brownies for a birthday boy

This weekend, there was a brownie lover in my midst. It was my sister's boyfriend, and we were all together to celebrate my mom's birthday. But as it turns out, the brownie lover would be celebrating his birthday soon, so at the last minute I was informed that we would be celebrating two birthdays at once. With my limited financial resources, I thought it wise to stay home and make his gift than hopping in my car to go buy something (which, feeling the way I was after my 15-mile run, seemed like a bad idea for me and everyone else on the road).

Now, I know the point of this blog is to post new recipes. And if you know me at all, you'll know that I am not a stranger to homemade brownies. In fact, I spent the better part of my college years baking them for various occasions: new roomies, finals, birthdays, welcome back from your semester abroad, etc. In those days, I was uberloyal to Mollie Katzen's recipe in the original Moosewood Cookbook. But looking at it now, I'm not so in love as I once was. It seems really . . . complicated. In comparison, How to Cook Everything was still on my kitchen table, and its brownie recipe seemed ridiculously simple. Plus, I'm running low on flour, and HtCE calls for just one half cup. Bittman 1, Katzen 0.

Danny's birthday brownies
Adapted from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
Yield: MB says 1 to 2 dozen. I say, are you serious?! I came out with nine. Granted, they were big, birthday-sized brownies, but still . . . you will get 1 to 2 dozen brownies only if they are very small
Time: 40 minutes

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped*
8 Tbps. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened, plus a little for greasing the pan
1 c. sugar*
2 eggs
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. chopped toasted almonds
1/2 c. chocolate chips

*soooooo, I realized almost too late that I was using grain-sweetened chocolate chips, which are sweet but not very. I knew I'd probably want to add sugar, but I wasn't sure how much, so I nervously added some little by little, tasting the mixture a few times and worrying that the end result would either be shockingly sweet or taste like chocolate-laced cardboard. I guess I ended up adding 1/4 to 1/3 cup, but I don't know for sure!

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, and butter the foil.

2. Combine chocolate and butter in small saucepan over very low heat, stirring occasionally. When chocolate is just about melted, remove from heat and continue stirring until mixture is smooth.

3. Transfer chocolate mixture to a medium bowl and stir in sugar. Then beat in eggs, one at a time. Gently stir in flour, salt and vanilla. Then stir in almonds and chocolate chips.

4. Pour and scrape into prepared pan, and bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until just set in the middle. It's better to underbake than to overbake them. Cool on a rack before cutting. Store, covered and at room temperature, for no more than a day.

cold peanut noodles

Friday is an interesting day for me, foodwise, because it is the day when I do not exercise and, therefore, have more time on my hands. It is also typically the day before my longest run of the week, which means that it's an important day to eat well so I can power through my Saturday morning miles. While contemplating the scheduled 15-mile training run I had on tap for the next morning, I knew for sure that pasta would be the main event. I didn't have any meat, tofu or fish in the house (other than canned tuna, which was decidedly not singing to me), but I wanted a good source of protein in my meal. And that's when it hit me: cold peanut noodles! Using a healthy dose of peanut butter in the sauce, I'd get my protein and a nice hit of fat, too. I grabbed my Bittman cooking bible, which was still out on the counter after another cooking adventure earlier in the week, and excitedly flipped through to the pasta section. Not only was it ridiculously easy to pull together, I also didn't have to leave the house to buy a single ingredient.

That is, I made the recipe work using the slightly-different-than-called-for ingredients that I already had. Namely, dried thin whole-wheat spaghetti for the noodles, regular sesame oil rather than dark, sriracha as my hot sauce, and an unmeasured amount of scallions equal to the only good parts remaining from a bunch that had seen better days. I added frozen edamame to the mix and steamed a mix of bok choy and spinach to make it a meal.

One note about the hot sauce: I added it bit by bit as the noodles were cooking, then left the sauce to hang out while the noodles chilled. When I returned to the sauce, it was much spicier than I remembered it--probably to be expected, since all the different parts had had time to get to know each other better--which for me was a good thing, because I like spicy food. If you do not, consider seasoning with caution.

Cold noodles with peanut sauce
Adapted from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
Time: About 40 minutes

12 oz. fresh egg noodles or any dried noodles, such as spaghetti
1/2 to 1 cup frozen shelled soybeans
2 Tbsp. dark sesame oil, divided
1/2 c. natural peanut butter
1 Tbsp. honey
1/4 c. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
Hot sesame oil, chili-garlic sauce, Tabasco or other hot sauce to taste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
At last 1/2 c. minced scallions for garnish

1. Cook noodles in boiling salted water according to package instructions until tender but not mushy. A minute or two before they're done, add soybeans to the pot. Drain, then rinse in cold water for a minute or two. Toss with half the sesame oil and refrigerate up to two hours, or proceed with recipe.

2. While pasta cooks, make the sauce: Beat together peanut butter, honey, soy sauce and vinegar. Add a little hot sauce and salt and pepper; taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. Thin sauce with hot water (I took it straight from the pasta pot), so that it is about the consistency of heavy cream.

3. Toss together noodles and sauce, and add more of any seasoning if necessary. Drizzle with remaining sesame oil, garnish and serve.

beets in butter

A recent outing in search of a part-time job led me to Whole Foods, where I discovered that they sell beets individually, rather than in bunches. Perfect! I thought, since I usually cook just for myself and sometimes struggle to use a whole bunch of beets before either A) they go bad or B) I've had my fill and can't stand the sight of them. Solution found!

To use them, I settled on a preparation in How to Cook Everything wherein you bake the beets, then saute them in butter. It is very rare that I cook with butter, so it's almost an unfamiliar taste to me, but lately I've found that it makes a big difference in flavor (and that it tastes really good). And, anyway, I wanted to try doing something new with beets, other than baking them and eating them sliced or chopped up in a salad.

As the beets sauteed, I cooked some store-bought whole wheat gnocchi that I've wanted to try for a while, but haven't known exactly how to use. (I have a sort of mental block with topping whole-wheat pasta with tomato sauce, or even something like pesto; it just doesn't make sense to me.) After they cooked, I tossed them briefly in the pan with the beets to pick up the flavors from the pan, then topped everything with a little shredded pecorino romano.

Sadly, I wasn't as wowed by the butter as I had expected and hoped to be. I hate to say it, but I could have used olive oil and enjoyed it just as much. But you butter lovers out there shouldn't be swayed by this disclaimer--embrace the recipe in its original glory!

Beets in butter
from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
Time: 1 hour inactive baking, plus 15 minutes for everything else

4 large or 8 medium beets, about 1 1/2 to 2 lbs., with about 1 inch of their tops still on
2 Tbsp. butter (or oil)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Fresh chives or parsley leaves for garnish

1. To bake beets: preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Wash beets well. Wrap them individually in foil and place on baking sheet or roasting pan. Cook, undisturbed, for 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours, until a thin-bladed knife pierces one with little resistance (they may cook at different rates; remove each one when it is done). While the beets are cooking, you can mince the herbs, do a load of laundry, watch some Law & Order, call your great-aunt Mildred, and so on.

2. When they are cool enough to handle, peel the baked beets and slice or cut into chunks. If, like me, you're going to combine the finished beets with other things, you may consider cutting them into similiarly sized pieces (as I did, or tried to do, with the gnocchi).

3. To a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat, add butter. When butter foam subsides, add beets. Cook, stirring, until hot, about 5 minutes (or less, if you didn't let the beets cool very long after baking). Season with salt and pepper, garnish and serve.

greek salad

I am obsessed with Greek salad. This summer, I spent several weekends at a friend's parents' house in Long Branch, and their extraordinarily well stocked refrigerator nearly always had some of the stuff from the local outpost of this joint. The salad itself is wonderful, but my newfound love for it I suspect has just as much to do with the food as with the positive associations linked to it: relaxation, great company, fantastic weather.

When a food or dish is on my mind as much as this has been, it only makes sense for me to make it at home. And though I hardly followed a recipe to make it--rather, I referred to a couple selections in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything and then promptly ignored most of both recipes--it was a new culinary foray for me and, therefore, deserving of a blog post. It was really, really satisfying and really, really easy. (I say that about everything I post here, don't I?) The measurements below are guesses of what I used, because I am a half-assed recipe writer and didn't measure most things. I used English cucumber and two gorgeous heirloom tomatoes I found at the grocery store, but you could use bell pepper, cherry or grape tomatoes, regular cucumber, radishes, anything else you wanted. Although any Greek salad I've ever eaten had onions in it, I have recently discovered--to my very great dismay--that they give me heartburn, so I omitted them.

One handy note: The dressing should sit for a bit, so the flavors can develop. Therefore, it's a good idea to make the dressing completely and set aside before prepping the salad ingredients. The time it takes you to wash, mince, chop and toss things is enough for the dressing to hang out and do its thing.

Greek salad with lemon vinaigrette
Adapted from Mark Bittman
Serves 5

Ingredients
{dressing}
1 tsp. minced or grated lemon zest
1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste (I halved this, since the salad would be salty from the feta and olives)
1/4 c. fresh squeezed lemon juice
Ground black pepper, to taste or none at all, if you prefer
1/2 c. extra-virgin olive oil, plus a little more if needed


{salad}
4-6 c. mixed greens, such as romaine lettuce, spinach, arugula and/or whatever else you have/like, washed and chopped or torn into bite-size pieces
1/4 c. minced fresh mint, or a mix of mint and parsley
1 c. cucumber, sliced and then halved to make half-moon shapes
2 medium tomatoes, cored and cut into large chunks, or 1-2 c. grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 c. pitted whole kalamata olives
1/4-1/2 c. feta, chopped or crumbled

1. In a small bowl, mix zest, salt and juice briefly with an immersion blender, wire whisk or fork. (You could also do this in a food processor or blender.) Slowly add oil in a stream, or drop by drop if whisking, until an emulsion forms or your arm starts to get tired. For me, they take the same amount of time.

2. Add remaining oil faster, but still somewhat slowly and steadily. Taste to adjust salt, and if too lemony, add a bit more oil. Set aside while you prepare the rest of the salad, to allow the flavors to develop.

3. In a large serving bowl (a large soup pot also works if, like me, you recently broke your only very large serving bowl), combine greens, herbs and about 1/4 c. of dressing; toss, and if you think it needs more dressing, go ahead and add more.

4. Add cucumber, tomatoes, olives and feta. Gently toss again, and serve.



I topped the salad with grilled chicken that had marinated for an hour in this bottled salad dressing, and to round things out, I served everything with store-bought pita, hummus and stuffed grape leaves.

Miraculously, there are leftovers. Thankfully, I don't have to think too hard about what to eat for dinner tonight.