just a little something...

strawberries

strawberries, originally uploaded by merryjennifer.

I fear these may be the last of the Plant City strawberries for a while. We bought these from a guy selling them on the side of the road near our house on Sunday. They were picked last Wednesday after having been iced over for frost protection the night before. It worked - they are delicious. The kids will snack on these all week.

chicken stock

chicken stock, originally uploaded by merryjennifer.

We woke up this morning to find out that our main heat wasn't working. We had heat in our bedroom, and the kids had heat in their rooms upstairs, but the living room was 57 degrees. Sam turned on the gas fireplace, but that barely took the chill off the living room.

I had been meaning to make my own chicken stock at some point, so today was as good a day as any -- and I hoped the process would warm up the kitchen a bit. I'm not sure it warmed up more than the stovetop, but the house filled with the aromas of chicken and vegetables (onion, leek, and carrots), warming our hearts if nothing else.

Making chicken stock is something so basic and fundamental, but it's something I've never done before. In this process of teaching myself to cook, making stock was one of the things on my checklist of things to do. At the end of the process, I would up with enough stock for our dinner tonight (chicken chili) and I was able to freeze some for later, too.

After making homemade chicken stock this once, I may never buy canned chicken broth again.

admitting the problem is the first step

So, this whole food and wine culture has totally sucked me in. As my husband can attest, the console table behind our sofa is now the new home of several shiny new cookbooks - several expensive shiny new cookbooks. The coffee table is littered with Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, and - before it went under - Gourmet magazine. I'm spending entirely too much time in our local kitchen supply store. And the other night I dreamt of pie crust.

People, I have a problem.

Anyway, I have a list of culinary musts that I'm working through. A few that I've managed to achieve are:

• 1.    Braise a brisket. (Could have turned out better.)
• 2.   Eat tuna tartare. (Did not like.)
• 3.   Roast a chicken. (Also did not turn out so well, so I'm planning to redo this one.)
• 4.   Eat at a 3-star Michelin restaurant. (Thanks to our trip to Le Bernardin, I can cross this one off.)
• 5.   Learn to cook brussels sprouts. (Never realized how GOOD these things are.)

I've got several more on my mental checklist, and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to crank through them over the next months. Here’s a partial list:

 

• 1.    Poach an egg.
• 2.   Make homemade pie crust. (I’m currently in the middle of this process, so hopefully, after Thanksgiving I can check this one off.)
• 3.   Roast a turkey.
• 4.   Steam mussels.
• 5.   Make Asian dumplings.
• 6.   Eat at The French Laundry. (Okay, this one may stay on the list for a while.)
• 7.   Make homemade pasta.
• 8.   Make brioche.

 

I’ve got some homework, it seems.

wednesday night dinner

This:

 

Plus this:

 

And you get this:

 

Roasted chicken with a mustard and seedless red grape sauce. Plus a side of mashed potatoes. The recipe is from the Food 52 site, courtesy of Jennifer Hess. Jennifer's blog is here, and it's beautiful. And it makes me drool.

I learned a few things from this recipe. First, I like mustard and grapes together. Second, my kids don't. Third, I need to buy some new plates, preferably all white. These Wedgwood ones we received as wedding gifts eons ago just don't work well for food photography.

nyc, one bite at a time

I've posted about our experience at Le Bernardin - the real culinary highlight of the trip for me - but we spent the rest of the weekend trying to see exactly how much we could spend on food. Turns out, it's not difficult to spend a LOT. But, what the heck, right? It's a vacation.

One might think that after the seven course dinner at Le Bernardin, we would not want to eat for the next two days. Wrong. We woke up Saturday morning thinking of breakfast. After getting a slow start, we walked from our hotel in Tribeca to Spring Street in Soho. One of my potential breakfast/brunch spots, Balthazar, was our destination.

On a side note: I did lots (seriously, LOTS) of research on restaurants during the planning of this trip. I researched old New York Times reviews, Chowhound board postings, the Michelin ratings, Zagat reviews and ratings, and recommendations from friends. I had at least three options for each meal, depending where we were physically located in the city at any particular mealtime.

Anyway, we arrived at Balthazar at 10am and there was already a line. After waiting about 45 minutes, we were seated, crammed in between two other tables. We ordered a basket of fresh-baked pastries and breads to start, and I fell in love with their brioche. It was buttery and slightly sweet and melt-in-your-mouth wonderful. Sam had the toasted ham and gruyere sandwich, and I had the scrambled eggs in puff pastry with asparagus and wild mushrooms. We justified the calories by reminding ourselves that this counted as both breakfast AND lunch.

After seeing the Broadway show, Wicked, we walked over to Magnolia Bakery to splurge on a cupcake to tide us over until our 8pm dinner reservations.  Unfortunately, it was raining, and we made the mistake of going to the one located near the Theater District instead of in the West Village. The line was around the corner, and everyone was getting soaked. The red velvet cupcake I ordered was very good, but probably not worth standing in a line for. It's hard to pass judgement on one cupcake, so I won't.

Saturday night we braved the NYC subway system and we headed from Tribeca to the Lincoln Center area and ate dinner at Bar Boulud with some good friends of ours who happened to be in New York the same weekend we were.  According to the reviews I read, Bar Boulud is known for its charcuterie. Two of us decided we wanted to try the pate grand-mere (made with chicken liver and pork); Sam agreed to at least taste it. And, OH my goodness. It was great. We ate it on toast, topped with a bit of grainy mustard. I'm now a pate convert. And because we were eating at a French restaurant, I had the coq au vin - one of the classics. It also was simply delicious.

Because I know people (well, I know one person - a very important mixologist who also happens to be a dear friend from high school), we were able to skip the line at Little Branch and spend an hour or so having drinks in the dark, underground bar. The drinks were good. Very good. And the experience was very New York - or what I imagined an authentic New York experience to be.

Although we had every intention of searching out  the most perfect New York bagel, we slept in on Sunday morning (courtesy of the Little Branch experience). We didn't make it out for breakfast, but did wake up and get moving in time to eat lunch. So, instead of bagels, we sought out pizza. Real New York pizza. We were directed by friends - and by the bellmen at our hotel - that we needed to eat at Lombardi's. 

So, we did. It was pretty darn good pizza. And it should be - they've been doing it for over 100 years. As you can see from the picture, there were mushrooms and sausage on my half; Sam went with just sausage.

Sunday evening we ate at Scarpetta. I debated between Scarpetta and another Italian restaurant, ultimately choosing Scarpetta because of it's location in Chelsea. I had the creamy polenta with fricassee of mushrooms and Sam had the braised short ribs. We could have stopped there, because we were in heaven at that point. For a second course, we shared the tomato basil spaghetti (which lived up to it's reputation). For the last course, I had the duck breast - and I'm now a believer in duck. It was rich and moist and simply wonderful.

 

Except for the cooked carrots. I didn't like those. Yes, I tried them -- still hoping I'll change my mind one day -- but they were just as yucky as any cooked carrot I've ever tried in my life. Sam liked them.

And that was it. Our last meal in the city was a quick bagel near Central Park on Monday morning before our flight. We tried to eat everything in sight, but we didn't succeed. I still have a list of restaurants on my must-eat-at list. At least five or six trips worth of restaurants. I'm already trying to figure out when I can get Sam back up there. I believe the city has us both hooked.

tribute

Bourbon Pumpkin Pie_2, originally uploaded by merryjennifer.

On our trip to New York recently, I purchased the last issue of Gourmet magazine in the airport. I read it cover-to-cover on the plane from Jacksonville to JFK, and I savored every minute. It was a great issue, and I found myself wishing I'd been a regular subscriber instead of just purchasing it when it caught my eye. The magazine ceased publication last month, and I'm sad that I won't have future issues to look forward to.

Since I'm always on the hunt for the next best pumpkin pie recipe, I decided to make the Bourbon Pumpkin Pie on page 113 of the final issue of Gourmet. The recipe can also be found here. 

My verdict? It was a really easy recipe and the pie was incredibly creamy (that's what happens when you mix in heavy cream and sour cream). I don't think I liked the bourbon in it - it seemed to accentuate the sweetness of the pie and I sensed a bit of bourbon-y flavor on the end. The bottom line is that it was a delicious pie, but my old pumpkin pie recipe that I pull out every November is the winner.

I have some other things I've been eyeing in the November 2009 issue of Gourmet. I hope I'll get the chance to try my hand at them one of these weekends coming up. 

check this one off the list

I keep a running list of things I'd like to do or see one day, a bucket list of sorts. There are some dream vacations on that list -- visit Greece, rent a villa somewhere in the countryside of Italy, sail around the British Virgin Islands -- and there are some dream restaurants on the list, too. I'd love to eat dinner at The French Laundry or Per Se or Alinea, to name a few. In New York last weekend, I was able to check off one of the restaurants on my list -- Le Bernardin, the award winning restaurant led by Chef Eric Ripert. 

We made a reservation as soon as the reservations book opened up, thirty days before the weekend we were planning to go. I did a lot of research before deciding that we'd go there. Sam is a bit picky, as many of you may know, and I had to get his approval on the menu. I showed the menu to him on the Le Bernardin website, he looked at it and didn't say no, so I took that as a yes. 

Our dinner reservation was for 8:15 on Friday, and we were immediately seated on arrival. Unlike our experience at Michael Mina in Las Vegas, when the amuse bouche arrived, I knew I had made the right decision. 

 

I remembered that I'd brought my camera after the second or third course, but unfortunately, the lighting was poor and I didn't want to use my flash and risk disturbing others. We had lots of delicious courses that looked like this one.

In fact, each course of the seven-course tasting menu was simply amazing. The wine that was paired with it was perfect. The service was impeccable - attentive but not overly so, and not stuffy at all. One of the highlights was seeing Chef Ripert walk through the dining room at one point early on in our meal. After speaking with our waiter about him, we were taken back to the kitchen for a quick glimpse of the bustling activity. 

And, I must say, Chef Ripert was so personable. As annoyed as he may have been, you would never have known. I liked him from what I knew of him on Top Chef, and now I like him even more.

Our trip to New York took place the weekend between my birthday and Sam's. The whole trip was a birthday present to ourselves, and the Le Bernardin experience was really all for me. But, Sam had a wonderful time, and I think he has changed his mind about what gourmet dining means. 

 

We walked out of the restaurant over two and a half hours later with a very large tab on the credit card, lots of poorly exposed photographs, an autographed copy of On The Line, an appreciation for seafood done well (really, really well), and huge smiles on our faces. It was a truly spectacular birthday present.

saturday diversion (aka, cupcakes!)

While Sam was away at the Florida-LSU game this weekend, I decided to bake with the kids. We've been overrun by bananas lately, and we can't keep up with eating them before they turn brown. Since I didn't want to make another banana bread, I opted for banana cupcakes. I used the recipe from Bakerella, found here. 

 

I made a cream cheese frosting for them, and the kids helped me with the clean up.

 

Oliver even tried to share with Cookie Monster, but CM isn't as into cupcakes as he is cookies.

Madeline and Oliver decorated their cupcakes with some sprinkles that Maddie picked out at Publix. I would not have chosen Disney Princess sprinkles for banana cupcakes, but they did go well with the pink frosting (color chosen by Maddie, of course). 

 

I never thought that putting sprinkles on cupcakes would be taken so seriously. Or be so much fun.

 

The verdict? Banana cupcakes are delicious. The recipe was a good one - just the right amount of sweetness. The kids were entertained and got a yummy treat at the end. I got my fix of cream cheese frosting. And we got rid of two brown bananas. 

reading now

1. Gastrokid by Hugh Garvey and Matthew Yeomans. Haven't made anything yet, but this book is incredibly inspiring. Such simple recipes that look like they are packed with flavor. I've earmarked several to try out in the next week. They have a blog, too, which I've just discovered and love. The blog came first, of course, followed by the book.

2. Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. He seems a little rough around the edges (he IS a little rough around the edges), but I'm loving this book. It's a great no-frills look into the chef's life - by no means glamourous for the majority of chefs and cooks out there.

3. The Fodor's guidebook on New York City. Brushing up so I feel a little less like a tourist when we take our trip in October. 

4. And lots and lots of food blogs whenever I get the chance. Some of my current favorites are Gael Greene's site, smitten kitchen, Chocolate & Zucchini, Gwen Walters' Pen & Fork, Michael Ruhlman's site, David Lebovitz's blog, and Eater (the New York site, of course). 

vegas, part 3

We spent quite a lot of time shopping in Las Vegas. Some of you may not know this, but Sam is quite the shopper. I think he likes to shop more than I do. Perhaps it's just that he comparison shops for good prices while I tend to make impulse purchases, often regardless of price. His method takes longer, so maybe it just seems like he likes to shop more.

We spent so much time walking through the mall near our hotel and through the high end shops of the Venetian and the Pallazo, the Wynn, and Caesar's that our legs were sore. After we had lunch on our last day there, just after our last shopping excursion, I stood up to walk to the restroom and my hips felt like they were going to give out. Maybe I'm just getting old and decrepit.

The shopping was heavenly. In many of the stores I just wandered through checking price tags discreetly. Shoes for $1100. A dress for $1650. A scarf for $300. A small handbag for $900. Names from fashion magazines, brands the celebrities at the Oscars will be wearing. We both managed to find a few things in the more moderate stores, but I did make one huge shoe splurge. I'm still in the honeymoon phase, at least until the AmEx bill comes.

My favorite breakfast spot was Bouchon, one of chef Thomas Keller's restaurants. We went for brunch on Sunday morning and I had french toast that was simple but luxurious. We both had the pastry of the day, a croissant baked with a strawberry filling, and I swear it was the best pastry I have ever eaten. We wanted to bring some of those strawberry croissants back with us, but the restaurant didn't open early enough in the morning on the day we flew out. One of Thomas Keller's most famous and well-known restaurants is the French Laundry in Yountville, California. It is my dream to have dinner there, but after our experience with tuna tartare at Michael Mina, I realize that I'll never get Sam to go with me.

The last evening we were there, Sam and I had dinner at Craftsteak, one of chef Tom Colicchio's restaurants. We decided against the five course tasting menu this time, and instead I had the braised short ribs and Sam had a flat iron steak. I started with the lobster bisque. When I asked to talk with the sommelier about the wine list, the general manager ended up reviewing the list with me. We decided not to go with the $17,300 Bordeaux but instead went with a $65 Italian red. We could have gone with a $7500 bottle of Screaming Eagle, but somehow even that seemed a bit on the pricey side. The meal was fantastic. I could go on and on about it, but let's leave it at that.

So, whether you gamble (like Sam) or don't (like me), Las Vegas is an amazing place to visit. It's simultaneously tacky and tasteful, cheap ($4.99 steak and eggs) and lavish ($17,000 wine!). I would go back in a heartbeat. 

vegas, part 1

Warning: Food-speak ahead. 

Our culinary tour of Las Vegas started with a dinner at Michael Mina in the Bellagio. This was a meal that I had been looking forward to for as long as we had been planning this trip. Not only would it be our first gourmet five course dinner, but it was at a Michelin one-star restaurant and the executive chef is award winning. It would also prove to be our most expensive meal. Ever.

The service was stellar. Our water glasses were never empty (this is very important for my water-addicted husband) and the empty plates and dirty silverware were promptly removed and replaced by fresh pieces. I had wine with each course, and when I asked if wine came with the dessert course (it didn't), the waiter promptly brought me a complimentary glass of a dessert wine (which I really didn't need after the four glasses prior to that).

The first course was a tartare of ahi tuna. The tuna was served with raw quail egg yolk on top, and served with a sauce containing pine nuts, sesame oil, jalapeno pepper, and a variety of other things. This one put fear into Sam, but he was an amazing sport and tried several bites. The tuna came with three pieces of toast on the side, and at the end of the first course, Sam had devoured all of the toast and about three bites of tuna. I managed to eat most of mine. I say managed because, try as I might, I just have not developed a taste for raw tuna. Especially when topped with a raw quail egg yolk. I'm sure some people find the dish fabulous. Not us. But, of course, we're just simple country folk.

The second course was a huge improvement - lobster potpie served with black truffles and huge chunks of tender lobster. For the third course, we were served miso glazed black cod served on a shrimp and scallop ravioli in a mushroom consomme. This was followed by Kobe ribeye with seared foie gras in a pinot noir sauce. Dessert was a mini rootbeer float with rootbeer sorbet, coconut cheesecake, and a rich chocolate pudding. All of the courses were relatively small amounts of food - except the tuna tartare, which seemed endless - but we were stuffed when we left.

It took Sam a while to get over the tuna tartare, but I think he began enjoying himself once he got to the bottom of the lobster potpie. When the bill came at the end of the meal, he had sticker shock for a while, but now we laugh about it. I think it was worth it, for the experience and the memory if nothing else. Sam eventually won enough money at craps to make the thought of that credit card charge much more tolerable.

Here are some photos from the Bellagio that evening...

At Michael Mina...

The conservatory at the Bellagio is filled with beautiful flower gardens. These are some of the flower sculptures in the garden...

The lobby of the Bellagio is filled with a gorgeous ceiling filled with Dale Chihuly blown glass. It was really stunning.

More tomorrow...

it all started with good intentions

Last weekend, I was feeling particularly mom-ish. Or rather, I was feeling like I needed to start acting more mom-ish. 

"Let's bake a cake!" I told Madeline.

She was so excited, and so was I until I realized we didn't have cake flour. And the eggs were a couple of weeks out of date. I found a box of cake mix in the pantry - also a tad (like, six months?) out of date.  But can cake mix really go bad? I put aside any doubts and Madeline pulled up a chair to the kitchen counter as I got out the mixing bowl and hand mixer.

Once we got the cake batter mixed, poured into a couple of 9-inch rounds, and into the oven, I started the exciting part -- homemade buttercream icing. Since it was rather messy, and since I have this thing about messes, I had Maddie observe rather than help. She was not thrilled about this, so I bribed her with the opportunity to lick the icing-covered beaters when I was all finished. 

I learned several things that day. One - old cake mix really IS lacking in some important quality. I think it's called quality. Two - it's really a much smarter idea to use the good-ol' Kitchen Aid stand mixer, even for such a simple task as beating buttercream icing. Turns out that it's actually quite a workout on the hand, keeping the hand mixer steady for that long. Three - Madeline is not patient when there's buttercream icing to be had at the end of the fun. Four - making just enough icing to decorate a cake is really not a good idea. One should always make extra, just in case the cake decorator turns out to be awful at it. The last thing that I learned is that even ugly cake tastes fantastic when covered in buttercream icing.

The top isn't too bad, is it? Madeline insisted on flowers, so I pulled out an old icing decorating kit that I inherited from my  mom when I moved away to college, and I did my best. It could have been worse.

And it was.

It was a lot worse. At some point, when I realized the icing was going to run out, I just gave up. As far as I know, smearing and patching are terms not normally associated with cake decorating. 

I guess I'll be sticking with my chosen profession. And buying my "homemade" cakes at Publix. They do a much better job.

recipe recommendation

Madeline's favorite food (after jelly beans, chicken nuggets, and french fries) might just be meatballs. At her request, I decided to make some for her. Since they were quite a hit with her and with Oliver, I'm sharing the recipe here. Like most recipes I make, this one is from Cooking Light. I just love that magazine.

The beef meatballs recipe has a rating of "Outstanding" on the CL website, and it is definitely a good recipe. All the reviews on there are accurate. I served a few of the meatballs over white rice and topped it with tomato sauce. Madeline and Oliver both asked for more, a sure sign of acceptance. I'll definitely make them again.

pumpkin pie

This is my favorite pumpkin pie recipe, so I thought I'd share it. I know of at least one request that I've had for it. The recipe is not mine, really. I got it from somewhere, but I can't remember where. Food Network, maybe?

Pumpkin Pie

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2 eggs

1 can (15 oz) solid pack pumpkin

1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

one refrigerated pie crust

In a small bowl, combine sugar, salt, and spices.

Beat eggs in a large bowl.

Stir pumpkin and evaporated milk into the eggs. Add the sugar and spice mixture.

Pour into pie shell.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 45 minutes or until firm.

This is what you'll get:

Note: If I were a serious baker, I would make my own pie crust. I just don't have time for that nonsense. I used to use the pie crusts that were sold already in the tinfoil pie-plate, but that just seemed too artificial to me. I upgraded last year and began using the rolled-up refrigerated pie crust. This way, I can use my own pie plate and it seems more homemade.

thanksgiving '08 wrap-up

We had a lovely Thanksgiving -- up until Madeline's tantrum that caused us to leave her grandparents' house early. I took last Wednesday off work since Maddie had the day off from school, and also so I could start working on my contributions to the holiday meal.  We had a very nice day, and Madeline was a big helper in the kitchen. She got frustrated when I wouldn't let her do certain things (like chop with the santoku knife), but she waited semi-patiently for her turn to do things.

Her first task was tearing apart cornbread and biscuits for the dressing. 

While she tore the bread into little bits, I cooked the onions and celery.

She beat eggs, mixed the dressing, then beat some more eggs for the pumpkin pies. She mixed all the pie ingredients and then helped me pour them into the piecrusts. I learned that I am not a very thoughtful food blogger, or else I would have remembered to keep taking photos for the blog. Or maybe I'm just bad at multitasking. I do have a pie picture, so that will have to suffice.

This pumpkin pie recipe is the best one I've run across. Sam likes it so much that whenever I suggest altering it, he forbids me. And I'm too much of a culinary chicken to tempt fate and potentially wind up with a lousy pie.

My dad decided a couple of years ago that one turkey just wasn't enough, so he added a fried turkey to complement the roast one. This year he decided to add a third turkey, and he smoked that one. Let's just say we had plenty of turkey. Dad's good friend, Jim, got the honors of carving the (three!) turkeys. As a bonus for doing the carving, he got to take the carcasses home to make stock.

Gathered around the table -- well, two tables, really -- were me and Sam, Madeline and Oliver, my brother Clay, my grandmother, my parents, Sam's parents, and my parents' friends Jim and Mary.  Jim and Mary are part of our adopted Thanksgiving-family. They come every year, and we would miss them if they didn't show up.

The kids did pretty well, especially considering the fact that neither one napped. Madeline had the major breakdown that pushed us into leaving a little earlier than expected, but I couldn't blame her. She'd had a very busy day and she was exhausted. Both kids fell asleep in the car on the way home even though it was only 6:30 or so. 

And now that Thanksgiving is over, we move our thoughts to the next in the December line-up of events. I'm headed to San Francisco for a conference next weekend. I get back just in time for Madeline's birthday and her birthday party. Christmas is after that. In a blink it will be 2009. Amazing.

sometimes we actually cook

Saturday night, we tried a few recipes that turned out well. I'd recommend them, especially if you like latin-flavored cuisine. The main entree was garlic-rubbed flank steak with chimichurri sauce, and the sides were caraotas negras (black beans) and arroz blanco venezolano (Venezuelan white rice).

All of the recipes were from Cooking Light, one of my favorite cooking mazazines. There was a fair amount of chopping involved, but the recipes were pretty easy. I seemed to be in the kitchen for a long time, however it was the  mostly due to the prep work (and the fact that Madeline was trying to help). If you make them, you'll probably want to add some more salt than the recipes call for, and I always up the garlic a little since I love garlic. I also rubbed the flank steak with the garlic/salt/pepper rub and let it sit for an hour or so -- it seemed to soak up the flavor nicely.

I know that red wine typically goes well with red meat, but because of all of the herbs and spices (and the chimichurri sauce had quite a kick!), I paired it with a dry reisling and it was excellent. Also, I paired it with the reisling because I had a bottle open already. Sam had iced tea and he thought that pairing worked out well.

We are going to try to cook a bit more than usual, mostly because we feel the need to use our new double oven, gas stovetop, and the fancy-new Santoku knife that I bought. So, you may hear about other good recipes... or maybe even some recipes to avoid...in the near future.

watermelon

Here are a few pictures of the family enjoying watermelon at the beach. Since life is busy and picture-posting is always a good thing.

before i forget to tell you

Sam and I have a new recipe in our list of Most Loved Recipes. I know lots of you already read Pioneer Woman's blog, but just in cased you missed this post, she featured a recipe for Crash Hot Potatoes a week or so ago. You MUST make these. They are amazing.

Have a good rest of the weekend. We plan to.

brownies, by request

Okay, it took me a little bit to get back to you on this, but here's the brownie recipe that has people asking for seconds (and thirds and fourths...) every time:

Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces (Ghirardelli works well.)

4 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I use Neilsen-Massey.)

1 cup flour

1. Butter a 13-by-9 inch baking pan and line with parachment paper. Butter the parchment paper, too. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler set over barely simmering water (you can also do this in the microwave, but I prefer the double boiler). Cool slightly.

3. In a large bowl, whisk eggs. Whisk in salt, sugars, and vanilla.

4. Whisk in chocolate mixture. Fold in flour until just combined. If you wanted to add in some chopped nuts, fold them in now. I don't use nuts.

5. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until shiny and beginning to crack on top. Cool in pan on rack.

I usually cut mine into 24 browines. These are actually best if you serve them the day after you make them, but there is nothing wrong with a warm, out-of-the oven brownie, either. Especially if you serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

And if anyone cares, not that you should, one brownie is 5 Weight Watcher points. I'm a counter, so I care.

Enjoy!

cooking for julia

My friend Julia just had her second baby last week, a cute little boy named Benjamin. Since one of the best presents I received when I became a new mother (both the first and the second time) was a home-cooked meal, I decided to "pay it forward" and make a meal for Julia and her family.

Saturday afternoon, Madeline and I delivered a full meal to Julia and her husband. For the main dish, I made baked fettuccini with asiago and thyme (courtesy of Giada DeLaurentis). For dessert, I made brownies. The brownie recipe is an especially good one...one that gets requested over and over again by my daughter's preschool after I made it for a school function several months ago. Since I was feeling a little guilty about all the carbs I was sending over, I added a bagged salad in an attempt to add some green healthiness to the meal. Of course, no meal is complete without the perfect bottle of wine to match. Well, I hope it was the perfect bottle -- the wine-store guy promised me it would be.

Since I rarely cook this way, it was a treat to be able to make some really good, full-fat, full-calorie food. I hope it all tasted as good as it looked. The best thing, though, is that it provided Julia with one less meal to make, and THAT is a huge gift when you have a new baby.

And, on a selfish note, I got to cook!

another recipe they liked

Every now and then I like to post recipes that I've made that my picky eaters have enjoyed (This usually means Sam, but sometimes Maddie).

This past weekend, I made Fresh Corn Risotto from the most recent Food and Wine issue. Maddie and Oliver both really liked it (Sam did too). Oliver thought it was much tastier than the magazine insert card he had been eating.

The recipe made a lot, so I had plenty of leftovers. And to me, risotto is generally just as good the next day. Actually, risotto is just pretty darn good anytime I eat it.