Cafe Mocha Brownies Recipe

Z and I went to a housewarming party last night, and I adapted a recipe for brownies and made chocolate coffee-flavored brownies. Here's the recipe, originally from Betty Crocker's Cookbook: Bridal Edition.

Cafe Mocha Brownies

Prep: 25 minutes Bake: 45 minutes Cool: 2 hrs Makes: 16 brownies

2/3 cup butter or stick margarine (I always use butter)

15 Tablespoons cocoa powder and 5 Tablespoons oil (or 5 ounces baking chocolate, cut into pieces)

1 3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

3 large eggs

1 cup flour (NOT self-rising)

5 packets instant espresso powder *only use the quick-dissolve kind that makes one cup of coffee when dissolved into hot water

1. Heat oven to 350. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit into an 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish, so that two ends come up higher than the sides of the pan. You are making a "sling" so the brownies can be lifted out of the pan immediately after baking. Lightly spray the bottom of the baking dish with pan spray, and press the parchment into the pan.

2. Melt butter and chocolate in 1-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly (if using solid squares), then cool 5 minutes. OR Melt butter and add cocoa powder and oil, mixing well.

3. Beat sugar, vanilla, eggs and espresso powder in medium bowl with electric mixer on high speed 5 minutes. Beat in chocolate mixture on low speed, scraping bowl occasionally.

4. Beat in flour just until blended, scraping sides of bowl well. Spread into pan.

5. Bake 40-45 minutes or just until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Carefully lift brownies out of pan with parchment "sling" and cut into squares with a sharp knife. Let cool on wire rack, about 2 hours.

Enjoy!

Exciting news! And a rant...

I found out last week that I was accepted into the PhD program at Ohio State University!! My program is called Rethinking Early Childhood and Elementary Education (RECEE), and I am focusing on Science Education. I'm especially interested in integrating food and cooking skills into the curriculum to increase student interest and help children learn how to feed themselves healthfully and (hopefully) decrease the prevalence of obesity and other health problems.

I was able to meet my advisor, who is fantastic, and she is already introducing me to people and wants to get started writing a paper for publication! Very exciting that she is so knowledgeable and supportive!

Somewhat related to my exciting news, I unpacked my lunch today at work and one of the Research Assistants (undergraduate or newly graduated students who work on our project) commented that my lunch looked delicious. I thought that was funny, as I had been thinking that I put it together in a rush this morning and it wasn't as good as usual. I started talking to two of our RA's, and they mentioned that they didn't know how to grocery shop and plan meals and/or cook for the week on a tight budget. Well, since I practically have a PhD in that subject, I offered to give them some tips.

This got me thinking about the need for a real-life budgeting, grocery shopping, meal planning, cooking class for college students. I'm talking about hands-on skills where we plan what we want to eat and can afford, go to the store, then cook. How can we expect them to figure out how to do all of these "grown up" things if we don't teach them how to do it? I have 12 years of cooking classes through 4-H, a bachelor of science degree in agriculture, and decades of interest in cooking (and eating good food) to help me navigate this tricky subject. Yet we don't teach our young people cooking or homemaking skills any more (not academic enough-and who has the funding for that!) and then wonder why they eat at Taco Bell every night? Gee, I don't know why everyone in America is overweight, has diabetes and/or high blood pressure!

So, my plan is to talk to the RA's tomorrow and offer to teach them how to grocery shop and cook on a budget. Something informal, like once a month at my house. I'm also talking to my advisor about the possibility of putting together a General Studies class for college credit, and maybe conducting some research with college students. We have a Human Nutrition program through our Extension Education Office-maybe they have some extra money?

Last Wednesday's skillet veggies and meatloaf

I made mini meatloaves using my muffin tin and the following recipe (from Betty Crocker Cookbook and some modifications by me):

Mini Meatloaf
1. Heat oven to 350. Spray muffin tins with cooking spray.
2. Mix in large bowl (or Kitchenaid mixer) 1 1/2 pounds ground meat, 1 cup milk, 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp mustard, 1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper, 1 clove garlic, finely chopped, 1 large egg, 3 slices bread, torn into pieces (or 1/2 cup bread crumbs or 3/4 cup quick cooking oats), 1 small or 1/2 large chopped onion, 1/2 tsp Frank's Red Hot. *note: I don't measure the spices, I just estimate and throw them in, measurements are approximate.
3. Scoop meat mixture into muffin tins and bake for 30 minutes (may want to put a cookie sheet under the muffin tin to catch any spillage), or until loaves are no longer pink in center and thermometer reads 160 degrees when inserted in center of loaves in middle of muffin pan.

While the meatloaves were baking, I made skillet potatoes (mostly because I didn't feel like making mashed potatoes).

In my 12" cast iron skillet, I put 1-2 Tbsp olive oil and sauteed the other half of the chopped onion from the meatloaf recipe and 1 clove of minced garlic over medium low heat. I sliced three scrubbed but unpeeled Idaho potatoes and then quartered them and added them to the onions and garlic. I turned the heat up to medium and cooked for about 5 minutes. I also had some fresh spinach and red peppers in the fridge and I chopped the pepper while the potatoes cooked.
The potato/onion mixture was sticking to the bottom of the pan, so I added a splash of soy sauce and some beer (maybe 1/3 of a cup), figuring that it would be more flavorful than water. Then I added the red peppers and the spinach, stirring well and putting the lid on the skillet. I stirred every 3-5 minutes, to make sure all of the spinach wilted and everything was cooked through.

You could add any veggies you have left over to this mixture, just remember that the potatoes will take the longest to cook through.

Saturday Cooking Bonanza

I spent most of the day in the kitchen, but got a lot made for the rest of the week and some things for the freezer!

I started out making Homemade Chicken Broth/Stock using Alice Waters' "The Art of Simple Food" recipe, but modifying as to what I had in the pantry/fridge:
1 whole chicken (mine was about 5 lbs)
Put into a large stock pot with 1 1/2 gallons of cold, filtered water and bring to a boil.
Add 1 stalk of celery (I washed it and broke it into 3 large pieces), 3 cloves of garlic (peeled off the paper but left them whole), a few sprigs of oregano, 1 Tbsp salt-free seasoning, about 1/2-1 tsp fresh ground pepper.
Skim the foam off the top and discard.
Lower heat to a simmer, and simmer for about 4 hours (until the chicken falls apart).
Let cool, remove chicken and veggies.

I threw away the chicken skin and bones along with the veggies, gave the livers to Darby for breakfast, and saved the chicken for a casserole and lunches this week. After the broth cooled, I put 8 cups of it into a container for the squash soup recipe, and put the rest into zip top freezer bags and froze for later use.

Breakfast Bars: I made these last week and Zach was a huge fan! I bought some peanut flour at Trader Joe's on Monday and found a butternut squash and an acorn squash at a farm stand on the way home on Friday. I roasted both squashes to make butternut squash soup from a pumpkin soup recipe I have, and decided to put some of the acorn squash into the breakfast bars for this week. I got this recipe a number of years ago from a friend, and keep tinkering with the recipe to increase the nutritional content, lower the sugar (but keep them yummy) and use up anything I have in the cupboards. These breakfast bars were one of the reasons I decided to start blogging what I was cooking, mostly to keep track of modifications.

Here's this weeks recipe:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In the work bowl of Kitchenaid Mixer, combine 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup of softened butter. Cream sugars and butter together.
3. Add 1/8 cup agave nectar, 1/2 cup applesauce, 1 egg, 3 Tbsp milk, 2 tsp vanilla (I eyeball the milk, vanilla, and agave nectar measurements).
4. Mix to combine ingredients.
5. Add 1 cup white flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup peanut flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1 tsp nutmeg (I also eyeball the cinnamon and nutmeg).
6. Mix well.
7. Add 3 cups of quick cooking oats, 1 cup raisins, 1/2 cup dry roasted sunflower seeds, and 1 cup of cooked acorn squash. Mix to combine.
8. Spread into 9x13 baking dish and bake 25-30 minutes.
9. Let cool on cooling rack in pan, then cut into bars and store in zip top bag or other sealed container at room temperature.

I have also been baking our bread for the week, but still haven't mastered the "perfect loaf". I found a "no knead" bread recipe and tried it, but made a few mistakes: 1. I did a poor job converting 1 5/8 cup of hot water into something I could measure in my 2 cup pyrex measuring cup, and therefore did not put enough water in the mix; 2. my kitchen is not 70 degrees all of the time, as Zach and I refuse to turn the heat on until absolutely necessary so the dough was not warm enough to rise.
When I realized on Saturday that the bread hadn't risen at all, I also made a "no knead" bread recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook, which is as follows:

Fresh Herb Batter Bread (with only slight modifications by me)
1. Grease bottom and sides of loaf pan
2. Mix 2 cups of all purpose flour, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, and 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast in large bowl (or Kitchenaid mixer bowl).
3. Add 1 1/4 cups very warm water (120-130 degrees), 2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley, 2 Tbsp butter, 1/2 tsp dried rosemary leaves, 1/4 tsp dried thyme. Beat on low speed 1 minute, then beat on medium speed 1 minute. Stir in 1 cup of whole wheat flour until smooth.
4. Spread batter evenly in pan and pat into shape. Cover loosely with plastic wrap lightly sprayed with cooking spray and let rise in warm place about 40 minutes or until double.
4. Heat oven to 375.
5. Bake 40-45 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Immediately remove from pan to wire rack. Brush top of loaf with butter, sprinkle with additional chopped herbs if desired. Cool.

I will keep working on the other "no knead" bread recipe and keep you posted. :)

Sunday Yummies

I've been cooking from scratch a lot more since we are in our new place and I have all of my kitchen tools (plus some new ones from the wedding!), and reading tons of books about food (Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Waters and many more). All day Saturday I baked and cooked (more on that in another post), and since I have a complete inability to exactly follow a recipe I decided to blog what I make and any modifications so I can keep track of what we liked and didn't like. At the grocery yesterday, there were Challah buns on the day-old bread rack, so I made Challah french toast with a berry sauce for breakfast.
Here's the recipe:
3 Challah buns, sliced vertically
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk (I used whole)
1-2 tsp vanilla
dash or two cinnamon
dash or two nutmeg
1 Tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 500
Mix together the eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar with a whisk or fork.
Spray a cookie sheet or pizza pan liberally with non-stick spray.
Dip the bread into the egg mixture, then lay on the pan.
Cook for 4 minutes on the first side, then flip and cook another 4 minutes on the other side.
Serve with Berry Sauce.

Berry Sauce
8 oz frozen berry mixture
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp sugar or sugar substitute (I use Splenda)
1/3 cup water

Mix all of the above ingredients in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Stir to mix well, then cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often.
Serve over French toast.

*Mine got a little thick, so I left it on the burner but turned off the heat and added 1/4 cup of Almond milk to it and mixed well. It thinned out and added some creaminess.


On another note, it took me a long time to figure out how to make everything come out at the same time, so here is what I did this morning:

1. Slice challah bread
2. make egg mixture for french toast. Preheat oven.
3. Start berries in saucepan.
4. Spray baking sheet and dip bread in egg mixture and put onto baking sheet.
5. Realize I didn't make enough egg mixture and make more.
6. Realize I didn't make any coffee and I need some. Start the water boiling for french press coffee (which I have yet to master) and put 3 Tbsp coffee, 1/2 tsp cocoa powder, dash of cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp salt into french press.
7. Put french toast in oven, set timer for 4 minutes.
8. Stir berry mixture, add almond milk due to thickness. Put berry mixture into gravy boat for easy pouring.
9. Timer beeps for first side of french toast, water is beginning to boil for coffee. I add water to the french press and flip the french toast. Put toast back in oven for 4 minutes (same amount of time coffee must mingle before pushing down on press).
10. Timer beeps again. I push the plunger on the coffee, then take the toast out of the oven.
10. Pour water into french press.
11. Breakfast is served! :)

Busy times

The past few weeks have been super busy for Zach and I. We got back from Myrtle Beach and:
Z started at his new job as a Read 180 tutor for Columbus Public Schools
I started learning a new computer program and training other people on it
Z found us a townhouse to move into, and we will be moving in mid-September
I started my application to a PhD program at OSU
We are trying to get everything ready for the reception on September 4th

I love OSU...really I do.

Let me start by saying how much I love my job at OSU. I'm working in research, using skills I learned through many of my previous jobs, and I'm excited about the future opportunities I will have because of this experience. Now, the bad part... I never realized working for a large university required so much patience. I was supposed to be hired full time on June 1. Someone didn't get the job posted on the website at the proper time, so I couldn't apply for it until a few weeks later. Then, it took longer than planned for my paperwork to go through so I could be "officially" hired. Keep in mind that there was still a crap ton of work to be done, and we are on a strict one year deadline to complete the research. So, I was still doing my job (unofficially). I finally was hired on June 18, which works out so that I get paid during the two and a half weeks I am taking off this summer due to going with Emmy's family to Myrtle Beach and getting married (since I already worked for 2 1/2 weeks without pay).

Then, I find out that I get paid monthly, on the 30th of every month. No big deal-all of my bills are due at the beginning of the month, so I can stick to a budget with whatever is left over after bills. Remember how I started on the 18th? Apparently, the 12th of the month is the deadline for getting paid. So that means I don't get my first paycheck until July 30. That's a little stressful, since we have a few wedding things to pay for, like rings and a license. But I paid my rent and bills for July back in June, and Zach has been working a lot of extra jobs, so we should still be ok. I have been working at Young Chefs Academy and with Elliott, so I have a few little checks coming in that help out with groceries and gas.

Then, I find out that my doctor's appointment had to be cancelled just before leaving for Myrtle Beach, since my doctor doesn't take the OSU insurance. Apparently, only OSU-affiliated doctors take the OSU insurance. I'm very sad about this, because I love my doctor, and have been having some issues that I would really like taken care of before the wedding. But yesterday, I got an appointment with a new doctor for next Thursday, so things should be ok.

Now, to the point of my story. I woke up with a really bad headache yesterday, but thought it was my allergies. I took some medicine, but it didn't really help. No big deal, I'm tough, so I went ahead and worked my twelve hour day. (I taught a cooking class last night). I ran some errands after work, and realized that my headache was getting worse, and becoming a migraine (duh, Heather!). I had uan out of my Imitrex prescription, and was waiting to go to the doctor until I got my OSU insurance card for a refill, so I have no medicine to stop this pain. I took some medicine last night, and Zach researched Urgent Care centers that take the OSU insurance plan at work. I woke up this morning still in pain, so Zach took me to an Urgent Care. I got my OSU id badge yesterday, but haven't yet received my insurance card. But everything's electronic, so surely they can look me up. We got to Urgent Care, and found out that they can't look me up unless they have my insurance id # (different from my OSU id #). I can pay for the appointment out of pocket and get reimbursed later, but it starts at $165. I haven't been paid yet, so I don't have an extra $165 or more. So, I call HR, and am given the phone number of the insurance company. After waiting on hold, I'm told that the insurance company has no record of me in the system. They haven't received any paperwork at all. I have worked "officially" for almost three weeks, and the insurance company hasn't received anything. Awesome.

So, Zach drives me to CVS to get some over the counter migraine medicine. I take two immediately and find out that the maximum dosage is two pills in a 24 hour period. They dull the pain slightly. A few hours later, I find an old Percocet prescription and take one. It takes more of the pain away and makes me feel very loopy and dizzy. It's not so much that I don't hurt, I just don't care as much about the pain. After a three hour nap with an ice pack on my head, I'm feeling marginally better. I really hope I feel better tomorrow, since I have to go back to work. I'm just very frustrated, because I know that a shot of demerol and an imitrex would have taken the pain away. But I don't have any proof that I have insurance, and I don't have money to pay out of pocket for the medicine I need. And it's probably because someone at OSU whose job it is to enter new employees into the system didn't do it in a timely manner. I really hope I have my insurance card before next week's appointment or I'm going to completely freak out on someone and camp outside their door until they do their job! But Zach did a great job taking care of me, and I really appreciate it-he's the best! :)