Cooking | The Misadventures of Mrs. B

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake

Feb 132013

Today may be Ash Wednesday, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up all indulgence for the next 40 days.

Otherwise how would you be able to enjoy lusciousness such as that which I’m sharing with you right now? And it is luscious, and it is worth breaking a few Lenten promises for. Plus it’s a perfect Valentine’s Day dessert!

I’d seen cakes like this before, usually on TV food shows. And in my dreams…

I always felt that a layer of cheesecake sandwiched between two layers of cake was the epitome of over-indulgence and would roll my eyes even as I secretly wanted to give it a try. Then I found a gorgeous version over at Recipe Girl and I absolutely had to bite the bullet.

So I did. And it was good.

I just had to use my own cream cheese buttercream recipe, though. Because it’s my favorite thing in the whole wide world.

For the record, I’m a much bigger fan of creamy cheesecakes than dense, dry ones so whenever I bake a cheesecake (this includes Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake and Chocolate Cheesecake) I whip the heck out of the cream cheese until it’s extremely smooth and light. This always results in a much lighter, airier finished product which everyone seems to enjoy.

I think you’ll enjoy it too. Call me psychic.

Lent doesn’t mean the end of all things delicious – and this weekend might be the perfect time to remind your honey just how much they mean to you. This cake will definitely get the point across!

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake

Adapted from Recipe Girl

Cheesecake Layer

2 8-oz packages cream cheese, at room temperature

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2/3 cup granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

1/3 cup sour cream

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place a roasting pan on the middle rack.

Put a kettle of water on to boil for the water bath.

Prepare a 9-inch springform pan by lightly spraying the inside with cooking spray and placing a circle of parchment paper on the bottom (I skipped that part and it turned out fine). Line the outside in a double layer of heavy-duty aluminum foil to prevent water from leaking in to the cheesecake while baking. Set aside.

In a large bowl, blend the cream cheese at medium speed until light and creamy. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl periodically.

Add sugar and salt and blend for another two minutes, again scraping down the inside of the bowl from time to time to prevent lumps.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing in thoroughly after each addition.

Add the sour cream, heavy cream and vanilla. Blend for another minute or two at medium speed.

Pour batter into prepared springform pan. Place pan inside the roasting pan in your preheated oven. Carefully pour the water from the kettle into the roasting pan until the water reaches about an inch up the side of the springform pan.

Bake for 45 minutes, until cheesecake is no longer jiggly in the center. Remove from oven and allow to cool before placing in the freezer, where it can sit for several hours or overnight.

Red Velvet Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar

3 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups vegetable or canola oil

1 cup buttermilk (If you don’t have buttermilk use a scant 1 cup regular milk + 2 tsp white vinegar – allow to sit for five minutes until it thickens)

1/4 cup (two 1-oz bottles) red food coloring

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare two 9-inch cake pans by buttering and flouring the insides. Set aside.

Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add other ingredients and mix on low speed for one minute, scraping down the sides and bottom of bowl as needed. Then mix for two minutes on medium speed.

Pour batter evenly into prepared cake pans. Place inside preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes back clean with a few crumbs. Remove cakes from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans and placing on racks to finish cooling completely before assembly.

Cream Cheese Buttercream

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 8-0z package cream cheese, at room temperature

4 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Using a stand mixer or handheld beaters, beat softened butter and cream cheese together until blended. Slowly add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating only on low speed at first so as to avoid a sugary explosion. Add vanilla extract. Beat frosting at higher speed once powdered sugar is incorporated, until light and fluffy. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator and remove 30 minutes prior to use.

Assembling the cake:

Place one red velvet layer on your cake stand. Spread a very, very thin layer of frosting on top – just enough to make the cheesecake stick. Remove the cheesecake from the springform pan and place on top (if frozen it should be much easier to perform this step neatly!). Remove parchment paper if you used it. Spread another very thin layer of frosting over the cheesecake, then top with second red velvet cake layer. Make sure everything lines up!

To avoid having red crumbs in your white frosting, first do a “crumb coating”, which just means that you spread a thin layer of frosting over the entire cake and then let it sit in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up. This will seal in all the crumbs. Then frost to your heart’s content!

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Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

Cooking, Recipes 59 Responses »

Jan 182013

Friends, I promised you a long time ago that I’d share with you how to make what is (for reals) quite possibly the greatest cheesecake – nay, dessert – I have ever created.

I wouldn’t lie to you, would I? Nope.

And let’s not forget, healthy choices aren’t just about organic rabbit food.

Balance. Right? Right.

So let’s talk about Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake, then. I feel like fanfare should blare whenever those words are typed together.

Picture it: August 2012. A certain blogger was about to approach a certain birthday and knew that not just any traditional birthday cake would do. Although Chocolate Truffle Cake is perfection and should never be kicked out of anyone’s party, ever.

Still, it was time for a change. So I (yeah yeah, we were talking about me, surprise!) found something at Tammy’s Recipes, thanks to Pinterest (which by the way I refuse to visit right now since I always become way too obsessed and wind up telling Rob that he has approximately 57 new things to do around the house and then I wonder why a recipe for crock pot chicken has, in fact, never “changed my life”. Is there something wrong with me?).

I fell in love with this beautiful cheesecake. However, I felt like it needed a bit of a shake-up.

I dig white chocolate. I dig chocolate in general. Still…I wanted something a little jazzier.

Then the heavens opened and the angels sang and a voice whispered two sweet words in my ear: Peanut butter

Done.

I have to tell you, I took a total stab at it and added a cup of peanut butter instead of the white chocolate as instructed and it worked tremendously well for my tastes and, as evidenced by the approval I received and the rate at which the cake disappeared, the tastes of everyone else who ate it.

Still, you may want to add more if you want a more intense peanut butter flavor. I can’t speak to how that would affect the texture of the cream cheese, though, so be warned.

Once the cake was baked and cooled, it was time to make the chocolate glaze.

Look.at.that. Just look at it. Take a minute and soak it in.

And in case you were wondering: Yes. It tastes as good as it looks.

In fact the general consensus was “It takes just like a peanut butter cup”. What else do you need to know?

Whether it’s for a birthday, anniversary or a Wednesday night, you need to make this cheesecake NOW. And feel free to invite me over to help you, um, get rid of it.

It’s the least I can do.

Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

Adapted from Tammy’s Recipes

Crust:

1 cup chocolate graham crackers, finely crushed

2 tbs white sugar

4 tbs butter, melted

Cheesecake:

32 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup heavy cream

4 tbs butter, softened

1 1/3 cups white sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs, at room temperature

6 oz semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature

1 cup creamy peanut butter

Chocolate Glaze:

8 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips)

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2 tbs light corn syrup

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Prepare a 9-inch springform pan by lining the bottom and outside with two layers of heavy-duty foil. Lightly grease the inside of the pan.

Mix graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar and press onto bottom of the pan to form the crust. Place the pan in the fridge to firm up the crust while you prepare the cream cheese layers.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, cream, butter and sugar on medium-low speed. It’s very important to make sure the cream cheese is thoroughly softened prior to doing this, or else you’ll end up with a lumpy cheesecake. Make sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl from time to time.

Once cream cheese mixture is smooth, add the vanilla and combine. Then add the eggs, one at a time, blending after each addition until thoroughly combined and smooth.

At this point, put a kettle or pot of water on to heat up (it doesn’t have to boil, just make sure it’s hot).

Pour about half of the cream cheese mixture into a second large bowl. Into one bowl, add the melted chocolate and stir until combined. Into the second, add the peanut butter and stir until combined (a mixer is better for this job).

Remove the springform pan from the refrigerator. Pour the chocolate mixture on top of the crust and smooth out the top. Then gently dollop – don’t pour! – the peanut butter half on top. Gently spread out the dolloped mixture until you have a smooth finish.

Place the springform pan inside a large roasting pan or Pyrex and place the pan inside your preheated oven. Add the hot water from the kettle to the outside pan until it’s about an inch up the sides of the springform pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 60-80 minutes until the top looks dry and the edges are puffed. Don’t worry – it’ll still wiggle a little in the center when moved. Turn off the oven and, using a wooden spoon or other safe utensil, prop open the oven door. Leave the cheesecake in the oven for another hour to cool.

Remove the cheesecake from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before covering and placing in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, combine the glaze ingredients in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until the chocolate is melted and the glaze is smooth. Remove from heat and let it cool a bit in order to thicken up.

Remove the cheesecake from the refrigerator take off the foil. Place the pan on a rack to catch drips or, if you’re like me, put it right on the serving dish. Run a knife gently around the inside of the pan to loose the cake, then remove the sides of the pan.

Slowly pour the cooled glaze over the top of the cake. You may want pour half at a time to prevent it from running off and allow for a thicker coating.

Store any leftover cheesecake in the refrigerator, or slice and freeze.

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Cooking on GAPS

Cooking 4 Responses »

Apr 262012

Photo via Creative Commons

Newsflash: I haven’t posted a recipe (or anything else) on here in a while. Yes. I know.

This is mainly because I’ve been spending time experimenting with a new method of cooking. And because, well, I haven’t exactly been walking on the wild side with my diet, thanks to GAPS.

In the first stages and throughout the diet, homemade stock is key. Making a good stock is easy and I plan to share my experience with you soon. I ate a lot of boiled chicken and mashed vegetables last week.

Soon I added eggs. It’s a good thing I like eggs. I ate a lot of them. I ate two today, in fact.

I also made yogurt! And it was super easy and waaaaaay cheaper than buying it at the store. I’m definitely going to blog about that after I make it again. You need to know how easy it is – no yogurt maker needed.

And my personal favorite: Homemade sauerkraut. Seriously, y’all. So easy and so yum.

The yogurt and sauerkraut are important because one of the cornerstones of the GAPS diet is repopulating the gut with healthy bacteria, and fermented food is where they’re at, y’all.

Now that I’m moving towards the “full” diet the limitations on what I can eat are going to lighten a lot – of course, still no sugar or starch – so I’ll be able to expand and try new recipes and even create some of my own. I’ve been thinking a lot about where I can go with this and am super excited about it!

Tomorrow I want to share with you how I’m feeling – and how experimenting with the elimination of certain foods might help you, too, even if you’re not trying to heal from a disease.

Have you ever experimented with elimination diets? What did you find out?

Boeuf Bourguignon

Recipes 15 Responses »

Mar 232012

I’ve posted about this beouf bourguignon before. I know. And incidentally, if you want a good Before & After of a blogger’s journey through the years, check that link out. I’ll wait.

See what I mean?

This recipe deserves another post. In fact it deserves songs written about it and a book deal which can be turned into a movie or at least a miniseries in which it is the star.

But I’ll just stick to another post. For now, anyway.

I can’t even quite describe what a big fat deal this dish is. It’s just unlike any other stew I’ve ever eaten. And I’ve eaten my fair share.

Rob always describes it as “rich”, which is a fact. There is such a lovely depth of flavor happening. I mean, come on. Bacon. Red wine. Beef. There’s no going wrong.

Did I mention there’s bacon? Oh, I did? Okay.

Confession time: I don’t follow Julia Child’s beouf bourguinon recipe to the letter anymore. I’ve put my own “Jen” spin on it.

Translation: I’m too lazy to do it Julia’s way.

But my husband sure doesn’t seem to mind. Neither does mah belly.

There’s one step I never skimp on, though. That would be the browned mushrooms. Oh my goodness.

I’m the only person in the house who eats them. Notice how un-sad I sound when I say that?

All.for.me.

The mushrooms are just browned up in butter and olive oil with some parsley thrown in. And yet they are so, so special. I Instgrammed this photo and it was agreed – there are many of us who would just eat these for dinner.

And then there’s the brown braised onions which normally go with the dish. I make them if I’m feeling fancy. If not, no biggie – I just eat the onions which cooked in the stew.

I really fly by the seat of my pants, don’t I?

Anyway, I don’t say “this is the bomb” very often (because there is no way to say that without sounding corny), but this is in fact THE bomb. It is close-your-eyes-in-blissful-tranquility delicious.

It also helps that I generally serve this over brown buttered egg noodles. Oh yeah.

I mean, seriously. Just look at it. There’s nothing more to say, is there?

You want this. You need this. You will have this if it’s the last thing you ever do. Because you’re worth it.

Beouf Bourguignon

Adapted from Julia Child

1/2 lb bacon

3 lbs stew beef, cubed and dried thoroughly

3 tbs flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 lb carrots, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces

2 large onions, peeled and sliced thinly

4 cups beef stock

3 cups red wine

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbs tomato paste

2 bay leaves

Several sprigs of thyme, left whole, or 1 tsp dried thyme leaves

3-4 tbs cornstarch (optional)

1/4 cup cold or room-temperature wine or beef stock (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Heat a dutch oven or other oven-proof covered roasting pan on stove over medium heat. With a pair of kitchen shears, cut bacon into small pieces and drop into pan. Cook bacon until browned, stirring frequently. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

In batches of several pieces at a time, brown stew beef in remaining bacon grease. Do not overcrowd the pan – only a half dozen pieces or so at a time so as to let the meat brown instead of only steaming it.

When all beef is browned, add it back to the pan. Sprinkle over the flour, salt and pepper and mix it together. Place covered pan in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, to allow the flour to form a crust.

Remove the pan from the oven and add remaining ingredients, sprinkling cooked bacon over top. Cover the pan and cook for 2 1/2 hours in the oven.

After the time is up, remove the pan from the oven. In order to thicken the gravy, remove all solids from the pan and set aside. Bring the gravy to a low boil and skim the fat off the surface (it forms a sort of skin so it’s easy to remove). Depending on how much gravy you like, you can either boil it down until it coats the back of a spoon, or mix 3-4 tbs of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of room-temperature stock or wine and whisk this into the gravy.

Add the meat and vegetables back to the gravy and allow to warm through. Serve over rice, mashed potatoes or buttered noodles.

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Butter Dip Biscuits

Recipes 59 Responses »

Mar 202012

If I had a will, I’d have to leave a small part of my ill-gotten gains to one of my favorite food bloggers.

Her name is Brandie and she blogs at The Country Cook and she helped make these biscuits a reality and honestly, is there anything else I need to say?

Yes, I know I need to make up a will. I’ll get around to it, Judgypants.

First I need to make and eat more biscuits. This is how my priorities fall, people.

They’re probably the easiest things in the entire world. The biscuits, I mean. They don’t even need to be rolled or patted out and cut.

Microwave butter right in the baking pan.

Mix together the other ingredients just until they’re combined. Be careful not to overwork the dough because much like with brownies, overworking leads to toughness and nobody likes a tough biscuit.

And this leads me to an important part of the recipe. It calls for buttermilk, which is thicker than “sweet”, aka regular, milk.

Don’t have buttermilk? Easy substitution time! If this were a YouTube video, this is the part where I’d use some funky dance music and cut to a quick series of shots of me dancing.

Pour juuuust slightly less milk than you need, then add white vinegar until you make up the difference. This shouldn’t be more than maybe a teaspoon or two.

Let it sit for a while and then voila! Curdly milk with lots of tang which reacts with the baking powder, thus leavening your biscuits.

It makes them fluffy, in other words.

If you don’t have vinegar either (which…why do you not have vinegar in your cabinet?), you can use regular old milk but you’ll need to use a bit less milk – maybe a cup and a half – or a bit more flour to make up the difference.

Back to making biscuits.

Spread the dough over the melted butter and cut it into squares before popping the pan into the oven.

I know. It doesn’t even seem right. But it is.

20 to 25 minutes pass, during which time you will do some intense cardio to burn off the calories you’ll soon be consuming. Trust me.

And then you have biscuits, my friend.

It’s just that simple.

Somewhere, angels are weeping because they’re jealous over not being able to eat these little pillows of buttery goodness. I’m serious. I can hear them.

You know what these go perfectly with? Chicken bacon chowder. Or beef stew.

Or preserves and a cup of coffee first thing in the morning. Holy goodness gracious.

Butter Dip Biscuits

1 stick (8 tbs) unsalted butter

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

4 tsp granulated sugar

4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Place stick of butter in 8×8 pan and melt in microwave (or melt butter on stovetop and pour into pan).

As butter is melting, combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Pour in buttermilk and mix everything until just combined – be careful not to overwork the dough or biscuits will turn out tough.

Pour dough out of bowl into pan, right over melted butter. Spread the dough out as evenly as you can and pat it into the corners. ”Cut” the dough into 9 squares with a sharp knife.

Place pan in preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. As they bake, you may need to dab bits of overly-browned butter off of the edges with a paper towel as the butter bubbles up over the biscuits.

What is your favorite way to eat biscuits?

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Irish Beef Stew

Recipes 46 Responses »

Mar 122012

Hello, my friends.

First, what do you think of the new look? Gorgeous, right? I know! All thanks to the hardest working husband/designer this side of the Mississippi.

Second, I tried to make this stew over the weekend in order to get some fresh photos…only something went terribly wrong. I don’t know if it was the meat or the beer.

Either way, this goes to show that not everything can go according to plan. So, I’m re-running last year’s version. Enjoy!

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day coming up this week, I’ll be featuring a couple of yummy Irish-themed recipes which I hope will be part of your celebration.

First up is Irish Beef Stew. Stew, as we all know, is an easy and tasty way to get something hot and hearty in your family’s belly. It may take a little bit of time to prepare but while it’s cooking you can work on the other million items on your to-do list. Or kick back and relax. Depending on which universe you live in.

Plus…I love it. I absolutely love stew. There’s just something about fork-tender meat swimming around in rich, succulent gravy.

What I don’t love is the flavor potatoes take on when they’ve cooked in a stew. We’re talking borderline phobia here, people. So I make mashed potatoes instead, or egg noodles with browned butter.

Great. Now I totally want some.

What makes this stew “Irish” is the addition of dark beer. I used a very dark stout. It gave a totally different complexity to the taste of the finished product and had me practically licking the plate. As long as I’m being honest.

The addition of dumplings was a strike of brilliance - I got the recipe from Jamie’s Food Revolution and they couldn’t be easier.

And as we all know: Easy + Tasty = A Winner. It’s just simple math.

Enjoy!

Irish Beef Stew (adapted from Epicurious.com)

Prep Time: 30 minutes Cooking Time: 2 1/2 hours

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 pounds stew beef, cut into 1-inch pieces

3 large garlic cloves, minced

6 cups beef stock or canned beef broth

1 cup red wine

1 cup dark beer, such as Guinness

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large onion, chopped

2 cups peeled carrots, cut into pieces

3 lbs potatoes, scrubbed and cut into eighths

Dumplings (via Jamie Oliver)

1 3/4 cups self-rising flour*

1 stick cold butter, grated coarsely

Ice water or cold milk, as needed

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a dutch oven or a large skillet with deep sides, heat oil. Brown beef on all sides, working in batches. Be careful not to overcrowd the pan or else the beef will not brown property.

When beef is browned, combine in dutch oven or oven-proof roasting pan with all other ingredients except butter, potatoes and vegetables. Give it a good stir to combine, then place covered pan in oven for 1 1/2 hours.

In frying pan, heat butter until foam dissolves. Sautee vegetables and potatoes for 20 minutes. After 1 1/2 hours are up, add to stew. Continue to cook for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, mix up dumpling dough. Combine flour, grated butter and just enough cold water or milk to form a dough. Roll dough into ping pong sized balls and place on top of stew (should be half submerged). Cook additional 30 minutes.

If you like a thick gravy, mix up 1 cup of water, stock or wine ( just make sure it’s not hot!) with 1/4 cup of cornstarch. Whisk to ensure that cornstarch dissolves. Remove cooked dumplings and set aside. Slowly pour cornstarch mixture over stew, stirring constantly, until gravy is thickened to your liking.

*If you don’t have self-rising flour, add 1 1/4 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt for every cup of all-purpose flour. For this recipe, you’d need a scant 2 1/2 tsp baking powder and a scant 1/2 tsp salt.

How do YOU celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?

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Creamy Chicken Bacon Chowder

Recipes 28 Responses »

Mar 062012

Friends, it’s not often that I eat something so good, I’m compelled to blog about it while the taste still lingers on my tongue and bits of it still linger on my clothing.

I haven’t actually looked down yet so I’m just assuming on that second part.

But back to the matter at hand. This soup. The soup which compels me to write this post.

This glorious, thick, rich, hearty, soul-warming and life-affirming soup.

Second-best part? It’s a crock pot recipe.

Very best part? My husband created and prepared it himself.

Swoon away, ladies.

He looked around the internet to get down the logistics of creating a soup from scratch, then set about making it. And on the first try, he hit it out of the park.

Imagine walking into your house at the end of a typically long and yucky Monday to find the aroma of bacon lingering in the air. Yeah. That was me.

Swoon, I say.

In all seriousness, this is a ridiculously good soup, and you should make it happen.

Roasting the chicken before putting it in the pot adds flavor – if you don’t have the time I’m sure you could skip that step.

I’m also sure you could lighten things up a bit, though I can’t imagine why you’d want to. Okay, I can totally imagine why you’d want to. Just not at the moment.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some soup to lick off my sweater. Um, I mean, to wash off my sweater.

Yeah. That.

Creamy Chicken Bacon Chowder

Serves 12 (at least!)

4 chicken breasts, trimmed of fat

12-15 small red potatoes, scrubbed, skin on

1 small onion, diced

8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

2 cups chicken stock

3 stalks celery, chopped

8 oz cream cheese

1 cup cream

1 10 3/4 oz can Campbell’s cream of celery soup

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp dried parsley flakes

1 tsp garlic powder

3 tsp salt, divided

1 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place chicken breasts in a baking pan or rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle parsley, garlic powder, pepper and 1 tsp salt over chicken. Top with bits of butter. Place in preheated oven and cook for 30 minutes.

As chicken bakes, cube potatoes and place in bottom of stock pot. Top with bacon, onion and celery. Pour stock over all.

Mix condensed soup, cream and cream cheese. Add to crock.

When chicken is finished cooking, place on top of all ingredients.

Cover crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours.

After 6 hours, remove chicken from crock pot. Puree remaining ingredients with immersion blender or in batches, using a blender. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and add to soup.

Keep warm until serving. Garnish with extra crumbled bacon, if desired.

What’s your favorite soup recipe?

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Double Chocolate Brownies

Recipes 38 Responses »

Mar 022012

Gulp. Hold me.

You don’t…sigh…you don’t even understand.

Give me a minute here.

See, years ago there was a brownie born of desperation. Of random ingredients strewn around my kitchen and a hankering for something sweet and decadent and incredibly bad for me.

These brownies are the love child of that desperation paired with my complete inability to ignore a craving.

The chewy. The fudgy. The “Who Needs Willpower Or Pants With An Actual Waistband” quality of these brownies.

They’re even better than The Baked Brownie, and that’s saying something, people.

They are not to be believed unless you experience them for yourself.

I’m actually debating whether or not I should share this recipe with you. Because I don’t want to think of you being subjected to a life of elastic and lycra as a result of these brownies and my *ahem* generous nature.

I took them to work, people. I took them to work.

And I don’t even love my coworkers like that.

But they sure love me now.

Such was my fervent desire to get them out of my house, lest my husband come downstairs one morning to find me passed out on the kitchen floor, surrounded by crumbs, milk dribbled down my front.

And a big ol’ chocolatey smile on my face.

Make them at your own risk. That’s all I’m saying.

And if you should happen to have any left over, unlikely as that seems, send them my way. The least I can do is help you get rid of them, after all.

Double Chocolate Brownies

1 cup butter, melted

3 cups white sugar

4 eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix together the melted butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs. Fold in the flour mixture until the ingredients are just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Make sure not to overbeat the batter or else you’ll end up with chewy, touch brownies.

Line a 9×13 pan with foil, and spray with cooking spray. Spread the batter evenly in the pan and bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes back mostly clean (brownies should be very moist).

Allow to cool completely, then use foil to lift brownies from pan. Cut into 36 pieces.

What’s your favorite chocolate recipe?

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Sunday Dinner: Roasted Pork with Vegetables

Recipes 23 Responses »

Feb 102012

You’ll have to forgive my photography on this one. It was night. And dark. And the leftovers just didn’t make it.

Those of you who follow my tweets may remember me bragging about this pork roast a couple of weeks ago.

You were probably all “WTF? It’s just roasted pork, nerd”.

And while you would have been correct – I am a nerd – you’d be wrong about the level of awesome this meal reached. Never have I enjoyed such a juicy and flavorful roast – ever. In my entire life.

Maybe it was the bacon blanket under which the roast cooked. After all, pork-on-pork action can’t possibly be wrong. The bacon may have held all that juiciness in, and the drippings could have carried the flavor of the rub throughout the meat, leaving every bite more delicious and flavorific than the last.

Or it may have been magic. Either/or. But my money’s on the bacon.

The veggies sure didn’t suffer in all this, either. I had to literally restrain myself or else I may have eaten every last bit of potato, every slice of onion. And honestly, I’m not that much of a potato person. But this recipe changed my feelings real fast.

In other words, ladies and possibly a few gents: This meal was 100% awesome. Pure and simple.

I hope you decide to give it a shot. I hope you enjoy it. I hope it makes you have bad, sinful thoughts because then I wouldn’t be the only one and would feel a lot better about myself and this is, after all, my blog so it’s kinda all about me. Right?

Roasted Pork with Vegetables

1 3 lb boneless pork roast

2 tbs brown sugar

2 tbs brown mustard

3 garlic cloves, pressed or finely minced

2 tsp dried thyme leaves

1 tsp ground black pepper

6 slices uncooked bacon

2 -3 lbs red potatoes, scrubbed and quartered (large chunks)

2 medium onions, peeled and quartered

1 tsp garlic powder

Olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Place pork roast, fat side up, in roasting pan. Combine sugar, mustard, garlic, thyme and black pepper in a bowl, then rub all over pork. Lay bacon slices across the top of the roast.

In a large bowl, toss the potatoes with a drizzle of olive oil, garlic powder, plus salt and pepper to taste. Place the potatoes and onions around the roast.

Place roasting pan in oven. Cook for approximately 1 hour 15 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the meat is 155 degrees. Stir the vegetables every 20-30 minutes or so.

Remove roast from pan (leaving vegetables) and place on a cutting board. Remove bacon. Cover the roast and allow it to sit for 10 minutes before slicing.

When roast is ready for serving, remove the vegetables from the oven. If you wish (and why wouldn’t you?), chop up the cooked bacon and sprinkle over top.

This is now my personal favorite way to prepare roast. What’s your favorite? Bonus question: How much bacon have you eaten in one sitting?

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Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Recipes 47 Responses »

Feb 062012

I asked Rob what I could say here about these red velvet whoopie pies.

He made a sound which I can’t really type because I don’t know how to spell it. It was sorta like “Ohhhmyyyygaaaaaaaaargggggghaaahuuuhyuuuuuum”.

Something close to that.

There may have been drool involved as well.

I was going to make red velvet cupcakes for dessert during the Superbowl but if you’ve been reading my blog for more than five minutes you know that nothing can ever be easy. I wanted to challenge myself and make something I wasn’t used to making.

Something which would involve cream cheese buttercream. Of course. That part was not negotiable.

Whoopie pies were, for me, the logical choice. All that luscious buttercream sandwiched between two soft, fluffy cookie-like cakes. Or cake-like cookies. Or whatever.

They’re delicious and way easy to make is all you need to know.

One tip: When you drop the batter onto the cookie sheet, make sure it’s in rounded mounds (if that makes any sense). It’ll spread as it bakes and you don’t want your cake/cookie things to be too flat.

Wouldn’t these be cute for Valentine’s Day?

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup lowfat buttermilk, at room temperature*
1 oz bottle red food coloring

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer set with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix until incorporated.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk in batches, taking turns between the two. Mix until just combined.

Add food coloring and mix until fully incorporated but do not over-beat batter or the resulting cookies will be tough.

Scoop batter in rounded tablespoons and place on cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake in preheated oven for 7 minutes. Allow to cook completely before filling with cream cheese buttercream frosting.

Makes 32 cookies, or 16 whoopie pies.

*If you don’t have buttermilk, add 1 tsp white vinegar to regular milk and allow to sit until it comes to room temperature.

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