There’s Nothing Strange About These Brownies…
Through a small logistical misstep, a care package from Don Strange of Texas arrived too late for a story I was working on, and so I decided to make the best of it and share my findings with the readers of this blog instead. Why let a whole box of goodies go to waste?
Don Strange Market Place of Hill Country, Texas began as a grocery store over 50 years ago and evolved into a catering business and now sells some of its signature sweet and savory items online. Although the company ships its famous white wings (wrapped in bacon and spicy Monterey Jack cheese), which are sent to you uncooked and ready for grilling, along with its apple-smoked Christmas bacon, we’re going to focus on the sweet stuff: double-barrel brownies, Texas “two-bite” pecan tarts and Kendall Creek honey bars. All of the products have nuts, and all of them arrived in perfect condition via priority mail.
First, the brownies. You get two pounds of them, and they’re dense, fudgy but not overwhelmingly sweet. You don’t immediately need a glass of milk; they don’t completely coat your throat. This is either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on whether you are the type of person who wants a rich indulgence. I thought they were good, but I didn’t think I’d go out of my way to order them again. The pecan tarts are more like tartlettes–small and packed with delicious Texas pecans, rivaling those my mom used to make at Christmas (except hers had walnuts and more cinnamon). My favorite item, probably because I was unfamiliar with it, was the honey bar, with a glaze worthy of the best cinnamon bun you’ve ever had. All three items weigh in around two pounds, retail for $20 for approximately 16 items and arrive sealed in plastic.
Michelle Obama’s Amaretto Shortbread Cookies
Remember in elementary school all the kids would bring in cupcakes for the class on their birthday? Well, that’s what I was reminded of when I asked my mom what she wanted for her birthday this year. She told me she wanted me to make a batch of Michelle Obama’s Amaretto Shortbread Cookies, and package them up all cute for her to give out to her coworkers, who would be taking her out to lunch on her birthday.
My mom’s love affair with these cookies started up a couple months ago when I mentioned the Family Circle Presidential Cookie Bake-Off, where the two potential first ladies each submit their favorite cookie recipe shortly before the presidential election, and the readers vote for their favorite. I had been baking Cindy McCain’s Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies for a while with rave reviews. My mom has always been a sucker for shortbread, and she along with most moms these days, thinks Michelle Obama is the coolest lady in town. I think she is their equivalent to Hannah Montana. So, my mom promptly starting dropping requests for a batch of Obama’s shortbread. I pretended I wasn’t paying attention, but I was keeping the recipe in my arsenal for a special occasion. On Mother’s Day this year, one of my Mom’s gifts was a batch of this shortbread, wrapped up in a bag with Michelle’s face on the tag. She was thrilled! I followed the recipe almost exactly as it is here. The only change I made was that I used all purpose flour and not cake flour, and I had great results. These cookies are delicious, and I have a feeling they are going to become a Mother’s Day staple for a while. Not only that, but now I’ve already baked them a second time so my mom could show off to her friends!
Popeye’s Wannabe Muffins
Like many people, I have a love/hate relationship with fast food. I really, really want not to like it. Even if it wasn’t terrible for you, they’re not exactly using the finest ingredients. It’s all pretty pedestrian and uninspired. A hamburger grilled in my back yard with a plop of homemade mayonnaise and a couple of lettuce leaves from my garden is far superior to anything that could be purchased from an establishment with light up menu boards, a cartoon character spokesperson, and a free-toy-with-purchase offer.
And yet.
And yet I sometimes find myself craving certain specific things. A chicken biscuit for breakfast. Fries with ketchup that comes in little paper cups. A burger with a slice of highway-maintenance-department-orange cheese.
So when I stumbled on the Popeye’s Wannabe Muffin recipe in the Washington Post last week, I cringed inwardly while hitting the “print” key. My two sides battled:
“Seriously? Popeye’s Wannabe Muffins? You’re not.”
“I am. Go away.”
“There are four ingredients. Only two of them really count as ‘food.’”
“But they look good. And they’ll be fast. And it’ll be an interesting experiment.”
“Please. They’re made with Sprite.”
“So? Snob.”
“Philistine.”
*Sigh.*
I made them as soon as I got home. (Correction, I made them as soon as I got home and dug four billion Legos out of my muffin tins, where my husband had put them to make the assembly of my son’s Star Wars Imperial Death Whatever easier, at which point my son promptly lost interest in its creation and went to go watch Spongebob.) These whip up in literally minutes, and smell heavenly while they’re baking. I probably did them a disservice in the top-buttering department; I used only (!) two tablespoons of butter for 15 muffins. Next time I’d just give in and use the other half stick from the making of the batter. Even still, they garnered rave reviews from all who tried them. They come out more muffiny than biscuity, surprisingly light and airy with a nice crunchy top.
Because they’re slightly sweet from the Sprite, they have both sweet and savory leanings, making them an ideal candidate for a brunch menu. I think there’s a need for a bread to bridge the gap between sweeter, more breakfasty menu choices, and savory lunch items. Something that can go with the fruit salad, but also with the ham. They can get cosy with butter, jam, or butter and jam. They’re also good plain. Although I didn’t try it, the batter had enough backbone that it could probably have been baked as a free standing drop-type biscuit on a cookie sheet.
Maybe I can argue that, while I might be making “fast food,” at least it’s home made. Or maybe that’s just a huge rationalization. Either way, these are worth a try.
Summer Salad, Meet Crunchy Oven Croutons
Baseball on the television, afternoons by the pool, and grilling dinners outside are surely some of our favorite summertime rituals. Throw in your favorite burger recipe and an invite to your neighbors, and you’ve got yourself a great evening!
In almost every cooking magazine and on most cooking television shows, chefs and cooks alike are looking to heat up the grill and keep our homes free of kitchen heat. I find myself preparing fresh, crisp, and cold salads for a refreshing lunch or to accompany a nice barbecued dish.
What do salads and grilling have to do with baking? The croutons of course! Grab those leftover hamburger or hot dog buns, the ingredients that follow, and (on a cool morning before the day heats up) bake up a delicious batch of crunchy croutons to add a homemade (and healthier) kick to your salads. You can even use a toaster oven to keep kitchen heat down. Play with the seasonings and create your own salad gems!
Mazurek Królewski
Royal Cake to you and me. This is a Polish cake which is part of the Easter celebration menu. After 6 weeks of Lent, Easter is a feast which calls for the nicest of dishes. I found this recipe in . I followed it, you know me….more or less but in this case it was more than less therefore I was slightly peeved when I looked on the net to notice that my Mazurek bore no resemblance to other Mazureks. Mine has no jam where others seem to have Harlequin patterns, what cheek!
However, this is a great family desert and easy to make, have a go and let us know.
Lava Chocolate Cakes
It all started with a visit to Kansas.
I’m not sure how many cooking stories start out that way, but this one does! My sister and her husband lives in Kansas, and last month my husband and I went to visit them. It was a great trip. We made a lot of great food together too! One of the first nights we were there we got to experience the infamous Lava Chocolate Cakes. She had been telling me about them and I had yet to make them. We got together in the kitchen and whipped them up and then enjoyed the ooey gooey chocolate-y goodness. Seriously. Amazing!
My husband has been bugging me ever since then to make them again. Turns out that I had all the ingredients on hand. So, we decided that instead of dinner and a movie we’d have Lava Cakes and a movie. What a great night in! The recipe makes four cakes, but you could easily double it to make enough for a larger dinner party and all of your guests will most definetly thank you for it!
Enjoy!
Cowboy Cookies
These cookies came to me from a very good friend and a top notch baker. Sue Houchins’s cookies, cakes and pies certainly stand out among the best I’ve ever tasted. Even though I often give her a hard time about the quality they are all of professional caliber and she most certainly could open up her own bake shop if so desired.
I’m sure you can change and enhance these cookies to match whatever mood you may be in, but for this posting I’m going to post this recipe as it was given to me.
Julia’s Orange Loaf Bread Pudding
Graduate school can do wonders for your culinary intuition. It’s a world where cheap is good, and free is better. Eventually, graduate students adapt to curious behaviors, such as arriving in droves to seminars that they would be otherwise disinterested, merely for the free coffee, punch, and cookie platter. We’re not ashamed of it.
(Well, maybe a little.)
Regardless, even on my graduate school salary, I am constantly whipping up baked goods–making breakfast foods for myself, treats for my labmates, and of course, using up food that might have otherwise been wasted. My baking style has come to embrace my new lifestyle, so that I am always making modifications to my recipes for the sake of economy, as much as I can without sacrificing taste or quality.
One of my favorite thrifty finds is the sale at my local bakery here in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle. Every Saturday, Julia’s Bakery sells day-old loaves of bread for $1. I mean, large, gorgeous loves of homemade bread. $1. You can’t beat it.
I generally stick to the more versatile stuff, the rye, sourdough, or whole-wheat. But every once in awhile, I go ahead and grab a sweet loaf of their orange french toast bread. Although it just looks like a plain loaf of bread, orange flavor and sweetness of the bread comes through…making it perfect for french toast, or in my case, bread pudding! The custard clings to the crust of the orange bread and turns out perfectly caramelized. Oh, the caramelized bits. To all the Seattleites, if you think you don’t like bread pudding, please try it with Orange French Toast loaf. This Saturday. Thank you.
Bread pudding is already *the* thrifty recipe, but I make it even thriftier by using reconstituted non-fat, powdered milk in this (and all) of my recipes. I don’t use enough milk to always have fresh on hand, and the powdered milk is handy and super cheap. I have yet to find a baked recipe where this substitute doesn’t work just fine.
For powdered milk, 1/3 cup powder + 1 cup water = ~1 cup milk.
Sweet Cheese Puffs
The name of this recipe does not do it justice. It’s too plain for this great treat, which is like cheesecake wrapped in flaky pastry. I’ve made this several times now and it’s almost impossible to mess up. It’s not the quickest thing to whip up, but it’s still very simple. It starts with a tender pastry dough made with butter and sour cream. The filling is blended in a food processor and it all bakes up into a blossom of deliciousness. The name of this recipe does not do it justice. It’s too plain for this great treat, which is like cheesecake wrapped in flaky pastry. I’ve made this several times now and it’s almost impossible to mess up. It’s not the quickest thing to whip up, but it’s still very simple. It starts with a tender pastry dough made with butter and sour cream. The filling is blended in a food processor and it all bakes up into a blossom of deliciousness.
Fast-Break Breakfast Cookies
Beep…Beep…Beep… and snooze.
Beep…Beep…Beep.. and snooze.
Ok, ok, I get it; I’m awake already. Wait a minute. What time is it and why did my alarm go off so early? That’s right. My new commitment to running began this Monday morning. There’s always next week. So, it is Monday, and…work! It’ll have to be a quick shower, and I do hope I have something ironed to wear! And the kids-are they up?
When weekdays begin this way, we often find ourselves running out of the door and arriving to the office to be greeted by leftover cake in the break room luring us with mirages of “breakfast” because we have to eat something right? Health experts everywhere preach the benefits of this morning meal. Besides, our running starts next week; might as well go full throttle before then.
Perhaps your vision is a bit different, and you find yourself shuffling the kids to the bus stop with that silver-wrapped package. You know the one, that iced, sugar-laden “pastry” that makes you feel like an inadequate parent for feeding the world’s next great leaders such processed nutrition.
Solution? Yes, please. These Fast-break Breakfast Cookies are easy to bake, quick to take, and packed with the nutrients our bodies really need. Did I mention that they are cookies? One cannot call the distasteful a cookie, so these breakfast gems taste delicious as well!
The original recipe in The Detroit News caught my attention as I am a breakfast girl always looking for healthy variety and one trying to insert more whole grains into my diet. Thus the experiment began. This is an easy recipe to bake with kids, perfect for varying to suit your own tastes and health needs, and a simple way to get the nutrition you need when on the go. Enjoy!
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