The breakfast delemma

I think we've solved the problem of what's for breakfast when there's no time for breakfast. We took whole wheat yeast dough rolled out to about a 1/4 inch. We spread a mixture of spinach, ricotta with an egg or 2 mixed in and lots of cheese over the dough. Then we rolled it all up like  sweet rolls. Cut it into nifty fat pinwheels and popped it into the oven.

Result: Breakfast rolls with lots of protein and some veggies that taste just as good cold as hot. And it's even better dipped in ranch dressing!

Inventing better "junk" food

On Thursday it snowed... and snowed... and snowed. So my DD and I spent the afternoon reinventing "junk" food. You see my husband by his one admission only cooks a bare minimum of dishes: chili, ham and beans, burgers. And he has a tendency to run down to the little market in Bean Blossom and grab a frozen pizza instead of cooking at all. We decided we could improve his eating habits if we made some grab and go "junk food" from scratch.
Lydia and I decided to tackle the problem with whole wheat yeast dough, some Red Wattle supper sausage, cream cheese and really yummy German mustard.

Lydia had already cooked the sausage. I cut the long links into about 3 inch pieces and sliced each piece nearly through lengthwise. Then Lyd's stuffed each one with cream cheese and a smear of mustard completed the ensemble. 

We rolled out pieces of dough. Then rolled each piece of sausage up in dough. These "pigs in a blanket" got 15 minutes to rise a bit then popped into a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.

An unbiased taste test says: DELICIOUS!! we will definitely do this again. They are good hot or cold.

Contestant number one...

My DD gave me what she says is THE best homemade brownie recipe ever: Malt Fudge Brownies

Ok. I had been promising Brian homemade brownies for about 2 weeks. My excuse for not making them... well I kept thinking I'd make them  in the evening after dinner. Problem is after dinner I am too tired and my foot/knee hurt too much to spend time working on brownies in the kitchen.

So Friday morning as soon as I got up I started making brownies. I wish I had waited until I had at least had a cup of tea!

Here is what I did:

Preheated oven to 325 degrees. Ok so far so good. The recipe said to stir together 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/3c malted milk and 1/2 tsp of salt. I didn't have any malted milk so I left that out. It will be ok, right? Set aside. Grease a 13 X9 pan. I used glass.  Seemed like a good idea and it's the only 13 X9 pan I own.

In a saucepan over medium heat put 1 cup butter, 4 oz unsweetened chocolate cut up. Heat and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in 2 cups of sugar. I forgot to stir in the sugar.

Add 4 eggs one at a time, beating with a wooden spoon between each egg just enough to combine. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Stir.

This is when I realized I forgot the sugar. So I stirred it in too. 

Stir in flour mixture, 1 cup nuts (The recipe calls for walnuts but I'm allergic to walnuts and Brian doesn't eat nuts. So I left them out at this point.)

Squash up about a 1/4 cup of malted milk balls and stir those in too. This was sort of fun and a whole lot easier when I used my biggest round spatula to do the squashing.

 

Honey waited patiently in hopes that I would drop something

yummy on the floor. Or is that a worried look? Maybe she noticed

that I forgot the sugar?

I squashed up some more malted milk balls for the top and added a handful of pecans to one end for me. Then popped it into the oven for 35 minutes.

The recipe said to cool the brownies in the pan on a wire rack. This part I did right.

So how are they? I don't think they are chocolatey enough.The finished product was pretty blonde. The texture was good and fudgey though.  Brian says they are good but "Wow! They're rich!" What did he expect from all that butter and sugar?

I think next time I will half the recipe. A 13 X 9 pan of brownies on the counter is just too much temptation and too much sugar for our middle aged selves. I think I may cut down the sugar just a bit - and remember to put it in at the right time.LOL  Also I think I will add more chocolate or maybe higher coco content chocolate. I used some organic chocolate I had in the pantry this time.

Bring on ultimate brownie recipe contestant number II!!

I'll let you know how it comes out with the tweeks just as soon as we recover from this batch!

In search of the perfect homemade Brownie

Brian and I agreed that when we move to the apartment we will not give up our localvore/least processed eating habits. But I have a confession. Brian loves brownies from a mix and I haven't found a recipe for homemade brownies yet that makes him happy.

So now I am on a quest for the perfect - not to dry, really chocolatey without being bitter, chewy, yummy brownie recipe.

If you have recipe suggestions please send them to me: dorothea_p@hotmail.com

I think I'll review the results here.