Brownie Points

If you are not feeling well, if you have not slept, chocolate will revive you. But you have no chocolate! I think of that again and again! My dear, how will you ever manage?
- Marquise de Sévigné


Before I got pregnant, I was never much of a sweets eater. My tendency to eat sugary snacks didn't extend much further than fruit, popsicles, the occasional milkshake. I rarely eat my own birthday cake, and at my wedding, the only cake that passed my lips was a result of the obligatory shot of my husband and I feeding it to each other.

However, dessert has been a routine for me since I've been pregnant, and my cravings for sweet things overcomes me at times. I've tried to keep it in check, but the desire for donuts, ice cream, cookies, cupcakes, and candy bars has become much stronger than my willpower. These days, the casual question "You know what sounds good?" is immediately followed by my announcement of whatever craving has popped up, combined with an impatient frustration that it's not right in front of me yet, why am I not eating it yet, where is it?

When I got hit with the need for brownies, mixed with a strong urge for a cupcake, I decided to take matters into my own hands and combine the two. I used a mini-muffin tin to make bite-sized brownie "cupcakes" - and they were amazing. I didn't put any frosting on them, in an effort to keep the sugar intake a bit lower, but these didn't need frosting anyway - they were rich and decadent, chewy and soft with just a bit of a crispy edge.

Brownie Bites

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

- Heat oven to 350°F. Grease muffin tin (or preferred pan).

- Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in bowl. Add eggs; beat well with spoon. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in nuts, if desired. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.

- Bake until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. (Cooking times will vary depending on size pan used) Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

Gone Bananas

The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight.

- M. F. K. Fisher





I buy bananas for the sole purpose of making banana bread. We usually both eat one banana out of a bunch, and then they sit on the counter waiting for their time. I think banana bread is just a way for the banana to extend its usefulness to society, and I respect that.


This recipe is adapted from The Joy of Cooking - the best part is the addition of peanut butter. I love peanut butter and banana sandwiches, so it seemed a natural fit to me. It creates a very tender cake, with a hint of salty peanut taste to counteract the sweetness.


Peanut Butter Banana Bread

2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon-sugar blend
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 egg
1 cup brown sugar
3-4 ripe bananas
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
5 tbsp. vegetable oil


- Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl, combine the first 6 ingredients.


- In a separate bowl, combine the last 5 ingredients, ensuring bananas are mashed well.


- Add wet mixture to dry mixture and mix well, until just moistened. Pour into greased muffin cups or loaf pan (I use mini loaf pans) and bake until a toothpick inserted into the bread comes out clean, about 18-22 minutes (this will depend on whether you're using muffin tin or loaf pan).

* On another note, I'm heading to Mississippi today to attend a funeral - and while it's a sad occasion, I have a touch of guilty excitement at seeing my grandmother and enjoying some true Southern cooking.

Resolutions & Revelations

There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.
- Mark Twain

This is the time of year when diets are all the rage…when everywhere I go, everywhere I turn, I listen to friends, family, old coworkers, and strangers discussing their resolution to eat better. If I took the time to write it all down, only to go back to those same people 2 months from now, the number of people who fell off the diet wagon would surely be astonishing.

I’m not a believer in diets…nor am I a believer in resolutions. Maybe it’s because I know I can’t stick to them, and I refuse to believe in something that for me simply doesn’t exist. Maybe it’s because I’m too stubborn to deny myself the foods I want when I want them. Maybe it’s because so far, I’ve been fairly blessed in my ability to simply cut back, as opposed to cutting off. Chances are it’s a combination of the three. Regardless, I don’t do it.

It dawns on me every so often that I’ve taken things above and beyond…that I’ve eaten lunch out every day in a week, that I haven’t been to the grocery store in two weeks to buy fresh produce, that my dinner last night consisted of cashews and wine. When that happens, I turn it back a notch. I get a grip, put things in perspective, and slow down. It seems like an unhealthy cycle, but I appease myself by saying that it’s no crash diet, no harsh criticism, and no worries.
As I get older, I realize it won’t always be this easy. My metabolism is slowing, and the pounds will get more stubborn with age. I balance that with the knowledge that as I get older, I’ll get smarter. I’ll take notice of the increasing frequency of heartburn and sour bellies that I induce on myself by eating poorly….I’ll speak to myself with a voice louder and more insistent than the one I use now.

The fact that I'm rapidly gaining weight due to this ever-growing baby makes the food fight within me all the more frustrating. Every bit of food that passes my lips is met with guilt - less so when I'm following a nutrient-rich regimen for the benefit of the baby, more so when I'm indulging the new sweet tooth I've acquired since I became pregnant. It's easy to worry about how I'll take the weight off, and easy to get upset with myself for putting on too much weight as a result of poor willpower.

But for the time being, I’ll enjoy it. And if that means sitting down to this cheesecake inspired by one of my favorite desserts, Nutty Buddy ice cream cones, so be it.

Nutty Buddy Cheesecake Pie

12 sugar cones, crushed
1 stick butter, softened
1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
1 package Cool Whip
¼ cup sugar
½ cup chopped peanus
½ cup melted chocolate

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine crushed sugar cones and butter until just moistened and fully mixed. Spread mixture in bottom of greased springform pan and bake 5-7 minutes, or until crust is browned.
- Meanwhile, beat cream cheese, Cool Whip, and sugar in medium bowl until light and fluffy.
- Once crust has completely cooled, spread cream cheese mixture on top of crust. Drizzle with melted chocolate and chopped peanuts and freeze until firm (25 minutes).

Forbidden Fruit

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.
- Martin Luther




Why do we always want what we can't have? There is such appeal in attaining the things that are just out of our reach. The desire to obtain those things stays with us throughout our lives. When we are children, we want the other toy, the pink crayon, the yellow clay - as long as someone else has it. As we get a bit older, it's our friends' cashmere sweater or video game that we'd do anything to have. Dating brings about feelings of conflict when a relationship ends - even though we don't want to date a person anymore, we don't want anyone else to have them either. Jobs, cars, houses, vacations - all things that are much more desirable when they belong to someone else.

The term "forbidden fruit" is most commonly associated with apples, due to Adam and Eve's inability to turn down an apple, resulting in the loss of their innocence. Luckily, this apple recipe is something you can have without consequences, and with incredible ease. It transforms a basic blueberry muffin mix into something a bit more special by adding sweet apples and a crunchy topping. I made this in a loaf pan and then cut it into squares, but it would be great as muffins also.

Apple-Blueberry Bread with Brown Sugar-Oat Topping

Blueberry Muffin Mix
2 medium apples - peeled, cored, and diced
1/4 cup each brown sugar, oats, melted butter

- Prepare muffin batter according to directions
- Add chopped apples to batter
- Bake according to directions on package, removing from oven about 5 minutes before bread is done
- Pour brown sugar mixture over bread and return to oven for final 5 minutes of baking, or until mixture is bubbly

Pantry Raid

In the end, your creativity - perhaps even your outrageousness - will determine the final result.
- Bobby Flay

If you drive through our neighborhood on any given weekend, you will be inundated with neon signs posted to telephone poles advertising yard sales, garage sales, estate sales, antique sales. No matter the verbiage, they all mean one thing - someone needed to get rid of the junk in their home.

I take the same approach in our kitchen. Every so often, I do a scan and make a note of the items in our freezer and pantry, and then I brainstorm ways to use up those ingredients. It usually results in some interesting meals, some better than others.

Club crackers wrapped in bacon, sprinkled with parmesan cheese and baked in the oven for 2 hours at 250 degrees. The result is a crisp salty buttery snack, perfect with a cold beer. Next time I make these, however, I'll use less bacon and possibly a different type of cracker - maybe a Wheat Thin. I think a lighter cracker (not to mention bite-sized) would be a better fit.



For this dish, I combined rice with frozen mixed veggies, fried egg, and tilapia, tossed with teriyaki, soy sauce, and sesame oil - and served it with crab rangoons I made with leftover won ton wrappers, crab meat, cream cheese, and chopped green onions. This was simple, delicious, and used up a good portion of ingredients I had on hand.


I always keep tuile cookies in the house - they are the perfect accompaniment to ice cream or sorbet. I combined brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, vanilla, and chopped pecans, brought it to a boil, then drizzled the mixture over the cookies and baked them for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. After they cooled, I broke them up into large pieces. These are gooey, with a crunchy bite from the cookies.

On the days where I'm attempting to clean out the freezer, fridge and pantry in anticipation of a trip to the grocery store, I think about those yard sales - and how someone's trash is another person's treasure. It's all in how you look at it - and what you do with it.

That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles

I eat merely to put food out of my mind.
- N.F. Simpson

I used to wake up every morning with the instantaneous thought that I would soon be in a place where stress was high and rewards were low, where tensions and annoyances climbed steadily during the day and peaked early, not to subside until the final exit. At the end of each day, I sat in the car on the way home one of two ways: either quietly reflecting on the lack of fulfillment I felt, or loudly ranting about that lack. I don’t know how I didn’t get kicked out of the car on a weekly basis. However, despite my intense emotions and my inability to contain them, he never got annoyed with me. He always listened and offered the right words, words that weren’t rehearsed or practiced, that were never clichés, never condescending, and were always dead on.

Finding a way to transfer my love of food into a career is not coming easy. I’m experiencing once again the sensations I felt during and directly following college. I’m witnessing myself going through the phases of discovery, of unease and uncertainty, and of constant internal debate. There are multiple things that are intimately affected by whatever choices I make, both physical and metaphorical. The need to feel on course and successful is only furthered by the person who depends on me…by the person who will be affected most, yet who is most supportive of any choice made.

I'm at a place where I am welcoming change, and willing to endure the fear that accompanies it. I have to be rational and realistic. I also knew something had to give, and even though it meant stepping out on a ledge...I can do it with the knowledge that I have someone that will talk me back in if I get too far out there. That knowledge keeps me going, and brings enough solace to allow me to enjoy this phase. What better way to enjoy it than with warm chewy cookies?

These cookies are incredibly easy to make, and versatile enough to be adapted based on individual preferences. The recipe below incorporates dried cherries and chocolate chips, but I've also made them with a combination of dried cranberries & white chocolate chips, as well as dried apple pieces with butterscotch chips.


Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

2/3 cup softened butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ cups oats
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
6 oz. sweetened dried cherries
2/3 cup chocolate chips

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- Combine all ingredients in medium bowl, mix to combine well
- Drop onto lightly greased cookie sheets (teaspoonful) and bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown

To Be Frank

If God had intended us to follow recipes, He wouldn't have given us grandmothers.
-Linda Henley

Our friend Frank has the honor of being the only person we know that shares both of our loves. He can spend hours in our home and conversation sways easily between football and food. He knows who won the 14th Super Bowl and how to make a deep dish pizza from scratch. He watches football with intensity, and at halftime makes himself at home in our kitchen to whip up one of his specialties.

As many cooks do, Frank credits his grandmother for much of his inspiration. He has her recipes, knows her tricks, and uses her techniques. For my carnival-themed 30th birthday party, he brought her Rice Krispie Bites - and on his last visit he shared her recipe with me.

Rice Krispie Treats were invented in 1939. The original recipe calls for Rice Krispies, marshmallows, and butter. That classic combination is the most widely known and used, although multiple variations and adaptations have been made throughout the years. Frank's version includes creamy peanut butter, brown sugar and light corn syrup, and the result is rich & comforting, with the classic airy crunch associated with Rice Krispie Treats.

Rice Krispie Bites

½ cup light corn syrup
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup peanut butter
4 cups Rice Krispies

- Combine syrup & sugar in saucepan, bring to a boil, then immediately remove from heat
- Add peanut butter and mix well
- Add Rice Krispies, fold into mixture until fully coated
- Form into balls (or desired shape) and serve

A Pear-fect Marriage

When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste.
Laiko Bahrs

I learned to cook by watching my grandmother in the kitchen, by reading cookbooks, and by trial and error. When I order a dish in a restaurant that I enjoy, I try to recreate it at home. Watching cooking shows provides inspiration for a new dish. If I don't have a specific ingredient, I improvise. It might work, or it may fall flat...but the ability to experiment provides flexibility and the ability to represent a viewpoint all our own.

This same set of principles cannot be applied to baking. Recipes are not suggestions - they are not open to interpretation. Granted, certain elements can be altered, but when it comes to the basics, ingredients exist for a reason.

In my mind, cooking and baking are perfect parallels to the aspects of a good marriage. In a relationship, there are certain things that we can tweak - there are days we can omit the sarcasm, add a bit more excitement, substitute affection for words. However, as with baking, there are certain items that cannot be removed - respect, honesty, fun, selflessness. Sure, you can bake a cake without sugar, just as you can have a relationship without laughter - but would it be nearly as good?

There are days when I don't have the energy to bake. I don't have the patience for measuring exact amounts, don't wish to be confined to the rules a cake recipe brings. Then there are days, the days when I'm in need of structure and a guarantee. Relationships bring about the same types of roller-coaster emotions - lack of patience, defiance for independence, the need for balance, the yearning for comfort and stability.

This recipe is based on a simple pear & pecan bread recipe - and although the fundamental aspects of the recipe remain the same, I've altered it to incorporate what works best for me - removing the nuts and adding brown sugar for crunch and texture. In essence, I've taken the things that cannot be ignored, and adapted them to best fit my mold....basically, marriage defined.

Pear Muffins
1 ½ cups flour
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. sugar cinnamon blend
½ tsp. nutmeg
1 egg
½ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 ½ cups diced ripe pears

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

-In a medium bowl, combine the first 7 ingredients and combine well.

-In a separate bowl, mix the last 4 ingredients together.

-Add wet ingredients to dry mix a little at a time, whisking to incorporate well, until mixure is fully combined and well moistened.

-Spoon mixture into a mini-muffin pan (filling cups 3/4 full) and bake 12-14 minutes, or until brown.