White Chocolate and Pecan Brownies

I would love to show you a better picture of these brownies.

I really would.

But this, my friends, is the last brownie left in the pan.  Lonely little guy.  Sad really.

Between the incessant rain and the popularity of these brownies, I was unable to snap a picture before they were long gone.  These brownies were a delicious, rich and chocolatey, studded with white chocolate chips and pecans and topped with powdered sugar.  Yums.  The brownies are on the thin side, but don’t let that scare you off, the texture is perfect.  The flavors are also really great together.

My father-in-law especially loved these brownies and I considered renaming them in his honor!  If I make another pan of these, I will definitely take photos before I send them off to his house.  :)  Enjoy!

White Chocolate and Pecan Brownies

Yield:  About 32 brownies

3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup firmly packed golden brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

3 large eggs

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

6 oz. white chocolate, cut into 3/4-inch pieces  (I used 6 oz. white chocolate chips)

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Powdered sugar

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line bottom of 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan with aluminum foil.  Butter and flour foil and sides of pan.

2.  Stir unsweetened chocolate in top of double boiler set over simmering water until chocolate melts.  Remove chocolate from over water and cool.

3.  Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until light and fluffy.  Gradually add brown sugar and 1/2 cup sugar and beat until well blended.

4.  Mix in melted chocolate.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, and beat just until blended after each addition.  Mix in flour.

5.  Using rubber spatula, mix in white chocolate and pecans.

6.  Transfer batter to prepared pan.

7.  Bake brownies until tester inserted into center comes out with a few crumbs attached, about 20 minutes.

8.  Cool brownies in pan on rack.  (Can be made 2 days ahead.  Cover; store at room temperature.)

9.  Cut around pan sides to loosen brownies.  Turn out onto work surface. Peel off foil.

10.  Cut into 2- to 3-inch squares.  Arrange right side up on plate.

11.  Dust with powdered sugar.

Source:  Bon Appetit February 1995, p. 54

A Blah Monday

Mondays are not really my favorite days of the week.  I know I am not alone in this.

This morning was particularly harsh because I spent the last half hour of Sunday night watching a YouTube video that had my heart breaking and sobbing uncontrollably.  (I’m sure you all have heard about this and I am the last person on the planet to get clued in to popular media…)

A Facebook link took me to the video about Zach Sobiech, an 18-year old boy who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer, at 14 and in 2012 was given months to live.  What is even more tragic is that he passed away less than three weeks after the video was published on YouTube.  I didn’t know this going in and it made it so much more poignant.

In the video, Zach talks about being able to express himself through music.  There is a video for one of his songs “Clouds” on YouTube as well as a celebrity-Skyped version as well.  You can also buy the song on iTunes to raise money for the Zach Sobiech Research Fund.

“You don’t have to find out you’re dying to start living.”

- Zach Sobiech

It is really touching and emotional and really makes you realize that Mondays might not be so bad after all.

Friday Cocktail – Faux Limoncello

This one is for my friend, whose name rhymes with “who” or “clue,” and kind of sounds like “booze.”  Hmmmm.  Coincidink?

I made this the other weekend, just because, but ended up taking it to a Memorial Day celebration.  It is delicious and fizzy and refreshing and may or may not (we can’t really say for sure) have pushed said friend, right off the Pretty Buzzed Cliff and straight into the Drunk Ocean.  She may or may not disagree…

So, this is apparently a faux limoncello because the lemons/lemon peels are not steeped in vodka.  In this recipe, the juice is added to a simple syrup.  This version is quick, delicious and potent.  Here’s to cliff-diving!  :)

Also, a mantra to live by:

Cheers!

Faux Limoncello

Yield:  about 4 cups

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup water

1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice (about 10 -12 lemons)

1 1/2 cup vodka

Club soda

1.  In a small saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil and stir until sugar dissolves and thickens slightly into a simple syrup.

2.  Let cool, then pour into a pitcher or serving carafe.

3.  Stir in lemon juice and vodka.

4.  Serve over ice and top with club soda.

Source:  Pink of Perfection

A Proud Moment…

On Saturday morning, we asked the Misses what they wanted for dinner that night. Sometimes they pick things out of their kids cookbook and we make it together.  Miss F asked if we could have cheese and crackers “like that time we were at the beach.”  (Last year, we took a quick trip over to Naples, Florida for a weekend and stayed in a hotel suite with a little kitchen.  The first night there, we ate cheese and crackers and they had sparkling apple juice as we watched the sunset.  Apparently this was a memorable meal for Miss F, although the hotel I would like to forget…)  I said, “Of course, but you have to go to the store and pick it out.”  Off the Misses went with D, and the result was our dinner:

My babies asked for cheese and crackers for dinner!!  Miss F even picked out the “stinky cheese” – she’s always loved it, even as a toddler.

As a cheese-aholic, I am so proud.

Ice Cream Sunday – Thin Mint Ice Cream

Do you have a stash of Girl Scout cookies that you are looking to use up?  Did you already make martinis?  And you still have leftover cookies??  Clearly, you do not drink enough.  :)

On to a recipe appropriate to share with the kiddos…

Given my little Scouts preference for all things minty, I made them Thin Mint Cookie Ice Cream.  I didn’t mean to.  I meant to follow the recipe as written and make Cookies and Cream with vanilla Oreos.  But then I saw all those boxes still on my counter and knew what I had to do.

This is really good ice cream.  The cookies crumble up so much that every bite has mint cookie and chocolate while still being a vanilla ice cream.  I wanted to leave some bigger chunks of cookie in the ice cream, so I chopped half and coarsely crumbled the other half.  The base is the same as the Chocolate Chip Ice Cream recipe that I posted earlier – it’s a good backdrop for mix-ins.

My Scouts were thrilled with the results!

Thin Mint Ice Cream

6 egg yolks, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

2 cups half-and-half

1 cup heavy cream

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

1 sleeve of Thin Mint cookies, half crumbled, half coarsely chopped

1.  In a medium-size bowl, with an eggbeater or whisk, beat egg yolks until creamy, about 2 or 3 minutes.  Add the sugar and beat until incorporated.  Set aside.

2.  In a double boiler over simmering water, heat the half-and-half until scalded (just beginning to bubble around the edges).

3.  Add 1/2 cup half-and-half to the egg mixture, stirring to warm the egg yolks.  Return the entire egg mixture to the double boiler and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes (mine took longer, just be patient).

4.  Remove from heat and place the pot in a bowl of cold water.

5.   When the custard has cooled to room temperature, stir in the heavy cream and vanilla.  Cover and refrigerate until completely chilled, preferably overnight.  (I’ve found overnight chilling to be essential to great ice cream making…)

6.  Pour into an ice cream machine and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions until partially set, about 20 minutes.  Stir in the cookie pieces and continue freezing in the machine until firm, about 5 minutes.

Source:  Adapted from More from Magnolia by Allysa Torrey

Frozen Friday Cocktail – Salted Margarita Cream Pops

I hereby declare this the Summer of Boozy Popsicles Frozen Pops!

Are you with me?

I’ve seen recipes for so many different variations that I want to try that I am making frozen cocktail treats my personal mission (besides training for a freaking marathon) this summer.  A girl has to have some motivation to run so much, right?  Anyway, I started off with these margarita pops and they are delicious!  Kind of like a frozen creamy margarita, kind of like a boozed-up Key lime pie.  Either way, creamy, tart, sweet and so good.

I think these little goodies are the perfect start to my summertime of Boozy Pops.  Don’t you?

Salted Margarita Cream Pops

1/2 cup Key lime juice

2 tsp. minced Key lime zest

3/4 cup water

7 oz. sweetened condensed milk (half of a 14-ounce can)

1 1/2 Tbsp. tequila

2 tsp. kosher salt  (I did not use all of the salt, I just put a sprinkle/dash in each pop mold and it was plenty salty for me.)

1.  In a medium mixing bowl, combine the lime juice, zest, water, condensed milk, and tequila and stir well.

2.  Divide the salt evenly into the bottom (later, it will be the top) of each of six 4-ounce ice pop molds.

3.  Pour the margarita mixture into each mold, leaving about 1/2 inch extra space for the liquid’s expansion in the freezer.

4.  Freeze for 6 hours, or until solid.

5.  To release an individual pop, rotate it under a stream of running warm tap water for about 30 seconds.  Keep running it under water until the pop can be pulled out gently.

Source:  Can it, Bottle it, Smoke it and Other Kitchen Projects by Karen Solomon via CHOW

City's Historic Capen House to be Demolished

Reblogged from Preservation Winter Park:

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There are precious few houses in the city of Winter Park as old as the Capen House, located at 520 North Interlachen Avenue. Built in 1885 for James S. Capen, one of the city’s early settlers, the house was initially constructed in a Folk Victorian style, and celebrated by the local community.  City founder Loring Chase wrote in Winter Park Scrapbook on September 22, 1885, “Our handsome friend, J.S.

Read more… 1,720 more words

Whether or not you call yourself a "historic preservationist," or if you only like to visit places/cities/towns with a strong sense of place, this blog post from a friend in Winter Park, Florida is definitely worth a read. Make sure to check out the link to the real estate listing of this wonderful and absolutely historically significant home. People need to realize that a place is the sum of its parts. As these parts are lost or destroyed, so is the charm and context of a community.