Amazingly Awesome Brownies

I came up with this recipe last month and have been meaning to post it ever since. I was looking through various brownie recipes in attempt to figure out the best way to get the perfect balance between the cake-like and fudge varieties. This is what I came up with:

Ingredients:
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs
14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate
1 teaspoon instant coffee

Directions: Prepare a 9x13 inch baking pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a double boiler, melt 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate and 1 stick of butter, whisk in instant coffee. In a large bowl with a paddle attachment, combine other stick of butter and sugar, beat until fluffy. Add dry ingredients. Once combined, add eggs one at a time. Add melted ingredients and sweetened condensed milk. Beat until well combined. Pour batter into prepared baking dish. Bake approximately 30 minutes.

On Thanksgiving I served these with some freshly whipped cream and macerated raspberries. It was a big hit!

Eggnog Cheesecake Bars

My first semester as an MFA in creative writing student is coming to a close. So last night I took these festive cheesecake bars with me to class. Between discussing Borges's "Death and the Compass" and Saunders's "Sea Oak" (two discussions I ended up contributing nothing to, as I'm twenty-seven weeks pregnant and simply failed to be in the proper mood to discuss said stories -- at least I contributed a snack) my fellow prose-producing apprentices and I sampled the goods. The response was positive (more so to the bars than the stories), and this morning when I had one from the refrigerator, I thought it was even better. The only immediate alteration I would make is adding more butter to the crust. It was a bit dry.

Ingredients:
Crust:
16 graham crackers
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 stick butter, melted (I would try using an additional 2 tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Filling:
2 8oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature (I used the 1/3 less fat variety)
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup eggnog
3 eggs
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, combine and pulse all crust ingredients until fully crumbled and moistened. Press crust into a greased 9x13 inch baking pan.
In a large mixing bowl with a paddle attachment, whip cream cheese and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add remaining ingredients, beat until well combined. Pour into crust lined pan. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, or until the edges are firm and the center has just stopped wobbling. Turn off oven, but leave bars in the oven with the door closed for 15 minutes. Then open the oven door and continue to let the bars cool approximated 20 minutes. The slow cooling process prevented my bars from cracking.
I topped my bars with 2 ounces of melted white chocolate and about a 1/3 cup of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Protein-powered Banana Bread

Yesterday, I made it facebook official, so today I'll make it blog official -- I'm 12 weeks pregnant with my third child! It's been fun being pregnant again, especially this time around because I've felt absolutely wonderful (which is something I attribute to running). But something else I'll share is that I've never been one of those women who considers pregnancy a time to eat whatever I want. I take baby building seriously, as I take my pregnant health seriously because I'm a natural homebirther devoted to staying low risk. Thus, I follow certain food guidelines and try to get extra protein with minimized white flour and sugar in my diet. And this delicious banana bread is a great way for me to get what I need in a tasty, easy way. And even if you're not pregnant (like my husband), you'll appreciate the benefits of the healthy ingredients I've stealthily added. I say "stealthily" because this bread really is so moist and delicious, you'd never realize you were getting extra protein, flax, and wheat germ.

Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter, softened
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas, crushed
1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup flax
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup textured vegetable protein (rehydrated with 1 cup water)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup pecans (or some other nut), chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
In a large bowl with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time; beat. Add crushed bananas; mix. Add dry ingredients and rehydrated textured vegetable protein (rehydrate tvp by cooking it over medium heat in a small sauce pan with 1 cup of water). Finally, mix in chocolate chips and chopped nuts. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes.

The food of New Orleans: freelancing about food

In May, I wrote a quick post about the freelancing I'm doing for Examiner.com on Attachment Parenting. Now, my fellow foodies, I'm writing about food in New Orleans. I've written three articles so far, so if you're interested in learning more about some of the best places to eat in Nola, check out my articles. And hop on over to Examiner to checkout what's new.

Key Lime Cheesecake

On Sunday, I made this cheesecake for dessert. It was for an extra-special seventh wedding anniversary dinner! Zach made shrimp scampi, and I made this tasty, tart number.

Ingredients:
For the crust:
15 graham crackers
10 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar

For the filling:
3 8oz packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup key lime juice
1 teaspoon key lime zest (Ideally, I would use more zest, but zesting key limes can be a bit cumbersome.)

Directions:
In a food processor, crumble graham crackers; add sugar and pulse; pour in melted butter and combine until all cracker crumbs are moistened. Press crust into prepared pan.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl with a paddle attachment, whip cream cheese with sugar; beat in eggs one at a time; beat in flour; beat in key lime juice and zest. Pour mixture into prepared pan.
Bake 55 to 65 minutes. After baking, leave cake in the oven additional 30 minutes with the temp off and the door open. Gradual cooling helps to lessen the chance of cracking.

Grilled Chicken, Plum & Balsamic Pizza

                                                                       
My husband was inspired to make this pizza after seeing Bobby Flay do something similar on his grilling show. I contributed by making the balsamic vinaigrette that we drizzled over the top, and I made the dough, but that was about it, so I can't be precise about the ingredient amounts Zach used. I'll give you my best guess, but pizza is one of those things you use personal taste to decide topping amounts anyway.

For the dough, I used my rosemary, basil pizza crust , sans the rosemary and basil. Instead, once it was rolled out, it got a nice sprinkle of salt and pepper.

My husband used one grilled chicken breast (sliced), about two sliced plums, one cup blue cheese, one and a half cups monterey jack cheese. Fresh chives and a sweet balsamic vinaigrette were used to top it.

The process of grilling the pizza gave the dough that flavor of smokiness that can only come from a grill. He grilled the rolled out dough before topping it. After the dough had picked up some grill marks and was fully cooked, he topped it and put it back on the grill until the cheese was melted.

I don't have the exact measurements for the balsamic drizzle, but I used approximately equal parts salad oil and balsamic vinegar, a pinch of salt and pepper, some dried Italian herbs, and about a tablespoon of sugar. The balsamic needed to be sweet in order to balance the tartness of the plums (the plums we got were pretty tart).

Having fun with my homegrown tomatoes: B,B&T Quiche, Creamy Tomato & Herb Soup, and Bruschetta

This year, in February, we started our spring gardening (yes -- it was warm enough in February to begin planting). And this has by far been our most successful tomato year yet! Our four better boy plants and two roma plants have yielded some very abundant results. Here are a couple of my favorite recipes using my fresh produce.

The B,B&T Quiche is a bacon, basil, and tomato quiche, though it also includes a few other ingredients. You can find my crust recipe by looking at my Elegant Quiche recipe.
Ingredients for the filling:
8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled, reserve grease
1 medium onion, chopped
1 head garlic, diced
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 3/4 cup mozzarella, shredded
1/2 cup parmesan, shredded
1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
2 tablespoons flour
approximated 1 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes, I used a combination of roma and better boys
8 to 10 leaves fresh basil, chopped
other fresh herbs, such as oregano, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
After preparing crust and fitting it to a round pan, preheat oven to 350 degrees. In reserved bacon grease, saute onion and garlic. Be sure to begin cooking the onion before adding the garlic to the pan, so you don't burn the garlic. In a large bowl, beat eggs, add heavy cream and cheese and flour; combine well. Add remaining ingredient to the mixture. Pour into the prepared crust; bake 40 to 45 minutes.

For the Creamy Tomato and Herb Soup:
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 chopped fresh tomatoes, I used better boys
8 or so leaves fresh basil
1 head garlic, diced
1 cup white wine
1 15oz can tomato sauce
pinch sugar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste

In a stock pot, heat olive oil; add chopped tomatoes and cook until they begin to break down; add garlic; saute. Add flour, then wine and continue to cook over medium heat. Add remaining ingredients other than cream, which will be added once the other ingredients have cooked and melded together over medium heat. Lastly, stir in cream. Turn to low heat and serve when ready.

Bruschetta:
The ingredient amounts I use when making bruschetta changes depending on how much I have or how much I want. You will, of course, need some good french bread cut into approximately 1 inch slices (or however thick you like it). Then, I chop my tomatoes and basil. I like about two or three leaves of basil to one baseball-sized tomato. I drizzle balsamic vinegar and olive oil over my tomatoes and basil until they are well coated. Then I sprinkle a little salt and pepper, and the final touch is sugar, which nicely brings out and balances the flavor of the balsamic. Spoon the tomato mixture on french bread, and you're good to go!