January 2011

I’m Totally Doing It.

January 31, 2011 · 44 comments

I’m cleaning as I go!

Even if I’m one shade away from overflowing the sink.

[This morning my Better Than Crack Brownies are up for raffle for a fabulous cause over at Steph's Bite By Bite. Head on over there to bid on my brownies! I promise to include some extra goodies too.]

Break out the stretchy pants!

I mean, seriously… break them out.

If showing you a picture of melted butter and chocolate doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what will.

I’ve never really been big on bundt cakes. In fact, I didn’t even like them on Friday. Or Saturday morning. But then my mom made a marble bundt cake on Saturday night with chocolate fudge chip frosting and I just about died and went to heaven.

Luckily I didn’t, because that allowed me to make my own bundt cake.

A brownie bundt cake.

I love eating my favorite treats in different forms. It spices things up and keeps dessert fun. I used our favorite brownie recipe, the recipe that I just converted into brownie cupcakes.

Seems I’ve been on another brownie binge!

I ended up making a recipe and a half of the brownies because I honestly was sure if one batch would be big enough for the bundt pan. Good thing I did. Who doesn’t need extra sugar, butter, chocolate and flour?

This cake is a little rich. And by a “little,” I mean there are 6 whole eggs and nearly 3 cups of sugar. Ooops! Guess that’s what happens when you almost double a brownie recipe.

Obviously I had to top it with sprinkles. Life is meaningless without sprinkles.

Just like the cupcakes, the bottom (which yes, is the top before flipping it over) is crunchy and crackly. Such amazing texture with this recipe.

And they are so oooey, gooey, chewy and rich that you only need a skinny slice.

Or a large chunk. Which ever you prefer.

I went with a large chunk. I felt it suited me better than a skinny slice.

If you are looking for a decadent, incredible dessert, I’ve got you covered. If you are looking to bust out of your favorite jeans, I’ve also got you covered. I’m a jack of all trades, folks.

Chewy Brownie Bundt Cake

1 1/2 sticks butter

5 squares Baker’s chocolate

2 1/2 cups sugar

6 eggs

2 cups flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.

Melt butter and baking sqaures in a microwave safe bowl. In the mixing bowl, cream melted butter and chocolate mixture. Add in sugar and vanilla and beat until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add in eggs, beating one at a time. Add flour and cocoa powder and stir just until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Grease a bundt pan thoroughly with butter. Pour batter in the pan. Bake for about 75 minutes, or until brownie is set. The top with be a bit crunchy and the insides will be fudgey. Top with vanilla glaze and sprinkles.

Vanilla Cream Glaze recipe HERE.

Guess what’s for breakfast?

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The Best Part of Recipe Development.

January 30, 2011 · 31 comments

Quality control.

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Layered Baked Buffalo Chicken Nachos.

If you follow our What We Ate page, then you know that last week Mr. How Sweet and I had buffalo chicken sandwiches for dinner one night. This was a repeat offender, as it was the meal that Mr. How Sweet made for me one Friday night after declaring he wanted to cook dinner. Which never happens… ever. Unless it is ground turkey or eggs. Along with this meal comes a homemade blue cheese dressing and a butter + buffalo wing sauce mix. Last time we made it, I put it on everything I could get my hands on, including grilled cheese. One day last week, I started thinking how delicious the blue cheese dressing and buffalo sauce would be on crispy chips with melted cheese. So I made a snack. Four days in a row. Until both the blue cheese dressing and buffalo wing sauce were gone. The combination was so delicious! I couldn’t wait to make it for Mr. How Sweet, but knew the dish wouldn’t fly unless I used chicken. We had some left over from the chicken we roasted, so you can surely say that this is one hodgepodge of a dish. Don’t feel compelled to [...]

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20-Minute Roasted Tomato Pasta.

Okay, so maybe I led you on. This pasta doesn’t have that many veggies. It still has too many for me though. But how can I resist when it is so simple and quick? Preheating my oven is what took the longest! It’s easy, it’s versatile, and you can make it your own. Add chicken or steak or shrimp or even… more vegetables. But I might cry a little. It actually took me less than 20 minutes to make. A perfect lunch or dinner when you’re in a pinch! Make it. 20-Minute Roasted Tomato Pasta serves 4+ 2 pints grape tomatoes 1 cup mushrooms, chopped 1/2 sweet onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, minced 1 6-ounce bag of spinach 4 tablespoons olive oil 1 pound whole wheat pasta 1/3 cup asiago cheese Preheat oven to 450. Lay tomatoes on a baking sheet, drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and make sure each tomato gets oiled. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast for 20 minutes until tomatoes begin to burst. After the tomatoes go into the oven, heat a skillet over medium heat and add remaining olive oil. Add onions and mushrooms and saute until soft, about 5-6 minutes. Bring [...]

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Things I’m Loving.

I have a 20 minute dinner to share with you… but I just didn’t feel like it today. Honestly, it includes too many veggies for my liking and I didn’t feel like uploading pictures of tomatoes. Too many vegetables make me convulse. You know this. So I wanted to share some love – the things I’ve bookmarked in the last week that will inevitably lead me to cook up a frenzy and have to buy new pants. It’s been too long since I’ve done this! Heather just shared these brownie batter chocolate chip cookies. I think she’s trying to kill me. Andrea made whole wheat sour cream pancakes. Yessss… whole wheat! I’ll take three short stacks please. Caitlin talked about the glass being half full. Mine is usually half full… with wine. Jenna’s carbonara for one is calling my name. I’ve wanted to make carbonara forever and this gives me the kick in the pants to do it. [photo courtesy of Jenna] But I may need to quadruple it since I have a hungry husband. Some of my favorite bakers made a meyer lemon pound cake. Liking lemon for dessert is new to me, but I’m all over this. Except [...]

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Comfort Food.

Mr. How Sweet is still on the mend. He is doing great, while I on the other hand am a neurotic freak. But that’s nothing new. I was so excited when he asked me this afternoon for a dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy. He rarely asks me for anything, except when he asks me to make “healthy cookies” every other week. I love taking care of him. And FYI: cookies are not supposed to be healthy. Healthy cookies do not taste great. We have learned this after 654 attempts. So comfort food it was! I caramelized some chicken in my cast iron skillet. Can I just say that I am obsessed one million times over with my cast iron skillet? It’s true love. I didn’t think we had enough yukon golds, so I made a mash of yukon golds and sweet potatoes. This was delicious. Might make potatoes like this from now on. And obviously we had corn on the side, because there always seems to be a lack of green veggies in the fridge. I have no idea why. Oh yeah… and I even made gravy. Then topped it all with the gravy goodness. Now I’m in a [...]

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A PSA.

When in doubt, eat ice cream.

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread.

Word on the street is that I post quite a few recipes with peanut butter. You probably haven’t noticed. But this recipe is better. This recipe contains one of the best combinations known to man: chocolate, peanut butter and banana. Only taking a close second to bacon and chocolate. This is a banana bread to end all banana breads. And it has whole wheat flour! And brown sugar. You know, the healthy kind of sugar? Since it’s brown? Kind of like brown bread. Or brown flour. Or brown brownies. Just ignore me. All I’m saying is that you can eat lots. And as usual, make sure you cut super thick slices. Slices already have a set limit of calories. One slice fits all. Make it a big one. Especially if the top is covered in raw turbinado sugar, because then it’s reallllly crunchy. I might have eaten just the top off of half the loaf because, well… I do things like that. Love, love, love this bread. I was a little nervous using all whole wheat flour, but it made the bread perfectly dense and delicious. It’s not too sweet either. Which is highly unusual for me, so I apologize. [...]

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