Disaster Prep = Eat Something

Cooking happened in my apartment this weekend. And baking. And breakfasting. On Friday, as part of my Hurricane Irene preparations, I decided we probably needed some Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies. 
Turned out I was right.

 

 

























This is another recipe off How Sweet It Is which I cannot recommend enough, apparently, as I use that site at least once a week for inspiration.
 
 



























(I'm sensitive to the fact that many areas were hit much worse, but in upper Brooklyn, all our preparations translated to...some rain. Some wind. And hey, brownies.)

By Sunday we’d gone an entire day without more chocolate, so I remedied that oversight with Cocoa Sour Cream Pancakes with Maple Glaze. As dessert, they would have been perfect. As breakfast, they were...a lot. We managed about two apiece before surrender. However, I LOVE leftover pancakes for some reason, and plan to augment their sweetness tomorrow with some strawberries and whipped cream. Which I’m pretty sure also makes them healthy.


And then...that was enough chocolate.

 

Sunday lunch/dinner was my favorite thing to come out of the weekend. But salmon always kills. So delicious in all its forms and so difficult to fuck up. 

I served it with hashbrowns (why not?) and some lightly steamed asparagus which equaled a meal that rated “Holy Crap” on the boyfriend’s How Good Is Dinner scale.
 


Thus satiated, the boyfriend and I played Scrabble in bed as all great minds are wont to do on lazy rainy days. I only got whiny once, which is progress.

Cooking two meals in one day made possible by Pacifico.

(Scrabble may have also been made possible by Pacifico.)

Recipes are all below. I would say that a glass of wine awaits me as my reward for finishing this post, but perhaps I talk about drinking just a little bit already in this blog...


Cocoa Sour Cream Pancakes
Serves 4

1 cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
⅓ cup sugar
⅓ cup cocoa powder
2 tbs melted butter
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup milk
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs sour cream

Combine melted butter, egg, vanilla and milk in a bowl; set aside. Combine dry ingredients. Mix all together so just blended--batter will be lumpy. Add sour cream and mix until just incorporated. Ladle into your skillet (I always use butter to cook my pancakes even when I use a non-stick skillet...I feel like they just taste better). Batter will be thin, so go easy on your pours.

Keep warm in a 200 degree oven until serving time.
 
Maple Glaze

¾ cup powdered sugar
½ cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix together until smooth; spoon over pancakes to taste.


Parmesan-Crusted Salmon
Serves 2 really hungry or 3-4 not-so hungry people

1 lb salmon fillet
~1 tbs dijon mustard
⅓ cup Panko bread crumbs
¼ cup shredded parmesan
salt & pepper

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Lightly salt and pepper your fillet, and spread a nice amount of mustard over the entire top. Mix together the Panko and parmesan, and sprinkle liberally atop your fish, pressing into the flesh a bit with your fingers.

If you’re using a glass pan, remember to spread a tiny bit of olive oil over the bottom so your skin doesn’t stick. Also feel free to crush a couple cloves of garlic in there for extra oomph.

Cook for 20-25 minutes until a lovely light golden color and nicely flakey.
 

Hashbrowns
Serves 3-4 people

2 large potatoes, peeled
salt & pepper

Shred those potatoes like you mean it with your cheese grater. Mix approximately 1 tbs butter with 1 tbs olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Pour in your potatoes, add salt & pepper and press down lightly into a cake that covers the entire bottom of your pan. Let it go for about 10 minutes, checking the crust intermittently so that it doesn’t burn. Flip over once you’ve got a good brown color. Another 10 minutes et voila.

Make In Take Out

So I have this Edith Piaf Pandora station on, and I can cook to it but man it gets under my skin when I actually listen. I assume this means I’m quite regrettably uncultured.

...There we go. Florence always knows what I want to hear, even if she does get a little whiny.

Here’s what I made for dinner tonight!:

It looks like a pile, but it tastes like angels.

 

I amended Jessica’s Crunchy Honey Chicken recipe with mushrooms and leeks instead of peppers, plus a little cayenne thrown into the chicken seasoning (because I seem to be incapable of concocting a dish without it), but the rest remains the same and...I don’t ever want to stop eating it. 

 

Yes. That is my sports bra. I have only so much photo editing patience.

Here’s a story that should illustrate why I cooked this meal in the first place but really is just a happy accident: The boyfriend always complains about ordering Chinese because they load the takeout with worthless vegetables as if thumbing their noses at all the strapping men out there who need their daily animal. This dinner is the perfect replacement for that, except way healthier and you get to feel awesome because you did it all with your own tentacles. 

Just like Ursula

 

Except. It took a serious hour to put all the parts together (I doubled the recipe for leftovers as well), and while it was simple, this is not something I would make on a normal weekday. Wait to have friends over, or your in-laws, or your boss. They will be impressed.

Ok the remnants I’ve been ignoring in order to write this are ice cold and I’m still eating them. Also there is rice in my hair. 

Monday was made possible by Laurent Miquel Pere et Fils

Home Sweet Home

The Thursday before payday around here is always a bit tight. But I secretly get a little happy about this, because it gives me the excuse to make one of my favorite cheapo dinners: Homemade pizzas and crisper-drawer-leftovers salad.

 

It doesn’t look like much, I’ll give you that. And I was out of basil, so that was a heavy blow. But we pushed on through! Adding a bit of garlic, a nice hit of black pepper and a big-ass pinch of cayenne gives the sauce the best kick. And who says no to melted cheese? Whoever it is, I don’t trust them.

The boyfriend always offers to help with dinner, and as not a day goes by during which he doesn’t utter some variation of “UGH. Cooking.” he was very happy to hear that all we had left in the fridge were romaine and radishes. The former, you rip. The latter, thank the lord above, did not tax his delicate hands too dreadfully.

His motto: Happy wife, happy life. I can get behind that.

Dessert was a leftover birthday treat, a hand-me-down recipe from my mother. I grew up in Minnesota, which we all know is the land of bars. (The kind you bake, not the kind you get hammered in.) (Though we have plenty of those.)

Anyway, growing up in the land of bars, I was privileged to live in my mother’s house, under the reign of Magic Cookie Bars, aka 7-Layer Bars, aka Hello Dolly bars, aka Mars Bars, which is what the boyfriend calls them for seemingly no reason at all, other than it’s fun to say. Pile graham cracker crumbs, butter, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, coconut and nuts under a layer of sweetened condensed milk, bake for like, 20-ish minutes, and blammo.

They are fat free. That extra pound you gained is from...the mozzarella on the pizza. Yeah.

Homemade Hostess Cupcakes

(Modified from Food Network magazine)

Difficulty: Time-consuming but easy
Ingredient Cost: $35 (though I started with a good stable of basics)

I’ve lived in New York for a little over six years. For five of those years--encompassing the latter half of my 20s--I’ve been good friends with a very good man who is now moving away, which is not so good. I mean, it’s fantastic for him--he and his lady were just married two years ago and they’re busting at the seams to get going. And it’s not like Connecticut is California. But still. When I jog past their apartment I won’t crane my neck to see if they’re home. I’ll have to sit in my own garden when I want mosquito bites. And no one will be around to tell me “thank god I don’t live with you, I would be such a porker if I had to eat this well all the time.”

Unsweetened chocolate tastes like ass. Never forget this terrible fact.

 
 








  


 I like to eat, and so it’s a nice coincidence that I also love to cook. Most of the time it’s smaller experiments for the boyfriend and myself, but I will take any excuse to cook for company. I especially want to take advantage of this apparent craving for praise before I’m saddled blessed with children who I’m forced happy to cook for every day after every day after every day.
 

 






So, in addition to the Sour Cream Whole Wheat Pancakes (which I make all the time and pick up nearly word-for-word from this excellent recipe) that I put together for my aforementioned friend’s going-away-slash-birthday brunch, I also decided that this kind of bittersweet nostalgia would be served well by some bittersweet chocolate...in the form of Homemade Hostess Cupcakes.

I made these for his smallish birthday party, but even so, every single extra was polished off well before the 24-hour mark. These cakes are moist, rich but not too sweet. The filling light and creamy. And the ganache? Give me a break. Your friends will love you. (Plus, you can write their names in frosting!) 

(Speaking of, this recipe leaves quite a bit of frosting left over...

   

Good thing I left that 2-year old bottle of tonic in there for picture time...

...Making smiley faces on pancakes or dipping pretzels or spreading on apple slices are all appropriate uses for this windfall.)

 

  

Extra bowls are for chumps.

  

 You will use every bowl you own, but don't let this deter you. 

Awwwww:

Look how glossy!

Oh also, us poor kids can’t necessarily afford mixers and food processors and whatnot, and so everything you read here was done by hand, with the help of red wine. 

This post was sponsored by Rioja Vega*.
 

*It wasn't.

  








Homemade Hostess Cupcakes


Cupcakes
1 & 1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1 & 1/4 cups granulated sugar
4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Filling
2 tbs unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2-3 tbs heavy cream
1 & 1/2 cups marshmallow creme

Ganache
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tbs unsalted butter
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Icing
1 stick unsalted butter
1 & 1/2 - 2 tbs milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla


Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350. Place paper liners in muffin tin for about 20-22 cupcakes (or just do two batches if you only have a single muffin tin).

Prepare the cupcakes: Bring the sugar and 1 cup water to a boil in a saucepan, stirring until the sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Pour into a large bowl; add the chocolate and butter and let sit, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture has cooled slightly. Stir in the vanilla.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Beat the eggs into the chocolate, then mix in the dry ingredients.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans (about 1/4 cup batter per cupcake) and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. They may sink a tiny bit in the middle. It’s ok.

For the filling: Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Add the vanilla and 1 tablespoon heavy cream; beat until smooth. Beat in the remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons heavy cream in batches, alternating after each addition. Beat in the marshmallow creme; set aside or refrigerate.

For the ganache: Place the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl. Heat the cream and 1 tablespoon butter until just boiling, then pour over the chocolate; let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Add 2 teaspoons vanilla; let stand until cool but still glossy and liquid.

Spoon the filling into a pastry bag with a medium star tip. Insert the tip into the center of each cupcake top; fill until the cupcake is heavier. It's ok if some of the filling peeks out, since it will be covered by the ganache.(For those of us without fancy things: Use a ziploc bag and cut the tip off the corner. Use a butter knife to X the middles of your cooled cupcakes and just shove the baggie on in there. It works perfectly.)

Spoon a little ganache on each cupcake and lightly spread with an offset spatula or a knife. Chill for at least 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the icing: Beat the remaining 1 stick butter, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, the milk and powdered sugar until smooth, adding more milk if needed. Spoon into a pastry bag with a small tip (or use the technique described above with an even smaller tip cut off the corner of your baggie.) and pipe onto the cupcakes to decorate.

Store in the refrigerator, but allow to warm up to room temperature for a good 15 minutes before serving.