happy friday: swirl brownies :)

As evidenced in so many instances, I am lazy. So incorporating frosting into the brownie batter and making them pretty by swirling them around has made me a happy baker. And that happiness is really due to one thing – shorter lead time to food gratification.

I've made two version in the past weeks: red velvet and cheesecake brownie recipe and David Lebovitz' Dulce de Leche Brownies.

I haven't bought toothpicks nor barbeque sticks as cake testers...so I stab the middle section with a knife :p

The red velvet cheesecake brownies had a more cooked bottom than I would have liked. I recommend taking it out of the oven as soon as very little cheesecake sticks to the knife or stick you poke in the middle to test for doneness. Mine should have come out before it clocked in 35 minutes in the oven. Overcooked as it was, this was awesome. :) Don't worry about leftovers...these taste better after sitting in the fridge for a day, or two...or more. 

The dulce de leche brownies had a perfectly-cooked bottom. I took them out after 30 minutes in the oven...but the texture was not as good as the red velvet one. It was completely offset though by the taste and gooey-ness of the dulce de leche though. It reminds me of dunking bread into condensed milk as a child. :) 

The white things at the back are mugs of tea...an essential item in our kitchen.

Mommy, I ate too much. Will you rub my tummy?

Happy April 20, 

Janice

no baking allowed: mini lime cheesecakes and 2 evil discoveries

Mini lime cheesecakes.

Oh. Delightful. Incredible. Must. Have. More.

It was so pretty on foodgawker that I could not help but to make them during the holidays. They were pretty easy to make. The hardest part was making room for the muffin pan in the freezer.

Pretty little things. 

It was pretty, distinctly lime-y but not overly so that you can’t tell it’s cheesecake. Also, I added crushed walnuts to the crust. Double yum.

Beauty is in the inside.

Note though, my version though only had the juice of two limes, as I find that I have a slightly lower tolerance for limey-ness than what the recipe recommends. I learned this big time with the lime curds I had posted about. Glad I made those before these cheesecakes.

And on evil things that make you wish you were pregnant so you have an excuse for eating huge quantities at any time of the day… I present…microwave cakes.

Chocolate and Nutella, anyone?

Peanut butter is a special gift from God.

Okay, so they are not new. I had seen them before but never had the pantry stocked enough to make them. These are super easy and surprisingly very good. I can’t imagine making these the traditional way – ie waiting for 40 minutes to an hour to enjoy the goodies. The first one was chocolate...and I couldn't stop so I also made a peanut butter version. I told you...EVIL. 

I recommend to put these in for a minute, check how it looks and if needed, keep cooking them at incremental 30 second intervals until you see them at the consistency you like. Both of these were cooked for about a minute and half in the microwave and they were both oooozing with awesomeness.

I should not be left alone in a kitchen with flour and Nutella...

...and peanut butter too. It makes me obsess about food.

The recipe says each of these serve two…or a greedy one. I would say with some ice cream, three people can share this and still be friends. :)


Happy weeekend,
Janice

fridge vacuum meals...

Yes, it sounds weird. But these 2 things are good ways to use up half an onion here, 3 pieces of bacon there and various what-nots in your fridge and pantry that you don't have enough of to make the star of a meal but don't have the heart (or pocketful of cash) to just throw away. 

And yes, they just happened to be similar: stuffed vegetables. I like...stuff. I bet you do too. 

I don't think that makes sense entirely...BUT it is Sunday night and I would like to enjoy my last moments of freedom before another week of work starts. Oh, well...there's that holiday on Wednesday...but let's call it a full week, eh?

These stuffed mushrooms were inspired by my mother-in-law who cooks THE BEST MUSHROOM DIP/APPETIZER/WHAT-HAVE-YOU in the world. We're not sure what's in it (and we don't dare replicate it anyway), but it is gooooood stuff. So, when she had some stuffed mushrooms cooking in the oven, we all knew it would be up there with the other stuff she cooks. 

I made mine with the following leftovers:

12 pieces of crimini mushrooms

     - stems chopped into small pieces

     - caps tossed in olive oil, salt, and pepper (hanging out in a baking dish until they get stuffed)

3 pieces of bacon, chopped into small pieces

1/2 large red onion

3 big cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons of cream cheese

100 grams of turrialba cheese (okay, so I don't know how much EXACTLY..but let's just say, go with your gut...and more importantly, with what you have left)

Also good when melted in between two corn tortillas.
Crushed potato chips are optional BUT recommended as a side..or inside.

Handful of parmesan cheese

2 pieces of stale bread

Dried thyme, rosemary, parsley, or oregano (any combination will be good)

Preheat oven to 400 F degrees.

Place bread in a food processor (or chopper) and pulse until it turns to small crumbs. Add parmesan and herbs and pulse until mixed well. If using bread crumbs, then your life is easier because you just need to mix everything in a small bowl.

Saute the mushroom stems, bacon, red onion, garlic in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and cook until everything looks soft, cooked and smells awesome. :p This will take about 10 minutes. 

Transfer to a bowl and mix in cheeses and herbs. Season with salt and pepper.

Place mixture on top of each mushroom cap until it can take no more.

Sprinkle bread crumb and parmesan mixture on top of each mushroom.

Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes until the tops are golden brown and the mushrooms are soft (I always poke at whatever is baking in the oven :p)

What's missing in this picture?

Look closely...

Look again...

Okay, so these finished product pictures don't have the parmesan crust in the recipe. This is because this was the first time I made them and forgot to take pics of the ingredients. The second time I made them, I took lots of pictures while prepping, but forgot to take pictures when I took the mushrooms out of the oven. I got excited to serve them, don't shoot me. 

Anyway...

On to the stuffed peppers, which are similar in preparations but just cook it longer in the oven, about an hour until the peppers are nice and tender. 

My stuffed peppers had the following leftovers:

2 large bell peppers cut in half lengthwise with the core and seeds removed, also tossed in olive oil, salt, and pepper (hanging out in a baking dish until they get stuffed)

1 cup Primavera rice (or any rice you have - it just so happened that Mr. G had bought this boxed kind)1 chicken breast cut into small pieces and marinated in salt, pepper, Lizano sauce (or whatever seasonings you like in chicken)

1 medium white onion

3 cloves of garlic

Handful of cheddar cheese

Dried thyme, rosemary, parsley, or oregano (any combination will be good)

Mr. G's only request was to stuff this with MORE...stuff.

I agree. 

Happy fridge cleaning,

Janice

wishing for the sun via lime curd

It's supposed to be summer now but it's horribly gray and dark. While I don't mind wearing sweaters and any chance to put on my boots, I wish the sun would just be out when it's supposed to. Anyway, I had made lime curd a few weeks back when it was still wonderfully summery, and blogging about it now makes me want to do a sun dance.


This is one of the recipes from Ina Garten's The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. I love her. I want to be like her...awesome Hampton's store, house, herb garden and BMW convertible included. I won't mind the hairstyle either, but I think I'll vamp up the wardrobe :p 

Care of Amazon credits sent by wonderful friends :) 

It's pretty easy to make and therapeutic too. I had very serene thoughts as I was doing this... 

This little juicer brings a lot of joy...and good for letting off some steam too.

...and this...

Stir, stir, stir...Careful not to let the curd boil!! And yes, I love that the new stove has a timer.
It's useful to airheads like me.

Ina's recipe calls for lots of wonderful berries, but I only had a handful, so I decided to toss some walnuts into the mix. I coated them in some honey and sugar first though because...I like sweet stuff? Doesn't matter! All gooood...

Roasted in the oven toaster...because I'm lazy on Sundays...and weekdays.  Fine, throw in Saturdays too. 

So, once poured into the ramekins (I didn't make the crust because...guess why) and cooled in the fridge for an hour or so...

Hello sunshine :)

Some nuts to get the party started...

Chopped strawberries tossed in powdered sugar.

One happy family in this ramekin community.

I wish I had more strawberries to top this curd with. It really complements the tartness of the curd. So does whipped cream. Which I dolloped mine with. And I mean dollop. A whole bunch of cream makes Janice a happy person. Also, you can reduce the lime juice you put in if you don't want it too lime-y. I just made lime cheesecake before I wrote this post (another post waiting) and only put in two limes and it tastes perfect :) 

Hoping for the sun to come out, 
Janice

tomatoes and bread...

...and a new friend.

We had just gotten several loaves of french bread late Friday afternoon when it hit me, what else can I do with this loaf but to eat it all up as bruschetta? Plus, I had not thought of what to cook for dinner, so it seemed like the easiest solution (consider this the real reason). And right there in the car with my trusty iphone but not so trusty internet connection, came Pioneer Woman to the rescue. Her recipe came up at the top of the Google search. 

This did not disappoint. How can it with balsamic vinegar and basil thrown in the mix? I had used dried basil and it was still delicious. Add basil, salt and pepper. Taste. Add more pepper. Taste. Add a little more basil. Taste. Taste. Taste. Utterly. Yummy. In the tummy.

Resist the urge to dive into this bowl with your pajamas on.

I also added garlic powder to the butter before letting the french bread slices swim in the pan. I do not regret this. I am forever grateful to garlic powder. It is my new friend (I had known garlic salt was gooood a while back, so garlic it just...wonderful). A good friend. Almost my best friend.

Guess which one hung out a little too much with the butter?

Here's the first round:



Attack of the killer tomatoes

 And then we moved on to various combinations along with these:

In our house, light meals become...heavy.

And then the bread ran out.

And these came to the rescue:



Me thinks this is gooood.

YUM. I am still burping from breakfast as I am writing this and I'm still drooling over the bruschetta pics.

I am a pig,

Janice