We’re trying something different this year when it comes to produce.

Last March, we received a flyer in our mailbox. A local farm was beginning a CSA…and would we like to join? Why yes, yes we would.

In case you are unfamiliar with CSAs (as I was until fairly recently), here’s how a typical CSA works. You purchase a “share” in a farm’s yield for the season. You pay the farm up-front, in exchange for the promise of a weekly (more or less) supply of produce throughout the upcoming season. Then you sit back and wait for the fruits and vegetables to start rolling in. And also hope for enough rain and favorable weather to create a bountiful harvest.

We signed up in April with our local CSA and today — finally! — I picked up our first box of fresh produce.

I’m not the kind of person to get overly-excited about vegetables. I generally save that kind of exuberance for foods of the chocolate variety.  But, still, I couldn’t wait to get home to see what awaited me in the white box of farm-fresh goodies.

Here’s what I found:

My first thought was: How in the world are we going to eat this much produce every week? We are going to have to get very serious about consuming our veggies.

My second thought was: What in the world are some of those things?

For example, in my apparently sheltered 30-some years of life, I’d never purchased or eaten things that looked like this:

Turns out they are Patty Pan Squash (I think…if my internet skills were reliable), and I can treat them pretty much like zucchini. UFO-shaped, thicker-skinned zucchini, that is.

My third thought was: What am I supposed to do with all those chiles?

I foresee salsa in our near future.

My fourth thought was: 12 ears of corn?? Good thing L.(5) is a huge fan of buttered corn-on-the-cob.

My fifth thought was — wait, I’ll stop there. I’ll spare you the play-by-play of my produce-ridden thoughts.

We really are looking forward to this adventure in vegetables. To be honest, we’re very good fruit-eaters, but tend to be boring and half-hearted vegetable-eaters, so this will stretch us, introduce us to new vegetable types and dishes, and in the process, help us to eat more healthily.

All without having to weed a garden. I’d say that’s a win.

I know what you’re thinking.

You’re thinking, “Katrina, whatever those things in that picture are, they are disturbing.” You might also be wondering things like, “Are they really edible?” and “Did you force your family members to eat those things?”

Here’s the deal:

I decided that this weekend, I would attempt to make Bakerella‘s Cake Pops. I didn’t need to make anything fancy (like these or these or these). I just wanted to try a simple, basic, no frills Cake Pop.

I’m a decent baker. In some circles family settings, you might even say that I’m known for baking up yummy desserts and snacks. So a simple little treat shouldn’t be much trouble. You’d think, anyway…

Attempt #1

I decided that since I was new to this whole Cake Pop thing, I’d split the cake (and other ingredients) into four parts, and just experiment with a little at a time. I baked the cake early Saturday morning and started on Experiment #1 around 11:00 a.m.

At first, all seemed to go well. The cake crumbled beautifully; the icing turned it into a moist, smushable, formable mixture. The little cake balls were cute and before I knew it, I was ready to dip them.

I had purchased some Wilton’s Candy Melts in orange, and carefully followed the directions on the package in order to melt them. They melted just fine, into a smooth orange pool. There was just one problem: it was WAY too thick.

No problem. I just followed Bakerella’s suggestion to add some shortening to the mix to thin it out. I added a little bit of shortening. And then a little more. And a little more. And then even more, much more than suggested. It thinned it out a little, but not enough.

I tried to dip the cute little cake balls, but it didn’t work very well. I ended up half-dipping, half-spreading, half-glopping. (And yes, I know that’s three halves. That’s how bad it was.)

In the end, I had 12 cake balls — some on sticks, some not; some completely covered, some not. All of them were lumpy and glumpy. Definitely not pretty.

I didn’t even bother taking a picture of them.

However, somehow, they all got eaten.

And let me assure you that though they were ugly, they tasted oh-so-good.

Going for help

One o’clock Saturday afternoon found me at a local cake & candy supply shop, asking for advice. The very nice man behind the counter gave me a few pointers:

• He suggested using Merckens candy coating chips instead of the Wilton brand. As he kindly sold me two bags of Merckens, he assured me that they would melt better and taste better than Wilton’s.

• He gave me some tips on melting the chips in the microwave (start with 20 seconds, stir, then do shorter and shorter increments until it’s smooth).

• He sold me a little tub of some mysterious substance to add to the chips to thin out the final dipping mixture, if needed. I don’t even know what this magic ingredient is. It looks like shortening, but it isn’t. It’s unlabeled, white, and is kind of flaky-greasy. That is all I know.

Attempt #2

By 4:00, I had recovered from my first failed attempt and was ready for Cake Pop Experiment #2. I crumbled another quarter of the cake, added icing, and shaped the balls. Then I started melting my new-and-improved candy coating chips in the microwave. (Don’t ask me why I bought the bluish-purplish color; I just did.)

The chips melted nicely, but again…too thick. Aha! Time to stir in some of the mystery ingredient. I ended up adding at least a teaspoon to my mixture, but lo and behold, it worked! The blue dipping stuff was thin and smooth and ready for some yummy cake balls to take a dive in it.

You see the result in the picture above.

Yes, I know they are still a bit lumpy and bumpy. But I think that speaks more to my poor cake-ball-forming skills. And yes, the candy shell has its rough spots, but I’m still working on properly dripping off the excess before setting them up to dry. And sadly, most of the Cake Pops started cracking about 30 minutes after they were done — just little hairline fractures, but still. Not what I wanted.

However, this batch was about 50 times nicer and smoother and prettier than the first. If I had any creativity whatsoever, I’m sure I could have turned them into something adorable. Or at least enticing.

But instead, I affixed some candy eyes and made them into monster-like Cake Pops. C.(11) requested that I include a cyclops version.

And I assure you that — cute or disturbing — this batch was just as yummy as the first. I had to cut L.(4) off or he would have devoured enough Cake Pops to make himself sick.

What the future holds

My grand Cake Pop experimentation is not finished. I froze the other half of the cake, and plan to try again another day. I think I’ll stick with the Merckens candy coating and the mystery ingredient (though I do intend to eventually find out exactly what it is). I scoured the internet and see that it’s possible my cake balls were too cold before dipping — hence, the cracked shell.

And yes, I’ll try to improve my cake ball formation skills and excess candy coating removal skills. But I’m not going to promise anything in that department.

Maybe someday, I’ll even work up the gumption to try one of the adorable Cake Pop creations in Bakerella’s new book. But I have a feeling that day might be a long way off.

I’m not sure what is wrong with me, but any time I decide to make a dessert for a social function, I am overcome with the desire to try something new. It’s true, I have a couple old standbys that are tried and true, that never disappoint. But rather than turn to one of them, I want to experiment. I want to page through cookbooks or scour the internet, find something scrumptious-looking, and give it a try. Even though I know full well it could end in disaster.

But I figure, as long as it involves chocolate, even disaster can’t be too bad, right? I mean, a chocolate disaster is the the best kind there is.

This week, a friend came over one evening. Chad was out of town, and it seemed like a good opportunity for some girl time. So naturally, I started looking for a new chocolate dessert recipe.

And I found one. Warm Chocolate and Caramel Cakes from Country Living.

I won’t re-type the recipe here (not wanting to break any copyright laws), but I will post some pictures of the dessert-in-progress. And I will urge you to visit Country Living and print out the recipe for yourself.

It all starts out innocently enough. After buttering some ramekins (the recipe called for 6-oz. ramekins, but I only have the 4-oz. variety; they worked just fine), you cover the bottom with a few tablespoons of caramel (I used plain old Smuckers caramel ice cream topping).

Next, the ramekins chill in the freezer for about an hour — you want the caramel firm so the chocolate batter doesn’t sink into it right away. After that hour, mix up your batter (which has plenty of chocolate, but also coffee — I used decaf) and put about 1/3 cup on top of the caramel. I used slightly less than 1/3 cup, since I was using the smaller ramekins. Also, the recipe calls for cake flour, and I didn’t have any of that on hand (in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had cake flour on hand), but I made a substitution involving all-purpose flour and corn starch and it turned out great.

Then pop those beauties into the oven. You might want to put a sheet of aluminum foil on the shelf below, because while the cakes are setting up, the caramel can come bubbling and oozing up over the edges of the ramekins. I’m all for bubbly, oozy caramel, but not on the bottom of my oven.

Once they come out, let them sit for a bit. If you’re anything like me, you’ll forget that they just came out of the oven and you’ll grab for the ramekin and burn your hand, which could ruin the whole experience. So give them just a few minutes to rest and cool off.

The caramel at the bottom will still be piping hot, and the cake itself is very rich, so even though the recipe didn’t call for it, I felt a small scoop of ice cream on top would make the dessert complete.

I have to admit: this dessert was a success. Chocolaty and rich and sweet and delicious. I officially have a new dessert in my repertoire.

Another nice thing about this recipe is that, because you make it in individual containers, you can make as much or as little as you like. At first, I only made three of them — one for my friend, one for me, and one as a special treat for C. (11) before he was ushered off to bed.

I had some leftover batter and it’s a good thing I kept it.

L.(4) had come downstairs at one point during the evening and he took notice of the fact that everyone was eating some kind of cake. The next morning, he was quick to ask, “When will I get some of that cake that everyone was eating while I was in bed?”

So that evening, I made a couple more. Though I exercised self-restraint and did not make myself another one, I did have a taste of L.’s. I think the day-old batter was fine, but the cake might have been just a little bit dry this time around. Of course, the easy solution for that one is to add more ice cream!

Oh, I forgot. There’s one more step, but I didn’t mention it because it comes so naturally. Dig in and enjoy!