Brownies - The Best Kind of Study Break

So after tooling around with a paper, I decided to make some brownies for the hell of it. I didn't really feel like melting chocolate so I searched for a recipe and decided to use Alton Brown's for no specific reason except it was the first I found in a Google search that used cocoa powder. I added some ultra tasty chandler walnuts - a walnut that has zero bitterness and is much sweeter than regular walnuts - for some crunch. A perfect way to beat the books, at least for a moment.

Cocoa Brownies (With Walnuts!)
Recipe adapted from Alton Brown

Soft butter, for greasing the pan
Flour, for dusting the buttered pan
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar, sifted
1 cup brown sugar, sifted
8 ounces melted butter
11/4 cups cocoa, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon kosher saltPreheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8-inch square pan.
1 cup of crushed walnuts

In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.

Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it's done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it's mostly cool.

I Have to be Judged, Hence a Pause

It's finals time for grad students at CSUS which means lots of papers. For me, I'll be writing one discussing a lesson plan I developed for high-intermediate ESL writing students, and another discussing colonialist theory in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, and Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

On this note, there may be a slow down in posts this next week or so. I highly encourage you to check out the archives or look at some of the other Sac local bloggers or cupcake blogs listed in the side bar. I also will have a few recipes I developed up on Simply Recipes, so keep an eye out and check out their cookie archives as well.

Wish me luck! =)

-Garrett

Whoopsie

So I used to speak American Sign Language pretty damn well. Not fluently, but I could hold my own in a conversation. Sadly though, with no one to talk to, I find myself forgetting a lot of what I used to know, and when I find a chance to use it I have to stumble along and recall the signs.

Today was one of those cases. A deaf client, a child of about 10 or 11, came in with his translator and told me that he was hungry and wanted to get some food as he wasn't going to get home for dinner for quite some time. I told him we had some popcorn in the back and asked if that would be good. He agreed and I retrieved the popcorn. We chatted a bit more, he tolerating my broken signs and the translator giving me a helping hand (pun not intended) when I stuttered.

After I handed the popcorn to him, I told him "You can go to the back, and use the kitchen."

Or so I thought.

What I apparently said was, "Go to the back, and I'll kill you."

Yeah... kitchen and kill. Doubt I'll be forgetting those anytime soon.

Vosges Sampler IV - Couture Hot Chocolate

The Final Installment of the Vosges Sampler posts, this one being the hot chocolates. Hope you enjoy them as much as I have, though I doubt that's quite possible.

Bianca Couture (Australian lemon myrtle + lavender flowers + vanilla + white chocolate) - Sweet. Very sweet. And reminiscent of the milk at the bottom of a bowl of Fruity Pebbles cereal, that's not a bad thing, but I must admit it's very different from what I expected it to taste like. It's not just me either, I checked with a few others and they all thought the exact same thing. Lemon myrtle has that kind of sweet citrus taste (like lemongrass and kaffir lime) so I should have expected it. It's very flavorful, and not so much herbal but rather candy-like. I could only drink a half cup before I had my fill. Not something you can drink every night, but I bet would be tasty and light appertif of sorts after a heavy meal. I must admit though, I can see quite a few people not liking it.

Aztec Elixir Couture (Ancho & chipotle chillies + Ceylon cinnamon + Madagascar vanilla bean + cornmeal + dark chocolate) - The original hot cocoa. Spicy. Sweet. Dark. Bitter. You can taste why the Aztec Emperor would drink two cups of it before making love to his women. It leaves a pleasant heat behind, that doesn't overpower you but rather warms you up. A cup of this was perfect after a long day at work and class to help me wake up a bit.

La Parisienne Couture (Madagascar vanilla bean pieces + dark chocolate) - Simple and classic. Certainly better than powdered hot chocolate, but using whole bits of chocolate and real vanilla are key to any sweet dessert success involving chocolate. The taste of vanilla is slight and teases you, it appears just as you sip it and then as you tey to pin it down it vanishes. As such I took sip after sip for that delightful vanilla peek-a-boo. After the vanilla whisks away, a firm slightly bittersweet cocoa taste takes it's place. Not as bitter as the Aztec, but has a cloying sweetness to it. If you are a fan of sugary cocoa you might not enjoy this, but if you enjoy a dark and rich type of sweet chocolate, this is your kind of hot cocoa.

Overall, none of these are your average hot cocoa. You'll either like them or not care for them.

Cookie Swap!

Sometimes it's nice to gather up all of your foodie friends for a simple little event, and so I called together a bunch of the local food bloggers/writers for a simple little cookie swap as a way to ring in the holidays.

The idea is simple, everyone brings a batch of homemade cookies, about 2 dozen or so, and then after a nice exchange you fill up a container with a bit of each and go home with a huge variety! Gingerbread sammiches, macaroons, pepper crisps, and of course lots of chocolate was present.

We all took the time to swap stories, restaurant reviews, and recipes (and whores too, still not sure how we got to that topic). All the while we sipped down a few bottles of port and wine, large glasses of milk, and piping hot tea and coffee Babies were held and coddled, stories were told, and Eat Beast loved the attention he was getting.

Here's a nice little run down of the who's who and the who brought what:
Mike & Martha - Chocolate Cookies
Kate - Gingerbread Stars with Buttercream
Kim Bedwell - Chocolate Dipped Macaroons
Kim Rutledge & Anita - Chocolate Tipped Soft Tulles
Fethiye - Turkish Date Filled Cookies
Greg & Becky - Ginger Crisps
Ann - Chocolate Pepper Crisps
Andrea - Persimmon Cookies
Myself - Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies
Kristy - she brought her own sweet self, she's a human cookie worth a nibble

All and all, a fantastic time had by all. A chance to escape our busy schedules and just relax. The only downside was a few people couldn't make it, but sent their love none the less. Plus, I couldn't invite ALL of the Sac Food Bloggers because my tiny little apartment could barely hold those who were there. I highly encourage you to check out the Sacramento Food Bloggers list in the sidebar and check them out, you'll see some familiar faces and some brand new ones, all worth checking out!

I look forward to doing it next year, and hopefully at a much larger location. ;)

I hope your holidays are off to as jolly a start as ours are here in Sacramento!