If You're In Recovery

If you're anything like most of my friends, the day after St. Patrick's Day is all about laying low, nursing a hangover, and trying to remember how many pints of Guinness you drank before passing out. If you are anything like me this year, you'll be doing none of these things. While I have been known to do my fair share of St. Patty's Day partying, this year I was having none of it. Driving almost five hours home had already undone all of the good from my massage, so I was a bit grumpy. I got home just in time to throw the Corned Beef in the crock pot before heading out to work, then home to see E for the first time in almost a week. We decided to stay in, eating our American Irish dinner and watching In Bruges (which stars Colin Farrel, so at least it's a wee bit Irish).

I was left with a tremendous amount of leftover boiled meat, cabbage and potatoes, not to mention the Guinness. Not a pretty sight if you ask me. What to do with all of this before it goes to waste? Just ask Martha.

The corned beef is easy to turn into hash or sandwiches, but the rest had me puzzled. I found the recipe for Colcannon, and knew it would be perfect. If you want to make Colcannon from scratch (that is, in case you don't happen to have a bunch of boiled cabbage and potatoes lying around) you can find the instructions here.

Even Quicker Colcannon
Ingredients:
3 cups boiled potatoes, mashed
2 cups boiled cabbage, roughly chopped
1 leek, chopped
1 cup lowfat milk
1 Tbls. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
4 Tbls, butter

In a large saucepan, bring milk, 2 Tbls. butter, and leeks to a low simmer over medium heat. Season with salt and nutmeg and cook uncovered for 10-15 minutes, or until leeks are tender.

Stir in potatoes and cabbage and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly over medium heat until warmed through. Pour into a casserole dish. If you want the extra butter (I didn't bother) make a well in the center and place remaining 2 Tbls. of butter into it. Put casserole under the broiler for 5-8 minutes, until top is browned and butter melted.

Hopefully I don't need to tell you what to do with leftover Guinness. In case you won't actually drink it all, you can always make dessert. I made Irish Car Bomb Brownies last year (they were slammin', by the way), but I thought I'd do cupcakes this year instead and try to lose the horribly offensive title. Apparently I'm very unoriginal :)   It seems like everyone and their mother has made Chocolate Guinness Cakes this year. Search any popular baker from Smitten Kitchen to my girl Nigella and you'll find recipe. I'm partial to a recipe given to me by a friend, but it is a secret, sorry! It is, however, very similar to this recipe of Dave Lieberman's, which I have also tried. Under bake them a bit and they are fantastic. They are actually (unlike many cakes) even better the next day if you seal them in an airtight container at room temperature once they've cooled completely. They take on an almost fudgy vibe. I like mine with the obligatory Irish Cream frosting, but buttercream is a little too heavy for it. Instead I used a cream cheese base.

Irish Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients:
8 oz. softened cream cheese
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup Irish Cream (you don't need to use Bailey's, since it's going to be mixed with so much sugar!)
About 1 lb. powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Continue beating as you slowly pour Irish Cream into the mixture. Don't worry if it looks curdled, it will smooth out! Once incorporated and smooth, add cream, beating constantly. Slowly add sugar (1/2 cup at a time), beating constantly. I like my icing to be a bit runny, so it slips off the sides of the cupcake and looks like a glossy head on a Guinness, so I actually use less than 1 lb. If you want a thicker, fluffier icing, add more sugar!

I'm Late!

Oh well, what can I say? I'm so very late posting this week's HBin5 assignment, but for good reason. My mom has been having some health issues, so I drove out to Massachusetts to spend a few days with her. I brought along some of my Lazy Loaf, and this stuffed bread for the visit. The weather was atrocious in Carver, as it was pretty much everywhere in NE. Pouring rain for three days, winds that blew trees and power lines down, and cold, cold, cold. It sucked. It was good for cooking, shopping, eating, and an hour of deep tissue massage, though! Thanks, Mom! Now on to the bread!

I used one half of my Pesto Pine Nut dough for a large loaf. I didn't get a great rise on it, so it was used for a Brick Pressed Sandwich. I used capicola, pepperoni, and prosciutto with artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, arugala, and provolone. Love. The rest of the dough was rolled out to a half inch thickness and turned into Caprese Stuffed Pesto Pine Nut Bread. I placed strips of roasted red peppers, fresh mozzarella, and basil over the dough, sprinkled it with minced garlic, salt and pepper and rolled it up, pinching the edges to seal. I put this loaf into a loaf pan lined with parchment, brushed it with olive oil and sprinkled it with dried basil and sea salt. I'm not winning any beauty prizes for my breads lately. Despite the fact that this bread ended up looking a bit like some kind of yeasty tunnel system, it was delicious. 

And as always, stop by Michelle's Blog to see how everyone else used their pesto dough (and the Avocado bread I neglected to make this week) on the bread braid!

Au revoir Nigella!

Oh the sadness! This is the final challenge for the I Heart Cooking Clubs Nigella-Fest! Although I have not participated in every one (twice a week challenges for six months was a bit daunting), I have so enjoyed baking with the Goddess, perusing her cookbooks in the library, and bookmarking tons of recipes on her site for later. I find it fittingly Brit that the last challenge is to make a dish suitable for tea time.

I have been drooling over some of the more decadent recipes for Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes, Chocolate Pear Pudding, and Chocolate Guinness Cake (notice a trend?), but honestly, I'm the only one eating this stuff. E is still not willing to take sweets to work (as the new guy I guess that won't enter him into the Cool Kids Club) and he's "watching his weight" which means he can stop drinking beer for 3 days and drop 10 pounds. So I ended up, on this particularly gray and sluggish day, with the Lazy Loaf. Not one of Nigella's most creatively titled recipes, but certainly one of the simplest and best for afternoon tea. As this recipe is printed with lovely Brit measurements, I've converted everything for you here, for true lazy baking appeal.

Lazy Loaf
adapted from Nigella Lawson

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. honey oat granola (or whatever granola you have)
1 cup raisins
1 packet yeast
2 tsp. salt
1 cup plus 2 tsp. low fat milk
1 Tbls. honey
1 cup plus 2 tsp. water, slightly warmer than room temperature
2 Tbls. Honey Crunch Wheat Germ (optional)

Preparation:
Add yeast to 1/4 cup of the water and let stand for 5 minutes. Mix flour, salt, and granola in a large bowl. Add yeast mixture, remaining water, honey, and milk and stir until just combined. Stir in raisins. Pour into a greased loaf pan (and as usual, I make a parchment paper sling to make it easier to remove after baking). Top with wheat germ. Place pan into a cold oven, then turn heat to 225 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes, then turn heat to 350 degrees and bake one hour. Remove and cool before slicing. Smear with butter, jam, cream cheese, or anything else your little heart desires.

Don't forget to check out the Tea Time post to see what everyone else brought to tea. And please, please vote for the next chef in the sidebar, as long as you aren't voting for Bobby Flay! I'm cool with Mark Bittman or Jaime Oliver, but Bobby? Please no! I can only grill so much, which means I'll be making margaritas for six months and turning into a drunk.

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Sweet Beginnings

Breakfast is one of my favorite meals of the day. I love every kind of traditional breakfast food from pancakes and omelettes to bagels and bacon. Despite this fact, I find myself eating the same two or three things for breakfast every day, which I imagine is true for most people. If I have time to make oatmeal, it's usually my go to breakfast, otherwise it's yogurt and granola or cold cereal. Snore-fest. This summer I came across a quinoa crunch in Body and Soul magazine that I thought would be a perfect change for my granola boredom. I made up my own version and it was so easy to make!

All you need to do is toss 2 cups of uncooked quinoa into a large bowl and stir in 2 Tbls. of almond oil and 2 Tbls. of maple syrup (I use Trader Joe's Maple agave blend since it has less sugar). Spread this sticky mixture onto a Silpat on your baking sheet and bake it for 5-10 minutes at 350 degrees. Keep an eye on it, as the quinoa will burn quickly! It should be lightly toasted. Once it cools, you can crumble it up like granola! I love to toss this into my Greek yogurt with fresh fruit, yum!

While the crunch is a healthy and tasty alternative to granola (which can be high in sugar and fat if you don't read the label), sometimes you just want to go all out. While I do try my very best to eat well, there are days when I just want sweets for breakfast and I won't feel badly about it! These muffins are just the thing. Honestly on those days, anything Ina is just the thing. She's as bad as Paula when it comes to butter and sugar! I did do a bit of tweaking to add some more whole wheat and cut a little fat, but these were so moist and delicious, I wouldn't do anything else to them!

Banana Crunch Muffins
Adapted from a recipe by Ina Garten

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
2 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 lb. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
3/4 c. skim milk
2 extra ripe bananas, mashed
1 extra ripe banana, chopped
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. walnuts, chopped
1/2 c. coconut
1/2 c. quinoa crunch

Preparation:

Line muffin cups with paper liners. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the melted butter and blend. Combine the eggs, milk, vanilla, and mashed bananas, and add them to the flour-and-butter mixture. Scrape the bowl and blend well. Don't overmix.

Fold the diced bananas, walnuts, quinoa crunch, and coconut into the batter. Spoon the batter evenly into paper liners. Top each muffin with coconut, if desired. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. 

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Yes, I know, it's another soup...

The most recent assignment for HBin5 was a delicious one, and while I didn't complete each of these breads, I have to say we ate really well! I mixed up the whole batch of dough, but brought half of it with us to RI where we made thin crust pizzas with D for E's birthday dinner. This dough made fantastic pizza crust! It was light and crispy and the olive oil flavor was wonderful with our toppings: rotisserie chicken, red onion and goat cheese, and pepperoni and cheese for D. I highly recommend it!


The assignment:
1 full recipe of 100% Whole Wheat Bread w/Olive Oil from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

Pages 81-82 – 1 loaf of 100% Whole Wheat Bread w/Olive Oil

Pages 225-226 – 1 loaf of Aloo Paratha

Pages 220-222 – 1 loaf of Southwestern Focaccia w Roasted Corn and Goat Cheese

Making pizza meant I wouldn't have enough dough for the focaccia, since I didn't want to sacrifice the Aloo Paratha. It sounded too good. While it isn't a traditional Aloo Paratha, it was pretty darn good! If you want to make a traditional Indian Paratha, visit Apartha's Blog, My Diverse Kitchen, for a recipe and handy video. When making the HBin5 version, I used one huge sweet potato in place of white potatoes. Why? I like them better, it was all I had on hand, and it's better for you, duh. I added a teaspoon full of garam masala to my potato filling and had to up the salt a bit, too. I did end up with a few air bubbles, but the flavor was awesome, and even E liked it. 


After filling my dough, I ended up with a lot of filling left over. That was one mammoth potato. I couldn't let it go to waste, so into a pot it went with a little leftover pumpkin puree, more peas, and some stock to make a soup. Fast, easy, soo yummy! Plus, with the health benefits of the pumpkin (it's loaded with antioxidants, fiber, and vitamins C and E), the sweet potato (also full of antioxidants and vitamins, that's why it's called a super food!) and yes, even the peas ( good sources of vitamin, C, K and carotenes) it's a power soup!

Triple "P" Super Soup (or Souper Soup if you are punny, which I am not, 'cause obviously)


Ingredients:
1 cup mashed sweet potato
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1 cup green peas (no need to thaw if they are frozen)
2-2 1/2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. garam masala
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper


Preparation:
Combine all ingredients in a medium pot and stir over medium heat until warmed through. And that's it, now share with friends or be greedy and freeze whatever you can't inhale yourself for later :)




As always, head over to Michelle's Blog to see what everyone else is cooking up for this assignment!

Choppin' Broccoli

My new favorite way to eat broccoli is oven roasted. I'm usually a steamer, but honestly, it makes the kitchen stink like old feet and really doesn't add any flavor. Roasting is insanely quick and easy, and it adds a whole level of flavor that really kicks steamed broccoli's ass. I won't do it any other way now!

To roast your broccoli, chop it into large florets and don't throw out the stems! Even if you aren't a stem eater, you'll want them later to make this soup, plus, tossing them is wasteful and that's just dumb. Put the pieces into a large bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Add 2-3 cloves of minced garlic, a dash of onion powder and a few tablespoons of olive oil and toss to coat. Spread in an even layer over a baking sheet lined with foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. You may need to remove the florets and let the stems cook for another five minutes, since they are a bit tougher!

You'll end up with broccoli that is tender and slightly browned, and with an incredible flavor. I can eat it just like this, but I also like to add it to whole wheat pasta with fresh ricotta, lemon zest, and chicken. This time I used it for soup, since it's soup week over at I Heart Cooking Clubs. I love broccoli soup, and make it whenever I have leftover broccoli anyway. Plus, Nigella's recipe for Broccoli and Stilton Soup is similar to my own recipe! Great minds :) You can substitute any kind of cheese, up the broth in place of the milk, or change up the spices to your taste. It's a very forgiving recipe. E likes heat, so I'll put red pepper flakes or hot chili sauce in his!

Creamy Broccoli Soup
Ingredients:
3-4 cups roasted broccoli
4 oz. softened cream cheese
1/2 cup shredded asiago or parmesan
2 cups chicken or veggie broth
3/4 cup milk
1 garlic clove
2 green onions, chopped
salt and pepper

Add broccoli, onions, cheese and garlic to a blender. Season with salt and pepper. Pulse until combined. Add broth & milk and puree. Pour into a saucepan and heat through over medium heat, stirring occasionally.  

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Holy Crap

Today is E's thirtieth birthday. That means we have now officially known each other for exactly half of our lives. In other words, we are now twice as old as we were when we first met, and damn, if that doesn't make me feel kinda old. Or old-er. Or something. Hmph! I'm snowed in yet again, so today is all about baking for birthday dinner, wrapping up a few weekend loose ends, and trying to keep my surprises up my sleeve. The perfect sustenance for snowbound secrecy? Suspiciously sweet muffins that are moist, chocolately, and good for you, too.

Dark Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins
adapted from an old recipe I printed years ago from who knows where...


Ingredients:
1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 Tbls. Vital wheat gluten
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1 c. rolled oats
1 1/4 c. pureed pumpkin
1/3 c. applesauce
4 egg whites
1/2 c. skim milk
1/2 c. dark chocolate chips

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners. Sift dry ingredients and set aside. Mix wet ingredients until thoroughly blended. Fold into dry ingredients. Fold in chocolate chips. Scoop evenly into muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely.

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Tastes Like Jamaica

Another round of breakfast chat with my lovable and logical husband...

ME:

(Eating slices of mango while making our breakfast)

I love fresh mango. It tastes sort of woodsy to me, you know? 

E:

(Eating mango over the sink)

I doesn't taste like wood, it tastes like Jamaica.

ME:

(pausing over the stove)

What?

E:

You know, it tastes like Jamaica would taste. If you ate a piece of it.

ME: 

(waiting silently for this little conversation to play out)

E: 

So like, if you ate a piece of Italy, it would taste like tomatoes, if you ate a piece of Jersey, well, that would just taste like dirt. But if you ate a piece of Jamaica it would taste like mangoes... and weed.

Clearly we have some issues with Jersey :)

Chocolate, Cherries, and Cheese

The latest assignment for Healthy Bread in Five was ½ recipe Red Beet Buns, pages 180-181, and ½ recipe Chocolate Espresso WW Bread, pages 304-305, for Chocolate Tangerine Bars in honor of Valentine's Day. The latter had me excited, since I'm a huge chocoholic, the former... not so much. Can we talk about how much I dislike beets? The smell of them, the palm staining prep, the amount of work that goes into cooking them... Ugh. And the taste? Well, to be honest, I don't really know what a beet tastes like. I haven't taken the tiniest bite of a beet since I was 8 and my mother forced me to try one at Easter dinner, where sliced beets were once religiously served along with the relish tray and mint jelly. Thankfully, I'm not the only member of my family who's culinary tastes have moved on. While many members of the baking group raved about the lovely onion flavor and subtlety of these beet buns, I just couldn't do it. On to the chocolate.

I made a full recipe of the Chocolate Espresso Whole Wheat dough. First I baked the Chocolate Tangerine Bars. The loaf came out oddly misshapen, but I sliced it into squares and dipped the ends of each bar into the leftover melted chocolate from my Brownie Bites Valentines. While I did love the texture (so light!) and the flavor of cranberry and citrus in the bars, I didn't feel the need for the extra chocolate chips. I decided to mix cranberries, orange zest, and chopped walnuts into another half pound of dough and baked muffins (minus the extra chocolate). In the book they call their version cupcakes, but who are we kidding here? Cupcakes are made with cake batter. Yeast doughs can yield muffins, certainly, but not cupcakes. But I digress...

I also baked a regular loaf, then rolled the remaining dough out to make little Chocolate Cherry Ricotta Tarts. The loaf was delicious with a smear of peanut butter and I cut it up for French Toast on Valentine's morning, too. So good with sweetened vanilla Greek yogurt and leftover cherry filling! Cutting out the hearts left me with a bunch of scrappy bits, which I tossed into the food processor and pulverized into crumbs. I included that in my dessert recipe for that night, but I'll save that one for tomorrow (I can only fit so many recipes in one post, you know!).

Chocolate Cherry Ricotta Tarts 
Ingredients:
1/2 lb. Chocolate Espresso WW Dough
3/4 c. ricotta cheese
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbls. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup cherry pie filling.

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, lightly grease a muffin tin.

Lightly flour work surface, rolling pin, and the surface of dough. Roll out to an 1/8 inch thickness. Cut circles using a biscuit cutter. Press each circle gently into bottom of each cup of muffin tin. Set aside.

Mix vanilla, sugar, and cinnamon into ricotta until well combined. Spoon evenly into each cup of muffin tin. Top with a generous teaspoonful of cherry filling. Bake for 20 minutes or until set.


Don't forget to visit Michelle's Blog to see the latest creations on the Bread Braid!

Snow Day Valentines

Today we finally get a snow day! I know, those of you who have been stuck inside for 6 days and lost power are probably sick to death of it all, but this is the first real snow we've seen since moving to Jersey. I'm usually a big fan of snow until Christmas, and then I'm done, but living in Michigan will do that to a girl! Right now I'm just excited that I don't have to do my usual hour commute today, 'cause you know there is no way in hizz-ell I was gettin' stuck overnight in Yonkers!

In addition to making a pot roast for dinner and baking a loaf of bread, I spent some time today finishing up a little craft project I started with the J's yesterday. The J's are 2 of the coolest kids I have ever met and I'll be nannying for them 5 days a week by the end of this month. They are 6 and 8 year old brothers with gorgeous red hair. They ski, play drums, take tae kwon do lessons, act, and the oldest was a Cambell's kid last year. So yeah, they rock! They also love crafting and baking, so basically hanging out with them is almost too much fun to get paid for :) Yesterday I introduced them to Happy Hearts, a project the lovely Sarah Zamora introduced me to 2 years ago.  I made a ton of them and traded them with a bunch of artists, and now I hang them up every February. I thought it would be fun to do something different with them this year, so I adapted the original garland idea to make flowers. Instead of the mess of collage, stamping, and trimming, we doodled. The J's decorated a bunch of them and they had the idea of adding messages to the backs to give each one as Valentines to family members. Brilliant! You can put yours in a vase like I did, or tie a bunch together to give as a bouquet to your mom :)


Doodle Hearts Flower Bouquets:
You'll need:
2 pieces of heavy cardstock
Ink pens, gel pens, or markers
9 pieces of Floral Wire
Craft glue (I'm a ModPodge junkie!)
Ribbon


1. Download the Happy Hearts Template and print 2 copies onto cardstock.

2. Decorate all 9 hearts on 1 page with doodles using a black ink pen. 

3. Color in doodles with shades of pink and red. 

4. Go to town embellishing doodles with glitter if you want to (Me? I'm BIG on glitter, the J's? Not so much.).

5. Cut out all 18 hearts. You'll be sandwiching the floral wire between a doodle heart and a blank heart. If you choose to add messages to the backs, now is the time to do so on the blank hearts.

6. If you want curly stems, now is the time to wind your floral wire around a fat marker. Stretch the coil out to your desired length. 
7. Spread a thin layer of craft glue on the back of a doodle heart. Lay the top end of floral wire in the center and press a blank heart (message side out if you wrote on them!) on the back. Make sure edges line up and press firmly.

8. Continue for all hearts until you have a bunch of 9 doodle heart stems.

9. If you want to add leaves you can do the same thing with green shades. You can use a leaf template if you don't want to draw your own. 

10. Allow the glue to dry for at least 10 minutes, then tie your bunch together, varying heights of the flowers, with ribbon. Voila!

Now make a little love shelf and be happy you had a day off :)

Brownie FAIL

Really? You're wondering how someone who is a pretty experienced baker can f up something as simple as a batch of brownies, right? Well, apparently it can be done. And it can be done with pan slamming, utensil tossing, and curse slinging grace. And it can end happily, thanks to a little patience and some good old stubborn attitude.

Now every year I make something special to send to my nephews for Valentine's Day. This year I was planning on doing little petit fours using a gourmet cake mix my sister gave to me. Then I read the ingredients and realized that I couldn't use it, since my nephew is allergic to tree nuts and unless I want my sweets to make him swell about the face and break out in hives, that wouldn't be a nice gift. I grabbed a box of brownie mix instead, and got to work. When I pulled the batch out of the oven 30 minutes later, I set it to cool on a wire rack and came back later to find every scrap of brownie firmly cemented to the bottom of the glass baking pan. Now, I'm no dummy. I know that you need to grease a pan, I even use parchment paper to make a sling for my breads and brownies. Somehow, those two facts escaped me this time. Maybe I was distracted by the stomping of my upstairs neighbors feet or the sugar rush I felt from eating large tablespoons of raw brownie mix. Whatever it was, I was pissed.

Almost 20 minutes of cursing and prying and I ended up with this...

And these...

Sigh. They were so soft and mushy I knew I'd never be able to cut them smaller, so I stuck these squares in the freezer for an hour. I tossed that big bowl of scrappy trash in, too, for my brilliant new Valentine's Day dessert plan (more on that later in the week!). Once I took them out the had firmed up enough to cut, so I ended up with these...

I only got 2 dozen thanks to the mangling of the batch of brownies, and I used the tiniest heart shape from my Wilton set. It's about the size of a quarter. It's about this time that I realized, no matter what a mess I had made, I can salvage just about anything with a little chocolate. I got to melting, dunking, and decorating, and ended up with these...

Awww... aren't they cute? They are just bite sized and they each fit perfectly inside a mini cupcake wrapper, which conveniently makes them fit just right inside a little pine nuts box :)

Ahhh, a happy ending after all :)

Jojo's Sweethearts Brownie Bites:

Ingredients:

One batch of standard brownie batter (I used a box, but you can make your favorite from scratch recipe)

Zest of one tangerine

1 cup dark fondue chocolate (or candy melts)

Pink, white, and red nonpareils

Red sweethearts

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease a 9x13 inch glass pan and line with parchment paper to create a sling. Stir zest into brownie batter. Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Remove from pan to a cutting board when completely cooled.

Use a small heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out brownies. Set aside.

In a double boiler or microwave, melt chocolate. Using a fork*, dip brownies into melted chocolate, allowing excess to drip off. Lay on a wire rack** and decorate with nonpareils and sweethearts. You need to do this step quickly as the chocolate sets as soon as it cools! Continue for each brownie. Allow chocolate to set for 15 minutes before packaging.

* I don't spear the brownies with a fork, I lay them flat on top of the tines. It lets all the extra chocolate drip off, and they slide off the fork easily.

** I don't use wax paper for this because I hate when little pools of chocolate harden around the bottom of a treat. It ruins it. This way any excess drips off, and I can just pop the cooled bites off by pushing them up from underneath the rack with my fingers. Yes, you'll get a little wire mark in the bottom, but it's better than a puddle!

Mission Accomplished

The end of the month means the end of the latest assignment from my HBin5 baking group. Thank goodness, I finally got one right :)

Our mission if we chose to accept it:
Prepare 1 Full recipe Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread, from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, Pages 92-93.

Use this dough to create 1 Loaf of Sandwich Bread, 1 batch of Hamburger or Hotdog Buns, pages 94-95, and 1 Loaf of Apple Strudel Bread, pages 277-278.

The sandwich loaf was my favorite bread so far, a little sweet, super soft, and perfect for any type of sandwich we thought up in a few days. My favorite? Fried Elvis Presleys, aka peanut butter and banana sandwiches pan fried in a little butter until the peanut butter gets all gooey and warm and the bread is nicely toasted. Thanks Nigella for that inspiration! This sandwich, full of cheap ingredients and with even-cheaper-than-store-bought bread,  is definitely a budget buster.

I brought about half of the loaf over to my cousin Libby's house last weekend and her kiddos (ages 1 and 4) went to town on it. It made wonderful toast with homemade wild blueberry jam from her family in Maine.

One down, two to go! I was excited about the apple strudel bread (even though we all know, this really is not a strudel!) because I planned to bring it to Sunday's party to celebrate my Aunt Cynthia's 10 year anniversary of being cancer free! Woop woop! I'll admit, I was a little nervous, too. I didn't feel like transporting my huge tub of dough to Libby's house and I figured I'd be too busy playing with the kids (and drumming for Rock Band) to prep it! I decided to do it ahead of time. I know, big risk :) Friday afternoon I rolled the dough, filled it with raisins, walnuts, a chopped Granny Smith Apple and cinnamon sugar, rolled it up tight, and set it into the loaf pan lined with parchment paper. I drove from Jersey to Connecticut, stuck it in my cousin's fridge, and baked it Sunday morning. When we arrived at the party on Sunday afternoon, half of the bread disappeared with coffee before lunch was even served. Not surprising the way we are in my family. With all of the women together, it gets pretty loud, pretty hyper and pretty messy. We all talk at once and we all love food, so what can you expect? We had an amzing time and I've converted at least 2 people to the HBin5 cult :)

Last task, hot dog buns. I have had this package of NY System Hot Weiner Sauce Spice Mix in my spice cabinet for a long while, so I decided this was the perfect time to use it. I'm not the only one who thought of hot dogs, but I think I'm the only Rhode Islander in the group, so I am definitely the only one who made gaggiz (aka gaggers, or hot weiners, the real way to eat a hot dog :)). These are not your sloppy, wet Coney dogs like they make in Michigan (which honestly, I think are gross) nor are they overflowing with stuff like Chicago dogs (pickles on a hot dog? Really?).  These dogs feature a slathering of yellow mustard, a spoonful of meat sauce made of ground beef, onions, and spice mix (yes, I'm being vague, but I don't know what's in it!), a handful of chopped white onion, and a sprinkle of celery salt. Usually they are served on a steamed white hot dog bun, but obviously I used the whole wheat buns. I also used turkey instead of beef and used 2 Tbls. of  butter instead of lard, but don't tell anyone. I think that's probably considered a major sin in terms of hot weiners.

We ate ours too fast for me to take photos, but you can visit the Olneyville NY System website to see how they look and to order your own spice mix! You'll get the recipe on the back, although we used more than the required amount of spice mix to get the right taste. I think I even doubled it. The turkey was a good substitute, but if you want to mimic the real deal, go beef.

If you're looking for more inspiration, don't forget to visit the Bread Braid on Michelle's blog to see the rest of the groups' offerings and visit the I Heart Cooking Clubs blog to see what everyone else there brought to the table for the Budgets and Bargains theme!

"I Can't Make This Shit Up," A One Act Play

CHARACTERS:

E, a 29 and 11 month old (hahaha!) man in pajamas, the husband of ME
ME, a 30 year old woman in pajamas, with very messy hair, the wife of E

SETTING:

Early morning, ME sits at a breakfast table, eating scrambled eggs and toast. E enters with a mug of coffee and sits.

E:

I could not fall asleep last night.

ME:

 (continues eating)

Mmm hmm?

E:

So I was laying there for like an hour, and I started thinking: What if a zombie kid suddenly came into our bedroom? Like "Dawn of the Dead", but for real?

(pauses for effect)

ME:

Uh huh...

E:

What would I do?

(pauses for effect)

So I'd have to kill it. I'd have to find something to hit it in the head with, or cut it's head off so it wouldn't bite me.

ME:

(looks at E, saying nothing, and continues eating)

E:

But after I cut it's head off, what if I looked over at you and it had bitten you? Then I'd have to cut your head off, too! Because otherwise you'd turn into a zombie. Then I was like: What if it turned out the kid wasn't really a zombie, but was drunk or something or I was kind of dreaming, and then I just cut off my neighbor's head, and my wife's, too... How do you explain that to a judge?

ME:

Nice. Can you get me some coffee?

END SCENE

Such conversations are not rare at our house.

Food Should Taste Good

I don't buy junk food. I actually don't even like junk food all that much, with one huge exeption: chips. I love salty, crunchy chips, especially rippled potato chips dunked in creamy, fat-laden onion dip. E's weakness is Doritos, any flavor really, though he's partial to Cool Ranch and Spicy Habanero. Between the two of us, we could easily polish off a whole bag in one sitting, hence my not buying chips. However, a few months ago I was wandering around the fancy grocer's in Ann Arbor when I stumbled upon Food Should Taste Good chips. They were all natural. They had interesting flavors. They were baked instead of fried. And most importantly, they were on sale. I am a cheapskate, after all.

I bought two bags: Multigrain and Sweet Potato. When I got home, E was, as usual, skeptical of my new chips. Then he tried them. Soo good! These chips are more like crackers than chips really, since they are a little thicker and so much more flavorful. We ate the sweet potato chips with pumpkin dip, and the mulitgrain ones with hummus. Thus began a serious addiction. I checked out the Food Should Taste Good website for coupons, and noticed they also do a recipe contest. So duh, I entered my pumpkin dip recipe, then joined the mailing list. I emailed the link to a bunch of my friends, then I got an email. I won a case of chips! Sweet. They even let me choose which flavors I wanted, so we went with two bags each of Cinnamon, Sweet Potato, Jalapeno, Olive, Buffalo, and Multigrain. Between holiday parties, going away parties, and general snacking, we finished off most of those bags fairly quickly. I was saving the Cinnamon bags for baking. It took me a long time to decide what to do with them until I stumbled upon a blog post by Melissa. Her aunt had a genious idea for a pie, and since my parents were coming for a visit this past week, it was the perfect opportunity.

You may remember that my mother is a health food nut, so if I'm going to make her dessert and it isn't a holiday, it had better be relatively healthy. I switched up this recipe to use whole wheat instead of AP flour, reduced the sugar and fat, and used my Cinnamon FSTG chips instead of the cornflakes. This was, seriously, one of the best desserts I've ever made. Not too sweet, creamy and crunchy, and with just a little tartness. Yum!

Food Should Taste Good Cottage Cheese Pie

Topping:

1/2 c. FSTG Cinnamon Chips

1 Tbls. Sugar
1/4 tsp.cinnamon

Dough:
1/2 c. butter, cubed
1/2 c. sugar substitute
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbls. fat free sour cream

Filling:
1 lb. 2% or nonfat cottage cheese
2 eggs
1/4 c. sugar
2 tsp. fat free sour cream
dash of salt
2 tsp. lemon juice

Preparation:
For topping,  pulse ingredients in a food processor or crush in a plstic bag to create coarse crumbs.

For dough, pulse butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in food processor for 2 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add remaining ingredients and pulse to combine. Press dough evenly into the bottom and up sides of a 9 inch pie plate.

For filling, pulse all ingredients to combine, scraping sides of the bowl as needed. Pour into pie plate and spread evenly over dough. Sprinkle with cinnamon topping. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Let stand at room temperature for one hour, than chill overnight. Serve with fresh berries, warm jam, or fruit compote.

Print this recipe!

Cracker fail!

Sometimes things just don't work out the way you plan. Such was the case when I tried to make the Spicy Whole Grain Crackers for HBin5 this week. After reading some of the tips from other group members before I started, I decided to start with a piece of dough about the size of my fist. I floured it, put it between two pieces of parchment and rolled. Then I gave it a quarter turn and rolled some more. I rolled more. And more. And more. I was left with a sheet of dough so thin I could have fed it through my printer, so I figured it was all good. I figured wrong.

After cutting small squares and brushing the tops with a little olive oil, I sprinkled them with my own seasoning mixture. I thought the mixture called for in the book was a little bland (Salt and cayenne? Snore!), so I went with a little Indian inspiration instead. I mixed 1/2 tsp. each of cumin, curry powder, cayenne, chili powder, and kosher salt to punch things up a bit (did you think I'd say kick it up a notch? Come on now.). Then I popped the sheet pan in the oven and waited.

Failure. Every square puffed up into a tiny spiced pillow. Sure they were cute, but WTF? I seriously could not have rolled that dough into submission for any longer. I was irritated. They tasted good, but were chewy instead of crispy and not what I wanted at all. I was making soup for dinner and these friggin' crackers were meant to work with it, adding the necessary crunch to round out the meal. Foiled again! So I stretched the last of my dough into bread sticks, topped them with the remaining seasoning mixture and let it go. Deep breath.

As usual, E didn't notice anything wrong with anything I put on the table. He ate the breadsticks, the crackers, and the soup, which we both agreed came out well enough to cancel out any of my previous disappointment. We both love Indian dishes, but I was in the mood for soup, so I used Chicken Biryani as inpiration. It was quick and simple; I highly recommend it :)

Chicken Biryani Soup

Ingredients:

2 Tbls. olive oil

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. ginger
1 1/2 tsp. garam masala
1 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1 32 oz. carton, plus 1 14.5 oz. can chicken broth
2/3 c. raisins

1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro (or 2 cilantro cubes)

1/4 c. almonds, chopped

lime wedges

1 c. basmati rice

Preparation:
Heat oil in a dutch oven or large soup pot over medium high heat. Add chicken to pan and brown well on both sides, about 5-7 minutes a side. Add onion and cook until tender. Add jalapeno and garlic and cook until garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute. Add ginger, garam masala, cumin, and salt and stir. Add tomato and broth and bring to a boil. Add rice and wimmer 15 minutes or until rice is tender. Remove chicken and shred with a fork, return to pot. Stir in raisins and cilantro. Serve sprinkled with almonds and a squeeze of lime juice.

p.s. I did succeed in making a pretty nice epi this week when my parents came to visit. My mom is so impressed with my new bread skills (ha!) that she's going to buy the book. At least something worked!

Don't forget to visit the Bread Braid at Michelle's blog to see how nicely everyone else's crackers and epis turned out :P

Getting Back on Track

Finally! With the holidays and our move complete, I feel like I can actually get back to some semblance of normalcy! Even though most of my day is consumed by waiting on hold for the NJ Dept. of Ed. staffers to answer the damn phone, I have been able to make a little bit of progress getting the new house into a liveable condition. Of course, in doing so I may very well have broken my vacuum cleaner and destroyed one of my Calphalon pans. The former stinks like burning rubber (I may have sucked up a few screws along with the million cobwebs, piles of dirt, and insect carcasses in the basement); the latter has black plastic cemented all over the bottom. Crap.

Having a working kitchen of my own again does mean that I can get back to my baking goup. Yesterday I mixed up the first batch of master dough from my fabulous new Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book. (Thanks so much, Michelle and Zoe!) There are so many great breads that I just can not wait to try. I started with the basic loaf, brushed it with egg wash, and sprinkled it with a combination of pine nuts, flax seeds, and sunflower seeds. It came out beautifully. Soft and light on the inside and nice and crusty on the outside. I think doing it on the baking stone really does make a big difference (I use mine often, as you can see!). The bottom crust was just as crisp as the top. Since I can't post the recipe for you due to copyright (visit the HBin5 blog linked above for it!), I'm sharing the sandwich I made instead.

Yesterday I made a simple grilled cheese with brie and bartlett pears, which is pretty self explanatory! Today, I had an Italian Flag Chicken Sandwich. I'm sure you can figure out the name :)

Italian Flag Chicken Sandwiches

Ingredients:
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 cups fresh baby spinach
1 can diced no salt added tomatoes
1 ball fresh mozzarella, cut into slices
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbls. dried oregano
1 Tbls. dried basil
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
3/4 cup chicken broth, heated
2 Tbls. flour
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil
1 loaf of crusty bread

Preparation:
Heat olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Season chicken liberally with salt and pepper. Add to the hot pan and brown on each side. Add onions to pan and saute until tender. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in diced tomato, basil, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes. Cover chicken with spinach, cover and let simmer until spinach has wilted. Whisk flour into broth and then pour, stirring, into pan. Cook until sauce is slightly thickened. Arrange mozzarella slices over chicken breasts, cover and simmer until melted.
Serve over pasta or, for sandwiches, remove chicken breasts from sauce and lay on a cutting board. Slice each breast in half lengthwise. Slice bread in half lengthwise. Layer chicken over bottom half of bread, spoon any remaining spinach in the pan on top, then top with other half and slice into 3 inch slices. Serve with sauce for dipping.

Don't forget to swing by Michelle's blog for the monthly Bread Braid! You can check out all of the other group members' blogs and see what they've been cooking up.
Print the Recipe!