squirrel momma

Chocolate! The New Miracle Food!

Yeah, that sort of sounds like one of those headlines you see on Yahoo.  And it doesn't actually seem to be curing the fever & phlegm flu that has the squirrelings home sick from school this week.  But it makes me feel better.

Last night, my starched white Florence Nightingale cap feeling a  little frayed around the edges, I started throwing together brownies.  Not above putting a sick child to work, I sent the feverish 9 year old to dig through the baking supplies cupboard to see if he could find something appealing to mix in. Wonder of wonders he discovered some uneaten (!!!) homemade toffee, which we broke into small chunks and stirred in. With chocolate chips, of course.

I pulled the brownies out of the oven too early, and we ended up with something the consistency of warm chocolate pudding with gooey toffee swirled through it and little bits of crunchy edges.  Oh darn. I hate it when I make horrible mistakes like that, because I could hardly choke down my second bowlful. And Squirrel Girl had to put a scoop of coffee ice cream on the side to hide the taste. And I had to check on it this morning to make sure it hadn't gone bad overnight.

Ahhh. I feel so much better.

Catch Up

It finally dawned on me today that I hadn't talked to you all week, so here's a quick catch up...

On Tuesday my dad turned 81 and we took him out to dinner. He's still very active, and volunteers as a driver for the Red Cross, chauffeuring people back and forth to dialysis appointments and such. His secret?  "Any day I'm still walking and talking is a good one."  Works for me! 

...

Yesterday I received a belated (thanks to Amazon being slow) Valentine's Day gift from my hubby.

    

I had originally picked up Teens Cook Dessert at the library, thinking it would be glorified rice crispy treats or something. But it turns out that the authors of the books, two teenage sisters named Megan and Jill Carle, are the daughters of a prolific cookbook author. So instead I discovered a cookbook full of some seriously scrumptious recipes, including Cinnamon Swirl Bundt Cake and Cheesecake Bars (with raspberry jam swirled through--yum!). It was only with great reluctance and the threat of heavy fines that I returned it to the library, so you can bet I'm pretty geeked to now own both volumes. Thanks, hon!

...

The kids have a couple of days off of school this week, which meant we were able to stay up and watch movies. With a 9- and 14-year-old it gets pretty hard to find movies everybody wants to watch, so I sometimes have to dig pretty deep in the Blockbuster vaults. I had forgotten what cheesy good fun this one was:

Ben Kingsley as Dr. Watson, the real brains behind the operation, and Michael Caine as the not very bright actor Watson has hired to portray the fictional Sherlock he's created. Like I said, cheesy good fun.

...

And lastly, I've really gotten into the swing of little critter production. My favorite this week has to be Tilt-A-Whirl Squirrel.

 

My family thinks it's pretty strange when I get so excited by putting a pink stripe in a squirrel's tail. But you understand, don't you?  

I'm mean, c'mon, he needed it!  

Happy Valentine's Day

What with all the things going wrong with the weather, economy and the world in general in the last few weeks, I thought I would make chocolate pudding for all of us.

But I seem to have eaten it just before you got here...

(Oops.)  How about I give you the recipe instead?

Nearly Five Minute Way Better Than Store Bought Double Chocolate Pudding

(adapted from Bon Appétit magazine, which wasn't serious enough about the chocolate)

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch process if you have it, natural if you don't)

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 cups milk (I use skim and feel very virtuous)

1 generous ounce bittersweet chocolate, broken into chunks (Lindt 70% is very yummy, but if you're desperate you can substitute 1/2 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate and 1 tablespoon chocolate chips)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch and salt in a heavy medium (for me that's 3 quart) saucepan. Gradually add half of the milk, whisking until all the little lumps of cornstarch are gone. Whisk in the remaining milk. Keep whisking over medium heat until the pudding begins to thicken and comes to a boil, about 5 minutes. Continue to boil 1 minute longer, whisking continually (or else you'll get icky lumps).

Remove from heat and add the chocolate and vanilla. Whisk until the chocolate has melted and the pudding is smooth. Divide into 4 bowls and immediately cover by laying plastic wrap on the surface of the pudding (that will stop a "skin" from forming). Chill.  

To get the full medicinal effect of this pudding you must consume it while either reading a trashy novel or watching a trashy movie--you pick. Cozy slippers and blankie optional.

New Toy

My bestest friend gave me a fabulous Christmas gift today*:

Now I can make applesauce again, and save my fingers for sewing!

*The two of us have a long-standing agreement that Christmas and birthday presents don't have to be exchanged until the perfect gifts are found. We don't care if that means that some years Christmas is put off until February--it gives you something to look forward to when all the snow has turned grey and slushy and you're thoroughly sick of winter.

Comfort Food

We are definitely in need of some comfort food around here.  Yesterday I made Chocolate Chip Banana Bread AND Cinnamon Swirl Bundt Cake (don't ask me how I managed to squeeze the baking in while running back and forth to the hospital--I have no idea).

Today I cooked up a gallon and a half of black beans.  Black beans and rice is the ultimate dinner comfort food for us--warm, soft, spicy.  And it never hurts to have a quart or six in the deep freeze.

Auntie Amy's Black Beans

These are black beans for those who like them spicy and cooked to a creamy consistency.

2 pounds dried black beans, picked over and rinsed

1 teaspoon ground dried chipotle (optional--I know this can be hard to find)

2 Tablespoons ground cumin

2 Tablespoons dried oregano

2 Tablespoons sweet (not hot) paprika (I use the smoked Spanish paprika from Penzey's)

2 Tablespoons chile powder (I use the ancho chile powder from Penzey's, which is not very hot)

1 onion, halved

1/2 head garlic

2 bay leaves 

3 ounces (1/2 small can) tomato paste

Put the beans into a large (6 quart) stock pot and cover with several inches of water.  Bring to a boil and turn the heat off, leaving the pot on the burner.

After letting the beans soak for several hours rinse thoroughly and refill with the pot, again covering the beans with several inches of water.  Add all the remaining ingredients and bring the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat so that it is barely simmering.

Cook until the beans are very soft, stirring several times an hour (this helps dissolve the starch on the outside of the beans, giving them that "creamy" consistency).  If the beans start to dry out just add more water--if they get too thick they will stick to the bottom of the pot.

Total cooking time (once you start simmering) is about 4 hours--depending on your stove, your beans, and how you like them.  Two pounds of dried beans makes about 3 quarts; I usually double this recipe and use my 10 quart pot, ending up with enough beans to last through quite a few dinners of Huevos Rancheros! 

  

It's Crunch Time

Crunch Time (slang):  The interval of time immediately before a project is due, when it becomes apparent that the schedule has slipped and everyone is going to have to work like dogs to try to complete the project in time.

Well, that definition just about sums it up.  And besides working like a dog to get The Project (otherwise known as Christmas) done on time, I have been cursed with a couple of smaller projects that were, well, cursed.

For example, there was the garment that was requested by Nut Boy.  Sigh...

Feeling oh so thrifty I print a free pattern from Burda Style, assemble the 40 bazillion pieces with scissors and scotch tape, eyeball the completed pattern, and trot out to the fabric store. Where I proceed to buy exactly half the amount of fabric I need.  

On the second trip to an entirely different store I buy an entirely different fabric.  But only half of what I need.  Again.  

When I get home and realize this I pound my head on my Bernina for awhile, then think, "Oh, I'll just alternate two different fabrics for the front/back, left/right." 

Then I cut out everything, and see that one of the pieces has a hole in it, smack dab in the middle. 

I cut out another piece, using my last bit of fabric, but cut it backwards.

After ironing mending tape over the hole and finally sewing everything together, I was very, very glad to see the end of that little escapade. And so, by last night when we decided to make Christmas cookies, I was feeling more than a little slap happy, and not inclined to don a startched white apron and attempt being Martha Stewart.

In my own defense I actually began by hauling out dozens of cookie cutters and oodles of holiday sprinkles. But everybody--especially me--decided they just wanted to eat cookies, using the icing as dip and red sanding sugar to add that extra sugar crunch.  'Cause we're all about healthy snacking around here.

And if you're wondering the reason for all the pigs, according to my son it's "Hey! They're Christmas pigs!"

Like I said, we are so over being perfect around here.

Thirty Percent

My friend told me the other day that American's eat 30% of their yearly calories over the holidays.

Thirty percent.

Now I know, for most people, a fact like that would have made them rush out and buy three heads of lettuce and a bag of carrots.  But it made me immediately think, "Dang!  I need to start my holiday baking!"

So yesterday, instead of tackling all my projects that needed finishing, I made buttercrunch.  I don't make candy very often (at least not the kind where you haul out the candy thermometer and play food scientist), but it's not all that scary to me because I've been doing it since I was a little girl.  And not only to I love to eat buttercrunch, but I also like the fact that it's not fussy, because it's meant to look rustic--big ol' chunks of hard, crunchy toffee and dark chocolate studded with almonds, not perfectly sized truffles spheres, or identical jelly cubes. The only frightening thing is the amount of butter in buttercrunch, half a pound to a little over one cup of sugar.  Hence the name, and the fact is is sooooo good.  I seriously doubt this batch is going to survive past Sunday night.

Thirty percent, here I come!

Sunday Morning Baking

I just baked up these Meyer Lemon and Fresh Cranberry Muffins from Everybody Likes Sandwiches.

They turned out scrumptiously, even with my substituting a normal lemon for the Meyer (I also ground up the lemon zest with the sugar in my hand chopper, so that there weren't any long stringy thingies in the muffins, which certain children in my household have the tendency to complain about as if I'm trying to sneak spider legs into their food or something).  I especially like the fact that these muffins don't have any butter, just canola oil and milk, so really it's like having toast, fruit and a glass of milk for breakfast if you happen to eat two...or three...or... 

First Christmas Tree of the Season

 

Nope, no cute little Norfolk pine trees for me. This is a little rosemary "tree" that I got at the store today, because a Christmas tree you can nibble on is pretty darn wonderful. And there's something about the smell of rosemary that just makes me all drooly and dreamy...I think I might have been a goat on a sunny French hillside in a past life. I bought one of these last year, and by the time I sprinkled it on focaccia and pasta and pretty much everything but ice cream it didn't survive very far into January, but it was great while it lasted. Yum. 

Mug O'Chocolate

I know I've been a neglectful blogger the last few weeks (and on top of that, I forgot to mention that those pink squirrel jammies in my last post were from good old Target), but I'm about to make it up to you, big time.

Last week my bestest friend send me a recipe that is currently floating around the internet for Cake in a Mug. She knows I can't resist tweaking recipes, plus I'm a complete chocolate snob, so she thought I might be able to make a good thing better. Unfortunately, I wasn't too thrilled with Cake in a Mug--although it's made from scratch in five minutes, I don't want my chocolate cake warm. I want it cold, with lots of coffee buttercream frosting.

Brownies, however...those should be warm.  And gooey.  So I have created (drum roll, please!)

MUG O'CHOCOLATE!!!

Yes, it's warm, it's gooey, and it's ready in five minutes!

Mug O'Chocolate

1/2 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate 

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup granulated white sugar

1 egg white

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli)

Place the baking chocolate and butter in a large (at least 12 ounce) microwave safe coffee mug and microwave at 50% power, stirring every 15 seconds, until chocolate and butter are completely melted. In a 1000 watt microwave this will take about 1 minute total.

Stir in the sugar, then the egg white. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until completely mixed, making sure no dry pockets are hiding at the bottom of your mug.

Microwave at 100% power until just set, but still moist and gooey. In a 1000 watt microwave this will take 1 minute.

Slide out onto a plate, hide from everyone else who might want to share (tell them to make their own--it only takes 5 minutes!) and eat while still warm.