OK, I made my first batch.. I am very happy with the way they taste. They are sweet and chocolatey and if a person did not know, they'd never guess there were beans in there. The texture is more creamy than brownie-like. I am not sure if this is because I under-baked or if this is just the way these are always going to be because they are flour-free. I like then a lot though. If you are counting calories, my estimation for the whole tray is approx. 6,500. I divided them into 32 servings, so each one of those is appox. 200 to 220 calories each. ( My version of the recipe.. )

I have this Strange Brownie recipe (to be provided below) where sugar is replaced by maple syrup. I suppose the person felt that syrup was "healthy" because sugar was more processed? I mean, it's certainly just as fattening.. /o\

( Strange Brownie Recipe I might sort of try )

Oh! Forgot to say: cranberry sauce also goes well with ( these corn muffins )

I've had this bunch of cranberries that I froze a long long time ago. Turns out, there were 1.5 cups.. to that, I added 1.5 cups water, 1/2 cup brown sugar, a packet of "onion soup", about a teaspoon of cayenne and and a tablespoon of cornstarch. I brought all that to boil, stirring like mad, and simmered for about 2 min, stirring non-stop. Then I put it through a sieve, getting rid of all the mushy bits (blegh). I really like this sauce! I've used it as a sauce for chicken and rice, and as a dipping sauce for the potato & chicken & spinach & mozzarella burritos....

...I suppose instead of using "onion soup" I could have used vegetable stock as my liquid, and added in a bit of fried or oven-roasted onion... or! instead of using corn starch to thicken it, I could have kept the pulp and put the whole thing through a blender?...

Tip: (just in case someone doesn't know! /o\) cornstarch has to be the first thing in the pot, then add just a few drops of the (cold) liquid and stir until a paste forms, then stir the rest of the liquid in, then all the other stuff, otherwise cornstarch will form clumps..

trying Baked Rigatoni with Eggplant and Sausage recipe from Tyler's Ultimate, and Everyday Italian Turkey Meatloaf with Feta and Sun-Dried Tomatoes.. | fried the sausages & the eggplant, made the tomato sauce, will mix in pasta & cheese and bake tomorrow.. | had no bread crumbs (too lazy to make my own) so used oat mean, & used chicken thigh meat instead of turkey... hopefully I am not screwing up too much..

I made Tyler's Ultimate Buttermilk Scones \o/

...well, sort of. Not that I didn't WANT to churn my own butter, but I lacked cream and an appropriate food processor, and honey, also, time. Also, fresh berries were unavailable, I replaced them with semi-sweet Ghirardelli chocolate chips. I halved the recipe, used my hands to incorporate butter and flour instead of a food processor and then stuck the bowl in the freezer for about 30 minutes. The scones came out so good, I was offered $50 for the last one that I had hidden away for myself.. ( recipe )

made chicken cordon bleu the Tyler Florence way, it came out pretty good.. can't make it for my parents though, they can't each cheese or ham... i know there is vegan 'ham', but can't find vegan 'fontina'... closest I found is cashew 'cheese' with tahini & nutritional yeast... I guess I can try that, dunno if it'll bake OK though..

..from the fake tahini 'cheese' I followed the link to tahini & oat cookies... of course, I totally plan to add real butter and real eggs and brown sugar and chocolate chips to that super healthy recipe ;)

I bought my very first bundcake pan, and I am going to make a cranberry & almond & Chinese 5 spice bund cake from the Thanksgiving issue of Bon Appetit.

( My (very slightly changed) version of this recipe.. )

For my holiday, I sent kid & spouse to Miami, and went to see Zack & Miri Make A Porno. It was quite good, and thanks to the totally awesome damn_imasquib, I knew to stay and watch the ending after the credits finished rolling. Then I came home and made the best tomato-free pizza ever. ( My 'recipes' are always too wordy and make things sound like WAY too much work, but this was SUPER easy and I feel like I barely did a thing. And the result was spectacular.  )

I made Tyler Florence's Upside-Down Apple French Toast with Cranberries and Pecans. I pretty much followed the recipe exactly, except I added about 1/8 cup of sugar to my custard, and replaced cranberries with raisins, and vanilla with Grand Marnier, because that's what I had..

It was.. OK. But not spectacular. For several reasons. For one, my standards for deserts are extremely high, so I am rarely totally pleased, ever (that's why I usually just stay away from deserts when I eat out). But also, cooked apples are not my thing, and neither are raisins.

If I make this next time, I will use only pecans in my topping, add 3 tbs melted butter to the custard I soak my bread in, and try layering some chocolate chips with the bread. The chocolate might not turn out well if it all melts, drips to the bottom of the pan and burns. On the other hand, if it stays in place, it might go really well with caramelized pecans and french toast...

(from here)



( recipe here )

So, um. I am planning to try pickling eggs. I've never had any before, but, I like eggs and I liked pickled things, and I might throw some garlic cloves in there, how can that be bad?

But, I don't have a juicer, so, any of you who actually know how to do these things - would it be bad to just throw a beat into the jar with everything else? I bet pickled beats rock...

The other day I was really tempted by the pull apart bread at my grocery store's bakery. So, turns out, pull apart bread is just like regular bread, except before baking it you chop the dough into little pieces and then layer in with whatever you want in your bread (grated cheese, roasted garlic, sun dried tomatoes....) - and I guess after this you let in raise one more time...

I think I am doing that Friday. Anyone have personal experience with pull-apart bread?

ETA: OMG this looks soooo good!!!

I brined chicken breasts!! It was pretty cool, because I've never done it before. I used a brining (and later a wet rub) recipe for ribs (from Bon Appetit), and it said brine 8 to 24 hrs.. then I woke up in the middle of the night worrying and looked up brining chicken breasts and discovered that over-brining is totally possible and 3 hrs is considered longest advisable brining period... lucky for me, I was in time to remove my chicken breasts from the brining liquid and put them in dry ziplock baggie. After I cooked them, I chopped one up and put it on a pizza (instead of pizza sauce, I used fresh tomatoes, sliced and roasted for 10 min) on top of some mozzarella... I also put pickles on that pizza.. it did not please other persons in my household, but it was very much to my taste *_____*

Tomorrow, it's cauliflower & spinach curry, and Pond's Vegetarian Lasagna (although, not frying the eggplant is a big no-no, as is not frying the garlic first.. frying the mushrooms is highly advisable, or roasting them, with more garlic). And I might pick up some avocados and lime flavored tortilla chips.

This recipe looks like it could be really good:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_31991,00.html

( Read more... )

So... I found that making a flour-free desert involves lots of eggs.

Only, I found just two recipes (with variations, yeah, but basically just two).

One: 6 eggs, 1 lb butter, 1 lb chocolate, some sugar, preferred flavoring agents

Two: 4 eggs, 1.5 cups ground nuts, 5 tsp citrus peel, some sugar, preferred flavoring agents

bake in a buttered springform pan (in a water bath) for about an hour at 375F, let sit in open turned off oven 30 min, let cool completely before trying to remove from pan..

top with melted chocolate or macerated strawberries or ice cream or whatever :)

So every week I make a jar of salsa..

it only takes about 15 minutes, chopping about 5 tomatoes, 3-5 jalopenos, 1-3 cloves of garlic, juice of 1 lime, 1 tsp salt... possibly a tsp of good olive oil and a tsp of vinegar... maybe a tsp of cayenne powder too.. some fresh cilantro or parsley if I really really feel like chopping them too... all in a 1 lb jar, shaken until mixed well, refrigerated for at least an hour for better flavor blending..

only one problem: shaking tomatoes makes my salsa a little too... juicy and wet :PP

But I found a perfect solution! I poured off some of the juice, poured it through a strainer into a chilled glass, and added some vodka! Making salsa just became even more fun *g*

Made this flourless chocolate cake. Sort of. I used a cup of reg. coffee, added tsp of vanilla & tsp of Grand Marnier, baked it in a springform pan, but didn't use paper because I don't have any. I did butter it heavily and then cocoa-powdered it. No raspberry sauce, choc. sauce instead (just 4 oz semi-sweet & a little heavy cream), free-style, just dripping off the top onto the sides. I put some chopped toasted almonds on top. It's cooling in the fridge now, but I'll cut into it sometime tomorrow and find out what I did wrong this time ;)

...oh! The water bath really does keep it from cracking. And after I turned off the oven, I left it open and left everything in there for about 30 minutes, and my cake didn't deflate. Yey.

ETA: it came out really really good.

I made Breakfast Cookies from Healthy Appetite. I rarely like this girl's recipes because she cuts too many corners, talks about "sneaking" things into her meals, and generally has a slightly different take on nutrition than I do. but these turned out pretty good. I did change the recipe though :P

( My version of this recipe )

Dude, this issue is awesome! I've only read through about 1/3 of it and already found three cool Greek dishes I want to make for my parents next time I go to NJ and a super excellent cranberry cake thing that I made today. I am NOT a fan of pies and crumbles, but this thing... it was hard to eat just a small piece. I was a little bit doubtful when I was putting it in the oven, because the ratio of batter to filling looked off, but it came out just right.

( Cranberry-Maple Pudding Cake )