delectable, delightful, masterpiece

Applebee's Blondie Brownie -

I long for the evenings spent with my girlfriends, splitting this delectable dessert, and catching up on the latest news. Deeanna, Carole, Anne, Jenna, Kristin, Laura, Leslie - you all know the magic of devouring this delightful treat. It has helped assuage our hurt and pain -- simply spending time in quiet reflection with friends... ok... maybe not quiet, but you get the point.

Yesterday, I got the idea that maybe I could recreate this masterpiece in my own kitchen. After carefully combing through countless recipes (for about 5 minutes) I settled on the one sent to me by my new sister-in-law. The recipe included the secret ingredient mentioned in all the reviews of the recipes I found online - creme cheese.

How did it taste? I'd give it a 7 out of 10. It came close to the real thing -- but like many reviews of recipes I found online it wasn't quite as fluffy as the real thing. If I did this again (and you know I will) I would do the following to make it rise a bit higher:

• 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder (instead of 4 teaspoons)
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon Baking Soda (instead of a pinch)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

I also think I over-did it on the vanilla chips (I used 3 bricks of vanilla almond bark and could have stuck with 2).

Finally, the icing wasn't quite right - I think it had too much of a cream cheese flavor. I might try a basic icing recipe next time and simply add some syurp to see if I fair a bit better -- or perhaps it isn't creme cheese, but almond bark that should be added to give it the right taste and consistency... Don't worry this is one of my favorite deserts so I will be trying it again :)

Thank you Nansie Whitt for this recipe! :)

Applebee's Blondie Brownie
The Ingredients:
• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 pinch baking soda
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/3 cup melted unsalted real butter
• 1 1/3 cup packed brown sugar - divided (1 cup and 1/3 cup)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vanilla baking chips
• 1/4 cup unmelted, unsalted real butter
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 tsp. maple extract





Applebee's Blondie Brownie
The Process:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Stir in nuts and set aside.
4. With an electric mixer, beat together melted butter and 1 cup brown sugar.
5. Beat in egg and vanilla extract.
6. Slowly beat dry mixture into wet mixture.
7. Turn mixer off. Stir in vanilla baking chips by hand.
8. Spread batter into a greased 9" X 9" X 2" baking pan.
9. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean; set aside to cool.
10. In a saucepan over low heat, melt remaining 1/4 cup butter and maple syrup.
11. Stir in remaining 1/3 cup brown sugar into saucepan until it has dissolved (the sugar, not the pan!)
12. Remove saucepan from heat and beat in cream cheese and maple extract until smooth.
13. Return saucepan to low heat and simmer, stirring constantly, until desired consistency
14. Cut warm blondies into 4" X 4" squares, top with vanilla ice cream, and pour sauce over the top... YUM!

No buns? No problem.

Last night, Jordan and I made a feast of Hawaiian Rolls and Bratwurst. It was surprisingly delicious. Simply tear the sweet Hawaiian Rolls in half and cut the bratwurst in thirds and then cut the resulting pieces in half length-wise -- like mom used to do when she fried hotdogs :)

Leaning Tower of .... Lemon Cake?

July 4th weekend is full of pitch-ins with the family. This 4th of July, Jordan and I were invited to a family flag raising to honor his Grandpa & Grandma Whitt who served in WWII and Grandpa Thompson who served during the Korean War. We were asked to bring a desert and side dish -- so I went all out and used this opportunity to try a cake recipe from cooksillustrated.com. It took approximately 7 hours from start to finish ... and was worth it!

Lemon Layer Cake -- doesn't it just look like heaven... Until you see the recipe -- There are 3 parts to the recipe. 1) Lemon Curd - Filling 2) Cake Batter 3) Icing Then you must carefully assemble the entire thing.

The Lemon Curd - Filling went pretty well, the Cake Batter was fun to mix (and would have gone a bit quicker if I had pulled out the milk and eggs ahead of time so they could have been at room temperature when I wanted to get started. I was going to wait until Saturday morning to assemble and make the icing - but since we happened to be up till 2 am watching a redbox movie I thought - what the hell, I'll give it a go. . . big mistake.

I had never cut a cake in half (horizontally) but I had my big tupperware bread knife ready to go. While I butchered the first one making the bottom layer only 1/4 an inch thick, the second cake went much better. I decided to put the tiny layer near the top and began assembly. The first two layers went together without a problem...but then came the butchered layer -- and well it seemed to go ok, so I added the rest of the filling and the final layer of cake.


I was rinsing dishes when Jordan walked in to admire my work .... he then kindly let me know it was falling apart -- I shot him a dirty look and told him it was fine... fine until he pointed out that the third layer had torn in half and was sliding down and it wasn't just a bit of lemon curd oozing out of the layers like I had assumed. I grabbed the cake at the sides and shoved the layer back in place while frantically yelling at Jordan to grab the "stick thingies" (skewers) out of the top left drawer. We were both laughing uncontrollably but he some how managed to find the sticks -- and then, of course, he insisted on snapping a photo before (much to my chagrin) jabbing them in the middle of the cake. Needless to say, I then asked him to move them to the edges to help hold the cake in place.

I decided that was enough and to put the cake in the fridge for the night so I could just deal with it in the morning. Luckily, it was all in one piece. I still needed to make the Icing -- which seemed like it was going well until I realized I had used 2 large eggs and not 2 large egg whites and had to start over. The second batch tasted delicious! I iced the cake hiding any drooping layers and carefully loaded it into the car. Some how it made it all the way to Grandma & Grandpa Whitt's with out falling apart or touching the glass lid.

http://tiny.cc/lemoncake2

editor's note: besides jabbing the sticks in the middle of the cake, I did make some positive contribution by squeezing the lemons for the filling and creating a crapton of lemon zest (which Jennie totally forgot to use). Just wanted to point out that I'm not completely worthless :)

Don't you know it hurts so good...

Jordan and I's favorite dish!! - Remember that Salmon I de-boned and portioned? Well, it ended up on our dinner plates. (Now don't puke) We share this dinner on one plate -- sweetheart style. The secret ingredient is Sriracha sauce - which you can find at any major grocery. This is actually a US made product developed for Americans to make us think we are eating a fancy foreign hot sauce.

Ingredients

1 Salmon Fillet with skin
Some Oregano
Some Rosemary
Some Sesame Seeds
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
Cooked White Rice
** Don't for get the Sriracha sauce

Simply coat meaty side of the salmon in the herbs of your choice (I use a combination of oregano rosemary and sesame seed) Then, heat the oil in a skillet until shimmering (right before it steams). Carefully place the fillet skin down (watch for popping oil). Once the fillet looks about half cooked carefully flip it over (time depends on how thick the cut is - but you can flip once about half of the meatiest portion in a light pink instead of the sushi color) While the fillet continues to cook, place your hot cooked rice in the middle of a large plate and then place the salmon on top. Make sure to some Sriracha sauce on the side... and lots of stuff to drink!

Here are some photos from our dinner Tuesday night ...



Tip: Turn the Salmon over only once if you can, because handling it too much can make it fall apart or worse, toughen the meat.

As for tonight, we just got back from a delicious dinner with our friends from church John and Rachel. She cooked a fabulous peppercorn pork loin (two words I never thought I'd say in the same sentence: fabulous and pork!) It was really tender, tangy, and delicious. I know the secret now so I might even try making pork for Jordan and I.

Editor's note: seriously, I hope Jennie follows through on this, because I LOVE me some pork :)

Fish on Sale! What's the Catch?

I found a great deal on both Tilapia ($4.99) and Salmon ($3.99) at Kroger today! This time I stopped at the smaller Kroger on US 36 because I was in a bit of a rush and it was getting late (I was praying the meat counter stayed open until 9 PM...it was 8:52). Of course, the seafood had already been pulled from the display case so I thought I'd check out the pre-packaged items. I try and get my seafood from the meat guy -- I like being able to order just the right size for the meal I am making -- but I wasn't going to make my third trip to Kroger this week if I didn't have too -- and low and behold, I found better-than-advertised pricing on Salmon AND the Tilapia I needed.

Of course, there is a catch. There is always a catch. I would have to buy in bulk... These packages looked like they would serve an army -- or at least a family of 8. Seriously!^LOOK^ I checked out with my treasure, knowing that to get the 3.99 lb price I would have to stay focused and zip lock and freeze portions of two for Jordan and I the minute I got home. If I didn't it would sit in the fridge until I finally found time to cook this week, and by then it may not be fresh. I started with the Tilapia: 6 nice fillets, two in each zip lock. And, then on to the Salmon.And, I wasn't done just yet -- the Salmon had a surprise in store.... BONES! Luckily, I have dealt with de-boning Salmon a time or two --

Step 1: Dig through your tool box, closet, drawer, etc until you find a small pair of pliers with out those little grippy teeth. I prefer the kind that come in a computer repair kit -- but I couldn't find mine.

Step 2: Sanitize the tool (hot water and soap, or you could just use them as they are ... who knows where they have been)

Step 3: Run your fingers along the salmon ... WAIT - Wash your hands - you just dug around in a tool box... and then run your fingers along the salmon against the 'grain' of the bones -- AKA poke your self in the finger until you feel where they are.

Step 4: Grasp the bone firmly with the pliers (NOTE: Do not use wire cutters for this) and pull evenly and firmly with the 'grain' sliding the bone out like a splinter.

Step 5: Repeat step 3 and 4 until you are sure there are no bones, or you are so sick of pulling them that you no longer care if you or your husband choke on one.

Step 6: Cut fillets into portions for two, and place in zip lock freezer bags. Be careful to get as much air out as possible when sealing. (I like to seal the bag, all but and inch, and press the air out)

I ended up with 4 bags of Salmon (one a bit larger incase we have company) and 3 bags of Tilapia … all for under $25 dollars - and it is portioned and ready to go after about 15 minutes of searching for pliers and 5 minutes of pulling bones. ;)

Redbox and Salsa ...

Tonight, Jordan and I went on a mission to find the Sunday paper. We were just going to run to Marsh (which is about a half mile away)....an hour & a half later we returned with a red box movie and salsa from the new Kroger in Speedway.

Marsh had the Indy Star, but I had to dig a bit through a stack with copies of Thursday's edition and Saturday's "Sunday Early Edition" to find the real Sunday edition, which surprisingly had zero grocery ads (I later found out they were in the Thursday edition - can you say newly wed.) I snagged one of the Marsh ads from a pile near the door - and Unfortunately, I quickly noticed nothing I needed this week was on special... so off to Kroger we went to check out the seafood selection and their ad for this week. (Our real mission was to spend some time in air conditioning I made pizza tonight --http://tiny.cc/pizzayum & we really needed a break from our the heat in our house).

Kroger was completely re-vamped recently (the third I can remember) and it is now the second largest Kroger store in the state (second only to the one in Bloomington, as Jordan was quick to point out). It was about 10pm and of course the meat counter was closed (they have a fantastic seafood collection) so, we walked around and checked out the beer selection and the international aisle to find that they carry KOSHER foods!! I have spent a good 5 years asking grocery managers to order matzo meal special. NO MORE! They had a good selection of potato pancake mix, matzo's and matzo ball mix *(although they don't carry the large container, just the packets) -- my favorite part was the economy size container of chicken consummate which I haven't seen since my Grandmother was alive and cooking. If it wasn't so darn hot I might make some soup right now --

I will return tomorrow for some of the Salmon (on sale for 6.99 lb) and Tilapia fillets (4.99) Jordan mentioned trying a Pecan Crusted Tilapia -- anyone have a good recipe? Cooks Illustrated doesn't have anything on Tilapia :)

Cheap & easy food

This week I thought I should take it easy -- we just returned from our honeymoon/missions trip in Honduras to find the dog's room/mud room flooded AND a random 3-inches of water in our (previously) completely dry crawl space. So, Monday I went grocery shopping using the Sunday paper ads and wrote out a list while I waited for the plumber to arrive (did I mention we also found a leaking toilet?)

This budget conscientious menu cost us less than $50. It included roast beef sandwiches for lunches as well as a few plums and nectarines. Each meal cost well under $10 dollars for the two of us. We were always full and had something leftover (but not TOO much) And the dessert of the week was mixed berries w/ homemade whipped cream -- http://tiny.cc/whippedcream

DINNERS

Monday - burgers with grilled corn on the cob
Tuesday - grilled chicken with baked potatoes
Wednesday - sloppy-joes with mac & cheese
Thursday - brats with baked beans
Friday - Night out (hotdogs at the game)
Saturday - hamburgers and fruit (and a salad for me)
Sunday - homemade chicken & artichoke pizza with cheesy bread

The best part of this week was the chicken - instead of grilling frozen lumps of 'boneless skinless chicken breast' until crispy dry and 'cooked' (oh yeah no Air Conditioning - so we were cooking outside all week) I bought fresh bone in chicken breast that I found on sale at Kroger for just $1 pound and 'brined' them ... well actually Jordan was in charge of that since he stayed home that day from work (he was sick ...)

Brining is nothing I had ever seen growing up -- we simply took the chicken from the package maybe rinsed it and always baked it -- it was dry (sorry mom) and mostly blah. Brining is simply soaking the chicken in a water/salt solution -- which can include a bit of sugar. The chicken marinates in this for an hour or so and when cooked is SO juicy and tasty that you will never again cook chicken without this step.

You can do this with just about any meat -- here is a great article from Cook Illustrated http://tiny.cc/brining