brownies

Last night, we needed something sweet after our dinner (sandwiches!), so I went to my old standby favorite, Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home cookbook's brownie recipe. It's easy to make and it turns out perfect everytime*. I added lots of walnuts in my version, cuz that's how I roll!

Moosewood Fudge Brownies
Recipe from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home

1/2 c butter (1 stick)
3 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 c lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 t pure vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 c unbleached white flour

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly coat an 8- or 9-inch square baking pan with cooking spray.

In a pot large enough to hold all of the batter, melt the butter and chocolate together on low heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat. Add the brown sugar and vanilla and beat by hand or with an electric mixer. Add the eggs and beat well. Stir in the flour and mix until the batter is thoroughly blended and smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 20 minutes, until the brownies are just beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan and are still fudgy in the center. If you prefer more cake-like brownies, bake an additional 5 minutes.

*Okay, the only time they didn't come out stellar was when Cornelius wasn't paying attention to the recipe and used an entire cup of butter instead. We ate it up anyway and it still wasn't horrible.

vegan cookies. no really.

Kristen gave me this vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe over the phone a couple of years ago. I haven't transcribed it and I've always kept it in a safe place but when I pulled out the recipe today I realized that it's a pretty easy and tasty recipe and I better keep it somewhere safe.

This is the easiest cookie recipe ever and it tastes great too.

Kristen's vegan chocolate chip cookies
¾ c sugar
½ c oil
½ c margerine
3 t water
2 t vanilla
Mix together.

2¼ c flour
1 t soda
½ t salt
Mix together.

Add 1½ c chocolate chips.

Mix it all together, roll into balls, plop onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for about 12-15 minutes.

Kristen always uses white sugar and all vegan ingredients. Me, I'm not vegan so I'm not so strict and will sometimes use butter instead of margerine. I also like brown sugar over brown. Instead of all chocolate chips, I'll add a handfull of sunflower seeds (really, seeds taste great in cookies!), a handfull of raisins, a handfull of walnuts and a handful of chocolate chips. Today I misread the 3 t of water as 3 tablespoons and they still turned out great.

a salad fit for a domestic goddess

Summer's can be hot in the Northwest (no, really) and Friday night was no exception. I had a fridge full of fresh vegetables and figured making a salad would be the best option for dinner. I decided making Nigella's Vietnamese Chicken and Mint Salad since I had all the ingredients needed and more.

I had 3 free range chicken thighs in the fridge that needed tending to, so I put the chicken in water along with a few dried chili peppers, kafir lime leaves and a few dashes of fish sauce and set the whole lot to simmer. Once the chicken was cooked, i left them to cool in the fridge and I put the cooking liquid away in the freezer for another day.

I started by chopping up ½ a small green cabbage and ½ of a small purple cabbage into fine shreds and threw it into a large bowl. Next, I grated 2 large carrots and threw that on top of the cabbage. The green onions, ½ of a red and ½ of a green pepper were next and I chopped those up too. I rolled up a large handful of mint leaves into a cigar shape and cut that into a lovely chiffonade (!!) and tore off some Italian parsley off of their stems and threw them in too. The final step was shredding up my chicken thighs and then with my clean hands, I mixed everything all up and started on the dressing.

I followed the dressing pretty faithfully to Nigella's recipe, but I subsitituted the rice vinegar for some red wine vinegar since it was all that I had.

1 fat garlic clove, peeled and minced
1 tbsp sugar
1 ½ tsp rice vinegar
1 ½ tbsp lime juice
1 ½ tbsp Vietnamese or Thai fish sauce (nuoc nam or nam pla)
1 ½ tbsp vegetable oil

Once it was shaken up, I added it to the salad and me and Cornelius dug in. The next day I ate the some leftovers with some crushed peanuts on top for added crunch. Tasty!

dutch breakfast

A few months ago, I came across a dutch pancake recipe on orangette's food blog (via not martha) and I was eager to try making myself. The only thing holding me back was the fact that the only cast iron pans I owned was a teeny-tiny 3 inch pan that I used to toast nuts with and my La Cruset grill pan. Neither would work for this recipe. Fast forward to post-wedding gift bounty and our lovely new 8" La Cruset cast iron beauty.

Below is the recipe how it appeared on Orangette's page. I used about 2T of butter and not 4T (or 6T) and it still came out buttery and delicicous. I definitely recommend using the lemon juice and powdered sugar as a topping and no, we didn't add more butter to top it all off. The recipe made enough for two 8" pans worth. Cornelius' comments: "Marvelous! Can we have this everyday?"

Jimmy’s Dutch Baby Pancakes

Jimmy likes to make his babies in two 6-inch cast-iron skillets, but you can also make this recipe in a single 10- or 11-inch one.

For the pancakes:
4 Tbs unsalted butter (or, if you’d prefer to try it as we did with today’s happy butter accident, try using 6-8 tablespoons, and then do not add clarified butter when serving)
4 large eggs
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup half-and-half

For the topping:
4 oz clarified butter (or, if you’re not into clarifying, simple melted butter will do)
Juice of 1 lemon
Powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Divide the 4 Tbs butter between two 6-inch cast-iron skillets, and melt it over low heat.

In a blender, whir together the eggs, flour, and half-and-half.

Pour the batter into the skillets over the melted butter. Slide the skillets into the oven, and bake for 25 minutes.

Remove the puffed pancakes from the oven, transfer them to a plate or shallow bowl, and pour on clarified butter, sprinkle on lemon juice, and dust with powdered sugar. Serve immediately.

i love you, boylan's creamy red!

Yesterday -- if I may boast -- I made a pretty great dinner. Cornelius loved it and I licked the plate clean. What can I say, I may not have the best manners, but I sure do appreciate a good meal. Here's what I call it and this is what I did:

easy (& kinda healthy) fajita wrap
1 skinless chicken thigh, deboned
½ lime, juiced
1 dried red pepper, crumbled
1 t oil
whole wheat tortillas (4)
½ red pepper, cut into strips
½ green pepper, cut into strips
1 small onion, cut into strips
¼ fresh salsa
3 T of fat free sour cream
½ cup of shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup of sprouted beans

Debone the chicken thigh and cut into strips or bite sized pieces. Marinate in the lime juice and chili pepper. Chop the vegetables while chicken marinates. In a grill pan or heavy cast iron pan, heat the oil and add the chicken and the marinating liquid. Turn over when golden coloured. When chicken is almost done, throw in the onions and peppers and saute until the pepper and onions char and soften slightly.

Over the flame of your gas stove, heat tortillas for about 5-10 seconds until warm and soft (I like mine a bit charred). Put some of the fajita mixture on top of the heated tortilla and top with a bit of cheese, salsa, sprouted beans and salsa. Add hot sauce, if you like.

We washed dinner down with a bit of my favorite pop: Boylan's Creamy Red Birch Beer. So good!!

easy peasy snacks

Last night we had some friends over. They brought over the 1958 Newport Beach Jazz Festival dvd and the Monterrey Pop Festival dvd. We promised them snacks. Because it's been so hot, I didn't really want to do any serious cooking or baking, so I came up with 2 tasty and super-easy snacks.

Snack no.1: Popsicles
Start this one early in the day, so you can eat them by nightfall. In a blender, put in the following: a handful of frozen strawberries, homemade lemonade to cover berries and then some, and 2-3 tablespoons of vanilla yoghurt. Blend at high speed until mixed. You may have to add some more lemonade if it's too thick. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze. Ultra delicious.


*note: You can substitute any kind of berry or juice to this "recipe". I've made it with orange juice, cranberry juice, pineapple juice, etc. and have used blueberries, black berries, bananas (for cornelius only, cuz i hate them!), or peaches.

Snack no. 2: Lemony-Garlicy Green Beans
1 lb of fresh green beans, trimmed
2 cloves of garlic, minced (1 clove if you aren't among friends)
2 lemons, juiced
2-3 T of olive oil
rock salt

Steam the green beans until bright green and crisp. You don't want to over cook these. Crisp = delicous! Drain and rinse in cold-cold water. At this point, I put the beans in the freezer just to get extra cold while I mixed the dressing. For the dressing, mix the garlic, lemon juice and olive oil together. Transfer beans into a nice serving dish and pour dressing over top. I tossed the beans and the dressing together with my hands. Sprinkle generously with rock salt and serve. It's better than chips. Seriously.


* these are the left over beans from last night. the lemon juice "cooked" them so they aren't so crisp or green, but they still are tasty! also, you may find them too lemoney, and if so, cut down on the lemon juice.

couscous & yam salad

last night i made a yam/couscous salad recipe that i found here and modified to suit my tastes. it was so awesome that i'm sharing it here. My notes are at the bottom.

2 medium-sized sweet potatos (or yams), cut into smallish chunks
2 carrots, chopped into chunks
1 green pepper, chopped into small sized pieces
1/2 of red onion, finely diced
1 cup couscous
1 lemon
olive oil
ground cumin
maple syrup
salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 450. put the sweet potatoes & carrots on a cookie sheet and smoosh them around with some oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper over top and bake until soft on the outside, crisp on the outside -- around 30 minutes or so. Meanwhile, chop the green pepper into small pieces and dice the onion finely. Prepare the couscous to the one cup of couscous according to the instructions on the pack. I used veggie broth instead of water.

When the vegetables are out of the oven, make the dressing. Squeeze lemon into a small bottle, add some olive oil, a teaspoon of cumin powder, and a bit of maple syrup and shake the mixture until well combined. The amounts in the dressing depend very much on personal taste - this is quite lemony, and you may want to increase the cumin, maple syrup and the oil. After tasting, you may want to add some salt & pepper. I did.

In a large bowl, combine the couscous, roasted veggies and green pepper. Pour the dressing, and stir in with a fork. Eat up.

---

Next time I might add some raisins and walnuts into the bowl just because i like salads with raisins and nuts and I definitely think the texture and sweetness would go well with this salad. If i was feeling flush, i might also add some crumbled feta over top, but that would be just like showing off.

poor girl

Returning from a month long holiday and paying for a wedding can really drain a girl's finances (as well as the finances of her newly betrothed). There isn't really much in our pockets for frivolous items and sadly, exciting (and usually expensive) treats from the market are also forbidden. I've been trying to be thrifty like my mother and make use of the food that already exists in our cupboards and refridgerator shelves. So far, i've been pretty successful.

The other day, one of my frugal successes came in the form of a variaton on a waldorf salad. I will try to recount the proportions accurately, but as I just winged it, it might be best to taste it as you go along. I really liked the addition of cinnamon as it gave more depth to the flavour.

My Waldorf Salad
1 granny smith apple, chopped
1 small head of green cabbage, chopped coleslaw style
1 small onion, diced fine
2 carrots, grated
1 small green pepper, diced
a handful of raisins
a handful of chopped walnuts

For the dressing, combine 1/4 cup of mayonaise with 1/2 cup of plain yogurt. Add a heaping tablespoon of sugar, juice of 1 lemon and a 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon and blend until combined. Taste! If it doesn't taste like you think it should, add more sweetener or more lemon juice (or vinegar) til you get it right. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix until throughly combined.

wedding + honeymoon = tasty!

On June 25, C and I decided to tie the knot and get hitched up all legal-like. Getting prepared for the wedding was actually quite fun and all the design, crafting and baking were definite stress relivers. Half of the wedding food was catered from a local catering company as well as a few items from, costco (cheese!), a sushi restaurant (sushi!) and a vietnamese restaurant (chicken wings!). The rest of it was made by me and some dedicated friends. It turned out wonderfully and there was enough food to feed the hungry and then some. I enlisted my good friend kyla to also help with the cakes as well as my mother in law who harnessed all her church ladies into baking up a storm for us. Not to be outdone, I too made cupcakes and a cake as well.



I designed our wedding programs to look like a recipe card. the front half had all the necessary program information, like who was oficiating the ceremony & what song we walked down the aisle to (Marvin Gaye's "You're All I Need to Get By"). The other side, contained our wedding cupcake recipe which is Ina Garten's Coconut recipe found here. Enjoy, we did!

Our honeymoon was a road trip through several states and we made sure that we ate good food (nearly) everywhere we went. Highlights included:

• The Farm Cafe in Portland, OR. Our good friends treated us here on our first night. The food was fresh and the room was beautiful. Thanks Kyla & Sergio!


• Eating fresh crab on Fisherman's Warf in San Francisco.


• Burritos at Pancho Villa, in the Mission (S.F.)


• The best burger ever at the Cow Palace in Amato, AZ. It's located across from the Longhorn Grill, which admittedly did look appealing from the outside, but inside it looked like a country cupboard. I'm glad we ate across the street. Good lemonade too!


• In n' Out burger. I finally went and it was worth the wait!


• Los Cuates in Albuquerque, NM. Amazing sopas.


• Our Trader Joe's tuna curry boil-in-bag that we cooked on our propane burner while camping. Delicious! Trader Joe's is a campers heaven.


• Raspberry pancakes at a cafe in Hillsboro, NM.


• Iced coffees and a blackberry coffee cake at Macy's Cafe in Flagstaff, AZ


• The Moab Lime beer at Eddie McStiff's Brew Pub in Moab, UT. Their pizza was pretty good too.


• The steak sandwich and $1 microbrews after midnight at the Main Street Station Brew Pub in Vegas.

Damn, why did we come back to Vancouver again? Oh yeah, REAL LIFE. Sigh.