CHOCOLATE SORBET(Lowfat and Vegan); SNOW SNOW SNOW

I am so totally psyched, but not as much as I was yesterday. Yesterday...well, Friday...afternoon, around 1pm or so, it started to SNOW, and I do mean SNOW. It was coming down in blizzard quality, but sadly enough it stopped around 5 or 5:30pm-ish, sigh. I was soooooo disappointed, but, at least we got about three inches or so. Enough that it's still hanging around, lol. My friend Norene picked me up at 2pm, and she and I headed for the used bookstore, the BookHouse. The roads weren't too bad, even tho the trees were already starting to have that "Winter Wonderland" look, and we couldn't see much more than a block or so ahead of us. Beautiful, I tell ya, beautiful!

So, we got to the BookHouse, which is under new ownership and had moved location, and it's just a wonderful place, it truly is. The books are in categories, just like they would be at Barnes and Noble or Borders, and they are alphabetized by author. She has a small sitting area with three HUGE and oh-so-comfortable armchairs, and, as long as you're buying books, the coffee is free(Take that, Borders and Starbucks, lol), and she provides French Vanilla powdered stuff to put in your coffee. Ok, seriously. I think I fell in love, lol. Much to my delight, the sitting area is in the cookbook section, and what is the first book I happen to see? A copy of the first "Vegetarian Epicure," and I just hollered, lol. I've been trying to find that book for a long time, to replace the one I lost, because it was one of my very first veg cookbooks, back when I was in my late 20's. It was in fantastic shape, and it's now sitting by my table, because I want to "read" it before it goes on the bookshelf. I also found Frances Moore Lappe's "Diet for a Small Planet," which was another of my first veg cookbooks. Then I found Molly Katzen's "Still Life with Menu Cookbook," and bought it mainly for her coloured paintings. The last cookbook I bought was a coffee-table sized book, called "Elegant Food," and I seriously bought that one for the food photos in it, which are some of the best cookbook photos I have ever seen. I bought a few other books, too, and I'm just going to let you wonder about those, lol. I had to put several books back, tho, but hopefully I can get back there again, and hopefully again, nobody else but me wants the ones I put back, lol.

The recipe I'm going to share with you today comes from the vegetarian pages of about.com. I followed the recipe, with unbelievably disastrous results, so then tried it again, and "I did it my way.' Turned out pretty good, too. So, with no further talking, here it is. Well, almost...if you do try it the way the recipe calls for, I'd be interested in knowing how it turns out for you, please. You can either email me(scroll down and my email is on the left side of the page, or you can leave me a note at the end of this post.

........................................................CHOCOLATE SORBET...................................................................

1 C granulated sugar

3 C water

3/4 C pure cocoa powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

Heat sugar in a large saucepan over medium heat, and don't sir until the sugar begins to melt. Then stir frequently until completely melted and caramelized.

Reduce heat to medium losw, and add water to create a caramel. Stir frequently.

Stir in cocoa and salt until smooth and dissolved.

Remove from heat and let cool. Add vanilla, cover, and chill in 'fridge about 2 hours.

Use in ice cream maker, according to directions.

Without an ice cream maker, pour sorbet into shallow container and freeze. Stir every 30 minutes until desired consistency, about 2 hours.

Makes about 1 quart(4 servings) of low-calorie, almost fat free vegan chocolate sorbet.

I put my sugar on the stove over medium heat, and went to sit down and read for a minute, waiting for supper, as well as for the sugar to do it's thing. Well, it did, ok. Man, I had some of the weirdest stuff in my kitchen for awhile. When that sucker blew up, it made a glorious mess, and turned black...and caked onto my pan like you wouldn't believe, sigh, and I don't know if I'll ever get it clean again.

So I decided to do it my way. The measurements were the same, but I only added 2 cups of water instead of three. The resulting chocolate mixture is very rich, thick, and chocolately. Ok, I added the teaspoonful of vanilla, and poured the mixture into some little "cups" I have, cups that were containers for the only brand of goat cheese I like. Put the cups in the freezer, stirred them after 30 minutes, and then left them alone for a while. I caught them before they froze too solid, and even tho they weren't really frozen enough, they were really great, and I've got some cooling on the counter now to go in the freezer in a minute or so, lol.

So, until next time, Happy Eating!!!!