Kitchen Adventures 4.4

On most days, my time in the kitchen is fairly rewarding. I mix my ingredients, bake my goods, and turn out a pretty decent product. This recent baking event was quite literally an adventure, though.

Like every month, we have a birthday party at work. I asked the birthday girls what they wanted and they said chocolate (good girls!). I looked through mixingbowl.com to see if I could find a double chocolate something or other recipe. In the process, I came across a chocolate chip cookie cake recipe with M&M's on top. Sounds delicious, right? So I decided to give it a whirl.

After mixing up the dough and preparing the pan, I started to smoosh the dough into the pan. As I did this, I thought to myself, "Hmmm, this is a lot of dough for this pan. Maybe I should leave some out." But did I do that? No, of course not. I got it all in and popped it in the oven, ready for cookie bliss 14 minutes later.

About 6 minutes in, I begin to hear sizzling. I turn and look, and see a small flame in the bottom of the oven. I'm not a big fan of fire in any situation outside of a fireplace or roasting marshmallows, so this freaked me out. I shut the oven off and called home, only to receive no answer. I pulled the cookie out of the oven and blew on the flame, hoping to put it out. It died a little, so after waiting a minute I threw some water on it and out it went.

With that crisis averted, I turned to my half-baked cookie. I scraped off what was overflowing and thought, "Well what do I do now? The party is tomorrow and I'm gone all evening and I have no more chocolate chips." So, I stuck it back in the oven and turned it on again. It went another 5 minutes or so, then started overflowing again. Luckily, this time nothing caught fire. I pulled it out again, scraped again, and stuck it back in again a little later, turning on the oven one last time. Smoke started billowing with a minute left, so I decided that was the end of it. Fortunately, the cookie was done. I must say, if you're going to spill something cookie dough is a good one, it cleans up pretty easily.

With that ordeal done, I wondered how it would taste. I've never had a thrice-baked cookie, so I was unsure how the girls would take to it. Look at the picture below to see what they thought about it.

Here's the recipe. Now maybe this person used a deep-dish pizza pan or something, but for future reference, cookie dough grows so don't stick it all in one flat round baking pan.

Confetti Topped Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 "heaping" cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
Regular or "mini-sized" multi-colored M & M's

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a large, round pizza pan OR a large cookie sheet with sides (mine measures 17.5 x 12 inches) with cooking spray; set aside.
2. Cream together the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar (I used my stand mixer, but you can use a hand-held one). Add the eggs, one at a time and beat well after each addition.
3. In a separate bowl, put the flour, baking soda and salt and mix together thoroughly.
4. Add the flour to the creamed mixture, mixing thoroughly to incorporate. Add the vanilla extract and mix thoroughly.
5. Fold in the chocolate chips and the chopped nuts, stirring to combine.
6. Put the cookie dough on the prepared pizza pan or cookie sheet; using the back of a large spoon, spread the dough evenly on the pan. Sprinkle top of dough with M & M's...more or less to your own liking!
7. Bake in the center of the oven until edges are browned; the center wll still look UNCOOKED but take it out anyway. The pizza size should take about 20 minutes (a little thicker than cookie sheet) and my large cookie sheet took only about 12 minutes.
KEEP AN EYE ON IT SO YOU DON'T OVERCOOK IT... YOU WANT THIS NICE AND SOFT AND OOEY, GOOEY!!!
8. Set on cooling rack until almost completed cooled; cut pizza pan in wedges or cookie sheet into squares of size desired.

Kitchen Adventures 4.3

Normally, I am not one to experiment with recipes. As many people can attest, I rarely deviate from a recipe and it's specific directions unless I really don't like an ingredient. However, while walking home from work Wednesday and thinking about what to make for small group snack, I suddenly felt the urge to experiment. I wanted to make chocolate peanut butter brownies--I felt regular brownies were just not quite the order for the evening. I looked for several different recipes online before finally deciding to just make my own and see what happened. Fortunately, this experiment turned out well. I simply added some melted peanut butter to my brownie mixture and called it good, and it was a huge hit. Yay for experiments that turn out well!
The original brownie recipe is from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook

Cake Brownies (with peanut butter addition)

Ingredients:
3/4 c. butter
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 c. milk, plus additional for peanut butter mixture
1 c. chopped nuts (optional)
1/2 c. peanut butter

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan (or a 15x10x1 pan) and set aside. In a large microwaveable bowl, microwave butter on high for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes or until melted. Stir in sugar and cocoa powder until combined. Add eggs and vanilla. Using a wooden spoon, beat mixture lightly just until combined.
2. In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Alternately add flour mixture and 1 c. milk to chocolate mixture, beating after each addition. Stir in nuts if desired.
3. Pour batter into prepared baking pan. *Addition: melt peanut butter with several T. of milk in small pan over medium-low heat just until creamy. Pour over brownie batter in pan and swirl with spoon.
4. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack 2 hours. Cut into bars.

Apologies for the dark picture, it's all I have.

Kitchen Adventures 4.2

Every now and then I expand my horizons and try a new recipe that includes ingredients I would not normally use. I tried that this week, and the results were not too bad.
I never thought I liked spinach until I tried a salad of baby spinach leaves and discovered just how delicious it can be. However, cooked spinach is a different story. I think spinach is going to be like carrots for me; I much prefer them raw rather than cooked. But, I am glad I tried something new, and if nothing else maybe someone else will see the recipe and give it a try.
As a note, I modified the recipe a bit. Rather than using small shells I used jumbo ones because that is what I had. Also, I omitted the onion because the last time I used onion it was way too overpowering. I'll include them in the recipe, though. I also only used 3/4 lb. of spinach rather than an entire pound.
This recipe came from one of my Rachael Ray magazines.

Spinach and Ricotta with Shells

Ingredients:
1 pound small pasta shells
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 pound baby spinach
1 pound ricotta cheese
3/4 c. grated parmesan cheese, plus more for topping

Directions:
1. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the pasta until al dente; drain and return to the pot.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium head; add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Add the spinach by the handful and cook, stirring, until wilted, about 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Add the spinach mixture, ricotta and 1/4 c. parmesan cheese to the pasta and toss. Serve immediately with more paremesan cheese.

Kitchen Adventures 4.1

We all have those delicious standby recipes that we can go to in a pinch for something bound to be a crowd-pleaser. One of my favorite recipes is something I first tried three years ago after a friend made it for dinner. It has also made me look at almost every recipe on food packaging, because sometimes those are some of the best ones.
I knew with my roommate from my first two years at Pitt coming to visit I would need something that would feed more than me but would not take very long to make. I turned to this enchilada recipe for something fairly quick, very easy, and absolutely delicious. We mixed things up a little bit by using whole wheat tortillas rather than regular flour tortillas, and surprisingly they were very good! The whole wheat gave them a little sweeter taste, which you don't normally expect with enchiladas, but I'd make them that way again in a heartbeat. As a caveat, I never remember the recipe, I always just look at the enchilada sauce can, so this is going off my memory. :)

Beef Enchiladas

Ingredients:
1 lbs. ground beef
1 can red enchilada sauce
1 bag shredded cheese
1-2 packages 8" tortillas

Directions:
Brown the ground beef and drain. Add 1/2 c. of enchilada sauce to the beef in the skillet along with 1/4 c. of cheese. Stir to combine. Grease 9x13 pan and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill tortillas with enchilada mix. Place rolled tortillas in casserole dish, then pour remaining sauce over enchiladas and finish by sprinkling rest of cheese over enchiladas. Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Here is a picture of the final product.



As a bonus, here are some pics from Steph's visit.

Zoo adventures, including being on lockdown while zookeepers try to find an escaped chimp











OKC Bombing Memorial









And of course a couple baseball games at the Bricktown ballpark.

Circle of Life

Sometimes life throws unexpected events your way. Other times you see the inevitable coming and just wait tensely until it gets here. Death is one of those things that is expected eventually, but the timing is sometimes what throws people. Over the past week, I've seen it both ways, and no matter how it comes or approaches, it still hurts when it arrives.
After five years of declining health and being confined to a bed for the past two years, Grandpa went home to heaven Friday morning. We all knew it was coming, and this was not the first time we prepared for the end, but even though I knew it would be soon, I still had to cry when it happened. However, the tears are not for Grandpa. Why would you cry for someone who is out of their pain and living with Jesus? Instead, we cry for those left behind that experience the hole in their life that the one who has left us used to fill. Grandma and Grandpa had been married 72 years. I cannot fathom being with someone for that long, probably because I am not married and have no prospects of it in the near future. But for Grandma, Grandpa has been her constant companion for most of her life. And for the past five years, he has been what keeps her going. All her decisions revolved around taking care of Grandpa. Without that in her life now, I am unsure if she will either embrace the new freedom she has, or fall to pieces. She's a strong woman, though, so though the time will be tough, I think she will be able to persevere.
That was an expected death. Sometimes, though, death sneaks up on us and waits off to the side, lurking to step in and take someone without notice. Last week I received news that a former member of our small group, Chris Murphy, was in very serious condition at a local hospital. He had been found unresponsive and with a 107 degree fever. When he got to the hospital, he experienced massive kidney failure and cardiac arrest. He is currently on life support and his parents have flown in from out of state and out of country in order to decide what to do. As of the last update I had, his condition was unchanged and they were meeting to decide if keeping him on life support would be the right decision. In this situation, death has not occurred, but it seems to be lurking just off stage. However, we know that with God all things are possible. If it is His will, Chris will be able to recover and continue his work here on earth by sharing God's love with everyone he meets. And if it's His will to bring him home, then we know that Chris will be praising Jesus up in heaven.
Those two situations contrast with each other. One, an old man who lived a long and full life; the other, a young man who just appeared to be starting his life. The common strand that binds them, though, is the love of Jesus. Both these men loved the Lord, and I know that no matter what happens, I'll see them both in heaven someday.
Amidst those situations relating to the end of life and fighting to live, there is also new life coming into this world. Within the past five days, three couples have announced that they are expecting their first child, all to be born in March or April. To me, this has been the ironic reminder that as one life ends, another begins. All the couples are very excited about the new life that will be joining their family, and I am excited for them! Apparently the old saying is reversed in this situation. I've heard it said that deaths come in threes, but it appears that instead births will be coming in threes!
Life is indeed a circle. We live, we die, and we receive new life with Jesus if we believe in Him. I pray for those that are experiencing loss, that they will find comfort in their time of need. And, I pray for those getting ready for new life, that they will find the strength and courage to lead the new little person joining their family through the journey we call life.