super-brownies

i made these in miniature cupcake pans for bill's office farewell party today. you could probably make them as regular brownies, but i think it would take longer... like 35 minutes? not sure.

ingredients:

• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 2 cups sugar
• 7/8 cup flour
• 1 tbs instant coffee powder
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 eggs
• baking spray, shortening or butter for greasing pan
• (about 1 tsp cocoa & 1 tsp powdered sugar for decorating)

prep:

• preheat oven to 350*
• grease pan (or use paper liners, but they stick!)

actual cooking:

• put butter & baking chocolate in a micro-wave safe bowl & nuke for 1 minute or until butter is melted (1:50 for me, but my butter was frozen)
• stir until chocolate melts
• add sugar, coffee powder & cocoa, combine
• add eggs & combine
• add flour & combine
• fill mini muffin tins about 2/3 (i put the batter in a heavy zippy bag & cut off a corner and pipe it in)-- makes about 48 which is TWO pans, so either have two pans or chill the first one in the fridge for 10 minutes in between batches
• bake for 15 minutes
• remove from tin after 5 minutes, allow to cool at least an hour
• (dust with cocoa & powdered sugar, or both)

next time i make these, i think i'll try some mini chocolate chips-- ideally dark chocolate! i don't have a report from the office yet, but bill, kevin & anthony agree that they're AWESOME.

perfect pie crust

finally, a pie crust worth blogging.

ingredients:

• 1 cup very cold shortening or butter (or a combination)
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ice-cold vodka (no, seriously)

prep:

• chill the fat, cubed, in the freezer for a couple hours
• chill the vodka in the freezer (the only reasonable way to store it, anyway) overnight

actual cooking:

• combine flour & salt
• add the fat and gently combine either by rubbing it between your fingers, cutting it in with two knives, a pastry blender or a food processor until the fat ranges in size from crumbs to peas
• make a well in the dry/fat mixture
• add vodka, a tablespoon at a time, fluffing together with a fork, until the mixture holds together
• shape into 2 disks and chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour, preferably overnight
• let stand at room temperature for about 20 minutes
• gently roll out each disk on a generously floured board (preferably marble, but those suckers run about $130) to about 1/8 of an inch
• (roll one crust up in plastic wrap for freezing if you're making one custard or crumb pie)
• roll one crust around your rolling pin, move it over to your pie plate and unroll
• make sure the crust is resting in the pie plate fully, not stretched or away from corners
• trim edges so about 1/2 inch or so overlaps and tuck them under around the edge
• prick crust on sides and bottom
• chill for at least one hour
• preheat oven to 400 degrees
• crumple up a piece of parchment into a ball, now gently uncrumple it, now do the hokey-pokey...
• line the crust with the parchment and fill with dried rice and/or beans, or pie weights
• bake for 10 to 20 minute until almost baked through
• fill & cover
• bake as directed (at 375ish until brownedish, is my rule)

so, the three-day time frame isn't really ideal, but damned if this isn't the best crust i've ever made. and no, you don't get drunk. the alcohol bakes out leaving the crust flaky and perfect.

pork with a pineapple-ginger sauce

ingredients:

• pork medallions, pork loin or pork chops (or ham, or chicken)
• 1 cup crushed pineapple
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce

prep:

• cook meat however you like, seasoned lightly with salt and pepper

actual cooking:

• while meat is cooking, combine other ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat
• simmer until liquid is reduced to almost nothing
• remove from heat & allow to sit uncovered until meat is ready

so. freaking. easy. i served pork medallions with israeli cous cous and steamed snap peas. it was a hit. the only real problem is... i don't eat ginger, so it's possible they were lying to me. but they did continue to eat the sauce after the meat was gone, so that's something.

squash'd tomato flor-n-bean

this soup is one of the varieties i call "veggie sludge." it's thick, flavorful and easy to make. generic veggie sludge is really easy to make, but if i don't feel like thinking about what veggies to use, i go with this insanely simple one.

ingredients:

• 2-3 yellow squashes/zucchinis
• 1 can of tomato paste
• frozen spinach
• 1 can of white kidney beans
• mirepoix (chopped celery, carrots and onions, which i buy prepared from trader joe's because i'm lazy and it's good)
• veggie broth (a quart? or chicken, i guess, or ham would probably be tasty)
• olive oil

prep:

• chop your squash into, eh, chunk-sized chunks
• rinse the beans

actual cooking:

• coat the bottom of your (not huge) pot with olive oil
• add mirepoix and stir
• give that a minute
• add broth
• add spinach, beans, tomato paste and squash
• simmer for 45 minute to an hour, depending on how sludgy you want it (i want to be able to eat it with a fork, so 45 minutes mostly covered and 15-20 uncovered to boil off the extra water)
• salt & pepper to taste

this soup is delicious alone, over chicken, as a pasta sauce, with some grated cheese, with some melted cheese, hot, cold, whatever. it's good.