Monday, May 24, 2010

Espresso Brownies

So one of John's best friends and his former roommate, Tara, went away to Alabama for the summer to work in a cafe one of her family members owns. There was a going away party for her, and John and I made these brownies, which we were going to make anyway, but now we had a reason.

This recipe is an adaptation from the recipe for "Brownies Cockaigne" in The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, which I recommend having if you like cooking, cause it is pretty much the classic cookbook.

Anyways, John and I made a total of 3 things during the course of this day, so we forgot to take a picture of the ingredients, but here's the list. Sorry for our lameness!

1 stick of butter
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1/4 tsp. salt
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup (sifted if you want) flour
2 tbsp. esspresso powder

First, preheat the oven to 350˚ F.

Start by melting the chocolate and butter. it'll look like this when it's done:
You can even see the beginnings of our guacamole here! But that's another post.

Anyway, let the chocolate cool for a while, or your brownies will be "heavy and dry" according to The Joy.

While this is cooling, get 4 eggs and the salt and put them in a mixing bowl, then beat until it's all foamy and a paler yellow, preferably with a mixer.



Then add the sugar, vanilla, and espresso powder gradually until the mixture's creamed.
I mixed these three things up beforehand cause I felt like it.




Ok, you can put the mixer away now. And add the cooled chocolate/butter mixture!


And mix it until just incorporated. Don't beat it to death, man.


Then, add the flour. Again, just incorporate it. Folding instead of stirring's a good idea too.


Batter's done! Now just spread it into a 9x13 pan that has foil at the bottom and is also greased on top of that. This picture also has the monkey bread John and I made with Allyson, John's other roommate. And it was also amazing.


Theeeeennnnn.... Bake for 25 minutes or until when you can stick a toothpick in it and it comes out clean. Wait until they're cool to cut them.

We later added a quick buttercream frosting that I totally made up on the spot. It melted due to the heat of so many people being in a tiny apartment when it's 85˚ out. It made me sad, but it tasted sooooo goooood. For you guys who may be following this recipe though, I reccomend either looking up another recipe for chocolate buttercream frosting and then add teaspoon or two of espresso powder. Or, if you're lame or have no time, get a chocolate frosting and add 1 or 2 teaspoons of espresso powder.

Another thing John and I did was make chocolate-covered coffee beans earlier in the week for a garnish. You could buy them, but they're easy to make. We actually made ours in clusters because we were too lazy to separate all the coffee beans individually. Still, they were delicious.

Our finished product turned out like this:


But after all the beer and liquor was cleared out of the fridge by the partygoers, we put them in the fridge and they were even more wonderful.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Apparently

People can't post comments on our blog... I don't know how to fix it, so sorry!

Also the next post will be: Espresso Brownies

UPDATE: Fixed it!

Friday, May 14, 2010

Italian Style Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

We like peppers. And cheese. A lot. Hence this recipe, which we pretty much threw together in a few hours. And it came out pretty amazing.

Ingredients:

2 red (or whatever color you want) bell peppers
2 cups of cooked rice
3/4 cup of panko breadcrumbs
2 tbsp of fresh basil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried parsley
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 pound of fresh mozzarella (cause it melts better than regular)
A pinch of pepper
Salt to taste.

We forgot to put the peppers in the ingredients pictures, so we figured these babies dressed as peppers were good enough.

Anyways start cooking the rice, you'll need it to be warm when you put the mozzarella in.

Then preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Then cut the peppers in half from top to bottom and take out the stems, membranes and seeds.


Next roll the basil up in a little bundle and slice it up as small as you can. John didn't roll the basil up though, he didn't want to listen to me.



Now chop up the garlic, and since John doesn't have a fancy-schmancy garlic press like I do, we used the flat of his butcher knife to smush it after chopping it into tiny bits.




Then dump your panko into a mixing bowl...



... And the stuff you just chopped up:



Next put the thyme and oregano and parsley in the bowl and grate the parmesan. If you're rebels like us you'll eyeball your measurements like so:


Ok next you mix everything up and dump the warm rice in it. Note: if you made rice beforehand, just reheat it in the microwave so it'll be hot enough to melt the cheese.


Then, mix it!



And now, take the mozarella and start ripping it into bits (or cut it if you're a lame-o and don't feel like getting your hands dirty).


Then, stir until the mozzarella's all incorporated and stuff. Or, if you're like me, attempt to stir this thick mixture, then give up and ask your boyfriend to be all manly and strong and stir it for you. Which he may do quite well, as in this case:


Almost ready to bake! Now, just coat a baking sheet/pan with some sort of oil. We used olive oil because it's the only thing John had, but it would probably be better to use canola or vegetable oil because these oils have lower flashpoints. Also, rub/brush some oil on the peppers and salt them a bit.


Then, stuff them and put some more panko and parmesan on the top to give them a nice crust:


Last, bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until tops are all golden:


And eat them, maybe like we did with fancy-flavored Goya sodas:




*No babies were harmed in the making of this blog post.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Katie's Awesome Peanut Noodles

Ok I lied. I have some time of my hands before my cousin's rehearsal dinner for her wedding and I found myself wanting peanut noodles for lunch. Sooo, I've decided to share with you guys the recipe for my peanut noodles despite John not being there to contribute to the blog cause he has to go to work at Target at 4 or 5.

Anyways, these noodles are always a hit at parties and they have punch-you-in-the-face flavor. Although, if you're not tough enough for that you can also adjust the recipe to your liking.

NOTE: I made a half recipe in the pictures, so if the measurements look off that's why.

So this is what you start with:

Yes, I know it's a lot of ingredients, but they're all quite important. Also, if you buy them once, they'll last you many times making this sauce, except the peanut butter, but that's relatively cheap.

A package of spaghetti, or any other noodle you want to use as long as it's not too thin. It has to be able to stand up to this sauce.
1 cup of creamy peanut butter.
1/3 - 1/2 cup of soy sauce depending on how salty you like it.
2 tablespoons of hoisin sauce.
1 1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil.
2 tablespoons of rice vinegar (plain vinegar works too)
Juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 lime, or a splash of orange juice
1 teaspoon chili oil (can be substituted with 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes or 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon sugar
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
Optional: sesame seeds, a few chopped scallions

First, you set some water to boil for the pasta.

Then, you put the peanut butter and the soy sauce in a mixing bowl and combine until smooth. Yes, it will look yucky at first and it takes a while to combine, but eventually it will be all nice and smooth.

Before mixing:


After mixing:



Then add the hoisin sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, hot chili oil, and ginger and mix it up. The mixture will still look pretty much the same as the picture above.

Next, put the garlic through a garlic press, but if you don't have one of these, smash the garlic to peel it (as I always do) then chop up the smashed pieces as much as small as humanly possible, then smush them with the flat of your knife:


At some point, the water will boil while you're mixing the sauce up and you should then add the pasta:


Anyways, back to the sauce. I happened to have half a lemon on hand today so I used that instead of the orange or lime juice, but any of these will work perfectly:


So you should juice it into a separate bowl so you can pick out the seed like I did. OR you can be more efficient and squeeze the juice out over a sieve that is over the bowl. Hahah you can't really see the juice all too well in this yellowish bowl, but it's there! Promise!


Anyways, add that to the sauce:


And mix it in. You can also add sesame seeds into the sauce like I like to do:


Ok then drain the pasta when it's all nice and cooked. Then chop some scallions if you like.
I like the noodles warm so if you do too get yourself a bowl and put the plain pasta in it and add the sauce to it:


The reason I'm doing this instead of pouring all the sauce onto all of the pasta is because, if you don't eat all of the pasta right away, the sauce gets clumpy and dry on the noodles. If you leave the sauce separate, you can just mix it up some more til it is once again smooth and wonderful. Also, if you like the noodles cold like my brother, run cold water over them before serving or put them in the fridge for a bit.

Back to the plating: Mix the sauce in and garnish with scallions:


^^Don't they look amazing?!?! Yes. Yes they do.

Then give some to your brother (whose name is also John) who will want the noodles for lunch despite having already made a sandwich for himself. Just don't let the your cat (in this case, Eephus) eat them, nomatter how cute he is.


Saturday, May 8, 2010

Yay!

So this is my and John's new blog, although I'll be doing most of the posting I believe. We'll probably start updating after May 16th.

 

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