Root Beer Brownies

Root beer brownies??? Yeah. Don't knock it til you've tried it. It's actually a great combination.

I found the recipe at Baking Bites. Some full sugar Mug Root beer was left at my friend's house, and since they are all diabetic over there, I got sent home with a few cans. I'm not a big pop drinker, and Mrblocko is trying to cut down on his carbonated beverage consumption. I figured this would be a perfect excuse to test out the Root beer brownie recipe. Over at Baking Bites they used a fancy brand of root beer, but I think the Mug worked out well.

The recipe called for baking the brownies in a 9x9 pan, but mine was 8x8. When the brownies came out of the oven they had risen almost to the point of overflowing the pan. Yikes! As you can tell from the picture they settled a bit when they cooled. I don't know if they rose so much from the carbonation in the pop. The edges of the brownies had little tiny bubbles that resembled foam. It wasn't very attractive, but it didn't affect the taste. The edges tasted just as nummy as the middle.
I didn't even try the brownies the day they were made. The instructions said to let them sit overnight, and that they tasted best the day after they were made. The texture was best on this day. However, on the third day the root beer flavor became more prominent. It was a very light under tone that complimented, but didn't overpower the rich chocolaty taste.

The texture of the brownies were somewhere smack dab in the middle of being fudgy and cakey. I'm a fan of the fudgy variety and I thought they were wonderful. I think they are cakey enough to please a lover of cakey brownies as well. I think this would be a perfect brownie to make if you had fans of both brownie type in your house.

The recipe also stated that it made 25 pieces. Both Mrblocko and I thought this was a lot for an 8x8 pan, but these brownies were really rich. I think we wound up with around 20 pieces, give or take. 25 pieces is difficult to get out of a 8x8 pan, especially when part of the brownie sticks to the knife.
That's one downside/upside to these brownies. They really stuck to the knife when you cut them. This is bad if you are trying to make the brownies look nice and presentable, but really awesome if you are the one who has to clean the brownie globs off the knife. Chomp, chomp! I would assume if you used thread or dental floss to portion out the brownies, you'd get a nice clean cut. Where would the fun in that be though

Will I make these again? I'll let this comment made by Blockette answer that question:
Between mouthfuls Blockette said, "You know who would like these? Uncle Clownsuit. He really likes bars. We should send some to him." She took another bite and after a few chews she said, "Hmm, maybe we should just send him the crumbs."

Root Beer Brownies from Baking Bites
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
6-oz chopped bittersweet (or semisweet) chocolate (1 cup)
3.5-oz chopped white chocolate (1/2 cup)
4 tbsp butter
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
8-oz root beer (no foam!)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a 9" square baking pan with foil and lightly grease. In a small bowl, sift flour, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside. In a small bowl, melt chocolates and butter, stirring frequently til mix is smooth. Set aside to cool slightly. In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar til well combined. Blend in cooled chocolate mix. Stir in 1/2 flour mix, followed by 1/2 root beer. Stir in rest of flour mix, remaining root beer and vanilla. Scrap down sides of bowl well and stir til just combined. Pour into prepared pan.Bake 26-30 min, til toothpick inserted into center of brownies comes out with only a few moist crumbs. Cool in pan on a wire rack. When brownies have cooled, wrap them up well and store them overnight before serving. Brownies are best the day after they are made.

Overnight Waffles

I came across this recipe when I was drooling over the cinnamon roll pancakes at Tasty Kitchen. Tasty Kitchen has a neat feature where it references other recipes (with pictures) below the recipe you're looking at.

Since all waffle pics look pretty much the same, it was the title that intrigued me...overnight waffles. You mix everything but the egg and butter together and let it sit overnight. This was awesome since my brain doesn't function well right after I wake up. I'm always worried that if I make a recipe that requires a lot of measuring in the morning I'll forget something or use the wrong measurement...that and I'm really lazy in the morning.

But adding an egg and butter I'd already measured out the night before, then sitting in front of a waffle iron waiting for the light to click from red to green? Yeah I can handle that in a semi-conscious state.

I'd never made a yeasted waffle before. They turned out very light and airy. Both Mrblocko and Blockette said that this recipe was a keeper. I was a bit put off by the yeasty smell. The yeast smell wasn't very strong, but I have the nose of a bloodhound. I think if I hadn't been standing in front of the uncooked batter for so long I wouldn't have smelled the yeast on the cooked waffles.

Mrblocko pointed out one negative thing about these waffles as he used his last bite of waffle to sop up the last vestiges of syrup on his plate. He said, "These waffles are so light and airy that instead of eating 2, I had to eat 3."

Overnight Waffles from Tasty Kitchen
2 cups All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Yeast
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
½ teaspoons Salt
2 cups Milk
½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 whole Large Egg
6 Tablespoons Unsalted Melted Butter

In large bowl, combine flour, yeast, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Whisk in milk and vanilla til blended. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temp. In the morning, heat waffle iron. Beat egg and melted butter into batter, which will be quite thin. Spray hot waffle iron with nonstick spray. Add just enough batter to cover cooking surface. Cook waffles til crisp and brown, but not too dark, 2-3 min each.

Lemony Chicken Soup

Usually when my mom comes up to visit she brings me magazines that she is done reading. I found this great recipe for Lemony Chicken Soup in one of those random magazines. I think it was from Prevention, but I have no idea what issue.

I altered the recipe slightly because it was super thick. The result was still a very thick soup. If you like a thinner soup, go ahead and add more stock or water to thin it out.

I think with this recipe I've come to the conclusion that I'm not the biggest fan of orzo. I think it's the shape. Maybe I'm expecting rice and get disappointed. The next time I make this I'll use another soup cut pasta like Acini de pepe instead.

Blockette gave this soup two thumbs up, and told me that I had to make it again.

Lemony Chicken Soup
1 tsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic,minced
8 c chicken stock
2 ribs of celery, finely chopped
1 1/2 c shredded carrots
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/2-3/4 c uncooked orzo
2 1/2 c frozen cut green beans
3 c chopped cooked chicken, shredded
2 lg eggs
4 T lemon juice

Heat oil in large pot over med heat. Add garlic. Cook until garlic is light brown, about 1 min. Add stock, celery, carrots, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add orzo and reduce heat to simmer. Cook orzo until al dente, about 8 minutes. Add green veggies and chicken. Simmer 2 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk eggs and lemon juice in medium size bowl. Warm egg mix with 1 c hot stock in a thin stream. Whisk egg mix into soup and warm breifly over low heat for 2 minutes. Do not boil or eggs will curdle. Adjust seasoning as needed with more salt, pepper or lemon juice.

Project #8: t-shirt yarn

Two years ago I found this t-shirt yarn tutorial over at the Polka Dot Pineapple. I thought it was a great idea and has been on my to do list ever since. It was such a great idea that I promptly forgot about it.

Good thing I found wists.com, a bookmarking site. Whenever I see a cool idea online I save it to that site and check back when I'm looking for crafty inspiration. I've found it is a much better tool than bookmarking the ideas to my computer. With Wists, you can create a screen shot or use a photo from the site you are saving. That way when you open up your page on Wists, you have all these little photo icons for a quick reference. It's perfect for visual learners with a bad memory.

Anywho...enough gushing about wists. I came across a bag of old shirts when I was cleaning out my craft room. They were either holey or had those nasty yellow stains in the arm pits. I know I wouldn't want to get something like that so I didn't put them in the donation bag. They were perfect for this project though.

I used a rotary cutter and cut up nine shirts while Blockette was at school the other day. I'm hoping I have enough yarn to crochet a replacement rug for the kitchen. (The one in there now is falling apart.) I think I'll need a larger hook than what I have since this is a bulky yarn. Wish me luck and even stitches!

Cinnamon Roll Tastin' Pancakes

I think I've stated on this blog at least once that I am not a pancake sorta girl. Nine times out of 10 I'll even take an Eggo over a homemade pancake. I just likes em better that is all. That being said, sapeylissy's cinnamon bun pancakes posted on Tasty Kitchen were a total winner in my book.

Tasty Kitchen is a website started up by pioneer woman . The purpose of the site was to provide a community where people can submit their favorite recipes. It's similar to recipe sites like recipezaar or allrecipes. Tasty Kitchen is still on the new side so there aren't as many recipes, but I tend to check there first when searching for a particular food to make.

Tasty kitchen often has a featured recipe. The cinnamon bun pancakes were one of them. Pioneer woman even wrote about them on her blog. She added her own recipe for maple butter icing for pancakes. There was some sort of computer glitch and I couldn't find the icing recipe online when I made the cinnamon bun pancakes. I'm sure the icing makes them taste even more like a cinnamon bun. I am here to assure you, that the pancakes taste every bit as delicious with plain old Log Cabin fakey fake maple syrup.

I was surprised at how fluffy these pancakes were. They rose quite a bit on the skillet. Sometimes the lofty pancakes wind up undercooked in the middle. Either this recipe is that good, or I am much better at making pancakes than my last attempt.

These pancakes were gobbled up before I had a chance to snap a pic. The Blocko bellies said that they looked as good as they tasted. You'll have to take our word for it.

One last thing, I didn't have any corn syrup. Since I had good results swapping out the corn syrup with honey when I made cinnamon roll caramel corn last month, I did it again with these pancakes. I couldn't taste the honey at all so that tells me it was a good substitution.

Cinnamon Bun Pancakes from Tasty Kitchen
1-½ cup All-purpose Flour
3 Tablespoons White Sugar
½ teaspoons Salt
4 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
2 whole Eggs Beaten
1 cup Milk
2 Tablespoons Corn Syrup
¼ cups Butter, Melted
1 Tablespoon Vanilla

In med bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and cinnamon with whisk. Whisk well to make sure everything is combined. In separate large bowl, beat eggs, milk, corn syurp, butter and vanilla. Stir in flour mix. Heat lightly oiled griddle/frying pan over med/low heat. Pour 1/4 c batter on griddle. Brown on both sides. Serve warm with icing drizzled over top.

Maple Butter icing
1 cup Powdered Sugar
¼ cups Butter, Melted
Dash Of Salt
1 Tablespoon Maple Syrup
¼ cups Whole Milk (more If Needed)

Whisk all ingredients til smooth, adding more milk as needed.

Omnomruffles!

I wrote about making dulce de leche in my crock pot the other day. Maybe you are wondering what I made with all of it? The first thing I made were these "Truffles". I found this recipe for omnomruffles over on Not so humble pie. I had bookmarked the site and once I got around to printing the recipe out I discovered that the blogger had rewritten the recipe! The new recipe contained only 1 Tablespoon of Dulce de Leche, compared to the original recipe that required 1/2 cup.

While I'm sure that the revised version was smooth and truffle-y, I wanted to make the original recipe. Not only did I want to use up some of the Dulce de Leche I had just made, but I didn't have any cream in the house. I did a bit of sleuthing and was able to recover the original recipe.

This version is a bit denser than a typical truffle. I actually liked it better than a normal truffle. I tend to freeze the store bought truffles which causes them to lose some of that creamy texture. These omnomruffles were a bit like the frozen store bought truffles. That was a very good thing.

The bad thing was that I rolled them in dutch process cocoa. This was a bit more bitter than I would have liked and extremely messy. Next time I make these I will roll them in finely chopped nuts instead.

Below is the recipe I used. Feel free to head over to Not so humble Pie to see the recipe for the revised omnomruffles

Original Not So Humble Omnomruffles: yields roughly 2 dozen truffles
3/4 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate (in the 50-60% cacao range) (I used Gheradelli 60% dark squares left over from Christmas)
1/2 cup dulce de leche
1/2 cup Nutella
cocoa powder

In a heat safe bowl, warm the chocolate in the microwave. Be careful not to cook it long, as overheating will ruin the texture of your chocolate. Remove the chocolate and stir until completely melted and smooth. First mix in the Nutella and then add the dulce de leche. Once well combined and smooth, cover and refrigerate. Once the mixture is cool and firm, roll spoonfuls of the mixture into balls and set onto a baking tray. Chill the balls for 20 minutes and then roll in a dish of cocoa powder.They will hold up fine at room temperature but if you wish to store them for more than a day, keep them chilled in an air tight container.

Project #7: Geek pants

I found directions on the craftster forums for turning an old shirt into yoga pants. Most tutorials for this type of recon have you cutting the tshirt design down the middle. Who wants a design that is split down the middle? What fun is that? That's why this particular tutorial is especially brilliant.

Anyhow here are my new pants made from a Geek Squad tshirt that was too small for Mrblocko and too big for me. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. They will be perfect if and when spring ever decides to arrive.

If I ever make another pair of these pants I'll cut them down so they are short length. I'm pretty sure these pants are supposed to fall just below the knee, but I'm short so they are more like pedal pushers.
Go here for the tutorial.