More time-saving bread-baking books

In late 2006I joined thousands who cheered Mark Bittman's a life-changing New York Times piece about uber-crusted-full-flavored bread from blazing hot pan in hot home ovens. In early 2007 I put that bread into French Toast.

While Publishers Weekly has a laundry list of new bread books in the pipeline, I have already made a space on my shelf for Jim Lahey, who had instructed and inspired Bittman, and his My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method by Jim Lahey with Rick Flaste (Norton, Oct.). I can't wait.

Buy this book: "Baked" by Matt Lewis & Renato Poliafito

My friends in the University of Minnesota Law School Alumni office have perfect pitch: at a great farewell party, they gave me the amazing Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, New York, 2008). I opened the book to the picture of Butterscotch Pudding Tarts (p. 104), and, for the first time in my life, I said "food porn" and meant it in a good way.

Kelsey Dilts McGregor did the right thing -- she made the Banana Cupcakes with Vanilla Pastry Cream (p. 70) just to make sure the book was good enough to give as a gift. I absolutely believe in testing and in preview. Thanks, Kelsey.

I've had this book for a week, and I am two-for-two -- both are winners. Because it was her birthday, my former colleague Stacey Tidball got the first pick of cakes. Mindful that one person is the office is violently allergic to chocolate, she steered clear, and picked Lemon Lime Bars (p. 119), the aforementioned Butterscotch Pudding Tarts, Pumpkin Whoopie Pies (p. 151) and Peanut Butter Pie (p. 100). Even saying these things out loud is a pleasure. Because Lemon Bars are practically a State Food of Minnesota, I went for the Lemon Lime Bars with the graham cracker-toasted coconut crust. Unable to leave well enough alone, I now add candied ginger to the crust. Making the filling requires a candy thermometer. Don't flinch -- just buy one.

But Baked isn't just about sweet baking. If you crave a cheese biscuit that's loaded with cheddar and has a real kick, Chipotle Cheddar Biscuits (p. 35) are for you. They require no special equipment. Bake them and pop the leftovers into the freezer. While you can defrost them in the microwave, they are best reheated in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. You will amaze and astonish your guests, and I guarantee that these biscuits will be Best Friends to your winter chili, summer salads and to year-round tomato soup.


Lemon Lime Bars (adapted from Baked)
Several people I know will skip the crust and make the filling, which is a lemon-lime curd and cries out for a spoon. While I love the crust, especially with ginger, I fully endorse that plan.

Tools: food processor to grind graham crackers and ginger
9x13 baking pan
candy thermometer
fine mesh sieve and a spatula

Graham-Coconut-Candied Ginger Crust
1 c. sweetened shredded coconut
2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1/4 c. candied ginger, chopped or processed with the graham crackers
2 T. firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 stick of unsalted butter, melted

Lemon Lime Filling
11 large egg yolks*
3 large eggs
1-3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c.fresh lemon juice
2 T fresh lime juice
2 T grated lemon zest
2 T grated lime zest
1-1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pieces
1/3 cup heavy cream

Make the Crust
1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Butter or spray the bottom and sides of a 9x13 inch baking pan.

2. Line a baking sheet with parchment and toast the coconut until it starts to turn golden (7-10 minutes). Remove from the oven, toss the coconut and return it to the oven for 3 more minutes, or until it starts to smell and is dark gold. Check it every minute after 2 minutes. Burnt coconut is not good.

3. Use a food processor to crush the graham crackers into crumbs. Process the ginger in the same bowl.

4. Put the graham and ginger mixture in a bowl. Using your hands, add the coconut and the brown sugar and mix well. Add the melted butter, and still using your hands, firmly press the crust into the prepared pan. Using a measuring cup as a press will help make an even crust.

5. Refrigerate the crust for 15 minutes, and then bake it for 10 minutes. Cool the crust before adding the filling.

Make the Filling

1. Increase the oven temperature to 325 degrees.

2. Mix the egg yolks, eggs, sugar, lemon and lime juices and zests in a deep clean metal pot. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture reaches 180 degrees. This may take 10 minutes. Do not walk away from this mixture -- if it burns, you will have to start over.

3. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter and the cream. Pour through a fine-mesh sieve directly onto the cooled crust. Make certain that you scrape the underside of the sieve to capture ALL of the filling. Tap the pan to make an even layer. NOTE: Fully strained lemon lime curd is smooth and silky. If you don't have a fine-mesh sieve, use a spaghetti strainer and know that you'll have some lemon and lime zest in your bars.

4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the filling is just set. Test for "set" by shaking the pan. When it barely wiggles, it is done. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for a least two hours. Cut into squares.

* What about the egg whites? You can make a lot of omelets or Pavlova. While New Zealanders and Australians continue their dispute over the origin of the Pav, you can make this giant meringue and top it with summer fruits.

Buy this book for yourself or for a baker who loves you.

Carrot Cake: the last "official" office birthday cake

After 16 years at the University of Minnesota Law School in the career office (it had four names in 16 years), I have taken advantage of an opportunity and changed careers. Beginning in June 2009, I will sit at the helm of three enterprises: Pass The Baton llc, which manages generation shift by capturing and transferring mission critical information; nanoscapes llc, a launching pad for tiny and giant watercolors and needlepoint designs; and a modest cooking school called "Susan-Cooks!" which will have its official opening in late June 2009. Question about the cooking school? (susangainen@comcast.net or 651-917-0219)

While there were many things that I loved about my work (work with students, alumni, administrators and employers, learning about individual students and their dreams and goals), I especially cherish my colleagues for supporting my Baking Explorations.

After declaring my 50th birthday year the Year of 50 Cakes, when I baked on Sunday and delivered a cake for critique on Mondays, I continued the project to about 120 (that list will be published shortly). I imposed on my friends to vet eight versions the Lemon Ginger Pound Cakes for a Minnesota State Fair Entry (which didn't survive freezing that was required by my Off Campus Interview Travel Schedule) and they sat in judgment of my first five pecan pies, favoring the 2-cups-of-pecans-and-bourbon version and, in a complete surprise to all, they voted Mark Bittman's Custard Pecan Pie from the first (yellow) edition of How to Cook Everything, a strong second place.

So long as they didn't mind my spirit of experimentation, anyone who spoke up got his or her choice of birthday cake. In April 2009, we celebrated Director Alan Haynes, whose favorite is carrot cake. And, because many people asked, I made an an extra bowl of cream cheese frosting.

This recipe is particularly easy if you have a food processor with a fine grating blade to make quick work of the carrots. Because this is a sheet cake, the "frosting" skill is ultra-simple -- "dump and slather." Note that you need two cups of pecans, one for the cake and one for the top of the frosting.


Carrot Cake III (adapted from an allrecipes.com posting by Tammy Elliott.

CAKE
4 eggs
1-1/4 cups canola or other neutral oil
2 c white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 c all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 c grated carrots -- the fine grind in a food processor or on a hand grater
1 c chopped pecans, toasted

FROSTING
1/2 c butter
8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 c confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c chopped pecans, toasted (optional addition to the frosting or sprinkled on the top of the cake)

1. Preheat the over to 350. Grease and flour a 9x13 pan.
2. Toast the two cups of pecans on a flat pan in the oven while it heats to 350. (10 minutes or until they are fragrant.)
3. Using a stand mixer if you have one, combine the eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Beat for 3 minutes.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk (or stir) the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together. Slowly add the flour to the sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined. If you dump it in all at once, the flour will be on your ceiling.
5. Add the carrots, and beat at slow speed until just combined. Stir in the pecans by hand.
6. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then flip it onto a wire rack to cool completely. For easy frosting and transport, pop the cooled cake back into the pan.
7. To make the frosting, combine all of the ingredients except the pecans. Beat until smooth. Use the "dump and slather" method to frost the cooled cake. Top with extra pecans if they you haven't eaten them.

Homemade Salami?

If you read cookbooks or food blogs more than once a year, you may have a mild-to-moderate curiosity about food. If you have a vast collection of cookbooks (I have more than 800) or you subscribe to multiple food blogs and newsletters, you may be moderately-to-extremely interested or obsessed with food. Wherever you fall on the cooking continuum -- enjoy yourself!

Because trips to my favorite Chinese Restaurant (Shuang Cheng in Minneapolis) often require stops at one of Dinkytown's two used bookstores (Cummins and the Book House), the ultimate bill for $7.00 worth of Chinese food is often north of $25. Last Friday was no exception. I came away with very excellent Singapore Noodles, The King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking Book and The Aveda Cookbook (no authors, no title page, no date -- just a small three-ring notebook with recipes from Aveda staff from around the world).

I expected whole grains with a side of cucumber for facials -- instead, I found a very typical "Church Lady" cookbook with bars, hot dish and dips. There was, however, one surprise, and it was on the first page I turned to. Homemade Salami (contributed by Jennifer Schrepfer from Blaine).

I'm no expert in charcuterie, and what I know about sausage and salami-making consists of knowing that it is a technical and often mysterious process. I also have a finely honed ability to find those products at a butcher shop or grocery store when I need to -- which is about once a year.

But Homemade Salami? I was intrigued. As intrigued as I've always been with Laurie Colwin's Spiced Beef from More Home Cooking: A writer returns to the kitchen, (HarperCollins Publishers, 1993), which requires you to make room in the fridge for 12 days for a hunk of beef that you rub each day with brown sugar, sea salt, black pepper, juniper berries and allspice and then bake for five hours at 290 degrees. I apologize to all of the guests for whom I have wanted to make this dish since I first read the recipe in 1993.

Compared to Spiced Beef, which, admittedly doesn't sound too time consuming, Homemade Salami is a snap. The recipe is easily multiplied or divided. You'd be welcomed at any buffet with a roll of this salami, some good bread and spicy mustard, and it makes a great meatloaf-like sandwich. Season this to your taste. The original recipe called for a good quantity of mustard seeds, which I didn't have. I substituted Penzey's Ancho chili powder, upped the crushed red pepper and added more black pepper. The umbrella flavor here is the liquid hickory smoke -- everything else is a supporting player.

Tools you will need:
1 bowl which will hold the entire recipe and which will fit into your refrigerator
1 large sheet pan
1 rack on which to bake the salami
1 set of tongs for turning the salami as it bakes

Homemade Salami

5 pounds ground chuck
4 T Kosher salt
2 tsp garlic powder
1 T chili powder (I used Ancho)
1-2 T coarse ground black pepper
2-3 t Wright's liquid hickory smoke
1-2 T hot crushed red pepper

1. Mix all ingredients well. Pack into a bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight.
2. Form into rolls. I have a kitchen scale and I was able to weigh out 12-oz rolls.
3. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment. Spray a rack with vegetable spray. Lay the rolls onto the rack.
4. Bake at 170 degrees for 8 hours, turning about every 30 minutes.

Ginger-Chili Krispee Treets (Updated)

A few years ago I began to add chopped candied ginger to krispee treets (no copyright infrigement here), and they were well received. Never willing to leave well enough alone, and always willing to add chili and cayenne to backstop ginger, I found that these are great surprise on the snack table and terrific with rum drinks.

March 2009 updates:
1. Forget the 9x13 pan. Use a full sheet pan and a silicon mat. Stir everything with silicon spatulas.
2. Buzz the candied and dried ginger, chili powder, cayenne and salt (new!) in a small food processor and add the mixture to the melted butter.


5 T butter (yes, butter, not margarine or oil)
1/4-1/3 cup of chopped candied ginger (not minced -- but a small chop)
3/4 tsp chili powder (not Texas Chili powder)
1/8 tsp cayenne powder
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp salt
1 10-oz bag of marshmallows
6 cups of rice cereal

1. Line a 9x13" pan with parchment or butter it well.

2. Put the butter, chopped ginger, chili, cayenne and powdered ginger into a large (preferably non-stick) pan. Stir occasionally while the butter melts, then add the marshmallows. Stir until the marshmallows are melted and the mixture is a consistent color. Unlike the traditional recipe, in which you just melt the marshmallows and butter, you want to cook this mixture for at least a minute -- let it bubble but not burn.

3. Add the cereal, mix it well , dump it into the pan, and press the mixture to make flat, even bars. Cut into cubes or bars with a sharp knife when cool.

4. ANOTHER WAY: Flatten the mixture on a silicon mat in a large sheet pan. Imagine that they are Cheese Straws and cut into long narrow strips.

Cake Servers - nanoscapes

I paint, too, and this is "Cake Servers" from the nanoscapes Gallerie de Cuisine. What's in your kitchen drawer?

Forest of Fondue Forks #1

The "Forest of Fondue Forks #1" is part of the Fork Family of nanoscapes in the nano's Gallerie de cuisine. nanoscapes are geometric abstractions which began as very small pieces (like this one).  They are now much larger and more abstract than I ever imagined.

Why a Fork Family? With a lifelong interest in food and cooking, it was no great leap for me to begin to root around in my own and in my friends' and family members' silverware drawers.

I accept commissions.

Green Beans - cooked low and slow

I was invited to a New Orleans-themed Christmas Day dinner which was to feature Bloody Marys, Jambalaya, crab cakes, and Amaretto Bread Pudding – all of which were wonderful. I said “I’ll bring the vegetable – Green Beans cooked low and slow.”

Trust me – you can get these into the oven in less time then it will take you to read the rest of this post. These beans call on four skills: turning on the stove and the oven at the same time, chopping and pouring. They are not crisp, steamed green beans. They are an entirely other food: meltingly soft and sublime. Depending on how you flavor it and who you are, it will conjure up dinners you had or dinners you wish you'd had...

With 800+ cookbooks and a huge representation of works about the South, I have memories of Southern writers declaring that they would walk over hot coals for Grandma’s Green Beans. Sadly, when I set out to find directions for this iconic “Grandma made it” recipe for beans cooked overnight with a pork product, specific instructions were hard to find. Why write a recipe for something that Granny made by instinct? Querying northern and mid-western friends turned up nothing. Pals from the south had heard of it or had it in their childhood, but no one had ever made it. Standing at the bean bin in the grocery store, I did meet a woman from Kentucky who said that she used to make it with bacon grease, but because of her husband’s high cholesterol, she uses olive oil. I turned to the web.

I won’t bore you with my labors. The web was not a good source for erudite discussion of Granny’s Green Beans. With persistence, I found a wide range of differences as to the amount of liquid, the cooking time, temperature, and how tightly to cover the pot. My research ultimately turned up three Schools of Cooking Green Beans Low and Slow, each providing many opportunities for disputation among cooks and their extended families:

1. Pork Product: Ham hock? Bacon – cooked or uncooked? Bacon Grease? Some pork? Lots of pork? Just bacon grease and onion? No onion?
2. Turkey wings: My pal Eileen O’Toole, always a font of culinary advice, has a friend who uses smoked turkey wings to get the smoky flavor without the bacon fat.
3. Vegetarian: Beans, onion and diced tomatoes. What could be simpler?

You should not be surprised that I made all three, and that my dinner pals were enthusiastic tasters. First up? Vegetarian beans and tomatoes. It was in the oven overnight, and it was all I could do NOT to eat it for breakfast, thus depriving my friends of their introduction to a delightful green bean. I will make this often. My friends, who grew up with bacon, loved the bacon-only dish. I wasn’t so keen on it. Although I am a fan of crispy bacon, I found these to be thin and one-note. Smoked turkey? No one’s fave, but no one disliked it. It is, indeed, a great compromise for smoky-food-fans who keep Kosher.

Let me discourage you from considering a slow cooker. You are going to braise these beans, and their liquid needs to evaporate and concentrate just a bit. A tightly lidded slow cooker won’t do it.

GREEN BEANS WITH TOMATOES

1 small onion, sliced thin
1 cup of fresh peppers sliced thin (red, green, hot)
½ tsp to 1 T crushed red peppers
1 15-oz can of diced tomatoes
1 to 2 pound of green beans, trimmed to your satisfaction
Water, salt and pepper

Heat the oven to 225. In an oven-safe pan with a lid that will hold the beans, saute the onion and peppers, stirring occasionally, until you have finished trimming the beans. Add the can of tomatoes, water to cover the beans and peppers, salt, pepper and crushed red peppers. Bring the liquid to a boil. Loosely cover the pan and put it into the oven for six to 10 hours or overnight.

GREEN BEANS WITH BACON

4 ounces of bacon, chopped fine and crisped (reserve 1T bacon fat)
1 small onion, sliced thin
1 to 2 pounds of green beans, trimmed to your satisfaction
Water, salt and pepper.

Heat the oven to 225. In an oven-safe pan with a lid that will hold the beans, crisp the bacon.
While the bacon is crisping, trim the beans. Remove the bacon and all but 1T bacon fat from the pan. Saute the onion, stirring occasionally, until you have finished trimming the beans. Add the beans and half the crisped bacon. Loosely cover the pan and put it into the oven for six to 10 hours or overnight. Sprinkle the reserved bacon over the finished dish.

GREEN BEANS WITH SMOKED TURKEY WING AND DICED TOMATOES

1 cup (more or less) of smoked turkey wing meat
1 small onion, sliced thin
1 15-oz can of diced tomatoes
1 to 2 pounds of green beans, trimmed to your satisfaction
Crushed red pepper (1/2 tsp to 1 T – your choice)
Water, salt, pepper

Heat the oven to 225. In an oven-safe pan with a lid that will hold the beans, saute the onion and the turkey meat, stirring occasionally, until you have finished trimming the beans. Add the can of tomatoes, water to cover the beans, salt, pepper and crushed red peppers. Bring the liquid to a boil. Loosely cover the pan and put it into the oven for six to 10 hours, or overnight.

Ginger Squares -- thank you, Ann Hodgman

Ann Hodgman's Beat That! is a cookbook that I return to again and again. Why? Because everything I've made from it (with the exception of some pickled shrimp which I found to be more trouble than they were worth) has been beyond excellent. And, any cookbook that was a gift from everyone's favorite JOB GODDESS Kimm Walton has to be a winner.

As the sugar and butter holidays are upon us, the very least that BakeManiacs can do is to put a modestly delusional nutritional spin on gifts from the kitchen, and I can think of few things that are better than my version of Ann's Ginger Squares. Ginger is good for you, don't-cha know?

I have doubled her recipe, added more candied and dried ginger AND grated fresh ginger, switched out lemon for lime juice and added ginger juice to the glaze. Resist the temptation to bake this in a 9x13 pan. The outside will be done long before the middle. If you ignore this advice, finish cooking the gooey unbaked middle pieces in the microwave at 10 seconds on high power until you are satisfied. This makes a ginger candy rather than a ginger bar. Not that ginger candy is a bad thing...

* A note on brown sugar: I grew up in the Washington DC area, and when I moved to Minnesota, I thought that there was something wrong with the dark brown sugar here. It is noticeably pale. However, for my first decade in the frozen north, Pale Brown Sugar was less than a Burning Issue of Our Time. I was right, though, and I now regularly return from DC with pounds of molasses-rich mahogany-colored dark brown sugar. In this recipe though, you are on your own with the brown sugar of your neighborhood. Ginger trumps all!

Ginger Squares -- a lot of them

SQUARES
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar*
1 cup packed dark brown sugar *
2 large eggs
1 T vanilla
1 T grated fresh ginger
1-1/2 cup all purpose flour
8 ounces crystalized ginger slices
1 T ground ginger
1 tsp salt

GLAZE

4 T fresh lime juice
1 tsp grated fresh ginger juice
1 c sifted confectioners sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Butter two 9-inch square pans. If you have parchment or silicon pan liners, nothing will stick. Use them.

2. Melt the butter over medium low heat in large non-stick low-sided pan. Add the brown sugar and stir until it dissolves. This might take 10 minutes, which is why the large, low-sided pan works better than a saucepan. Use a silicon spatula if you have one, and stir very frequently or this will either boil over or burn. Remove from the heat and when it is cool enough so that the eggs won't scramble, beat in the eggs, vanilla and grated fresh ginger.

3. Process the flour, the candied and ground gingers, baking powder and salt until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir this into the butter and sugar mixture, and scrape into the prepared pans. It is a nice idea at this point to weigh the pans to make sure that they are more or less equal.

4. Bake for 30 minutes, reversing the pans halfway through the baking period. Ginger squares are baked when they bubble a bit and have a glazed look on the top.

GLAZE

Stir the lime and ginger juice into the confectioners sugar. Pour over the squares when they come out of the oven. Cool the pans on a rack, and cut when they are cool.

Packed between parchment or wax paper, Ginger Squares ship well.

The best and easiest party salmon - hot, cold or room temp

The very excellent cooking store and school Cooks of Crocus Hill has wonderful tools and terrific classes. In a participation class several years ago, I learned a fast, foolproof technique for roasting salmon which proves itself every time, and no matter how many pounds of salmon I serve -- there are NEVER leftovers. Because it can be served hot, cold or room temperature, it is a great item for a buffet or potluck or for any occasion that might otherwise be a train-wreck in the oven or in the kitchen at dinner time.

This is a single-skill recipe calling only for your chopping skills. It takes one visit to a kindly fishmonger who will take out the salmon's pin bones, and one trip to a well-stocked Asian food isle for dried fermented black beans. I prefer the kind that are dried with ginger bits, but I never overlook an opportunity to add ginger to anything.

This is infinitely expandable -- two pounds, five pounds, ten pounds of salmon. How many folks do you need to feed? The original recipe called for 2-1/2 pounds of salmon to feed 10 people as part of a very elaborate appetizer buffet. I have seen 30 people demolish 10 pounds of this dish as part of a large buffet dinner.

Use a very heavy duty sheet pan -- weapons grade from the restaurant supply house -- not the flimsy one from the grocery store, and line it with parchment paper. No sticking and easy cleanup.

Roasted Salmon with Black Beans, Ginger and Scallions (adapted from Cooks of Crocus Hill)
Affectionately AKA: "Slab 'O Salmon"

2-1/2 pounds of salmon
4 T dried, fermented black beans (with ginger, optional), minced
1 bunch of fresh scallions, white and green parts julienned
8 oz. fresh ginger, peeled if not young, julienned
4 oz. soy sauce
3 T plus 2 oz. Mirin (rice wine vinegar would work in a pinch)
2T sesame oil
4 T sake (Sherry is an ok substitute)
2 T sugar
1 - 2 tsp hot chili oil (optional)

ROAST THE SALMON
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place the salmon on the parchment-lined sheet pan. Do not let it hang over the edge.
3. Cut 1/2-inch slashes every 3 inches all the way down the length of the fish.
4. Rub the minced black beans into the slashes and on the top of the fish.
5. Roast the fish for 5 minutes.
6. Remove the fish and brush with two tablespoons of the Mirin.
7. Roast until the salmon is cooked through. This will depend on your oven's true temp and the thickness of the piece of fish that you buy. Checking is a worthwhile activity.

MAKE THE SAUCE
1. Heat a large saute pan over high heat. Add the sesame oil and swirl it until it heats through. You will know when it is hot when you can smell it.
2. Remove the pan from the heat, add the scallions and ginger and the remaining ingredients (2 ounces Mirin, 4 tablespoons of sake, 2 tablespoons sugar and the optional chili oil). Keep warm in the pan.
3. When the salmon is done, remove it from the oven and pour the sauce over the fish.

SERVE: Hot, cold or room temperature. No leftovers. Ever.

Madhur Jaffrey's Garlicky Cranberry Chutney -- for Thanksgiving and beyond

I wrote this post in 2008, and as Thanksgiving is looming (go to any store and you'll see Christmas food and decorations-- a sure sign of impending Thanksgiving), it's time to revisit it...

Adding insult to the injury of COVID and everything else nasty and disappointing for the past two years, there have been repeated reports of a turkey shortage in 2022. Even if you don't have turkey, you'll need this super-simple cranberry chutney. Thank you forever, Madhur Jaffrey.

This deserves an honored place in your year-round Hot Stuff shelf. You have one, don't you?

***  

 In my Mother's kitchen, an honored Thanksgiving tradition was to find the unopened can of cranberry sauce on Friday morning -- in time for sandwiches.

Now I never forget the cranberries. In my house, garlic and ginger go with almost everything, and for years my Thanksgiving table, and any Thanksgiving table to which I've been invited has had Madhur Jaffrey's Garlicky Cranberry Chutney. I first heard her recite it on an NPR Thanksgiving morning program and it was reproduced with Susan Stamberg's Mother-in-law's recipe on the NPR website.  It took two or three years to get it right -- that is, to get a pen and paper while she was on the radio. 

Two years ago, I tracked down the original in Jaffrey's very excellent Madhur Jaffrey's Cookbook: Easy East/West Menus for Family and Friends (1987, Harper & Row.)   This is embarrassingly easy, and everyone will ask "Why don't you make this more often?" While it will spark up your post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches, like its cousin Hot Pepper Jam, it is also a friend to cream cheese, you can use it to glaze fish or chicken, and zip it in a blender with yogurt for a dip for vegetables. Unlike Pepper Jam, however, you don't have to retrieve your canning equipment from the pantry -- you can whip this up in under half an hour.

Ginger Garlic Cranberry Sauce (adapted from Madhur Jaffrey)

A thumb-sized knob of ginger, cut in tiny tiny julienne
3-5 cloves of garlic, crushed through a garlic pressed or very finely chopped
1/2 cup very good quality cider vinegar
4 T white sugar
1/4 tsp very fresh cayenne (or any other chili from your Hot Stuff Shelf)
1 can of jellied cranberry sauce
1/2 tsp salt
fresh ground pepper

1. Combine the ginger, garlic, vinegar, sugar and cayenne in a small saucepan. Simmer until it is reduced to a syrup -- between 4 and 6 tablespoons, depending on the amount of ginger and garlic you begin with.
2. Add the cranberry sauce, salt and pepper, and let everything melt together. Simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes. 

That's it!

Potato Masher #2

When I'm not cooking, I'm painting. This is Potato Masher #2 from http://www.susangainen-nanoscapes.com/ .

Spicy Roasted Peanuts: bet you can't eat just one!

http://www.jld.net/Last week one of my colleagues, Mike Bloyer, brought in a small bowl of peanuts -- some that he'd spared from a Spanish Class project. Move over banned substances! These Spicy Peanuts will grab your palate and grab your brain -- in a good way. Using a (surprise!) crock pot, they are easy to make. And peanuts are cheap.

Cayenne and chili powder give the nuts their heat. Thyme doesn't read as "thyme," but gives an exotic, elusive vegetal taste. The brown sugar rounds out all of the flavors. Bonus for hosts: You may freeze these nuts for a week.

(Extemely adapted from "Ragin' Cajun Pecans" from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker: 200 recipes for healthy and hearty one-pot meals that are ready when you are, Robin Robertson, Harvard Common Press, Boston 2004, p. 25.)

Michael's Spicy Roasted Peanuts

2-1/2 pounds blanched peanuts (Roasted, salted peanuts are a fine substitute)
1/4 c olive oil (any good tasting olive oil; designer oil not required)
1/2 -1 tsp cayenne
1 T fresh ground black pepper
2T chili powder (pure chili, please, not chili powder with salt)
1 T dried thyme
1/2 c brown sugar
1 T salt, plus more after roasting

1. Combine the peanuts and oil in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 15 minutes. Because my elderly-$5-in-a-garage-sale slow cookers have only exuberant “High Heat,” I used a Nesco Roaster with a “slow cooker” setting.

2. Combine the spices, sugar and salt in a small bowl. Add them to the peanuts. Stir well. Cover and cook on low for 2-1/2 hours. Stir occasionally – every 30 minutes or so.

3. After 2-1/2 hours, add an additional 2 tsp of salt. Remove the peanuts to a parchment covered baking sheet to cool.

Pecan Bourbon Caramel Cake: Minnesota Justice Foundation's Official Birthday Cake

The winner, and still champion: Pecan Bourbon Caramel Cake.

Minnesota Justice Foundation Update: I have hosted a birthday party fundraiser for Minnesota Justice Foundation for the past two years, and my friends and family have generously supported a fund named in honor of my parents, Hal and Letty Gainen, who would be enthusiastic MJF supporters today. During the past year, that fund has helped MJF’s Assisted Pro Se Clinics in Greater Minnesota.

Note to non-lawyers: When you represent yourself in court, you are a “pro se” litigant. Students providing “Assisted pro se” services advise -- but do not represent -- clients.
Note to Non-Minnesotans: “Greater Minnesota” is outside the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metro area, which, depending on who defines the metro, can be 7, 11 or 14 counties.

Each year, MJF partners with several greater Minnesota legal services agencies to run assisted pro se clinics for clients with family law issues. This year, students from all four Minnesota law schools went to White Earth Reservation, to the Shoemaker and Ziegler firm in Detroit Lakes, and to the Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota offices in Bemidji. In addition to the trip up north, a clinic was held with Central Minnesota Legal Services in Little Falls, and more clinics are planned for Mankato and Willmar later this semester. MJF understands the need for increased pro bono services in all areas of the state, and is hoping to partner with more legal services agencies and private firms willing to assist pro se clients in better understanding their cases and the court system.

And now, without further adieu, I give you

MJF’s Official Birthday Cake: Pecan Bourbon Caramel Cake!

The original idea comes from Bill Neal’s classic Biscuits, Spoonbread and Sweet Potato Pie: 300 recipes that celebrate the glories of Southern Baking (Alfred A. Knopf, 1991). Neal’s "Pecan Cake with Caramel Icing" has light layers with what he calls “the South’s most beloved icing, caramel.” He describes the cake as the favorite of an 80-year old Southern lady who had the same birthday party and cake for her entire life. A terrific endorsement.

In early 2007, my long-suffering colleagues at the University of Minnesota Law School Career and Professional Development Center endured several versions of this cake as I searched for one that wasn’t too dry and still had pecan flavor. That cake won the first MJF Birthday Cake Smackdown, beating the beloved Jimmy Buffett Cake (butter rum cake, Key Lime Italian Meringue and toasted coconut). However, the first Pecan Cake was more complex than I prefer for a cake that I will make often: separating and beating egg whites, and using three cake pans is too much trouble. Ultimately, Neal’s “light layers” didn’t quite work for the way I like to bake.

Problem solved . This year I found a Pecan Pound Cake that is an easy recipe for anyone with a stand mixer and, for the caramel, a candy thermometer. (Why don’t YOU have one?) And, once again, this cake was the hands’ down winner of MJF’s Birthday Cake Smackdown, trouncing the Judith Olney Joy of Chocolate Pound Cake.

Over the top alert: If you have Spiced Pecans in your freezer, this cake will be even better.

Construct this cake in three steps:
Make a pecan pound cake
Make a bourbon syrup
Make caramel for frosting

Useful tools:
A tube pan
A sifter or strainer
A metal cooling rack
A full sheet pan to put under the rack to catch the Bourbon Syrup Drips
A silicon brush as a “Bourbon Syrup Delivery System”
A candy thermometer
A silicon spatula to spread the caramel

PECAN POUND CAKE
Adapted from Georgia Pound Cake from Dinner at Miss Lady’s: Memories and Recipes from A Southern Childhood (Luann Landon, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1999.)

3 sticks butter, room temperature
1 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
1 pound dark brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup whole milk, room temperature

1. Preheat the oven to 325. Butter and flour a tube pan.

2. Toast the pecans while the oven pre-heats. They’ll be toasted when you can smell them. Chop them fine – but not pulverized to dust.

3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Purists will sift three times. Why not? If you don’t have a sifter, use a strainer. I have an electric sifter, and I swear by it.

4. Cream the butter. Add the sugars and beat at medium high speed for 5 minutes.

5. Slow the mixer and add the eggs, one at a time, beating briefly after each one. Add the vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Why? So that you won’t have blobs of unmixed batter at the end.

6. Add the flour in three batches alternating with the milk. Add the pecans and beat briefly.

7. Pour into the pan. Bake for 80 minutes. It is done when a skewer comes out clean and the cake begins to pull away from the sides.

8. Cool in the pan on a rack for 20 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool on a rack.

9. To cut the cake into three layers, use a serrated knife and mark the cake in thirds all around. Then, cut the cake into three lawyers. I promise that this is easier than you think, and when covered with caramel, no one will know or care if the layers aren’t mathematically perfect. Put the layers on a rack in a sheet to catch the Bourbon Syrup drips.

BOURBON SYRUP (adapted from Biscuits, Spoonbread)

1-1/2 cups water
1-1/2 cups white sugar
¾ cups bourbon

Boil the water and sugar for 5 minutes. Cool. Add the bourbon. Pour over the three cake layers. A silicon brush is very useful for this.

CARAMEL FROSTING (adapted from Biscuits, Spoonbread)
4 cups brown sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1/8 tsp salt
6 T light corn syrup
12 T cold butter, cut into tablespoons

Put the brown sugar, cream, salt and corn syrup in a deep and heavy pan. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook to 240 degrees. Remove from heat and cool to 110 degrees without stirring. Add the butter 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time, beating vigorously until the caramel is a room temperature.

CONSTRUCT THE CAKE

1. Put your cake plate in the sheet pan to catch the caramel drips.

2. Lay the bottom third of your cake onto the cake plate. If you are obsessed about tidiness, put wax paper strips under the cake to catch the drips for a clean presentation. Or, go wild and let the drips fall where they may.

3. Pour slightly less than 1/3 of the caramel on the bottom third of the cake. Spread it around.
Repeat with the second layer. Spread the remaining caramel over the top and let it drip down the sides.

Mushroom Soup: not from a can

If you are lucky enough to live in a city with the Palomino* restaurant chain, go forthwith and have a bowl of Portobella Mushroom Soup. If you love mushrooms with Hobbit-like passion, you will want to march into the kitchen and abscond with gallons, or, as I once suggested, "You may want to swim in it." As a professional career advisor, I can tell you that neither is a good career move, and it will be just your luck to have a cadre of U-Tubers on site at this critical moment in your life.

Another option is to go home and make your own. My favorite is based on "Hearty Mushroom Soup" from Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton At Home: Two chefs cook for family & friends (Warner Books, 1994, p. 79-80). I have taken two approaches to this soup, and both play on the soup's intense flavor. One is broth-like, and one is very dense, almost like a sauce. Your choice, of course.

For those days when chopping onion or mincing garlic is either unthinkable or impossible, please substitute good quality dried onion and garlic. "Good quality" does not mean the crumbs and dust that have been in your pantry for five years.


Mushroom Soup #1 -- not from a can

1 oz. dried mushrooms (half dried shitakes, half other dried mushrooms -- most recently I used 1/2 oz. porcini)
3 T butter
3 T. flour
1 small onion, finely chopped [or 2T Penzey's dried minced onions]
4 cloves garlic, minced [or 1 tsp Penzey's dried minced garlic]
1 to 1-1/2 pounds white button mushrooms thinly sliced
4-8 oz. crimini or portobello mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried marjoram (or oregano)
4 c. hot beef broth (Penzey's Beef Soup Base, for instance)
2-4 c. hot water

1. Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water. I put the mushrooms in a bowl , microwave for two minutes, and let them sit and soak for 10 minutes. Pour off the water. If you are very diligent, pour the water through a coffee filter and add it to the soup with the beef broth in Step 3.

2. In a large soup pot or dutch oven, melt the butter until the foam subsides, and then add the flour, stirring for about two minutes until you have created a smooth paste. Add the onion, garlic, and fresh mushrooms, stirring until the mushrooms release their liquid (five minutes). Lower the heat and add the salt, pepper, dried mushrooms, thyme, and marjoram (or oregano). Cook until all of the mushrooms are soft, stirring often. (five minutes)

3. Add the hot broth slowly, stirring to make sure that you have no lumps. Add the water, cover and simmer for 90 minutes, or until the dried mushrooms are tender.

4. Serve with a garnish of chives. A good host will offer guests the chance to add a teaspoon or so of Sherry at the table.

Thicker Mushrooms Soup -- Not from a can

Make the following addition:

In step 3: While the soup is simmering, make a very dark blond roux. Melt 4 T butter and then add 4 T flour. Stir carefully for about 30 minutes, or until the roux is very dark golden brown, or until you get tired of this activity. Add 1/2 cup soup at a time to the roux, to a total of 2 cups. With 30 minutes of simmering time remaining, slowly whisk the roux into the soup. The goal is a nicely thickened liquid. Keep the heat on very low, keep stirring and watch for sticking.

Leftover Mushroom Soup

Not that you'll have much to work with, but:

1. Heat the leftover soup in a saucepan or in a casserole dish in the microwave. Add thin-sliced raw russet or Yukon Gold potatoes and bake at 375 until the liquid is absorbed and the potatoes are tender. (60-90 minutes)

2. Use thick soup as mushroom sauce on steak or burgers, mushroom omelets or on vegetables.


*Palomino cities as of 6/4/10: Cincinnati, Dallas, Indianapolis, Minneapolis.

Lazy Person's Stuffed Cabbage

Aunt Gussie Malovany's Stuffed Cabbage is legendary, and for good reason. She makes it with love and she loves to know that her family and friends are eating it. She has diligently and lovingly stuffed those cabbage leaves -- one by one -- for decades. I stand second to none in my admiration for those rolls, but I have always known that they were out of my league.

My Mother, Letty Gainen, was a terrific cook -- until she tired of the whole exercise. She left behind the Beth Torah Synagogue Cookbook, A Cook for All Seasons (1977), which includes Blintz Casserole (featured at the annual "Latkapalooza), and a host of other treasures, but no index. When it gets cold and I need comfort food, I turn to her best pal Lil Litowsky's "Sweet & Sour Meat With Cabbage," which covers all of the stuffed cabbage flavor and texture territory, but not one cabbage leaf gets stuffed.

Never one to leave flavors alone, I have updated Lil’s original with hot peppers, raisins and rice. The “red ingredient” was originally ketchup. Mom used “1890 Salad Dressing,” which is no longer available. I’ve used French’s Catalina Free, a can of Rotel, tomato sauce with lots of hot sauce and chili sauce. I don’t think it matters much in the end.

Lazy stuffed cabbage

1 pound ground beef (or turkey, chicken, or meat substitute)
1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 green or red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
4 jalapeno or other hot peppers, minced
1 cup of "red stuff" of your choice
1 cup of water (or more, depending on the rice you choose)
1 cup of whole grain rice (not instant)
2 T brown sugar
2 T cider vinegar
1/2 to 3/4 tsp ground cloves
1 bay leave
1 cup of raisins
5 cups of cabbage, coarsely sliced
juice of a lemon

1. Brown the onion and peppers in a large frying pan with a lid or a Dutch oven. Add the meat or meat substitute, break it up and brown it. Drain the fat.
2. Add the "red stuff" of your choice, water, vinegar, sugar, cloves, bay leave and raisins. Blend well.
3. Put the cabbage on top of the meat mixture, cover and simmer 30 minutes, or until the rice is cooked. Check on the mixture after 15 minutes. Add water if the mixture looks sticky and the rice is crunchy.
4. Add the lemon juice before serving.

This is even better the next day, and it freezes very well.

Mom's Chicken Creole - 30 years later

Thirty years ago I lost the cookbook from which my mother made her iconic Chicken Creole. Last Thursday, after decades of searching, I found a copy in perfect condition at Opposable Thumbs, a wonderful used bookstore in Northeast Minneapolis.

If you or your mother or grandmothers have any "old" cookbooks or church or synagogue cookbooks, you probably have one or more of the 60-odd-page pamphlets published by the Culinary Arts Institute of Chicago in the '50s, '60s and '70s. During my decades-long hunt for "Tempting Low-Calorie Recipes," I have always found a way to sort through pamphlets and church cookbooks on the dusty bottom shelves of used bookstores coast-to-coast. If you imagine that I have lots of Culinary Arts books, you are correct.

My sister Elaine and I agree that Mom had either 1956 or 1965 edition, because this was a favorite family recipe from the 1960s. As was typical of our semi-adventurous mother, on the first time out she followed the recipe precisely, using an 1/8 tsp of cayenne. In our family's early '60s culinary sensibility, that much cayenne made the dish completely inedible. But, because the underlying idea was sound, she kept making it. Elaine and I agree that the original can of cayenne lasted for 10 or 15 years, because Mom doled out cayenne grain-by-grain thereafter.


I have adapted this considerably, substituting fresh mushrooms for canned, adding fresh hot peppers and garlic, and substituting Penzey's Chicken Paste for the odious bouillon cubes that Mom used instead of chicken stock. Feel free to substitute vegetarian stock and to replace the chicken with shrimp or tofu (instructions below). And yes, the Creole sauce is just fine all by itself. This goes best over rice.

New Chicken Creole, adapted from "Tempting Low-Calorie Recipes," Culinary Arts Institute

1 T canola or other neutral oil
4-6 oz fresh mushrooms, cut in thick slices
1 medium onion, chopped (not fine)
1 red or green pepper, cut in 1/2" strips
1 each, jalapeno and red fresno chili or other fresh chilis, minced
1 garlic clove minced
1 cup chicken or vegetarian broth
1 6 oz can of tomato paste and 6 oz water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 - 1 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Choice of : 1 cup cut up cooked chicken, 1/2 pound raw peeled shrimp (or cooked shrimp), 1/2 pound tofu cut into cubes

1. Heat the oil in a large non-stick skillet with a lid. On high heat, add the mushrooms and peppers and stir until the mushrooms begin to brown. Add the onions and stir until they just begin to soften. Add the garlic and stir for a minute or until it becomes fragrant.

2. Add the broth, tomato paste and water, salt, pepper and cayenne. Stir until the tomato paste begins to dissolve. Lower the heat, and simmer covered for 30 minutes.

3. FOR CHICKEN: Add the chicken to the skillet and cook until heated (2-3 minutes).

4. FOR RAW SHRIMP: Add the shrimp and cook for two to five minutes, or until the shrimp is cooked. FOR COOKED SHRIMP: Add the shrimp and cook until heated. (2-3 minutes)

5. FOR TOFU: While the sauce is simmering, heat the broiler, cut the tofu into cubes, and place them on an oiled foil-covered baking sheet. Sprinkle with some red wine or red wine garlic vinegar for some color and flavor. Broil for about 8 minutes, turn the cubes and broil for about 5 more minutes, or until the cubes have some color and are beginning to crisp. Drain the cubes on a paper towel and then add to the sauce. Cook for 2-3 minutes so that the tofu can absorb some flavor.

Spiced Cherries Two Ways

Jam-making, for me, is an unalloyed pleasure. Start with fruit, add sugar, ginger (often in many forms), the occasional chili and lemon or lime juice, boil a few jars, stir for a while, and then -- it's JAM.

I owe this gentle obsession to two friends: Eileen O'Toole, who has been my friend since we worked on The Diamondback (the U of Maryland's newspaper) in college; and Laurie Colwin, who I never "knew," but whose cooking essays have made her feel like a friend. In Eileen's kitchen, I watched cherries from her tree become jam, and I was trusted with wiping the jars; in More Home Cooking, I learned about the quiet pleasure of making plum jam, the magic of corn relish, and the delight that comes from winning a prize at the fair (county fair in her case; Minnesota State Fair for me).

I got serious about making jam, relish and barbecue sauce just after 9/11. When the going got tough, I started to make jam in earnest. Case after case of jam. There have been years since 9/11 when I had two or three cases of empty jars in my car at all times -- just in case. Before jam season in 2007, I counted 36 cases of jars in my house. Just in case. My friends will not be surprised to know that the jam obsession has been partnered with a Jam-and-Preserving-Book Acquisition Project, and that they number 20, including a history of marmalade.

One treasure is Jeanne Lesem's The Pleasures of Preserving and Pickling (Knopf 1975). My copy is an official Chia Pet Book, because of its forest of sticky notes. Lesem guided me to perfecting Carrot Marmalade. For the past two years mine has looked beautiful, turned to stone when opened, which I now believe represented a serious misunderstanding of the physics of boiled sugar. Her recipe for Jamaican Banana Jam (p. 56) has simple but inspired ingredients (lime juice, bananas, sugar and water), and it makes a swell Peanut Butter and Banana Jam sandwich. Elvis might have liked it.

But her treatment of cherries is sublime: SPICED CHERRIES are whole cherries in a sweet and savory syrup. When I tasted leftover syrup after packing the first batch, I said "This is the best food I have ever made." There are two ways to approach making Spiced Cherries: with fresh or frozen cherries. Fresh cherries keep their shape better than frozen, but you can make this every day of the year with frozen cherries or strawberries and your dinner guests will love you, and the pancake-and-waffle crowd will be panting for more.

SPICED CHERRIES for the pantry (adapted from Pleasures of Preserving and Pickling)

2 pounds fresh, ripe cherries, pitted
3 c sugar
3/4 c red wine vinegar (the good stuff, please)
1/2 tsp ground mace
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 "coin" of fresh ginger (1/4 to 1/2 inch round)

1. Combine all of the ingredients except the cherries. Bring to a rapid boil. Boil for two minutes; add the cherries all at once. Continue at a low boil for about 40 minutes, or until the liquid has boiled down by half and the syrup is thick. Stir occasionally and keep watch: this is boiling sugar.
2. Pour into sterilized jars, process for 10 minutes.

SPICED CHERRIES for the refrigerator (will keep about a week, airtight and refrigerated) (adapted from Pleasures of Preserving and Pickling)

1 pound frozen dark cherries or 1 pound frozen strawberries (or a combination)
1/1-2 c sugar
3/8 c red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp ground mace
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon big pinch ground cloves
1 "coin" of fresh ginger (1/4 to 1/2 inch round)

1. Combine all of the ingredients except the cherries. Bring to a rapid boil. Add the cherries all at once. Continue at a low boil for about 40 minutes, or until the liquid has boiled down by half and the syrup is thick. If you are impatient, after about 15 minutes, remove 1 to 2 cups of the syrup and boil it separately. Return it to the pan and continue boiling and occasionally stirring.
2. Cool in a bowl and refrigerate, airtight, for about a week.

Laurie Colwin's "Katharine Hepburn" Brownies

Everyone has opinions about brownies -- cakey, squishy, dense, studded with random stuff. There are dozens of books with "brownie" in the title, and no self-respecting pastry-chef-author would write a cookbook without a brownie recipe. The Gold Standard -- the one from which you will learn everything you could possibly want to know about baking a brownie -- is Maida Heatter's two-pager which appears in Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts (p 216-217, Alfred A. Knopf, 1981). All of her recipes are the equivalent of a day of baking school, and this one is no different.

The late Laurie Colwin's recipe is much more accessible. Her take on the recipe attributed to Katharine Hepburn appears in the classic More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen (p. 75-76, HarperCollins, 1993). Her recipe has four simple steps, and you can mix the whole thing in a saucepan. If you like short, dense brownies, this is for you. My five-step version is similar to the original, but I have switched out bittersweet for unsweeted chocolate and added espresso powder. My colleagues loved them. You will, too.

Hepburn-Colwin Brownies (respectfully revised)

2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter
4 oz good bittersweet chocolate
½ tsp espresso powder
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup all purpose flour
1 tsp salt

1. Butter and flour a 13x9 pan. Preheat the oven to 325.
2. Melt the butter and chocolate in a heavy saucepan. Stir often and don’t burn the chocolate. When the butter and chocolate are melted, take the pan off the heat and add the espresso powder.
3. Add the sugar to the chocolate mixture. Stir until the mixture cools enough so that when you add the eggs they won’t scramble. Add the vanilla and stir until you can’t see any more egg.
4. Stir in the flour and salt. Don’t beat this to death, but make sure that there are no flour streaks left. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Watch carefully at the end – if your oven runs hot, you can have a scorched mess.
5. Remove from the oven to cool on a rack. You will be amazed at how easy it will be to remove the cooled brownies neatly from the pan if you cut them while they are still hot.

Chocolate Celebration Cake: "599 Days to Go"

May 31, 2007 marked “599 days to go” for the Bush Presidency. In the spirit of an administration that has always ignored generic wisdom, conventional wisdom and facts-in-evidence, I created the “599 Day Cake.” The base, of course, is the well-known and loved Texas Sheet Cake.
For busy people with reasonably well-stocked pantries, it is quick, easy and low-tech, using a bowl, a wooden spoon, one small saucepan and a 9”x13” baking pan. It appears in hundreds of cookbooks, from community cookbooks to books by Famous Authors, and a quick Google search will uncover hundreds of versions.

But it is the "frosting" which embodied the purest Bush Administration spirit. Instead of using any of the time-honored methods of covering a chocolate cake, I chopped 8 ounces of very good dark chocolate in a mini-chopper with some cream. The theory – completely contrary to the laws of both Pastry and Physics – was that the heat of the chopper would create ganache, that most wondrous of all combinations of chocolate and cream. This method most certainly did not create ganache. The chocolate was barely chopped and the cream was curdled. Disgusting.

Continuing in the spirit of the Fact-Free Bush Administration, I posited that slathering the curdled chocolate onto the hot-out-of-the-oven cake would create ganache. Not so – again, the laws of Pastry and Physics won out. The chocolate mixture did, indeed, melt, but hardened into a something that looked like curdled granite. Looked weird; tasted good.

TEXAS SHEET CAKE (Adapted from The Dallas Junior League Cookbook, 1976, p. 332)

1 stick butter
4 T Dutch process cocoa (Penzeys is awfully good)
¼ cup of shortening
1 cup water
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
½ cup buttermilk *
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13” pan.
2. Using a small saucepan, mix the butter, cocoa, shortening and water. Bring to a boil.
3. Whisk the flour and sugar soda in a large bowl. Add the butter mixture and mix well. Add the eggs, buttermilk, baking soda and vanilla and mix until combined.
4. Pour the batter into the greased and floured pan. Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees. The cake is done when a tester comes out clean.
*Buttermilk note:  I use SACO powdered buttermilk blend and whisk it with the dry ingredients. I then mix 1/2 cup of water with the eggs.

Topping for the “599 Day Cake”

Chop 8 ounces of your favorite dark chocolate in a mini chopper. Add 3 ounces of heavy cream and buzz until you have a curdled mess that stops the blades.
Spread this mixture on top of your cake when it comes out of the oven. The chocolate will melt and the top of your cake will look like curdled granite. Let the cake cool.