Black Bean Brownies

These days, I catch about 10 minutes of t.v. as I drift off to sleep at night.  I saw this recipe on the Food Network the other night and kept myself awake long enough to make a mental note of the ingredients.  Impressed that I could still remember them four days later, I decided to give it a shot.  They were great!  A little bit cakey but also very rich and chocolaty, and super moist without being greasy.  They also had a really smooth texture to them which we all loved.  And, seeing as they are, shall we say, full of beans, we just called them "healthy" too...


 Recipe from Melissa d'Arabian, as seen on The Food Network:

1 Cup canned black beans, drained
1/2 Cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2/3 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon instant coffee or espresso
1/2 Cup melted chocolate (can use melted chocolate chips)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 Cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 Cup mini chocolate chips

Blend beans and oil in a blender or food processor until smooth.  Add eggs, sugar, cocoa powder, instant coffee, melted chocolate, and vanilla and blend for another minute or so until well mixed.  In a separate bowl, combine baking powder, flour, and salt.  Pulse in flour mixture just until blended.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Pour into lightly greased 9x9 glass baking dish.  Bake for 23-27 minutes at 350 degrees.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

I promise, yours will be gone this fast too!  It's a little piece of heaven this pudding.  Just please, please don't do what I did.  I swear you'll regret it, and you'll be mad that I didn't warn you.  I mean, you may not even be considering it, but if you are, then I must try and stop you, because, well, it would be such a shame, and I'd feel so bad, and, I'm just not good with that kind of guilt.  Plus, not warning you about the biggest mistake you can make with this recipe would be just plain mean, and I'm not a mean person.  But, even if I was, I'd never be that mean.  Because that would be really mean.  We're talking really really mean.  Sorry, am I getting off track here?  There I go, already apologizing.  I should just get on with it, you know, so I don't have to apologize.  But truth be told, I bet you'd never dream of making this mistake anyway.  So why am I worrying about it?  Now I'm worrying about worrying!  Things are really getting out of hand here.  Just don't do it, okay?  Promise?  Pinkie swear?  Good, thanks.  Oh yeah, I haven't even told you yet.  You ready?  Fine, I'll just say it.  Here goes.  On the count of three.  Did I mention that you really really shouldn't do this?  Good, because I want to make sure you know that.  Right, okay, so, here it is, big mistake:  I only made half a recipe.    

From Gourmet, October 2007
Serves 6

Notes: I made a number of substitutions to this recipe with great success.  I didn't have cream so I used 2% milk.  I didn't miss the extra fat.  I was also all out of ground cinnamon, cloves, and allspice, so I used a good amount of pumpkin pie spice.  This didn't appear to make any difference.  I also sprinkled some on top after it was done, which added a little extra yummyness!  Finally, I used salted butter but left out the added salt.  This worked just fine.  And, as I found out from reading the comments about this recipe, lots of people add chocolate chips and/or raisins.  That didn't appeal to me, but then other people add bourbon, which I definitely would have added if I would have had it! 

1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs plus 1 yolk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch of ground cloves
5 cups cubed (1-inch) day-old baguette or crusty bread
3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Whisk together cream, pumpkin, milk, sugar, eggs, yolk, salt, and spices in a bowl.

Toss bread cubes with butter in another bowl, then add pumpkin mixture and toss to coat. Transfer to an ungreased 8-inch square baking dish and bake until custard is set, 25 to 30 minutes.

  

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

Want to know how to speed up your life?  Have a child.  It's like putting life into fast forward.  Want to know how to make it go even faster?  Have a second one.  Right now life is moving so fast I can barely keep up.  It feels like just last week that I was bringing home our new baby daughter .  But it has been almost four months.  Maternity leave ended this week, and I headed in to work fairly convinced that they would send me home, chuckling that I had gotten the date wrong.  It can't possible be October.  I'm still hangin' out in August!  

I decided I needed to cook something to get me in the fall spirit.  Nothing says October like pumpkin.  And anything with Nutella in it just has to be good.  It was a yummy combo, and definitely helped me catch up to the current season!    

    

Cupcake batter:

2 1/2 Cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/3 teaspoon salt

1 14.5 oz can of plain pumpkin
3/4 Cup vegetable oil
3/4 Cup sugar
3/4 Cup brown sugar loosely packed
3 Tablespoons milk
2 eggs


Frosting:
6 oz. cream cheese
1/2 Cup Nutella
1/4-1/2 Cup powdered sugar

For the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease muffin tins or line with paper baking cups.  In a medium bowl, mix pumpkin, oil, sugar, eggs and milk.  In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt.  Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients until mixed.  Spoon batter into cupcake pan.  For a special treat you can add a teaspoon of Nutella to the center of each cupcake and cover with a little more batter.  Place in the oven and bake for 22-24 minutes.  Yields 18-24 cupcakes.   

For the frosting:
Mix together cream cheese and Nutella with an electric mixer.  Slowly add powdered sugar until frosting reaches your desired consistency.  Wait for cupcakes to completely cool before frosting. 

Lemon Chiffon Pie

This is my great Aunt Frances' recipe.  My Dad's family was full of great cooks and he was smart enough to gather these family recipes before it was too late. I love making stuff like this because you don't see these recipes very often as they are much more traditional than your trendy coconut milk lavender creme brule type desserts that are all the rage these days.  Plus, it feels like a great way to honor the memory of these wonderful ladies in my family, most of whom passed away while I was still a child.

This pie is light and perfect for summer.  And, if you have a prolific lemon tree in your backyard, like we do, it is a great way to use up some lemons!  Enjoy!

(By the way, still pregnant, due on Friday, and beginning to think this may drag on for awhile...ugh!)

1 envelope Knox Gelatin
¼ cup cold water
4 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar (divided)
½ cup lemon juice
½ teaspoon salt
1-2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
1 cup fresh whipped cream

Bake pie crust according to package directions, if you choose a frozen one, or according to directions if you make your own, and let cool. (I regret being lazy and not making my own.  The frozen one I bought sunk a little so we ended up with a rather thick bottom crust and not much on the sides.) 
 
Add ½ cup sugar, lemon juice and salt to beaten egg yolks. Cook over boiling water until it is custard consistency, (coats a spoon). Sprinkle gelatin on top of cold water (at the last minute), then add to hot custard and stir until dissolved. Add grated lemon rind. Cool.

When it begins to thicken, fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. To the egg whites you have added remaining ½ cup sugar.

Fill baked pie shell and leave to set in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Spread thin layer of fresh whipped cream on top.  I garnished with some fresh blackberries and lemon rind. 

      

Lemon Lime Pudding Cake Cups

Who knew planting trees could be so controversial?  The people of my neighborhood are, well, interesting some times.  A local high school decided to make a service project out of planting trees along our street.  How wonderful!  Or, at least one would think.  My two next door neighbors are adamantly opposed to this kind gesture, and I had the unfortunate luck of being home and outside today when they decided it was time to recruit me to their anti-tree party.  These neighbors are generally nice people, a little on the crabby side, but we do cut them some slack for being of a few generations before us.  I might be a bit crabby too after 50 years of listening to the teenagers skateboarding down the street.  But, planting trees?!  Can't we all agree that this is going to add value to the neighborhood?  Won't shaded sidewalks be nice to walk down in the heat of the summer?  Haven't studies shown that tree-lined streets have less crime?  Isn't it just plain nice to look out your window and see a tree rather than just cars and cement? Apparently, not everyone agrees.  I witnessed our mother-earth loving neighbor across the street interacting with my two crabby side neighbors, and let me tell you, it was a sight to see. The conversation went something like this, "Aren't we lucky to have people giving us a beautiful piece of nature?"  "Lucky?  You call having to sweep more leaves, lucky?  Let me see how lucky you feel when the roots are lifting up the sidewalk, and the sap is dripping onto your shiny new car.  We'd be lucky if these people would leave us alone."   "Oh no, no, we can now have leaves putting nitrogen back into the soil, and shade for our yards and houses.  It's going to be so beautiful."  This was about the time I decided to excuse myself and go in to make my lemon lime pudding cakes.  I could observe the rest of the scene play out from my kitchen window.  What was the result?  A tree in front of my house, the house across the street, but not either house next door.  Oh well, there will be some shade and beauty, and, as consolation for me, the lemon lime pudding cakes were divine!  But, I'm only sharing them with my across the street neighbor...

Recipe from www.bbcgoodfood.com, simply called Lemon Lime Puds
Serves 4         
NOTE: This recipe is in weights rather than measures.  You will need a scale!

50g butter
200g golden caster sugar
1 lemon , zested
1 lime , zested
50ml lemon juice
50ml lime juice
3 eggs , separated
50g all purpose flour
250ml milk

Ready in 45 minutes


1.Heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter, sugar and lemon and lime zest together in a mixer. Add juices, egg yolks, flour and milk one by one to make a smooth batter. Pour into a large bowl.


2.Whisk egg whites until firm - fold into the batter. Pour into 4 buttered ovenproof dishes and put in a baking tray half filled with hot water. Bake for 25-30 minutes until lightly browned and set.

Chocolate Chocolate Bundt Cake

I’ve been having discussions recently about what the definition of “homemade” really is. If you make something from a mix, is it homemade? You did have to add ingredients, (even if it was just water), stir it, pour it in a pan, and put it in the oven for a specified length of time. There is some art to not over baking your brownies or burning the bottoms of your cookies, isn’t there? I took this cake to my monthly book club meeting the other night and got rave reviews from everyone there. A friend asked if I made it. I thought for a minute, a little puzzled as to what my response should be. There was a box of cake mix and a box of instant pudding involved after all. But, I didn’t follow the directions on either box. And, I added unlisted ingredients too. Does this mean I made it? Is it cheating to say I did? I guess you can decide. Regardless of the answer, I think you will find this cake too delicious to pass up, even if you are the “all from scratch” type of cook. I’ve made enough cakes in my life to know that if something is this easy, and this good, you can’t mess with it and try to make it any other way. This is my Mom’s recipe, although I’m sure she got it from somewhere, as she isn’t the type to make things up. I hope you enjoy it, and if anyone asks, you can tell them YES, you made it!


1 box devil's food cake mix
1 4.5 oz. box instant chocolate pudding
2 eggs
1 3/4 Cup milk
1 12 oz. bag of semi sweet chocolate chips
 
Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour bundt pan.  Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes.  Pour batter into greased and floured pan.  Bake for 50-55 minutes.  Cool 15 minutes in the pan, then turn over onto a cooling rack.  When completely cool, dust with powdered sugar. 

Zucchini Snack Cake

We were gone for a week and came back to two 2-foot long zucchinis!  It's a good thing our two-year-old doesn't grow that fast.  We'd need a much bigger house.  It has been tough to figure out what to do with these beasts.  We could keep them next to our bed in case of intruders.  We could organize a neighborhood softball game.  Or, we could start cooking!  Let's start with dessert (and call it a snack).  

I saw this recipe around the time we were first planting our zucchini plants.  I tucked it away, sure that I'd have some home grown zucchini soon.  The cake comes out super moist and not too sweet.  I might add walnuts next time just to give it one more dimension, but it was great as is.  Also, the recipe said to bake it for 20-25 minutes, but my cake took about 35-40 minutes to get done.  

From Edible Santa Barbara, Fall 2009
Makes 9 servings

1 1/2 Cups baking mix (I used Bisquick)

1 1/2 Cups instant oats

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/3 Cup brown sugar

1/3 Cup maple syrup, agave nectar or honey

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 Cup grape seed, olive or walnut oil

2 medium zucchini, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat an 8-inch baking dish with olive oil spray.  In a bowl, combine baking mix, instant oats and cinnamon.  In a separate bowl mix together brown sugar, maple syrup, egg, oil, vanilla, and shredded zucchini.  Stir wet ingredients into dry and spread evenly into prepared baking dish.  Bake for 20-25 minutes (or longer if needed, mine took 35-40 minutes), or until center is firm and top is golden brown.  

**Shredded carrot or apple could be substituted for the zucchini.          

Brown Rice Pudding

This is my grandmother's recipe.  I never got to meet her, but I've been eating her food all my life.  Apparently, she was an excellent cook, and the few recipes we still have around are testament to that.  So good, in fact, that my Dad and my Uncle have had my Mom and my Aunt in the kitchen perfecting these recipes for years.  Grandma wasn't the type to stick to the instructions.  She'd have a basic framework and just add and add until she thought it was right.  My parents spent years figuring out her rice dressing recipe.  And only after showing the basic ingredients to another relative did they learn of all the additional ingredients she used to add.  And, despite my Dad and Uncle conceding that it was finally right, there are still annual Thanksgiving arguments about how much nutmeg or if we got the salt right. 

Making this dessert tonight got me thinking about all of my grandparents.  I was only lucky enough to meet two of them, and one of those, I only got to know for a short time as a young child.  My daughter, on the other hand, has all four of her grandparents.  I get teary sometimes when all four of them are together with her.  It is such a special thing to know all of your grandparents and to get to have them all involved in your life.    

I hope you enjoy this pudding as much as we do.  Like any good Grandma Ruth recipe, we all disagree about how much rice and how many raisins should be put in.  If you like the custard part better than the rice part, add less rice, or vice versa.  Not a huge fan of raisins?  Add fewer, skip 'em, or add some chopped nuts instead.  I used brown rice this time, but usually I would use white rice.  Which is better?  You decide.  I wrote the recipe as I have it listed, but feel free to use your own judgment.  After all, that's how we do it in our family!

Serves 4

2 Cups milk

1 Cup cooked rice, cold

1 Tablespoon butter

1/3 Cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 Cup raisins
2 eggs, beaten
Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Heat milk, add rice and butter.  In a separate bowl, add sugar, salt, and raisins to beaten eggs, then slowly stir them into the hot milk mixture.  Pour into a greased baking dish and set in a pan of hot water.  Shake a little cinnamon on the top.  Put the whole thing in the oven (pan of hot water with baking dish of pudding in it), and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until set.  Serve warm or cold.