Comfort Food - Simple/Quick Brownie Recipe

I need comfort food. After a bad turn of events (there's still hope, I think) yesterday, I had a craving for chocolate.

Chocolate makes all things better :)

I went into my pantry and found that we had two containers of cocoa powder (dark and reg cocoa) and decided that I would be making brownies today. Besides, it's a good distraction... music and cooking are both really good things to distract yourself with. So, that's what I've been doing... baking and recording some covers on guitar and piano... and looking at multiple maps for a sweet fantastical escape (? maybe).

I've made brownies from scratch multiple times before and I have a few people asking for the recipe... so here it is.

Ingredients:

2/3 cups of cocoa powder

2 cups of sugar

4 eggs

1 cup and 4 Tbsp. of olive oil

1 Tbsp. of vanilla extract

1 rounded cup of flour

1 tsp. of salt

* optional: add 1 cup of chopped nuts or chocolate chips

1. Mix first 5 ingredients well

2. Add the salt and flour.

3. Mix everything until it's well blended.

* add in the optional ingredients if you want

4. Pour mixture into a (9x13 inch) pan.

5. Smooth out the mix on the pan

6. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes

7. Take out of oven and let cool before serving.

So the original recipe called for 1 cup of chopped nuts, but since I have a nut allergy, I obviously skip that step. I had some semi-sweet dark chocolate chips left from making those Kick-ass Cookies a couple of weeks ago, so I added them into my brownie mix for a more chocolatey goodness.

*note: Since I used chocolate chips, I reduced the sugar from 2 cups to 1 and half cups of sugar.

I used mostly dark chocolate cocoa powder for this brownie batch (I added 2/3 dark cocoa powder and 1/3 of reg cocoa powder to make up that 2/3 cup). The result is delicious.

This is good with vanilla ice cream or milk, whatever you prefer :)

I'm gonna have to run a few extra miles tomorrow x.x

I woke up and watched the Today Show while having a breakfast and I would like to make the Old Fashioned Cakes from the 1930s... check out the video clip from the Today Show.... they all look so good. If I end up trying to make some of them, I would need volunteers to eat :( would anyone be interested?

I'm taking some of these brownies for the lovely ladies at band practice tonight... I love cooking/baking for others, because it makes people happy... especially since comfort food like this is meant to be shared :D

Ratatouille - C'est très savoureux et délicieux :D

Last Friday while I was having a momentary break from work, I chatted with my friend (who should be sleeping since there's a 12 hour time difference between us) who suggested that I try something international instead of sticking to American foods... this got the wheels in my brain turning. I later had lunch with a couple of my colleagues and, through food discussions, I decided to go French. One of my colleagues had just moved here from France and I asked her what authentic French dish I could make that she thought I wouldn't mess up on. We settled on Ratatouille... Remember that movie? No... I never watched that one either.. x.x

So at the end of the day, I use my trusted source (i.e. Google) and searched for recipes. I showed my co-worker the recipes that I found and she just starts laughing and says no (>.<)

Here is the recipe I followed (minus the chicken): Ratatouille

Just in case you can't read French, here's what I did:

1. Went to the market and filled my basket with 1 eggplant, 2 zucchinis, 3 onions, garlic, 6 tomatoes, and 2 bell peppers (1 green and 1 red).

2. Washed all veggies and cut the eggplant and zucchinis into pieces so that they are about 2 cm in length.

3. Cut the tomatoes and bell peppers in a similar fashion and remove the middle white parts for both. I thought 6 tomatoes were a little excessive so I only used 5.

4. Chop the onions and garlic.. I used 2 onions instead of 3 because I was crying too much at that point (I forgot to put them in the fridge... cold onions = no tears)

*So... the recipe says the preparation of cutting everything should take about 20 minutes... it didn't take me 20 minutes.. it was more like.. oh.. an hour... I'm gonna blame it on my sore back and shoulders x.x

5. Heat the olive oil in a pan then add the eggplant and sauté for about 6 minutes.

6. Remove the eggplant

7. Add the zucchini to the pan and sauté for another 4 minutes.

8. Remove the zucchini

9. Add a little bit more of the olive oil and then add the chopped onions, garlic, and bell peppers and sauté for another minute

10. Add everything else, and add the salt and pepper (the amount is really up to you) and gently mix everything together.

11. Slowly cook for about 25-30 minutes.

I covered the veggie mix for about 10 minutes and you do get more juice by covering it. I was told it wasn't supposed to be like a soup... but there is a lot of water juice that comes out at the end...

You can eat it with bread or rice. The juice is awesome with bread...

I think the meal would have been better if I had time to grill some chicken or something. I made enough Ratatouille for 6 people so basically I made like 2 meals out of this for the family. Had this for lunch today too.

I really like this site and I want to try making Rouleaux croustillants de légume sometime in the future.

Lunch: Egg Salad using Egg Molds

I feel mighty stuffed with very healthy foods right now :)

Today is the first day that I am taking a break from the rush of everyday life and it felt great to be left alone for a break. I'm not feeling too much of the tension and soreness in my shoulders so I guess I'm starting to relax a little. :D So.... I put a little bit of effort into making food today.

Lunch: Egg Salad

Dad walks by and looks at my creation: "Are you really going to eat that?? Or is that for the kid?"

I had a salad today for lunch to get rid of some of the veggies in the fridge... but I wanted to use some of my tools that I got from Amazon and H-Mart for some... uh... fun ^.^

My salad consisted of the usual cherry tomatoes, cucumber, romaine lettuce, spinach, hard boiled eggs, and a slice of turkey (my brother bought way too much turkey cold cuts this week).

I wanted to try my egg molds that I got from Amazon.com for my boiled eggs.

The molds make the hard boiled egg into interesting shapes. Here's how they work:

Peel the boiled egg and put it into the mold.

Close the lid and put molds on ice (or ice water) for 10 minutes.

Take the covers off and trim away any extra spill-over.

I think the perfect size egg for these molds are large sized eggs. The Jumbo egg that I have used for the star might be slightly too big b/c it was hard to close the lid. The medium sized egg that I used for the fish was too small b/c now the fish is missing a tail... poor fishie :(

I chose 1 cookie cutter (a simple star) to use to cut the turkey meat.

Here's my lunch for today:

I guess this is kind of a trial run of a few tools from my growing arsenal of supplies that I have gotten from asian markets and on-line... and more coming soon from my buddy on an island in Asia? (*wink wink*). I want to make a bento box for myself and my 3-year old niece to get her super excited about eating.

The other egg molds that I can play with :D

And... to answer Dad's question... yes, I ate it and no, it wasn't for the 3-year old.

Thoughts and things to do...

The past week has been really hard to do anything. I returned home every night from work past 8pm and was pretty much lethargic and ended up focusing my left over energy on music instead and made my own versions of songs on guitar and piano... although I should be finishing music that I haven't finished in a year since I've started learning it x.x

I have been thinking about what to do next. I feel like it's time to start cooking :)

Mom has been observing me the past few times I've baked and she's been pretty supportive. She gave me a stack of cookbooks and textbooks... "learn something"

I was all over Betty Crocker's "Cookbook for Boys and Girls" that my parents apparently bought for my sibs from Building #19 for $1.00 back in either the late 1970s or early 1980s. I read through the first few pages on how to "Play it Safe!" so that I won't inadvertently injure myself. with sharp objects. I took the little quiz at the end and I passed yay! I'm ready!

There's one recipe in there called "Cereal Sundae" that I just had to tried right away. Here's the recipe from the book:

Utensils:

- Cereal Bowl

- Ice-cream scoop or large spoon

Ingredients:

- Your favorite dry cereal

- Your favorite ice cream

Instructions:

- Fill Bowl halfway to top with cereal. Place a large scoop of ice cream in the center. Eat.

Yay! :D

This weekend has been spent in multiple markets to find supplies and ingredients. I went to Chinese and Korean markets and I'll post the pictures of the things I've bought when I work with them. Hopefully it will be soon because I have a million ideas right now.

Today I had time to spend with my mom to learn how to make 免治牛肉飯 (Minced Beef with green peas and rice) and a similar dish with chicken and tomatoes. I didn't have time to take photos b/c I was mostly shadowing and taking notes. I have never really learned to work with meat but this seems easy. We have extra meat left over so I'll be making it again on my own this time :D

Thank you to those who have given me your opinions and requests. I have a lot of ideas right now and your suggestions have made me drool... I'm excited to get started on my little project now that I have more free time this week and next week.

Taking another trip to the market tomorrow for ingredients to make something that was inspired by my good friend overseas in Taiwan and suggested by my colleague.

Super Moist Banana Blueberry Apple Muffins

I've been trying to do some more experimental cooking but things have been super busy and I come home late most nights to cook dinner for anyone... plus I managed to hurt one eye and have shoulder/back pain. I couldn't see out of one eye b/c it was tearing so much and had very bad depth perception for about a day. x.x I almost walked straight into a car and a door post on my way to work. My eye is healed now but my back still hurts and physical therapy makes me feel worse T.T When it rains it pours!

Anyway... I decided to make something tonight because the heat is ripening my fruit in the kitchen.

I gotta stop buying so many bananas.

So I have 3 that are over-ripe and not very edible. I've already made banana bread and oatmeal banana blueberry/dark chocolate chip cookies with my mushy bananas.

What's next? Meh... let Google decide.

I stumbled upon Banana Muffins from Cooks.com and realized I had all the ingredients all ready. So why not try it? I made some modifications to the recipe. The original recipe can be found in the link above.

When I looked at the original recipe, I was kind of appalled by how much butter was needed... 1 1/2 cups of melted butter?? That's like 3 sticks!! I used 1 stick of butter instead of 3. The other 2/3 I made up with apple sauce. I chose the chunky apple sauce to add more fruit to the muffins. I have 4 boxes of blueberries so I decided to use that instead of chocolate. So these muffins I made have 3 different fruits in them: banana, blueberries, and apples.

1 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of melted butter

1 cup of chunky apple sauce

2 eggs

2 cups of flour

1 tsp. of baking soda

1 tsp. of baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 ripe bananas

1 cup of fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350*F. Mix the flour, baking powder, and baking soda together and set aside. In a large bowl, mix the melted butter, sugar, and apple sauce in another bowl until it's creamy. Add the eggs and mix in one at a time. Add the vanilla extract. Then add the flour mix a little bit at a time and mix. Mash the 3 bananas with a fork and add the bananas to the batter. Wash the blueberries, drain the water, and take off the stems. Add blueberries to the batter and mix well. Take a spoon and scoop two spoonfuls of batter into the muffin pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let cool. Makes 24 muffins.

Optional: Line the muffin pan with paper cupcake liners. It will be easier to take out the muffins and less cleaning later.

They are sooo moist... kinda melts in your mouth kind of moist. I think my oatmeal banana blueberry cookies were more fragrant but these are good too. They aren't too sweet but sweet enough. Perfect for breakfast :)

Now to sit back and relax with Bengay and a heat pack on my shoulders on this fine hot humid night.

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My Kick-ass Cookies

I made some frickin' awesome cookies tonight.. I just tested them and they are sooo good. I wish I could share how my kitchen smells right now.

I made Banana Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Chip/Blueberry Cookies.

This idea came from eating lunch on Friday. I always bring a piece of fruit for lunch and usually it's a banana just for convenience and I'm not allergic to it :D. It happened to be over-ripe and just... gross. So I decided to use the last 2 for baking purposes. I already made banana bread before and wanted to try something different and more awesome.

My colleague, Andrea, reads food blogs and gave me this recipe from Joelen's Culinary Adventures who used the recipe from Field Guide to Cookies.

I basically followed the same recipe as seen in Joelen's blog with small changes:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 3/4 cups rolled old-fashioned oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup softened unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed ripe banana
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips (I like dark chocolate more than milk chocolate)

1/2 cup fresh blueberries (I wanted to experiment to make it healthier)

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Mix the flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Add half the flour mixture, mix, and then add the banana and mix. Add the rest of the flour mixture and mix until combined.

Optional (what I did): Split the mixture in half, leaving one half in the mixer and moving the other half to another bowl. Add in the dark chocolate chips to the mixer and mix well. Add the blueberries to the bowl and hand mix.

The blueberries would break in the mixer.

Drop tablespoon-sized balls onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake in the preheated oven for 14-17 minutes.

These are my experimental cookies with blueberries instead of the dark chocolate chips. The blueberries are sweet and the cookies have a hint of banana flavor. I made muffin top cookies!

The Banana Dark Chocolate Chip cookies are amazing too... they are crisp and the chocolate is still warm so it melts in your mouth...

I need people who like can eat... like to eat... to test my culinary skills for my food experiments... anyone? ;)

Bitter Melon D:

So last night I came home to a hot empty house. So I decided to make dinner for my parents. All I see when I open up the fridge is bitter melon, eggs, and some other veggies.

I kinda hate eating bitter melon.

I attempted to do something with it anyway for dinner's sake... if it turns out terrible, my parents like bitter melon so they can eat my share ;)

I took this:

Then butchered it --> i.e. cut it into thin slices.

Beat 5 egg whites and 4 yolks with slightly more than a pinch of salt, ground pepper, and a sesame oil and in the meantime cooked the bitter melon in a wok with olive oil. After the melon is cooked, I poured on the egg mixture.

This was the dinner I made for the parents:

So it's not really aesthetically pleasing but I actually really liked the bitter melon with eggs. There's a slight hint of bitter melon's bitterness but other than that it was pretty good. I made a pretty big dish and the parents managed to finish it off. Yay! I would probably make this again :)

Dad contributed the Chinese sausage b/c I didn't make anything with meat >.<