Okay, will someone please tell me the secret to perfect brownies?
I swear, I have tried dozens of different recipes, all claiming to be the gooiest, and am always left with burnt, cakey, or downright disgusting brownies.
One time was almost perfect; the taste was great, but the texture left something to be desired. My husband made some comment awhile back about me and brownies, and so ever since then I have been trying to make him the perfect batch. I have yet to be successful.
My best chance is probably buying a box mix, sneakily tossing out the box before baking, and then serving them up. Or making a super fudgey frosting to go on top.
For my birthday a few weeks ago, I had this marvelous idea. I have this amazing white cake recipe I love to use, and I thought of making a triple layer white cake with a brownie center. So I baked my two cake layers, they turned out lovely, and then I baked the brownies.
I found a "secret" on line, that said to mix as carefully as possible to not allow very much air into the batter. The recipe also called for butter. I used it all in my cake. Hmmmm……oil! Box mixes always say to use oil, right? So I just "fudged" it over (Bahahahaha). Anyhoo, voila! Perfect brownies. Oil, who knew right?
Ulgh, I wish I had taken a picture. I frosted it, decorated it with pink icing and everything. But, it got devoured before I got my camera out. Meh, I guess that's a good sign.
However, I tried to replicate the recipe today, and total fail.
SO, if any of you have any great secrets, please impart your wisdom to me!!!
Friday, August 17, 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Irony
I love to cook. And I loooove to bake. My favorite is finding a new recipe and trying it for the first time. Especially if I am going to be feeding a lot of people.
My husband, Nick, has helped me a ton by being brutally honest with every single item I prepare. I don't have to worry that he will be delicate in telling me how it tastes. If it's disgusting, he has no reservation whatsoever in telling me.
So, I have taken it upon myself to cook everything I possible can to perfection. Nick says I should try going to culinary school…..but there's just one problem. I can't eat. Even though I'm great with aromas and textures (being able to tell what goes best with what), I can't taste what I have created until after it has been pulverized. How would that work in a professional kitchen? Oh, excuse me while I go and blend my sample!
Well, you know how blind people have readers, and deaf people have interpreters? Well, what if I had a taster? I could find some crazy food fanatic, like Adam from Man vs. Food, to follow me around and taste everything for me. I don't want to toot my own horn, but I feel I have been blessed when it come to food preparation. My in-laws always joke about me being such a masterful chef even though I don't taste what I make.
But, taste and smell are so intimately connected, I can "taste" what I'm cooking from what it smells like. And for that reason, I like to use a lot of strong, aromatic spices. Sure, who doesn't like a deep fat fried glob of food? I myself happen to love cheeseburgers (even though they don't blend especially well because of how fatty they are). But I have to tell you, the best food are the spiciest. And no, I don't mean spicy as in hot. I mean cinnamon, cumin, cloves, basil, dill, garlic, paprika. Ask my husband, I add cinnamon to almost everything! It's my favorite spice in the whole world. Basil and cloves come in a close second.
We like to talk about opening a restaurant someday. Maybe a diner or a bakery. I would love to be able to make a living cooking for people because it is seriously one of my favorite things to do. Maybe I enjoy it so much because I love to see the look on people's faces when they bite into something I have prepared and completely lull over in utter contentment. I live vicariously through them.
One of my best, basil herbed chicken, you cook it breast side down
and end up with super moist and tender meat.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Passing Judgement
One thing I particularly have a problem with is quick and silly judgement. People are so quick to pass judgement on a situation that they are missing a significant portion of details from. But, it doesn't matter, because they see what they want to see.
Eating disorder aside, it happens to anyone and everyone quite frequently. Appearance can only say so much, and yet, as humans, that is what we base the majority of our analysis on.
Why do we do this? Why are we hasty to make complete fools of ourselves? Why for all the silly sayings like "don't judge a book by it's cover", do we still insist on doing so?
I'm definitely guilty, and I'm sure a fair portion of you all out there are as well. My main efforts to combat this in my own life have been to find common ground. Hey, you don't know everything about a person, and it's very hard to have a meaningful conversation without something to talk about, right?
For example, I used to work as a medical assistant. One of the patients I remember was obese, reaked of smoke, and was covered in tattoos and piercings. Was she someone I generally would have sought to make friends with? Probably not. Would I have given her a skeptical glance if I saw her in the supermarket? Probably….. However, here is what I did. She had a giant cherry tattoo on her forearm, and when I was taking her blood pressure, I brought it up. "Oh! That is so cute! I love cherries!" I said. To which she perked up, smiled and told me they were her favorite as well. Then we proceeded to tell each other about the shoes and earrings and assorted accessories that we collected that had cherries on them.
Had I not tried to find common ground, and just passed her off as a slovenly fat person, I never would have been able to get to know her as a sweet and kind woman.
Knowing that as well, we need to give others the benefit of the doubt. There are things about ourselves we wouldn't readily share with the rest of the world. And perhaps comments or actions from other may cause us to take offense because of these things. We should try to remember, most people aren't intentionally "out to get us". Some people are just oblivious and don't think before they speak, or and genuinely not aware something may be offensive to you. Don't be so quick to judge them either.
Eating disorder aside, it happens to anyone and everyone quite frequently. Appearance can only say so much, and yet, as humans, that is what we base the majority of our analysis on.
Why do we do this? Why are we hasty to make complete fools of ourselves? Why for all the silly sayings like "don't judge a book by it's cover", do we still insist on doing so?
I'm definitely guilty, and I'm sure a fair portion of you all out there are as well. My main efforts to combat this in my own life have been to find common ground. Hey, you don't know everything about a person, and it's very hard to have a meaningful conversation without something to talk about, right?
For example, I used to work as a medical assistant. One of the patients I remember was obese, reaked of smoke, and was covered in tattoos and piercings. Was she someone I generally would have sought to make friends with? Probably not. Would I have given her a skeptical glance if I saw her in the supermarket? Probably….. However, here is what I did. She had a giant cherry tattoo on her forearm, and when I was taking her blood pressure, I brought it up. "Oh! That is so cute! I love cherries!" I said. To which she perked up, smiled and told me they were her favorite as well. Then we proceeded to tell each other about the shoes and earrings and assorted accessories that we collected that had cherries on them.
Had I not tried to find common ground, and just passed her off as a slovenly fat person, I never would have been able to get to know her as a sweet and kind woman.
Knowing that as well, we need to give others the benefit of the doubt. There are things about ourselves we wouldn't readily share with the rest of the world. And perhaps comments or actions from other may cause us to take offense because of these things. We should try to remember, most people aren't intentionally "out to get us". Some people are just oblivious and don't think before they speak, or and genuinely not aware something may be offensive to you. Don't be so quick to judge them either.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Gravy
One thing I used to enjoy making for myself was gravy. This was before I discovered blending, and well, I was starved for flavors.
Online, I found a great recipe by Bisquick, where you just added some of the mix to boiling chicken broth, and it thickened up to be a gravy. I liked it better than just using corn starch, because Bisquick gave me calories, which I was severely lacking.
But chicken gravy can get a little boring, so I decided to play things up a little. I visited the spice and package mix isle at my local grocery store, and picked up an assortment of spice packs: sloppy joe, italian meatball, heart stew, bar-b-q, pork loin…..
And while my gravy was boiling, I would whisk some spice in for that extra flavor. Of course, before I ate it, it had to go through a fine wire strainer, but the flavor was still there. Sometimes I would even whisk in shredded cheese. I loooooooove cheese. I could snack on Brie all day.
Anyhoo, with all the different spice packs, I was able to make very flavorful unconventional gravies that were filling and satisfying. So if you are looking for a way to change up your next plate of biscuits and gravy, try adding a sloppy joe spice pack!
Online, I found a great recipe by Bisquick, where you just added some of the mix to boiling chicken broth, and it thickened up to be a gravy. I liked it better than just using corn starch, because Bisquick gave me calories, which I was severely lacking.
But chicken gravy can get a little boring, so I decided to play things up a little. I visited the spice and package mix isle at my local grocery store, and picked up an assortment of spice packs: sloppy joe, italian meatball, heart stew, bar-b-q, pork loin…..
And while my gravy was boiling, I would whisk some spice in for that extra flavor. Of course, before I ate it, it had to go through a fine wire strainer, but the flavor was still there. Sometimes I would even whisk in shredded cheese. I loooooooove cheese. I could snack on Brie all day.
Anyhoo, with all the different spice packs, I was able to make very flavorful unconventional gravies that were filling and satisfying. So if you are looking for a way to change up your next plate of biscuits and gravy, try adding a sloppy joe spice pack!
All about me
When I was 18 years old, after seven years of problems, I was diagnosed with chronic dysphagia. For those of you who don't know what that means, it means trouble swallowing.
I first noticed I had a problem when I was about 13, and I had a hard time initiating a swallow. It's hard to describe, but just think that any time you tried to eat something, no matter how you tried, it would either stay in your mouth, or go down the wrong way. I tried working around it, and washing everything down with liquid, because that seemed to be the only way I could trigger my swallow. By the time I got to college, it had stopped working. I would spend an hour at the table trying to eat a piece of bread, while going through at least three glasses of water to do it. I became agitated, frustrated with myself. Eventually, I was reduced to chicken broth and milk. I didn't know what else to do.
Finally, I swallowed my pride and saw a doctor. And another, and another, and another, and another….until finally I was told plainly in a handwritten letter from an esteemed neurologist at the University of Utah, that I had deep rooted childhood issues and should consider seeing a psychologist.
Hmmmm. Ok, I'm crazy, I can live with that. But perhaps he could have been a little more professional about it. No, I'm not crazy. I have structural issues. Imagine tiny rubber bands twisted around your esophagus every couple centimeters all the way down, add a bar-like protrusion to the very top, and you've got what my throat looks like. The thing of it is, a lot of people have these problems, just not quite as sever as mine. I've accepted that some of my problem is due to anxiety now after all these years, but even if I weren't anxious about eating, my diet would still have to be modified to accommodate my problematic structure. The way I have found works best for me is liquefaction.
Everything I eat has to be liquified. Sounds gross? Yeah, took me awhile to come to terms with it as well. But, after I got over the initial disgust of "drinking" my meals, I began to experiment. I had a friend once who, after getting her wisdom teeth removed, blended a cheese burger with milk so she wouldn't have to chew it. I thought this was brilliant, and decided to try it. Thanks to my amazing parents, my birthday present that year was a commercial grade VitaMix blender. I'll admit, it was kind of nasty at first, but then, I realized, I could taste the food I blended. I hadn't in such a long time, and I became addicted. I blended anything and everything I could think of. After a lot of trial and error, I discovered certain things were good with milk, and others were better with a chicken or vegetable broth. However unconventional it was, I could eat food again.
Still, things get awkward at social gatherings, restaurants, and so forth. It's amazing just how much of our culture revolves around food. One of the best, or I should say worst comments, directed at me was by the well-meaning hostess at my husband's latin mission reunion. When she saw I wasn't eating, she came up and asked if she could get me something, which I politely declined. I don't normally like to explain unless I have to. She laughed and told me there was also "American" food prepared, it wasn't all "Mexican". I was about to tell her I had no aversion for latin cuisine, but my husband stepped in and told her quite plainly to not make silly judgements, and then told her about my problem. She seemed embarrassed, told me how sorry she was I was that way, and offered to "blend" me something. We didn't stay much longer.
I feel bad for my husband sometimes, we hardly ever go out to eat, and if we do, it's a drive through. One of my good college buddies said that as soon as I was fixed, he would come make me lasagna, no matter how old I was. I always worry about what my kids are going to think when they are older. Right now, my little one year old could care less that mommy runs her blender at least three times a day and never uses a fork.
Like I said though, I have come to terms with the way that I am, and I am comfortable with it. I realize that unless some grate miracle takes place, I will probably be like this the rest of my life, and that's okay. No one is perfect, physically or intellectually. You just have to cling to the age old saying "when life gives you lemons….blend them with a lot of sugar!"
I first noticed I had a problem when I was about 13, and I had a hard time initiating a swallow. It's hard to describe, but just think that any time you tried to eat something, no matter how you tried, it would either stay in your mouth, or go down the wrong way. I tried working around it, and washing everything down with liquid, because that seemed to be the only way I could trigger my swallow. By the time I got to college, it had stopped working. I would spend an hour at the table trying to eat a piece of bread, while going through at least three glasses of water to do it. I became agitated, frustrated with myself. Eventually, I was reduced to chicken broth and milk. I didn't know what else to do.
Finally, I swallowed my pride and saw a doctor. And another, and another, and another, and another….until finally I was told plainly in a handwritten letter from an esteemed neurologist at the University of Utah, that I had deep rooted childhood issues and should consider seeing a psychologist.
Hmmmm. Ok, I'm crazy, I can live with that. But perhaps he could have been a little more professional about it. No, I'm not crazy. I have structural issues. Imagine tiny rubber bands twisted around your esophagus every couple centimeters all the way down, add a bar-like protrusion to the very top, and you've got what my throat looks like. The thing of it is, a lot of people have these problems, just not quite as sever as mine. I've accepted that some of my problem is due to anxiety now after all these years, but even if I weren't anxious about eating, my diet would still have to be modified to accommodate my problematic structure. The way I have found works best for me is liquefaction.
Everything I eat has to be liquified. Sounds gross? Yeah, took me awhile to come to terms with it as well. But, after I got over the initial disgust of "drinking" my meals, I began to experiment. I had a friend once who, after getting her wisdom teeth removed, blended a cheese burger with milk so she wouldn't have to chew it. I thought this was brilliant, and decided to try it. Thanks to my amazing parents, my birthday present that year was a commercial grade VitaMix blender. I'll admit, it was kind of nasty at first, but then, I realized, I could taste the food I blended. I hadn't in such a long time, and I became addicted. I blended anything and everything I could think of. After a lot of trial and error, I discovered certain things were good with milk, and others were better with a chicken or vegetable broth. However unconventional it was, I could eat food again.
Still, things get awkward at social gatherings, restaurants, and so forth. It's amazing just how much of our culture revolves around food. One of the best, or I should say worst comments, directed at me was by the well-meaning hostess at my husband's latin mission reunion. When she saw I wasn't eating, she came up and asked if she could get me something, which I politely declined. I don't normally like to explain unless I have to. She laughed and told me there was also "American" food prepared, it wasn't all "Mexican". I was about to tell her I had no aversion for latin cuisine, but my husband stepped in and told her quite plainly to not make silly judgements, and then told her about my problem. She seemed embarrassed, told me how sorry she was I was that way, and offered to "blend" me something. We didn't stay much longer.
I feel bad for my husband sometimes, we hardly ever go out to eat, and if we do, it's a drive through. One of my good college buddies said that as soon as I was fixed, he would come make me lasagna, no matter how old I was. I always worry about what my kids are going to think when they are older. Right now, my little one year old could care less that mommy runs her blender at least three times a day and never uses a fork.
Like I said though, I have come to terms with the way that I am, and I am comfortable with it. I realize that unless some grate miracle takes place, I will probably be like this the rest of my life, and that's okay. No one is perfect, physically or intellectually. You just have to cling to the age old saying "when life gives you lemons….blend them with a lot of sugar!"
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