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If you're supposed to come to dinner on Tuesday night and you call on Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock to ask if you can come tonight instead, I can either deliver a nice dinner or a sparkling clean house. You can't have both. And given that I hate cleaning and love to cook, well, guess which option I'm going to take. Yes, that's right, delicious food in a tidy but not perfect setting...

So here's what I served:
Grilled chicken breasts in a lemon/thyme/garlic and olive oil marinade

Vegetable kebabs in the same marinade (red and orange peppers, onions, zucchini, grape tomatoes) also grilled

Grilled new potatoes

Strawberry shortcakes with white chocolate cream

That's better than a house that is spic and span, right?

My return to eating meat progresses. It was definitely weird at first, but is slowly getting easier. There have been a few bumps in the road. On one of my first attempts, I picked up brown rice, salmon and avocado sushi at Whole Foods, thinking it was just about the heart-healthiest thing I could eat. It may have been healthy, but I wasn't ready for sushi yet. I literally could not eat it. On the other hand, I went out to dinner with a friend and it was a fun to have the whole menu to choose from rather than being restricted to one or two dishes or just the sides. I had French Onion Soup for the first time in nine years, and it was delicious. I've made my own vegetarian version a couple of times, but it was never quite the same.

Of course, having all those options can backfire. I went in to Moby Dick planning to maybe grab some kebab for lunch, panicked when faced with all of those choices and just ordered falafel instead. The completely unhealthy high point of this particular journey was my realization that since I am no longer a strict vegetarian, I could have rice krispie treats again. I may have gone on a small rice krispie treat related binge.

I'm learning how to cook non-vegetarian food again, which is going to take a while. But I have one old favorite recipe that I've resurrected. I give you Bad Penguin's tuna salad for people who hate mayonnaise:

1 can of tuna
1 tablespoon country style Dijon mustard (the grainy kind)
1 teaspoon capers
1 ½ teaspoons lemon pepper mix
1 rib of celery, chopped

Mix all of the ingredients together with a fork, then serve on toast with lettuce. Easy-peasey and tasty too.

I almost never follow a recipe exactly as it is written. There are several reasons for this. I'm a picky pain in the ass for one, which means that many recipes have ingredients in them that I don't like. Sometimes I think I the recipe will be better if I tweak it. And sometimes I just like to experiment. Anyway, I've had a bunch of conversations where I've talked to people about how you don't have to follow the recipes exactly, and I thought I'd give an example. I made these Chocolate Caramel Tartlets for my mom's birthday and I changed the recipe around a little here and there.

The original recipe, which I got from Martha Stewart's 2009 Holiday Sweets magazine:
For the tart shells
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ cup sugar
¾ teaspoon fleur de sel
½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3 large eggs, lightly beaten

For the filling:
1 cup sugar
½ cup water
½ cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons ruby or tawny port
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate (preferably 70% cacao), finely chopped
1 cup roasted Marcona almonds (4 ounces; or roasted salted blanched almonds) finely chopped
Fleur de sel for sprinkling

1. Make tart shells: In a food processor, pulse flour, cocoa, sugar until combined. Add butter; pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. With machine running, add eggs through the feed tube, process just until dough comes together. Turn out dough onto a work surface; shape into a disk. Wrap in plastic. Chill 30 minutes, or up to overnight.

2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to about 1/8 inch thick. Using a 3 inch cookie cutter, cut 10 rounds from the dough. Transfer remaining dough to a flour dusted baking sheet, chill while you work with the tartlets.

3. Fit dough rounds into ten round tartlet pans each 2 ¼ in diameter. Trim edges of dough flush with rims. Chill shells 30 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prick bottoms of dough all over with a fork. Bake until firm, about 12 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool completely before unmolding.

5. Working in batches of ten and using remaining dough (reroll the scraps) repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 until you have 40 shells in all (or until you run out of dough).

Caramel Filling:
6. Make caramel filling: Heat sugar and the water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Continue to cook, without stirring until syrup comes to a boil, occasionally washing down sided of pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent crystals from forming. Let boil, swirling pan to color evenly, until syrup is dark amber. Remove from heat.

7. Carefully stir in cream and port (mixture will spatter). Add butter and chocolate; stir until melted and the mixture is smooth. Let cool until slightly thickened but still pourable, about 20 minutes.

8. Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon chopped almonds over the bottom of each tart shell. Spoon the caramel mixture into shells, filling almost to the top. Sprinkle with remaining almonds and fleur de sel. Chill until ready to serve, up to 3 hours.

What I did:
For the tart shells, the only change I made was to use Maldon salt for the fleur de sel, which Martha suggests as an appropriate alternative. You can use any sea salt, but a nice flaky one will help.

What I wouldn't change: Sometimes, I deliberately use salted butter when the recipe calls for unsalted, (like with chocolate chip cookies) but I think it would be overkill here.

I also did not have the right size tartlet pans. Mine are 3 and 7/8ths inches, so they made about 20 tartlets. The cooking time was essentially the same, because it is based on the thickness of the dough, not the size of the rounds.

It helps to chill the tarts in their pans on a cookie sheet before you bake them, but you don't have to be quite as thorough about the chilling as Martha is.

I made a few changes to the filling, listed in bold
1 cup sugar
½ cup water
½ cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons ruby or tawny port (what am I, an 18th century ship captain? I have no port. Instead, I substituted 2 tablespoons vanilla extract) 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate (preferably 70% cacao), finely chopped (I went with semisweet chocolate)
1 cup roasted Marcona almonds (4 ounces; or roasted salted blanched almonds) finely chopped (I couldn't find Marcona almonds, so I bought some blanched slivered almonds, roasted them in my oven and then tossed them with a little of the Maldon salt, and then chopped them).

I get anxious about overcooking the caramel, so I used a candy thermometer to gauge when I thought the caramel was done, rather than going by color alone. I think 320 degrees is about the right temperature.

To toast the almonds, place them on an ungreased baking sheet and toast them at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes. Open the oven and shake the pan gently. Put back in the oven for another 3 to 5 minutes, but don't let them get too brown. Remove from oven, allow to cool and then chop into smaller pieces.

So there you can see what I changed and what I didn't. They weren't dramatic, but they were changes. And I assure you, the tarts were absolutely delicious.

* Beagle not included with recipe.

I am an excellent baker. I don't say that to brag. There are a lot areas in life in which I do not excel, but I'm pretty good with the baking. Except for when it comes to baking bread. Oh, how I suck at baking bread. I once made baguettes that could have doubled as deadly weapons - it was Professor Plum, in the conservatory, with one of Hillary's baguettes, Inspector. My focaccia (Ok, I just spent five minutes trying to figure out how to spell focaccia and getting increasingly annoyed, only to realize that I am spelling it correctly and it is Word that is wrong) was flat and boring, and my rustic Italian bread was inedible. I do ok with pizza crust and calzone dough and rolls, but for some reason, I cannot produce a decent loaf of bread.

However, I recently had a craving for cinnamon bread. Irritated beyond belief that all of the bread at the grocery store had 50 different preservatives, plus high fructose corn syrup and some sort of hydrogenated oil, I decided to give making my own cinnamon bread a try. I stomped over to the baking aisle, grabbed a couple of packets of yeast, a bottle of cinnamon, and a bag of bread flour and headed home.

Imagine my surprise when I got home and realized that most cinnamon bread recipes don't use bread flour. I poked around on the internet for a while and eventually settled on this recipe, which turned out to be delicious. I'm pretty sure I found it on Serious Eats, but I can't find it now, so I can't link to it and give them credit. It is light and fluffy and cinnamon-y and fantastic. The recipe is only supposed to make one loaf, but I got two out of it. I have no idea why. My co-workers enjoyed the second loaf though (me, anxiously setting it out in the kitchen: I hope they'll like it. What if the second loaf isn't as good as the first? No one's going to want my silly bread. Oh, look, it's all gone already.) so I have proof it is a crowd pleaser.

Cinnamon Bread recipe:
1 package active dry yeast (1/4 ounce)
1 ¼ cups warm milk
1 cup sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted & cooled, plus more for brushing
3 large egg yolks
1 tsp salt
3 ½ cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 tablespoons cinnamon

In the bowl of a mixer with a dough hook, dissolve the yeast in ¼ cup of the warm milk. Sprinkle with a pinch of the sugar and let the mixture stand until the yeast starts to foam - about five minutes.

Turn the mixer on low and add the rest of the milk, ½ cup of the sugar, the egg yolks, the butter and the salt. Add two cups of the flour and turn the speed up to medium. Continue mixing until the flour is incorporated. Gradually add the remaining 1 ½ cups flour and mix until the dough holds together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. The dough will be very soft.

Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic - about ten minutes. Put the kneaded dough into a large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel (I always go with a towel. It makes me feel retro) and let rise until doubled in size. That should take about 1 ½ hours. Test the dough by pressing two fingers in it. If the indents remain, the dough has risen enough.

Combine the remaining ½ cup of sugar and the two tablespoons of cinnamon in a small bowl. Brush the bottom and sides of a 9x5 loaf pan (I think this is the standard size) with melted butter.

Roll the dough into a rectangle about the size of the loaf pan. Brush the surface of the dough with melted butter and sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar evenly across. Starting on one of the long sides, roll the dough up into a long cylinder and pinch the seam closed. Place the roll in the loaf pan, seam side down. If you're me, then repeat this with the remaining dough. If you haven't mysteriously ended up with extra dough, cover the loaf pan and let the dough rise a second time, until the dough is just about level with the top of the pan. This takes about 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brush the dough with more melted butter. Bake until bread is golden brown - 45 minutes to an hour. Cool in pan for five minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. I wrapped my bread up very carefully in plastic wrap and then stuck it in Tupperware. It stayed good for the four days it took to eat the whole loaf, but probably would have started getting stale pretty soon after that.

Anyone have any good recipes that do call for bread flour?

I stumbled across this recipe last summer while trying to find a recipe for these lemon cookies I used to have as a kid. They were kind of a cakey cookie, like Mexican wedding cakes, but they were lemon flavored. I loved them, and I have never found a lemon cookie recipe that even comes close. But I did find this recipe and it quickly became a favorite of mine.

The first time I made it, I served it with a blueberry sauce on the side. Every single person asked for seconds of the cake, but no one wanted seconds of the sauce. The cake is that good on its own. It is time consuming to make, but worth every single minute of the effort you have to put into it. I got this from Smitten Kitchen, who said she got it from the Barefoot Contessa.

Lemon Pound Cake

2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
2 ½ cups sugar, divided (I have forgotten to divide this a couple of times. The cake's not bad with an extra ½ cup of sugar in it)
4 large eggs at room temperature
1/3 cup lemon zest (this is the grated skin of 6 to 8 large lemons)
3 cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup + 3 ½ teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (see, you get to use up all those zested lemons)
¾ cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 ½ by 4 ¼ by 2 ½ inch loaf pans (I think this is the standard size) and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Alternatively, you can use this recipe to make a Bundt cake, although I never have.

Cream butter and 2 cups sugar in mixer with paddle attachment for about five minutes, until light and fluffy. Mixing at medium speed, add eggs one at a time. Then add the lemon zest.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together into one bowl. In another bowl, combine ¼ cup of the lemon juice, the buttermilk and the vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the butter/sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the flour.

Divide batter evenly between the two loaf pans, smooth the tops and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. That's what the recipe says. I always end up cooking mine for longer than an hour. I cook them for about 45-50 minutes, and then cover the edges of the cakes with tinfoil so that they don't get too brown while I wait for the middle to completely cook. This is a dense cake. Just keep an eye on it, and keep testing the middle until your tester comes out clean.

A furry chef's helper can keep you company while you wait:

Combine ½ cup sugar with ½ cup lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves. This makes a lemony syrup.

Now comes the tricky part.

Set your cooling rack up on top of a baking sheet with a lip. When the cakes are done, let them sit for a couple of minutes, and then pop them out of the pans. I run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cake, and then invert it against a plate, tapping on the bottom of the pan. If you've done a proper job with your greasing, flouring and parchment papering, you should be fine. Set the cakes up on the cooling rack. Next, you want to top the cakes with the lemon syrup. There are a lot of different ways to do this. Some people pour the syrup over the cakes. Some people poke invisible holes in the top of the cakes so that the syrup can get into the cake. What I've found works best is to brush the syrup on the top and sides of the cake with a pastry brush. I have a silicon one that does the job perfectly. Some of the syrup will run off the sides of the cake, which is why you'll need the pan under the cooling rack.

Let the cakes cool completely.

For the glaze, combine the confectioner's sugar and the remaining ¾ of tablespoon of lemon juice in a bowl, whisking until smooth. Pour over the top of the cakes. It will harden as it sits.

And then,get ready for the yummiest lemon cake you've ever tasted!

In honor of Bastille Day yesterday I had every intention of digging up a photo of me from one of my two trips to France, but then I remembered that my scanner isn't working and I'd have to reinstall it and find drivers and wow that is way too much work for a photo no one even cares about. I really would like to scan those photos in at some point, but not right now. I'm afraid the world will just have to wait to enjoy photos of 18 year old me in Carcassonne and at the Eiffel Tower.

So instead, I give you a delicious, but completely un-French recipe I tried for the first time this weekend - Roasted Potato, Chorizo, and Pepper Quesadillas

1 ½ pounds Yukon Gold potatoes - I used baby Yukon Golds - cut into 1-2 inch pieces
Olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 chorizo links, sliced into 1 inch pieces. There's a surprising selection of soy chorizo out there. I went with LightLife Soy Chorizo, because I thought it had the best texture. Of course, if you're not a vegetarian, you can use real chorizo.
1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper and 1 orange pepper, chopped - I used about 2/3rds of each pepper
8 ounces of Colby Jack cheese
4 burrito-style tortillas. These are the big ones. I prefer to get ones on the thinner side.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees

Toss the cut potatoes in some of the olive oil to coat. Spread on a baking sheet or roasting pan. Bake at 450 for 15 minutes, then flip potatoes and cook for another ten to 15 minutes.

Heat some olive oil in a deep saucepan. Saute the onions and peppers over medium heat for about five minutes, until they start to soften. Add the chorizo slices and cook until they are browned on one side. This takes about five more minutes for the soy chorizo. Stir in your roasted potatoes and cook for another five minutes or so, until the sausage slices are cooked on both sides.

Take one of the tortillas and spread a thin layer of cheese over half of it. Top with the potato-chorizo-pepper-onion mixture. Add a thin layer of cheese on top. Fold the rest of the tortilla over. Then cut the whole thing in half. Repeat with the other three tortillas.

Take your filled tortillas and place them in a pan over medium heat (may have to do this one at a time) and cook for a couple of minutes, until the tortilla gets slightly browned on the outside and the cheese melts. Then do the other side.

I thought it was fine and very flavorful plain, but certain other people liked it topped with salsa and queso.

Last week Serious Eats linked to Pioneer Woman's Gazpacho recipe. This had three effects on me. First, I immediately wanted gazpacho. Second, I fell in love with Pioneer Woman's site to the point that I was ready to chuck everything and try life on a cattle ranch. Then I remembered that I'm a vegetarian from suburban Maryland and perhaps that is not the right choice for me. Maybe if I could just hang out with the horses all day. And third, I got to thinking about summer recipes.

I made the gazpacho last night with some alterations and it is delicious. I didn't use the shrimp, obviously, and I left out the avocado and jalapenos. I would have put sour cream in if I had any. Trader Joe's has a yogurt dip that is really good in gazpacho too, but I don't have any of that either.

Anyway, my contribution to the summer recipe file is corn salad and corn fritters. Corn salad is pretty quick and easy, and is great for summer cookouts.

Corn Salad

7 ears of corn
2 limes
1 medium red pepper
½ red onion
4 plum or Roma tomatoes
4 ounces Monterey Jack or Colby Jack cheese
3 - 4 tablespoons chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

To cook the corn: bring a large pot of water to boil. Throw in a handful of salt. Shuck the ears of corn and put them in the boiling water. Cook for about ten minutes or until it smells like corn when you lean over the pot. One of my cookbooks calls this "the air will be perfumed with the smell of fresh corn" which cracks me up every time. Remove the corn from the pot and set it aside to cool.

While the corn is cooking, dice the red pepper, onion, and tomatoes, chop the cilantro, and grate the cheese.

Once the corn has cooled for a few minutes, take a knife and cut the kernels off the cob. You want to cut close enough to the cob that you're not wasting kernels, but not so close that you get the hard bits that hold the corn kernels together in clumps.

Throw out the cobs. Put the kernels in a medium sized bowl. Add the red pepper, onion, tomatoes and cilantro. Stir. Add the grated cheese and stir again. Add salt and freshly grated pepper in small amounts until it fits your taste. Then squeeze in the juice of the two limes and stir again.

You can serve this at room temperature or chilled.

Now, let's say that everyone at the cookout you go to is a corn hating freak. Or maybe the cookout gets rained out. Or maybe, just maybe, you get all excited by the first fresh corn of the season and forget to halve the recipe and find yourself with a lot of corn salad to eat. Corn fritters are the perfect recipe for leftover corn salad.

Corn fritters

2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk. It makes them tangier)
¼ cup melted butter (delicious, but you can increase the milk a little bit and leave the butter out)
1 ½ cups corn (you can get away with ½ cup more or ½ cup less corn)

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together.

Combine the eggs, milk and melted butter. Fold in dry ingredients. Stir in corn (or corn salad).

Heat oil in a deep frying or sauté pan. Drop large spoonfuls of the batter (it will be a little messy. I smush my blobs of batter down a little bit) into the hot oil and fry for 5-7 minutes, flipping halfway through so that they are browned on both sides.

You can eat these plain and they'll be great. They are also good topped with queso, salsa, guacamole and/or sour cream.

Enjoy!

I had some lemons lying around and decided to try making lemon bars from scratch. Guess what?! This recipe is almost as easy as making them from a mix, but ever so much yummier. I got this from Martha Stewart's Cookies.

For the crust:
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, frozen, plus more for dish
1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
¾ cup confectioner's sugar
¾ coarse salt

For the filling:
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon coarse salt
¾ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about four medium lemons)
¼ cup whole milk (I used skim w/a splash of half & half)

Confectioner's sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13x9 glass baking dish. Martha says to line it with parchment as well. I think she's parchment happy and didn't bother. My lemon bars turned out fine without it.

Make crust: Take the frozen butter and grate it into a bowl using the large holes on a cheese grater. Set aside. Whisk together the flour, confectioner's sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add in the butter and stir with a wooden spoon until combined and the mixture looks crumbly.

Press the mixture into the buttered 13x9 inch baking dish. Use your hands to make sure it is spread evenly across the bottom. The edges were slightly higher on mine, which led to a well forming in the middle. Not a total disaster, but it would have been better to make sure it was even. Put the pan with the crust in the freezer for 15 minutes to freeze the crust. Then bake until slightly golden, about 16 to 18 minutes. Leave oven on.

While that is baking, make the filling: Whisk together the lightly beaten eggs, granulated sugar, flour and salt until smooth. Stir in lemon juice and milk. Pour over hot crust.

Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake until filling is set and the edges are slightly golden brown, about 18 minutes. I had to cook mine an extra ten minutes until the middle fully set.

Let cool on a wire rack. Dust with confectioner's sugar and cut into 2 inch squares once completely cooled.

I made a new french toast recipe for breakfast this morning. The only word for it is scrumptious. It is so yummy I have to share!

Baked Apple Cinnamon French Toast

1/2 loaf of bread suitable for french toast, cut into one inch cubes. I used King's Hawaiian Bread, but I think challah would probably work just as well.

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup sugar, divided

2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided

2 medium apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

2 tablespoons butter

Preheat over 350 degrees (I upped the temperature to 375 because I

wanted to be sure the bread wasn't soggy.)

Place bread cubes in greased 8x8 inch pan

Combine eggs, milk, 1/4 cup sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix

well. Pour half over the bread cubes.

Top with the apple slices.

Pour remaining egg mixture over the apples.

Mix 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and shake over the apples.

Dot the top with the butter. Bake 40-45 minutes until knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Serve with syrup and prepare to be delighted!

I have a colleague who is a wonderful baker. A while back, she went on a cookie baking spree, delighting everyone and bringing in new cookies to the office on a weekly basis. It got to the point where you practically had to elbow your way into the crowd in the kitchen in the morning to grab yourself a cookie first thing, or you got nothing. And these were not cookies to be missed. She made carrot cake cookies (ok, I hate carrot cake, but everyone else loved them) and shortbread cookies and fancy lacy cookies and savory cookies and really, just about every kind of cookie you might want. So the first time I had a Dutch Cocoa cookie, I picked it up at 10 am, and did not get around to eating it until late afternoon. Well, as soon as I tasted it, I had to email her and ask for the recipe. I believe I used the words “Where has this cookie been all my life?” and “I can’t believe I waited so long to eat this cookie!”

She obligingly sent me the recipe, and everyone I’ve ever made them for has been as enthusiastic about them as I was. So my Christmas gift to you is to pass along the recipe.

2 cups of all purpose flour
¾ cup Dutch-process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

2 ½ sticks of butter, unsalted and at room temperature (you can get away with salted butter here)
2 cups of sugar, plus a little for “dusting”
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Sift/mix together the first four ingredients together, then set aside.

In second bowl, combine the butter and sugar until well mixed
Add the vanilla to the butter and sugar, and then the eggs, one at a time.

Add flour mixture a little at a time until completely incorporated.

Wrap the dough in plastic and chill until firm, usually about one hour.

Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar to completely coat.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes until set in the middle.

This is very dense dough, and you’ll be tempted to flatten them out a little bit on the cookie sheet before they bake. Do that, and you’ll get a delicious, chocolatey, crispy cookie. Resist the urge to smush them, and you’ll get pretty close to attaining pure cookie bliss – a luscious chocolate cookie with crispy edges and a soft chewy middle.

I love them both ways, and usually end up cooking about half of the batch flat and half unflattened. I just made a batch tonight, and I’ve already had three! One of them fell apart between the cookie sheet and the cooling rack, so I was obligated to eat that one, (in accordance with universal baking rules) but the other two were just because I find these cookies irresistible.

Hope you love them as much as I do. Merry Christmas, everyone!

I’m participating in Jenn’s Virtual Cookie Exchange by posting one of my favorite cookie recipes. These Honey Cookies are a nice change from the standard sugar cookie – the honey makes them mellower and the cinnamon gives them a hint of spice. My mom only made them at Christmas, so they are the ultimate Christmas cookie in my mind.

1 cup of shortening
½ cup brown sugar
½ to ¾ cup honey
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ¾ cups flour, sifted
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cream the shortening and brown sugar well. Beat in the honey, egg and vanilla.

Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the liquid a little at a time until completely blended.

Chill the dough for at least 3 hours.

Roll out the dough on a well floured surface (it will be sticky) to ¼ inch thickness and cut with floured cookie cutters.

Bake on ungreased cookie sheets at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. You should watch them closely, because if they get too brown, they lose their chewiness. You may want to reduce the oven temperature slightly if your oven runs hot.

Allow them to cool, then frost and decorate. I make a traditional buttercream frosting and then thin it out with just a little bit of extra milk. You can see an example of what they look like here. Please excuse my less than stellar decorating skills.

Buttercream frosting recipe, should you need one (this probably makes more than you need for just the cookies):
1 lb confectioner’s sugar
½ cup butter, softened
3-4 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the vanilla. Gradually add the milk until the frosting reaches the consistency you want.

My mom volunteers at a farmer’s market helping to do…stuff of one sort or another, I guess. I never really thought about what exactly she does. I go by the market periodically, but not every weekend. This weekend, however, they had Spike from Top Chef coming to give a culinary demonstration. I couldn’t miss that!

I rushed over to the market this morning, but luckily for me my mom and Spike were both late. Ms. Becky arrived right on time because she is always punctual, and we wandered around buying farmer’s market-y type stuff. I got an absolutely gorgeous bouquet of flowers nice and cheap.

And then Spike arrived. He wandered around the market gathering ingredients, and then gave a little presentation, talking about Top Chef and cooking and his restaurant, Good Stuff Eatery. According to Spike, Tom Colicchio is a really nice guy, and plays the guitar. The Top Chef challenge Spike hated the most was the one where they had to make lunch boxes. If I remember right, they had to make healthy lunches for Chicago policemen. Anyway, Spike was really personable and friendly. Sometimes you meet someone like that in person and it is a real letdown, but Spike seems to be pretty much to be what you’d expect him to be like. He brought his whole family with him – mom, dad, grandma, girlfriend (Becky and I admired her boots), and I think maybe another grandma – which I thought was sweet. I actually spoke to his dad in line at the lemonade stand, without realizing who he was. Based on his dad, I think Spike will age well. I can also see where Spike gets his energy.

He made a Greek peasant dish, that sounded like it was called Rigo. It was kind of like a Greek panzanella, although less salad-like. Crusty bread, special Greek olive oil, yellow tomatoes, fresh basil and goat cheese. It was delicious. I was too shy to talk to him about cooking – I like to cook and bake, but I’m no chef – but it was a fun way to spend a morning.

Me, Becky and Spike (we look fuzzy. I need a new camera):

Then I came home and did a little cooking of my own. Somehow a recent discussion of how a co-worker of mine likes pumpkin turned in to “Oh, I’ll make you some pumpkin cookies the next time I bake” which then turned into three of us agreeing to have pumpkin themed lunch on Tuesday. And then the new issue of Vegetarian Times had a recipe for a fall stew that you make in a pumpkin, so I decided I wanted to try that too. You make the stew, and then you stuff it in to a pumpkin (a pie pumpkin, not a carving pumpkin) and bake it for a couple of hours. Then, when you spoon the stew back out of the pumpkin, chunks of pumpkin come with it. It is really yummy. At least, I think it is. Unfortunately you can’t keep the stew in the pumpkins if you aren’t going to serve it right away. I can whip up a batch of cookies in no time tomorrow night, but I had to make the stew in advance. I did take a photo though:

Perfectly tart, a little bit sweet, deliciously refreshing on a steamy July afternoon. And dead easy to make too.

Lemonade recipe
¾ cup to 1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like your lemonade)
1 cup water
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (roughly 6 large lemons)
3 to 4 cups cold water

Heat the sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan over medium/low heat until the sugar dissolves in to the water, set aside to cool.

Juice the lemons until you get 1 cup of juice. Pour the lemon juice into a pitcher. I don’t like a lot of pulp, so I pour mine through a strainer.

Add the sugar water mixture (also called simple syrup) to the lemon juice, and then add the 3 to 4 cups cold water. Stick in the fridge to chill, and then enjoy!

If my weekend had a theme beyond “over way too fast,” I guess it would be baking, with a little cooking thrown in for good measure.

On Saturday I made an attempt at creating vegetarian bangers, a type of British sausage. If you’re ever looking for a cooking challenge, try coming up with a vegetarian version of something you’ve never eaten and never will eat, and which isn’t even typically served in your country. Thank goodness for the Internet. I read a bunch of vegetarian sausage recipes, and then a bunch of banger recipes, and somehow managed to do a bang up job (sorry, couldn’t resist) on the first try. The spicing wasn’t exactly right – too much white pepper and too much mace – but according to John, I got quite close to the real thing.

Vegetarian Bangers:
2 packages Smart Life Gimme Lean soy sausage one “pork” one “beef”
1 egg
3 teaspoons banger seasoning

Banger seasoning (adjusted to have less white pepper and mace):
4 tsp white pepper 1 ½ tsp mace
2 tsp salt 2 tsp sage
½ tsp nutmeg ¼ tsp thyme
¼ tsp marjoram ¼ tsp cloves

Mix all the ingredients together, roll into sausage “links” and fry up in olive oil until brown on all sides.

Traditionally, bangers are served with mashed potatoes and gravy, but John prefers to make them into sausage sandwiches.

Then I had an idea for an Indian baked rice pudding made with Basmati rice that I wanted to try. It turned out to be delicious.

Baked Rice Pudding
1 cup cooked basmati rice 1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk 1 tsp (poss. 1 ½ tsp) apple pie spice
1 cup half and half ½ tsp salt
¼ cup honey 2 tbsp cornstarch

Start with the milk and cream in a medium saucepan. Dissolve the cornstarch in the milk and stir until smooth. Stir in the rice, honey, vanilla, apple pie spice and salt, and simmer over low to medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly. This should take 10-15 minutes. Pour thickened pudding into loaf pan (I used a heavy enameled one) and bake in a 325 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. The top will crust over and get a little brown, while the inside will remain creamy. You can slice and eat it still warm, or chill it in the fridge.

Today I made a practice version of a lemon fruit tart I was thinking of taking to a barbecue next weekend. John says it is tasty, but I am not sure it is ready for public consumption just yet. I think the lemon curd was too lemony and the tart crust was too thick. It seemed like the perfect summery dessert, but now I’m not sure. I’m taking the leftover tart in to work tomorrow, so we’ll see what those folks think.

I did make some excellent meringue cookies almost by accident. I had 6 egg whites leftover from the lemon curd, and a bag of chocolate chips, so I thought what the heck? I have this awesome little hand blender/whisk tool that John gave me for my birthday, so I whipped up the egg whites with some sugar, salt and cream of tartar, and threw in the chocolate chips. I was kind of annoyed at the meringue as I glopped it on to the cookie sheets, but it was really very easy to make and turned out yummy.

And that’s it. Funny, it felt like a lot more work than it looks like when I write it out like that. Although I did manage to get plenty of other stuff done too. Vacuuming, cleaning the kitchen 17 times, movie watching, book reading, continued obsessing over real estate prices, hiking, and even working out. Of course, I kind of had to work out, what with all the baked goods I've been producing. Never fear! All leftover baked goods will go to work, where they can make my co-workers fat instead of me.

This weekend I pulled out an old favorite recipe from just after I finished college and tried updating it a little bit. This recipe is a little carb heavy, but it is really easy and very tasty. I believe I copied the original recipe out of one of the early Moosewood cookbooks, but I have changed it a couple of times over the years.

Noodles in peanut sauce

1/3 to ½ cup peanut butter (the all-natural kind works best)
½ cup boiling water
2 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
3 small or 2 medium garlic cloves, minced or smashed
1 teaspoon cider vinegar (rice wine vinegar will work here too)
1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped
a tiny sprinkle of cayenne
6 to 12 chopped peanuts
1 tablespoon green onions
1 lime
Salt to taste

½ box linguine (I think this is eight ounces. I threw out the box) or to be more Asian authentic, you could use soba noodles.

Cook the linguine according to the package directions.

While the linguine is cooking, sauté the garlic in a little bit of oil over medium heat. Add the soy sauce and the cilantro and cook for just a couple of minutes. If you’re worried about the garlic getting too brown, add a teaspoon of water or veggie broth.

Combine the peanut butter and the boiling water. Stir in the garlic/soy sauce/cilantro mixture, and then add the vinegar and green onions. Add the dash of cayenne (cayenne is hot – you don’t need much, just a hint) and stir it in thoroughly. When the linguine is done, drain it and put it in a bowl. Pour the peanut sauce over top and mix in. You can serve these noodles hot or chilled, so at this point, either get ready to serve or put them in the fridge to chill for a couple of hours.

Once you have the individual servings dished out, sprinkle them with the chopped peanuts, lime juice and salt.

Thing the first:

I ran 7.3 miles! Ok, to be honest, I probably ran six miles and walked the rest, but I covered 7.3 miles total. Running seven miles this weekend was part of my training for the ten miler, and for some reason I was convinced I wouldn’t be able to do it. I’ve just been dreading it. In fact, I sat around on Saturday fretting about going to the gym (yes, the gym. It was too icy for outside running. I fell while walking Seamus that morning) for like two hours before I decided to just suck it up and go. Things looked grim when I first got to the gym, because all of the machines with TVs and good fan placement were taken, and I ended up in the corner with no air circulation and absolutely nothing to distract me. The first half an hour was actually the hardest. Luckily, a prime machine opened up, and I was able to switch treadmills after the first 2.25 miles.

I think I finally figured out something about my running. For now, I should worry less about trying to run faster, and just focus on building stamina. Let’s face it, I’m short, and my stubby little legs can only cover so much ground per stride. I’m never going to be able to run all that fast anyway, and it really does seem to be much, much easier for me to run at 5.6 or 5.7 miles per hour than it is for me to run at six miles per hour. Plus, it took me 1 hour and 22 minutes to get to 7 miles, so it stands to reason that I should be able to make my goal of completing the ten miles in under two hours if I’m running 10:30 to 11 minute miles.

Thing the second:

I successfully recreated an appetizer I’ve only ever had in restaurants…and even better, it was really easy. While poking around on the Internet, I found a recipe for spring onion cakes on this blog . I’d put up the recipe, but I followed the one that is posted exactly, and she’s got step by step photos that make the assembly process a snap to follow. If you’re looking for something delicious, simple and Asian themed, I highly recommend them.

Thing the third:

I experimented with a mushroom barley soup recipe, and came up with a version that is nice and healthy and so flavorful that I think even a dedicated meat eater could enjoy it. Here is my new and very yummy mushroom barley soup recipe:

3 Tablespoons olive oil
½ medium onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3 medium stalks celery, roughly chopped
3 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
10 ounces fresh mushrooms (I used half cremini and half shitake, but Portobello and white button would probably also work), washed and stemmed, then roughly chopped
1 cup pearled barley
1 teaspoon thyme
4 cups stock or water (I used 2 cups of mushroom broth and 2 cups of veggie broth)
2 Tablespoons soy sauce

Heat oil in deep saucepan or stock pot.

Sautee the onion, garlic, celery, carrots and fresh mushrooms over medium high heat until they start to brown.

Add in the barley and thyme and cook, stirring frequently until the barley starts to brown, 5 to 10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste, then remove from heat.

Simmer the dried porcini mushrooms in 3 cups of water for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, strain the liquid and set aside. Roughly chop the porcini mushrooms, and then add them to barley/veggie/mushroom mixture and cook over medium heat for one minute. Add in the reserved mushroom liquid and the 4 cups stock or water and bring to a boil. Then cover and lower heat. Simmer for 25 to 30 minutes or until barley is tender. Stir in the soy sauce and cook of a minute or two longer.

I had a bowl with a slice of nice crusty wheat bread this afternoon, but the soup was so hearty I barely needed the bread. I did notice that the barley continued soaking up liquid as I let the soup cool, so you may need to add more liquid to keep it soup-like when reheating.

Special bonus thing the fourth:
I’m very happy with Jon Stewart for bringing Marketa Irglova, who won an Oscar for best original song, but who didn’t get to give her speech because the stupid orchestra started playing too soon, back out on stage. I didn’t even listen when they played the song, so I don’t know if it is any good, but she deserved the chance to give her acceptance speech.

Very few people know this, but that title is in fact the original lyric from the AC/DC song Live Wire. In the end though, they decided that "If you're looking for trouble, I'm the man to see" was more in keeping with their image.

Anyway, I've spent the last two days making lots and lots of cookies for my family and loved ones. It may be bragging a little bit, but it's no lie to say that people on my cookie list lucked out this year.

First we have Chocolate Peanut Butter Pinwheels:

Then we have rich and delicious Dutch Cocoa Cookies:

Right behind them are my mom's Honey Cookies.

Note the slightly sinister Gingerbread Men and my Crips vs. Bloods Snowmen. Hey, I'm a good baker, but my decorating skills still need a little work.

And last but not least, the always popular Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chip.

On top of that, I also ended up making a lasagna (not pictured) at the last minute. It does not pay to throw a Christmas Day timing change at my mom without at least two weeks of build-up time. Should you ever have to change plans on her just 24 hours in advance, be prepared to find yourself making lasagna at 11:00 at night.

Now my feet hurt and I'm tired, so I think I will close with the time honored Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good night! Hope your Christmas is full of love and fun and perhaps even a cookie or two.

It’s just about time for Cookiepalooza 2007 to begin. Every year I try to add a new cookie to my repertoire, but this year I’m just not feeling inspired. I’m thinking I might try my hand at shortbread, which I’ve never made before.

That doesn’t mean the matter is settled yet though. I still have to find a shortbread recipe that I like. Or…you could nominate your favorite cookie in the comments below. I know I’m making oatmeal cranberry white chocolate, and my mom has requested the always-delicious Dutch Cocoa cookies. What sort of cookie would you add to that list?

I stopped by Target tonight after the gym, thinking that I would just run in, return something, pick up some dog food and ant traps (quick side rant: It snowed here last week. Shouldn’t all the ants be dead or dormant or whatever? Why am I dealing with ants now, for crying out loud?) and be on my way.

Is that what happened? No, of course not. Because I got in to Target, returned my wrong-sized plastic bin with no trouble – I’ve always found Target to be very good about returns – and headed blithely toward the back of the store where they keep the dog food. As I passed the socks section, I remembered that I needed stockings and a couple of new pairs of socks. And then the plastic bin section was next to the toy section, and I started looking at toys for my niece and nephew, which is trickier than you might think. My nephew is just about to turn five. He liked Thomas the Tank Engine a lot last year, but I’m not sure if Thomas is still cool or not. I know he likes dinosaurs, but the majority of the dinosaur toys seem to involve dinos coexisting with humans. And helicopters. Maybe it means I’m humorless and fuddy-duddy, but I just can’t bring myself to give a child a toy that is so flagrantly paleologically inaccurate. Perhaps when he’s a little older and truly understands the difference between history, fiction and Land of the Lost I’ll feel more comfortable with those toys, but not now.

Then there is my older niece, who is two and a half. I don’t know if it is just that she’s a very girly girl, or if my conservative sister-in-law is unconsciously, or even consciously, I suppose, enforcing gender stereotypes, but all she wants is dolls, which she calls her “babies.” This is where my commie pinko liberal tendencies come in to play. If my niece truly loves dolls and that’s what she wants to play with, great. But I refuse to go along with potential gender role conditioning. But I also want to get her a present she will enjoy. See? It’s hard. I’m thinking perhaps something artsy-ish, like Play-Doh. At least the baby will be easy. Babies aren’t all that picky.

In the end, I found myself paralyzed by indecision, and didn’t get any toys at all. After fruitlessly wandering the toy aisles, I looked at random potential gifts for other people, followed by blowing a bunch of time standing in line. To be fair, they did open up two registers once they realized people were stacking up in lines, but it still took a while. By the time I left, I realized I’d been in the store for 45 minutes, which explains why I was so darn hungry. Target is its own little universe, and it is all too easy to get trapped inside and lose yourself for a while.

You may not know this, but most stuffing mixes are not vegetarian. Which I wish Whole Foods had taken in to consideration when they ordered their stuffing cubes this year, but no, instead of getting the brand that I really liked that made really tasty stuffing, they switched to mixes, all helpfully labeled “made with real chicken broth.” Hey Whole Foods, you know all those vegetarian products you sell? That a large segment of your customer base buys? The people who buy them don’t want a mix made with real chicken broth.

Anyway, I love stuffing. Even back when I ate meat, stuffing was my favorite part of Thanksgiving. Of course as a diabetic, I really can’t justify eating something so carb heavy very often, so my stuffing enjoyment opportunities have been severely curtailed. But for Thanksgiving, I go all out. This year John was bugging me to try a stuffing with vegetarian sausage, so that’s what I am doing.

Vegetarian Stuffing with Sausage

4 Italian “sausages” I used Boca Italian Sausage, defrosted, cut in half length wise and then cut in to bite sized pieces
4 Tablespoons butter
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 pound stuffing cubes
2 eggs
3 ½ cups vegetable broth

Brown the sausage in a little bit of olive oil. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a stock pot. Add in the onion, celery and garlic and sauté over medium heat until soft – about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally to be sure the butter isn’t getting too brown and that nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan. While that is cooking, heat up 2 ½ cups of the broth.

Add the stuffing cubes, stirring to coat with the butter and to mix in the celery, onions and garlic. Pour in a little of the heated broth to help prevent sticking. If you’ve bought stuffing that doesn’t have a lot of herbs, this is a good point to add in herbs. Sage, rosemary, parsley, thyme are good in stuffing. Marjoram and Savory can be good too, but you don't want to use too many herbs. If you’re using fresh herbs, you’ll throw in about a tablespoon of each one that you’re using. If you’re using dried herbs, cut that down to a teaspoon each.

Add the eggs and the rest of the heated broth, stirring to mix in. As the stuffing cooks you will need to keep adding the remaining cup of broth, until you get the consistency that you prefer. Add in the browned sausage and cook for a little while longer, stirring almost constantly to prevent sticking.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spoon the stuffing in a shallow baking pan (if you want drier stuffing) or casserole dish (if you prefer more moist stuffing) and bake for 20 minutes. You can skip this step if you want to, but I am paranoid about making sure the egg is really cooked.

To make this vegan stuffing (also delicious) replace the butter with 3 tablepoons of olive oil, and omit the eggs. You’ll probably need a little extra broth without the eggs. I’m also not sure if the Boca sausage is vegan or not, but I think it is.

I had a bunch of mushrooms left over from the stuffed onion recipe that did not go very well last weekend, so I decided to try making a creamy mushroom soup. I'm pleased to say it was a success! Even my skeptical, soup-hating husband was won over by this soup. It is really rich, and delicious served with a nice crusty bread. This is based on a recipe I found in Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's kitchen, although I changed it a little bit.

Creamy Mushroom Soup
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped shallots or onions (shallots are a little richer tasting)
2 tablespoons chopped parsley (I used italian parsley)
1 pound mushrooms, rinsed and chopped -- I had a mixture of cremini, shitake and baby bella mushrooms
sea salt and fresh ground pepper
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon dried rosemary (actually, I might bump this up to 2 teaspoons next time)
1 cup bread crumbs
1 quart mushroom broth/stock
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup cream

Melt the two tablespoons butter in a wide soup pot over medium high heat. When it is frothy, add the shallots and the parsley. Cook for several minutes, then add the mushrooms, garlic and rosemary. Stir to coat the mushrooms with the butter. Season with 1/2 teaspoon sea salt. Cook over medium heat until the mushrooms' liquid is released. That will take several minutes. Then add the bread crumbs and the stock. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.

Once the soup is finished cooking, puree it in a blender for about a minute. You want to leave some flecks of mushroom for texture. Return the soup to the pan, and taste to see if it needs any more salt. Swirl in the cream -- I used 1/2 a cup, but it was VERY creamy. I may only use a 1/4 cup next time. Season with pepper to taste, and then serve. I served it hot, but Deborah Madison's recipe says it is good chilled too.

Edited to add -- I just had some leftover soup, and this stuff is even better the second day after the flavors have had a chance to set in. Yummy!

It occurred to me that it might be useful for my November recipes to be dishes you can make for a vegetarian Thanksgiving. Whether you have a vegetarian coming for Thanksgiving dinner, or you just want to try something new, I’ll suggest a few of my favorite Thanksgiving-appropriate dishes over the next few weeks. Please feel free to make requests, too. I love the challenge of tracking down and trying out new recipes.

This week’s recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks, Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. It is for Walnut and Potato Croquettes. You can also make this dish without the walnuts, and it is equally delicious.

1 ½ tablespoons butter
½ cup grated onion
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 cup mashed potatoes (I prefer mashed potatoes made with Yukon Gold potatoes for this dish)
2 cups bread crumbs
1 egg
Salt and freshly milled pepper to taste
1 tablespoon chopped sage, rosemary or parsley (I think sage is best, particularly for Thanksgiving)
Vegetable oil (I use olive or canola, actually) and/or clarified butter for frying

Melt the butter in a small skillet, add the onion, and cook over medium heat until browned, stirring frequently. In a bowl, mix the onion, walnuts, mashed potatoes, half the bread crumbs and the egg. Season with 1 teaspoon salt, a little pepper and the sage. Scoop up 2 heaping tablespoons of the mixture at a time and shape into an oval. Spread the remaining bread crumbs on a plate and roll the oval croquettes in them to coat evenly.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F. Heat 1/8 an inch of oil in a wide skillet and place over high heat. Add as many of the croquettes as will fit comfortably, reduce the heat to medium, and cook on both sides until golden, about 10 minutes in all. Remove them to paper towels and place in the oven while you finish frying the rest of the croquettes.

They are tasty plain or topped with gravy.

I made these brownies this weekend as a little celebration of buying a new car. They are adapted from a recipe my mom gave me, which she cut out of the Washington Post at some point. They are more complicated than your average brownie, but they are totally worth it. I was a little worried about making the caramel topping because I am a terrible candy maker, but it was easier than I thought it would be.

Ultimate Brownie recipe

For the caramel topping:

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the caramel: Combine the cream and the salt in a small bowl and set aside.

In a medium saucepan (heavy, unlined pans are best) with a lid, combine the water and the corn syrup over low heat. Add the sugar to the center of the saucepan and gently mix to thoroughly moisten the sugar, taking care not to let sugar crystals adhere to the sides of the pan. Cover, bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook for 3 to 5 minutes , without stirring, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the liquid is clear.

Uncover and cook for 3 to 5 minutes more, without stirring, but gently swirling the pan occasionally, until the liquid is a pale golden color. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook about 1 to 3 minutes, continuing to swirl, until the caramel is a light amber and registers about 360 degrees on a candy or instant-read thermometer. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the cream salt mixture to the center of the pot, making sure that your hand isn’t directly over the pot (the mixture will bubble and seam vigorously P.S. they aren’t kidding about that!). Stir with a whisk or spatula until the bubbling subsides. Add the butter and the vanilla extract, stirring to combine. Transfer to a medium microwaveable measuring cup or bowl and set aside.

Brownie layers:

¾ cup flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into one inch pieces
4 ounces sweet baking chocolate, chopped
2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
2 large eggs, at room temperature (I only just learned you can quickly bring eggs to room temperature for baking by placing them in a bowl of warm water. Duh.)
1 cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Place your oven rack in the lower middle position and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a 9 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, allowing the extra foil to hang over the edges of the pan. Lightly grease the foil-lined pan with a baking spray.

Combine the flour and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside.

Melt the butter and the chopped baking chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate in a double boiler, stirring until slightly smooth; set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar, salt and vanilla extract until well combined. Add the melted chocolate mixture to the egg mixture. Add the flour mixture a little at a time and stir until almost combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

To assemble, spread half of the brownie batter into the prepared baking pan. Drizzle about ¼ cup of the caramel over the brownie batter, spreading lightly with a spatula. Drop spoonfuls of the remaining brownie batter over the caramel layer and spread into the corners of the pan. Top with another ¼ cup or so of the caramel. Drag the tip of a knife through the layers of brownie and caramel to swirl them together. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes (possibly even slightly longer) until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack, 1 to 2 hours.

If necessary, heat the remaining caramel – you should have about ¾ of a cup left – in the microwave on high for 45 to 60 seconds until it is pourable but still thick. Pour over the brownies and use a spatula to spread evenly. Refrigerate and the brownies, uncovered, until they are fully chilled, at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Once the brownies have chilled, you can pull them out of the pan and peel the foil off. The recipe says to cut the brownies after you chill them, but I chose to cut them before I poured the post baking layer of caramel on the top. That way, the caramel drizzles in between the cut pieces.

These brownies are a bit of work, but they are incredible. Enjoy!

I’ve found myself struggling for inspiration more than usual lately. I’ve been worried that this blog, much like barbershop, is in danger of growing stale. Being me, I sat down and made a list of “features” I could introduce to help me stay interested and interesting. One of the ideas I liked the most was writing more about the cooking and baking that I do. Not only would blogging about cooking give me something new to write about – it would also give me an excuse to try new recipes and experiments. So, I’m going to try to have one post per week be dedicated to cooking or baking.

To start, I’ll write about a new recipe I tried this weekend. It’s called Vegetarian Toad in the Hole, and it is very easy. Also, it’s easily adaptable for you meat eaters out there. I got the basic recipe from New Vegetarian Entertaining, by Jane Noraika, which is a great cookbook.

First, you make the batter.

¾ cup all-purpose flour
a pinch of sea salt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
8 vegetarian sausages
½ red bell pepper, cored and seeded, thinly sliced
safflower oil for cooking (I used olive oil)

Put the flour and the salt in a bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the beaten eggs. Beat vigorously, adding the milk as you go, until the mixture is smooth. Put in the refrigerator to rest for 30 minutes.

Take 8 vegetarian (or real) sausages – I used Boca Italian sausages – and cook them according to the package directions. When cooked, cut them in half crosswise.

Fill 8 cups of a muffin pan with 1/8 of an inch of oil. Heat in a preheated oven at 475 degrees for about ten minutes or until the pan and the oil are very hot. Spoon the batter in to the muffin cups, filling about halfway, then put some sausage pieces and red pepper slices in to the batter. The recipe calls for sprinkling thyme on top, but I think I might mix thyme in to the batter next time. I also think I might chop my sausage pieces up smaller.

Put the muffin tray(s) on a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes until golden and well risen. The batter will puff up to surround the sausage and pepper slices.

Top with gravy and serve.

Gravy recipe (this is not the recipe used in New Vegetarian Entertaining. It is my own gravy recipe, and I prefer it)

Small amount of chopped onion and garlic
½ Tbs olive oil
2 cups vegetable broth
2 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon dried thyme
2 Tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 3 Tablespoons of water
¼ cup milk

Sautee the onion and garlic in the olive oil until soft. They should be pretty finely chopped, so it will only take a couple of minutes. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a low boil. Stir in the soy sauce and thyme. Whisk in the cornstarch mixture and continue to stir for one minute, until thickened. Reduce heat and add milk, stirring until completely mixed in. If you want vegan gravy, soy milk will work as a substitute.

Enjoy!