TwD: CHIPSTER BROWNIES

I'm making history today people. This is the first Tuesdays with Dorie posting for which the dessert is already made, given, and long gone. You see, a few weeks ago a friend had a birthday. I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, and to my horror she shook her head, "I don't like cake." What? Okay, it's her birthday so she gets what she wants. "Well what would you like?" "I don't really like sweets." Alright, now this was getting a little crazy. I know people who don't like sweets, my brother being one, and it usually just means more for me. However, we were talking birthday here. So I tried one more time and got...brownies. Brownies?! I can live with brownies.

A big thanks to Beth of Supplicious for picking Chipster Brownies. In case you haven't guessed, chipster brownies are brownies topped with a layer of chocolate chip cookie. Oh yes, you heard right, this duo is out to blow other little brownies to pieces! Everything went smoothly with the recipe...until I got to the part where you spread the chocolate chip cookie dough on top of the brownie batter. My cookie dough was so heavy that it wanted to plummet straight to the bottom of the pan. I had brownie batter sputtering out in mini geysers. It was kinda a mess, and the resulting brownies look more marbled in the middle than they're probably supposed to. I was happy when I finally got the dough covering the whole top and popped it in the oven. As I set out to clean-up, I found an egg in the 1/4 cup measuring cup. Huh? Who put that there? Wasn't that supposed to go into the...cookie dough. Huh, I wonder if that's why it was so hard to spread?  
The forgotten egg made me a little nervous. The brownies smelled good, looked good, and were a bit dense and gooey (my fave-type of brownies). The chocolate chip top was a bit crumbly but hey, I had a birthday bbq to get to. So I boxed up the brownies and headed off hoping for the best. And people loved them! Deemed them "crack brownies." Finished them before anything else. Success. Even without the forgotten egg. There were a couple of people who could only eat a bite, before calling it quits. These brownies are not to be take lightly. They are double the dessert. I will definitely be making these again.  

RED PEPPER PASTA SALAD

I like the idea of pasta salad so much more than I like the real thing...

I love cold noodles...leftover Thai is the best! I'm not a mayo-hater and I love veggies. 

So what's the problem? I'm not quite sure. There's something about the way it all comes together that always seems stale, soggy, bleahhhhh.

So I decided to make one that was better than the rest. 

RED PEPPER PASTA SALAD

whole wheat pasta, boiled according to instructions

frozen veggie mix, added when pasta is almost done

1 red bell pepper, added after cooking when pasta is cool

SAUCE

1 Tablespoon sour cream

salt and black pepper to taste

1 Tablespoon Safflower oil

1 teaspoon rosemary

The result - it was colorful and pretty. I enjoyed it the first day. After that, it sat in my fridge waiting, becoming stale and soggy as the way all pasta salad seems to go. I'll try again though. Any great recipes out there?

TwD: FRESH MANGO BREAD

M-A-N-G-O

M-A-N-G-O

M-A-N-G-O

And Mango was it's name-o!

Yes, this more than slightly annoying little ditty has been playing through my head. But it doesn't take away from the fact that I looovvvee mangoes! I practically lived off mangoes for an entire month while backpacking through Southern Africa. I grabbed handfuls of the small, stringy kind off trees for the juice and the fruit. Love 'em. 

Thanks to Kelly of Baking with the Boys for this week's pick. It's a sweet bread filled with fresh mango, raisins, brown sugar, cinnamon, lime zest, ginger, and (I added) coconut. Living in Miami, I get to have mangoes a lot. I usually try to buy them from the local farmer's market on the weekend. Since I was out of town this past weekend, I settled for the grocery store mangoes. What did they have? The ones I think look like wooden shoes with funny little pointed toes. I'm not sure if there's anyone out there who can see the resemblance...but it's there.I got two mangoes and needed both to make two cups diced. This variety from Haiti is sweet and a little stringy. I don't mind the stringiness. I'm not very discriminating when it comes to mangoes; small, large, oval, shoe-shaped, stringy, sweet, green with chili pepper, it's all good. The stringiness was a little weird in the bread though, so I would probably opt for a less stringy variety next time. 
I definitely think this bread is kickin' and the perfect summer sweet alternative to heavier chocolate desserts. I also like fruit desserts in the summer months. I turned my bread out too soon, and a bit of the top stuck to the cooling rack. I used powdered sugar and coconut on top to cover up the resulting blemishes. But since that was the biggest mishap of this kitchen episode, I think it was a pretty good baking night. 

In the recipe, Dorie mentions that the bread is best the day after baking. I have mine covered now, sitting on the table just waiting for tomorrow. 

TwD: (FOR REAL) TARTEST LEMON TART

I imagine this pie is the kinda thing all little Lemon Ice Box Pies aspire to. It's what they dream of being if only someone would have given them the whole lemon. Using a whole lemon for a recipe was a first for me, and it turned out great. I love that idea. Partly because using the whole of something is more eco-friendly, and partly because it's less prep and clean-up work for me. 
I used regular organic lemons, whatever kind Wild Oats had in singles. I saw some people used Meyer's lemons, which probably made theirs less tart. I love sour stuff - those awful Tear Jerkers, the fluorescent gummy worms - and this reminded me of a sweet kick of sour candy. I used Dorie's sweet nutty tart dough, adding a handful of coarsely chopped walnuts for texture. The crust was tasty, though it turned out crumbly and wanted to break apart coming out of the pan. Hmm, I wonder what I did wrong with the dough. The lemon filling was great, smooth and tart and not too jelly-like. 
My tart was tart...so much so that I moaned myself to sleep with a bellyache after eating a whole piece. But it was almost worth it because this is really delish. Thanks to Babette of Babette Feasts for choosing something citrusy and different! 

TwD: Tira-mini-su Cake

I went on a trip to Italy when I was a sophmore in high school and I remember trying very hard to like tiramisu. It was just so cool, with it's layers of creamy stuff. I couldn't stand the smell or taste of coffee and so I could never muster even a bite. But hey, as I've aged I have grown to love coffee, out of habit or necessity after long nights who knows. The only for sure thing is that I love my cup of joe. 
And this week I found out that I love my cup of tiramisu. I cut the recipe in 8ths and assembled it in a wine glass. Perfect for the mini tiramisu cake. Though the chocolate chips do like monstrous! 
I'm not a big fan of marscapone, so I substituted another creamy cheese - Neufchatel. It was yummy! This was a great little 'pick me up' chosen my Megan of My Baking Adventures. 

THE SWEETEST THING

Easter weekend, I took Good Friday off and hopped on a plane back to Georgia to visit family, friends, and my boyfriend (yeah, I know, long distance sucks). The day I left, a co-worker asked if the boyfriend cooks. Cooks...no. Not at all. He does grill though (it's programmed in with the other guy things). But cooking, in the kitchen, with his lovely set of pots and pans that have never been used except once by me...no.

But of course, as soon as I said it, things in the universe started turning to prove me wrong. For at the moment these words were coming out of my mouth, my boyfriend was in Publix, getting strawberries and chocolate and coconut. These he coupled with my favorite wine for a very sweet surprise.

He even took pictures before we devoured them so I could put them on my blog. And made my cheeks hurt with laughter telling about his kitchen adventures, first with the chocolate (how to get it melted) and then with the coconut (can you put coconut with strawberries or will it taste funky? can you sprinkle it on or dip it in?) Thank goodness he's a coconut fan too, because those were the best! I suppose if the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, the way to a woman's is through her sweet tooth.

TwD: 4 STAR CHOCOLATE BREAD PUDDING

Something happened here tonight folks, and it wasn't good.

It was supposed to be chocolatey, simple yet impressive...a 4 star bread pudding - I LOVE bread pudding!

Instead, it was dry on top, gooey in the middle (dry & gooey???), ugly, and not sweet.

Perhaps I messed up during the downsizing. Perhaps it was the English muffin I used. Hey, this was a last minute bake. I wasn't even going to post today. But a funny thing happens when you usually do something. First, people expect you to.

"What are making for Tuesdays with Dorie this week?" "Well, nothing..." hmmm

Next, you expect yourself to. "What sweet thing am I going to get tonight?" "Well, nothing.." "But it's the Sunday before Tuesday..." then it's Monday and I'm still craving something sweet, then it's Tuesday and I see everyone's Chocolate Bread Pudding posts so I cave.

I divided the recipe in approximate sevenths. I say approximate because I am too bad at math and too lazy to get a calculator and convert 4/7 of a cup into tablespoons. I do this a lot, and it usually works. Usually, but not always (tonight). But to every situation, may there be an upside and mine was...(drum role)...I got to break-out the mini whisk for the first time ever! Well, first legitimate time ever. This whisk came to me from my mom (thanks ma!) and I thought it so cute that I stirred my coffee with it just to put it to use.

Once the whisking was done, I added the hot milk and poured it over the bread to sit like Dorie said. Then it went in the oven, and came out looking a little weathered. Oh well, I suppose every night can't be a 4 star night...but I'm glad I gave it a try.