Vegan Beet Brownies with Frosting

When I made this Fauxberry Pie I was left with about 3/4 c of canned beets that I had no idea what to do with. It was harder than you'd think to find a recipe that I thought my family would actually eat. These Brownies from Eggless Cooking seemed like a good match.

The original recipe calls for 1 c of pureed beets and 1/4 c applesauce.  I just messed around the beet and applesauce ratios so I had a total of 1 1/4c pureed fruit and veggies.

These brownies are so sweet that there is no way you could even taste the slightest hint of beet.  I made sure of that by adding frosting to it.  I used the frosting recipe from Penzey's Vegan Cake recipe.  It's pretty much chocolate crack for vegans and the lactose intolerant.  Because that recipe is for frosting a 9x13 cake and this cake is only 8x8 you get loads of fudgy frosting goodness.

Beet and oat brownies with Fudgy Frosting adapted from Madhuram's Eggless Cooking

3 oz Semisweet Chocolate chips
3/4 c Beet Puree
1/2 c Dk Brown Sugar
1/4 c Cocoa
2 T Margarine
2 t Vanilla
1/2 c Cinnamon Applesauce
3/4 c Oat Flour (I took 3/4 instant oats and processed them to a fine powder)
3/4 t Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 c coarse chopped Walnuts
additional 1/2 c semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Line 8x8" pan w foil and spray w pam. Melt 3 oz chocolate in microwave at 30 sec intervals, stirring after each time.  This took about 1 min for me. Add beet, sugar, cocoa, margarine, vanilla and applesauce. Stir til creamy.Add oat flour, baking powder, chopped walnuts, salt and unmelted choc chips. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 35-40 min.  Brownies should spring back when touched.  Make frosting.

Frosting
4 T oil
4 T water
6 T sifted COCOA POWDER
2 C sifted powdered sugar

In a small pot, boil water and oil.  It may not come to a rolling boil, but bubbles will appear. Remove from heat. Add cocoa and sugar. Beat until smooth. Pour over cake, spreading icing to the edges, and let it cool. The frosting may stick to the knife when cutting the cake, so dip the knife in warm water and wipe clean after each cut. Store cake in fridge.

Cheaterpants Lemon Bars

I've fallen off the "remembering to take pictures of the things I make" wagon.  Bear with me until my brain starts to function again.  I blame it on soccer practice and the lack of consecutive warm days.

Anyhow... Lemon bars!

via

I love me some lemon bars.  Sadly, my husband has become a chocolate fiend and he never ever wants me to make any other dessert other than those that contain chocolate.

This time I didn't ask him what I should make to his family's Easter gathering.  I just made an executive decision. 

Lemon has always seemed like a spring-like Easter-ish type dessert to me.

These bars, from Belle of the Kitchen, are super quick to whip up because they use lemon cake mix for the base and crumble on top.  The middle is a cream cheese, sugar and lemon juice concoction.

A funny side story about the cream cheese.  I learned, over Easter, that my father-in-law does NOT like cream cheese.  My Sister-in-law had made the most amazing fruit pizza that had a strawberry cream cheese spread over a sugar cookie crust.  I'm drooling just thinking about it.  My Father-in-law wouldn't touch it because he was told it contained cream cheese.

We all decided NOT to tell him what the bars were made of.  He ate some and liked it!  I wonder what he thought the white stuff in the middle was!  Hehehehe!

Another nice thing about these bars is that they are not overly lemony.  The sour from the lemon is balanced nicely with the sweet from the filling and crust.  If you wanted to amp up the tart lemon flavor, I think adding some lemon zest to the filling would do the trick nicely.

via

Maybe my cake mix was a little bit less in volume than the brand that they used over at Belle of the Kitchen because it was difficult to get the base to spread out over the bottom of the pan.  I had to "borrow" a little bit from the topping.  This made the topping a little scant and not as visually appealing as I would have liked.  If this is the case for you, I would suggest adding a 1/4 c of quick cooking oats to the topping to make it stretch.

Super Easy Cheater Lemon Bars from Belle of the Kitchen
1 (18.25 oz) package lemon cake mix
1 egg
1/2 c veg oil
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
2/3 c sugar
3 T lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 F. Pour cake mix into lg bowl. Add egg and oil; mix til well blended. Mixture will be slightly dry. Reserve about 3/4 c for topping, and pat rest into 9x13" pan. Bake 15 min in preheated oven. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, in a med bowl, beat softened cream cheese with sugar and lemon juice til smooth. Spread evenly over baked crust. Crumble reserved cake mix mixture over top. Bake an additional 15 min in preheated oven, or til filling is set and topping is lightly toasted. Cool before cutting into bars. Refrigerate leftovers.

The power of BACON!

I saw this pattern for a crochet bacon scarf at Drunken Aunt Wendy and knew that I had to make it for my baconophile husband. 

He went totally gaga for it.

I mean how could he not?  It looks like a piece of bacon just sitting there, waiting to be eaten.

"Mom!  Why does this bacon taste fuzzy?"

No Blockette!  It's not for eating!!!

This scarf was really fun to crochet.  All the lumps and bumps make it a great project for a beginner.  If you make a mistake who is going to know?  Can't keep your tension even?  Perfect...the more irregular, the better the end result looks!

After a few weeks of wearing the scarf Mrblocko commented on how he couldn't get the scarf to keep from twisting up.  I told him that's how the scarf was supposed to be.  When you cook bacon it twists and curls in lumps and bumps.  I'm sure that if I blocked the scarf it would eliminate some of that, but I feel it would make the scarf look less realistic.

Peanut Butter Crack

This stuff is 100% crack.  

You will not be able to stop eating it. 

You are going to hate me for posting this recipe, but I'm going to do it anyway.  

Cuz I'm EVIL that way.  

Muhahahahaha!

Are you ready?  All you need is 5 ingredients, so go raid your pantry.

1 1/2 sheets graham crackers (enough to fill a half sheet baking sheet)
1 c (2 sticks) butter
1 c brown sugar
1 pkg peanut butter chips
1/2 c chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Line your rimmed baking sheet with foil, then parchment.  This makes for easier removal.  In med pan, melt butter and sugar until sugar dissolved and mixture is bubbly.  Pour this mess over the graham crackers (I like the cinnamon kind!)  Sprinkle the chips on top and put the pan in the oven and check on it every 3 min or so.  Remove from the oven once the whole surface is bubbly (after about 6-9 min).  Immediately spread the chips out evenly over the entire surface.  you might get the chips mixed in with the butter and brown sugar mix.  That's ok.  Once you have an even layer of pb chips melted over the top, sprinkle on the chopped pecans.  Place the whole tray in the fridge for about a hour, then break apart into pieces.  Store in the fridge or freezer.

note:  you can switch out the graham crackers for saltines and the pb chips for chocolate chips and get another version of cracktacular goodness.

recipe via White Lights on Wed

America's Test Kitchen Chicago Style Pizza

I saw this recipe for Chicago style deep dish pizza on a rerun of America's Test Kitchen a few months ago.  It took me a while to track the recipe down, but it was worth the extra effort.  America's Test Kitchen has yet to steer me wrong with a recipe.

I was a little skeptical about the "buttery crust" but the slight flakiness after being cooked really makes the pizza.

Even though I used less than top quality cheese, tomatoes and sausage, it was the BEST deep dish pizza I've had.  Yeah, even better than the one's I've had to wait over an hour for in Chicago. 

This recipe is for two deep dish pizzas.  I wasn't sure how many servings one pizza would yield so I cooked up both at the same time.  If you are trying to figure out how many people each pizza would serve.  We wound up getting about 5 decent size servings per pizza.  The slices are really filling too. 

The pizza was best reheated in the oven, covered in foil at 350F for 30 min.  It was almost as good as when it came out of the oven the first time.

I was surprised how much Blockette enjoyed this pizza.  The last time I made Chicago style pizza she turned her nose up at it.  Of course, she was much younger then and less open to trying new things.  I'm pretty sure she didn't like the pizza last time because the sauce, not the cheese was on top, and didn't I know I made it WRONG?  It's taken her a while, but she has learned that the weird stuff I make is really tasty...most of the time.

America's Test Kitchen Chicago Style Pizza via My Bizzy Kitchen and Brown Eyed Baker
3¼ c flour
½ c cornmeal
1 t salt (omit if using salted butter)
2 t sugar
2¼ t rapid rise yeast
1¼ c water, room temp
3 T butter, melted
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 t + 4 T EVOO, divided

For the Sauce:
2 T unsalted butter
¼ c grated onion
¼ t dried oregano
½ t salt (omit if using salted butter)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (28-oz) can crushed tomatoes
¼ t sugar
2 T coarsely chop fresh basil (I used 1T dried basil)
1 T olive oil
 black pepper

For the Toppings:
1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 4 cups)
(Pepperoni or sausage)
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese (I omitted)

Dough: Whisk flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, and yeast in lg bowl. Add water and melted butter and mix on low, using hook, 1-2 min, scraping sides and bottom of bowl occasionally. Increase to med and knead til dough glossy, smooth and pulls away from sides of bowl, 4-5 min. Coat lg bowl (ceramic works best for me) w 1 t evoo. Transfer dough to bowl, turning to coat dough in oil; cover w plastic wrap. Rise at room temp 45-60 min.

Sauce: While dough rises, heat butter in med span over med heat til melted. Add onion, oregano, and salt; cook,til liquid evap and onion gold br, 5 min. Add garlic and cook 30 sec. Add tomatoes and sugar, increase heat to high, and simmer. Lower heat to med-low and simmer til reduced to 2½ c, 25-30 min. Off heat, stir in fresh basil and olive oil, then season with salt and pepper. (As I used dried Basil I added it with the oregano at the beginning of the cooking process.  I also omitted the olive oil in the sauce.)

 Laminate Dough: Turn dough out onto dry work surface and roll into 15x12" rectangle. Using an offset spatula, spread soft butter over dough, leaving a ½" border along edges. Starting at short end, roll dough into tight cylinder. W seam side down, flatten cylinder into 18x4" rectangle. Cut rectangle in half crosswise. Working with one half, fold into thirds like a business letter; pinch seams together to form ball. Repeat with remaining half. Return balls to oiled bowl, cover tightly wi plastic wrap, and let rise in fridge til nearly doubled 40-50 min. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425 F. 

Bake: Coat two 9" round cake pans w 2 T olive oil each. (I used cake pans with tall sides to have a taller crust)  Transfer 1 dough ball to dry work surface and roll out into a 13" circle. Transfer dough to pan by rolling dough loosely around a rolling pin and unrolling into pan. Lightly press dough into pan, working into corners and up sides at least an inch. If dough resists stretching, let it rest for 5 min before trying again. Repeat with remaining dough.

For ea pizza, sprinkle 2 c (I used 1 1/2 c each) mozzarella evenly over surface of dough. (If you're using any meat or veggie toppings, add them on top of cheese.) Spread half tomato sauce over  cheese (or toppings) and sprinkle 2 T Parm over sauce. (I omitted) Bake til crust gold br, 20-30 min. Remove 'za from oven and let rest 10 min before slicing and serving.

Fauxberry Pie

I tried to be sneaky and make this Fauxberry Pie, from Spoonful for April Fools Day.  Blockette knows better now to pay attention when I'm making dinner and caught on to what I was doing. 

Although, I did have her going that fauxberries were a real thing. 

For about a minute.

Mrblocko and I tease her so much that she catches on quickly these days.

Joke or no joke, this dinner pie turned out amazing.

I used a half recipe of Sylvia's Perfect Pie Crust, from Tasty Kitchen as the base. I'm not a big fan of this crust in desserts, but in a savory dish like this, it really works.  This crust is super flaky.  So much so that Mrblocko thought it was store bought.  Blockette loved the crust as well.  She wanted me to make her a sheet of crust to slice up and put in her lunch.  I said no, because I have a reputation of a mean mom to live up to.

Since this dish is essentially a meatloaf baked in a pie crust, I was a bit worried that it was going to make the crust soggy or be really oily and greasy.  To counter this, I dabbed the meat with paper towels as it was cooking.  I think I did this 2 or 3 times before I put the potato topping on.  I didn't think the pie was soggy or greasy.

I'm thinking this pie needs to be an April 1st tradition from now on!

Fauxberry Pie adapted from Spoonfull
1 pie shell, uncooked (your own or store bought)

"CHOCOLATE" MEAT LOAF FILLING
1/3 c barbecue sauce
1/4 c milk
1 T molasses
1 t cocoa
1/2 t chili powder
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 T veg oil
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper
2/3 c bread crumbs
1 lb gr beef
1 egg, lightly beaten

"STRAWBERRY" POTATO TOPPING
2 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and cubed (I weighed my potatoes after they had been peeled and had slightly more than 2 lbs)
1/2 c canned sliced beets (not pickled)
1/4 c  milk
4 T butter, cut into pieces

Place pie crust in pie pan and chill in the freezer.  Heat oven to 350º. In sm pan, sautee onions in oil.  Cook 7 min until translucent. Add BBQ sauce, milk, molasses, cocoa, and chili powder. Cook until lukewarm and cocoa dissolved.  In lg bowl, mix all ingredients with hands. Remove the pie shell from the freezer.  Transfer meat to shell, spreading evenly with spoon. Bake about 60 min, until meat is cooked through.

While pie's baking, prepare potato topping. Place potatoes in a large pot.  Add enough water to completely cover spuds and bring to boil. Reduce heat  and at a low boil until tender, about 12 min. While potatoes cook, puree beets and 1/4 c milk in a blender until smooth. Set aside. Drain potatoes and place back into pot.   Add butter and pureed beets.  Whip with hand mixer until smooth and fluffy, adding more milk as needed. Spread whipped potatoes over top of cooked meat pie with an offset spatula. Slice and serve pie while potatoes are still hot. Makes 8-10 servings.  To reheat leftovers cover with foil and bake at 350F for 30 min.

Sweet Potato Burgers

These sweet potato burgers from How Sweet It Is, was one of those recipes that was met with a raised eyebrow from my husband.  I saw the recipe and knew it would be perfect as a meatless dinner for a Friday over Lent.

Although my husband was skeptical, he gave the burger an honest try.

And it turned out to be awesome!

It gets the carnivore's double thumbs up.

I made one tiny change to the recipe.  I decided against using the roasted garlic cream sauce/spread.  I thought the garlic flavor might be a bit overwhelming.  Instead, we tossed some onion hamburger rolls on the skillet.  They were a really tasty pairing with the sweet potato and avocado.

There was only one other thing I would change about this recipe when I make it again, I'd make more than 4 burgers!  Dividing the recipe into four burgers made some insanely large patties.  Perhaps my sweet potatoes were larger than the average potato?  I think this recipe should make 6 or 7 patties, particularly if you plan on serving any sides with your sandwich.

Sweet Potato Burgers adapted from How Sweet it Is

2 large sweet potatoes, cooked and coarsely mashed
1 c great northern beans (rinsed and drained if canned)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 c whole wheat panko bread crumbs
1/3 c whole wheat flour
1 lg egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 t smoked paprika
1 t onion powder
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1/4 t cumin
2-3 T olive oil
1 avocado, slightly mashed
onion hamburger rolls

Wash, stab, and roast potatoes at 400F for about 50-60 min until fork tender. Let potatoes cool to touch and peel off skins. In lg bowl, coarsely mash beans with a fork. Add in sweet potato and mash together, then add in spices, garlic, egg, panko and flour. Mix then chill for 15-20 min. (I let mine sit in the fridge for an hour.) The chilling helps the patties retain their shape. Heat lg skillet over med heat and add 2 T oil. Remove mixture from fridge and form into 6-7 equal patties, then place in the skillet once hot. (You may have to cook them in batches depending on the size of your skillet) Cook the patties for 5-6 min on one side. Do not move the patties until they are fully cooked and golden on one side or they will fall apart. Add more oil if needed, and flip burgers carefully.  Cook for another 5-6 minutes. Toast or grill buns if desired.