovers!  Carole Bloom's latest cookbook is out, Intensely Chocolate, 100 scrumptious recipes for true chocolate lovers. (Wiley 2010)

Carole notches up the "chocolate factor" creating over 100 recipes with many different types and forms of chocolate.  Many of her recipes in her latest book, call for high cacao, high content chocolate, which intensifies chocolate flavor. Written for bakers of all levels, Carole graciously walks us through the different types of chocolate, equipment, and best techniques. Nine different chapters cover every one's chocolate favorite something.

I read Carole's new book, Intensely Chocolate, like a novel, gliding through each chapter, enjoying the fresh and upbeat easy format and size, and relishing all of the mouthwatering photographs.

It was hard to decide which recipe to make first. I decided on "Milk Chocolate-Dulce de Leche Bars" in Carole's Cookie Chapter. Coincidentally, she said it is one of her favorite recipes, too. Enjoy!

Milk Chocolate Dulce de Leche Bars

These potent bars have three layers, a coconut and brown sugar crust, a Dulce de Leche (caramel) filling, and a glaze of dark milk chocolate. You can cut these into smaller bite-size pieces, if you like.

Makes 2 ½ dozen 1 x 2 ½-inch bars Special equipment: 9 x 13-inch baking pan

Crust: 4 ounces (8 tablespoons, 1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces 1 cup (2 ounces) sweetened shredded coconut 1 cup (6 ounces) firmly packed light brown sugar 1 cup (4 ½ ounces) all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/8 teaspoon kosher or fine-grained sea salt

Dulce de Leche filling: 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened 1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Glaze: 13 ounces dark milk chocolate (38% to 42% cacao content), finely chopped

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the inside of a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, pressing it into the pan, and letting it hang over the short edges.

For the crust, melt the butter in a 1-quart saucepan over low heat. Place the coconut, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt in a 2-quart mixing bowl and toss to blend thoroughly. Pour the melted butter into this mixture and use a rubber spatula to stir until the dry ingredients are moistened. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking pan and press it in evenly, making sure it reaches into the corners.

Bake the crust for 15 to 18 minutes, until light golden and set. Remove the baking pan from the oven and cool it completely on a rack.

For the Dulce de Leche filling, combine the sweetened condensed milk, the unsalted butter, and the corn syrup in a 2-quart heavy-duty saucepan. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat until it thickens and turns a deep beige color. Pour the filling over the cooled crust, using an offset spatula to spread it evenly. Return the baking pan to the oven and bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until the filling begins to bubble. Remove the baking pan from the oven and transfer it to a rack to cool completely.

For the glaze, melt the dark milk chocolate in the top of a double boiler over warm water, stirring occasionally with a rubber spatula. Or melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl on low power for 30 seconds bursts, stirring between each burst. Remove the top pan or bowl of the double boiler, if using, and wipe it dry.

Pour the melted chocolate over the top of the Dulce de Leche filling and use an offset spatula to quickly spread it evenly. Tap the pan gently on the counter top to release any air bubbles in the chocolate. Chill the pan for 10 minutes to begin to set the chocolate then let it set completely at room temperature.

Lift the bars from the pan by holding the edges of the parchment paper then peel the parchment paper away from the sides of the bars. Use a chef’s knife dipped in hot water and dried to trim off all of the edges. Use a ruler to help measure where to cut and cut into 1 x 2 ½-inch bars, cleaning the knife between each cut.

Serve the bars at room temperature.

Keeping Store the bars in an airtight container between layers of waxed paper at room temperature up to 3 days.

Streamlining The crust and the filling can be baked the day before adding the dark milk chocolate glaze.

Carole Bloom is a personal friend, and an accomplished European-trained pastry chef, confectioner, chocolatier, and best selling author, speaker, and teacher. For more information on Carole, please visit Carole Bloom.

Please share if you have a "chocolate lover" or "cookie monster" in your life.

If you are as passionate about growing your own sustainable organic food as I am, you must buy the newly released book,  Grocery Gardening: Planting, Preparing and Preserving Fresh Food by Jean Ann Van Krevelen, with co-authors Amanda Thomsen, Robin Ripley, and Teresa O'Connor. Grocery Gardening is paperback, lists for $19.95, and is published by Cool Springs Press.

I have been looking for this type of book for a long time. One that takes me from vegetable garden to kitchen to cellar pantry. It is a little bit garden-growing guide, a little bit "fab" cookbook, and and a little bit good ol' homestead manual all rolled into one.

Grocery Gardening acquaints you with a nice detailed selection of herbs, fruit, and vegetable edibles. For each edible, you are given key steps for planting and growing, different varieties available, proper harvest time, and preserving methods for extra bounty. In addition, there are focused chapters on the basics of gardening, how to buy quality produce, preserving methods, and organic pest management.

Each colorful edible is presented in a unique Grocery Gardening format, simple yet comprehensive with added nutritional tidbits, edible trivia, accompanying mouth-watering recipes, specific pests to watch out for, and preferential preserving methods. If you need more reasons to buy Grocery Gardening, how about these recipes. Rhubarb Cake with Citrus Glaze. Rock Star Salsa. Fig and Arugula Composed Salad. Shepherd's Pie with Carrot and Sweet Potato Topping.

It is evident that author Jean Ann Van Krevelen, and co-authors Amanda Thomsen, Robin Ripley, and Teresa O'Connor of Grocery Gardening are quite talented and gifted in their own garden expertise and garden communications. In fact, I call them pioneers in "garden social media." You might be interested to know that they all met on Twitter, have never met each other in person, and their garden passion fueled them to write this book together in sixty days.

Whether you are a veteran or a "newbie" vegetable gardener, you will want to have Grocery Gardening: Planting, Preparing and Preserving Fresh Food by your side.

Please share if you plan on growing edibles this year. Please comment on your experience eating edibles straight out of your garden. Is it the satisfaction of connecting with the land? The incredible difference in taste? The convenience of walking to your garden, rather than hopping in your car?

Thank You for Visiting VGG Sponsors!

San Diego Horticultural Society announces its Spring Garden Tour, Saturday March 13, 2010. Tickets are $15/members, $20/non-members. To purchase tickets and more detailed information, please go to www.SanDiegoHorticulturalSociety.org

Debra Lee Baldwin's recently released book, Succulent Container Gardens: Design Eye-Catching Displays with 350 Easy-Care Plants, is a terrific follow up book to her wildly successful book, Designing with Succulents.

Debra Lee Baldwin's new book Succulent Container Gardens, focuses on the infinite possibilities and versatility of succulents in containers. Her new book is armed with over 300 succulent-rich photos that Debra Lee Baldwin photographed in Southern California, and beyond. She visited talented designers, nursery owners, home owners, and folks who every day design with succulents, sell succulents, and in general appreciate the beauty and textural elements of succulents.

Succulent Container Gardens is organized into four chapters of pairing plants, designing with succulents, plant palettes, and all of the necessary basics in starting, maintaining, and caring for succulents in containers. As an extra bonus, she gives us detailed design lists of succulents by color, size, and function.

VintageGardenGal, caught Debra Lee Baldwin's attention, and has two cameos in her book, the first is a succulent-potted vintage chicken container, and the second, is a succulent-planted table top wreath adorned with a crimson candle for the holidays. Many thanks.

If you are not on the succulent bandwagon yet, Debra Lee Baldwin's new book, Succulent Container Gardens, will inspire you through the many possibilities of succulents in containers. Please share if you have been bitten by the succulent bug. Please comment on what attracts you to succulents, and how you design with them in your garden and in containers.

Here is a new and notable book for you to enjoy along with your seed catalogs, while curled up next to a warm inviting fire waiting out the Southern California winter rains. It is the highly anticipated newly released, Sunset Western Garden Book of Edibles.

Who better than Sunset to illustrate and thoroughly explain the virtues and hot trend today of growing your own food. Packed with in depth information, beautiful photographs, and "how to" design, it is a must for the backyard gardener intent in cultivating more of one's home-grown food. Thank you Sunset!

Jim McCausland, Sunset Contributing Editor, and part of the actual team who wrote Sunset's Western Garden Book of Edibles describes in detail this book, in his recent post on Sunset's blog, Fresh Dirt, Its here, Sunsets New Western Garden Book of Edibles. You can purchase it now, without leaving your chair at Western Garden Book of Edibles: The Complete A-Z Guide to Growing Your Own Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits.

More news......Attention all ye garden bloggers. Announcing the third annual,"Garden Bloggers Meet Up 2010" in Buffalo, New York, this coming July 8-11, 2010. Garden Bloggers all over the country will converge on Buffalo, New York, to share information on gardening, blogging, photography, social media, tips, and even enjoy a few special garden tours. Could this be your year?

For those of you who have been anxiously awaiting Pat Welsh's new organic gardening book, it is on sale now at amazon, Pat Welsh's Southern California Organic Gardening (3rd Edition): Month by Month According to Pat, amazon pre-orders are shipping now.

This is Pat's third edition of her Southern California, Month-By-Month Gardening book. I know first hand she has updated and rewritten tirelessly her classic book to incorporate organic gardening and organic practices for the avid Southern California gardener today. Pat Welsh is a garden guru. This is a great holiday gift for you, and the gardeners in your life.