Charlie Browns Farms

          A road side tourist trap where with a self serve honey, maple syrup and molasses station. Also available, emu/ostrich eggs, kangaroo fillets, deep fried anything, and dinosaur statues.

When you walk in, it almost looks like a plain ol' liquor store and you are slightly let down but once you've had a chance to look around you realize, there is some really weird stuff here. In one corner, you've got a refrigerated produce aisle, like a grocery store, and then behind that, there's a wine room. To the left of the wine room, there's a honey and pickled things section. There is just stuff everywhere. Everything from knick knacks to table settings to happy meal toys. But, it's also a restaurant with a varied selection of game meats and fun milkshake flavors such as peanut brittle, which by the way, was the flavor of the day.

S'mores Brownies

Warning: Have a glass of milk nearby. These brownies are incredibly rich.

What you will need:

10 -20     graham crackers
1/4 - 3/4  cup  butter (melted)

1 cup     butter
2 cups    sugar
1 cup      flour
4 ea        eggs
1/4 tsp    salt
2 tsp       vanilla
1/4 cup   cocoa powder
handful   nuts (walnuts, chopped)
handful   mini marshmallows
Pinch      sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 f. In a food processor, grind the crackers and mix in melted butter. In a lined/greased pan, set down thick layer of crumbs. Bake for approximately 5-7 minutes, set aside.

Melt 1 cup of butter in a sauce pan or in microwave. Remove from heat and transfer to large bowl. Mix sugar, vanilla & eggs. Mix to combine. Add dry (1/4 salt, flour & cocoa powder) to wet and blend. Pour batter into lined/greased pan with graham cracker crust. Sprinkle nuts on top and bake approximately 35-40 minutes. Add marshmallows and sea salt 5-10 minutes before done. Let cool and enjoy with a tall glass of ice cold milk!

Brownie batter recipe (only one you'll ever need ever again) taken from Lovin' From the Oven.

Round is a shape, right?

When you go to college, they call it the freshmen 15. When you go to culinary school, add another ten pounds. And when your father dies while in culinary school, multiply by 2. I'm not sure how much weight I've gained since I started school but it's there and I don't like it. I'm tired all the time and nothing fits but everything tastes better in butter and with a side of potatoes.

I'm not really a bad eater, though. I love vegetables, textures don't bother me and I can read nutrion labels pretty well but between work and school, bad choices are just easier. However, I have been doing some healthier cooking as of late. More vegetables, whole grains versus white flour, less potatoes, a lot less sugar and I've switched from rice to quinoa. I am hopeful that I will be able to lose all this excess weight if I take it easy on the simple carbs and maintain something resembling a workout routine.

 Grilled chicken breast with a quinoa and vegetable meddly.

chicken breasts
zucchini, thinly sliced
onions, thinly sliced
large garlic clove, minced
1-2 crimin mushroom, thinly sliced
1tbs extra virgin olive oil, canola is fine
about a 1/4 tsp of salt, pepper, paprika, and ground mustard.
1 tbsp mirin (sweet cooking sake)

Cook quinoa according to according to package directions, set aside.
Prepare chicken breasts, dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper or any other spices you'd like and grill.
 While chicken grills, toss all your ingredients except for mirin in a bowl until well combined. Sautee over medium heat. Add mirin and cover. Allow to cook for 5 minutes. Remove cover and and continue to cook 'till desired done-ness. Gently, combine quinoa with vegetables. Serve and enjoy!

Super easy to prepare and it's become my go to meal 2-3 times out of the week.

Now, for something not so healthy:

Flan!!! I don't think I've met anyone who doesn't like flan. Rich and delicious without being too sweet. My sister has been begging me to make one and finally got around to it. Despite its appearance, it came out perfect with little effort and limited appliances (i used a toaster oven).

3/4 c     sugar
1 tbsp   water
1.5 c     milk
4           eggs
1/2 c     condensed milk
1 tbsp   vanilla extract

 Preheat oven to 325 and prepare a water bath.
To make caramel sauce, combine 1/4 c of sugar and water in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Watch it closely and when it changes color to a golden amber, remove from heat and pour into pan or ramekins and set aside.
For custard, bring milk to just before a simmer. In a bowl, combine remaining ingridients (eggs, sugar, vanilla, condensed milk). When milk is ready, remove from heat and pour 1/3 into egg mixture while whisking. Once egg mixture has been tempered, add remaining milk. Strain and pour into baking dish. 
Place baking dish in water bath and bake, approximately 30 minutes. Because i used a toaster oven, it took about 45/50 minutes for me at a slightly higher temperature. If it jiggles too much, bake a little longer. Refrigerate until serving.

Putting in Work

I've been promising my friend Don homemade baked goods for a while now, possibly over a year but with school and work, it was impossible to find time to put together a package and mail it out. However, I had a week off of school recently and used this opportunity to do just that. Don's a fun guy with a huge sweet tooth and so I had to make him something really special; Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch and Hazelnut Treats and Dark Chocolate & Pecan Oatmeal Cookies.

 Despite the use of marshmallows, the treats were the easiest to make while the cookies took me several tries. No matter what I did, they stuck to the baking sheet/aluminum foil/parchment paper and because they were so soft, they'd fall apart. I ended up dropping half a tablespoon of cookie dough into mini muffin liners and baking them that way. Finally, Success.

Recipes & more pictures after jump!

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

I've been working on a sleeve for over a year now and every time I go in for another 4-5 hour session, I bring baked goods for my artist. Back when he was working at a shop near my house, I would stop at Whole Foods for lunch and pick him up a cookie which eventually turned into homemade cookies, brownies and this time, mini Oreo Cheesecakes.

 


This recipe is fairly simple, incredibly versatile and provides a light and indulgent bite.

Baked Chile Relleno

 I've been on a roasted pepper kick lately and have been craving chile rellenos for quite a while. Growing up, my mom stuffed them with queso freso, dipped them in whipped egg whites and pan fried them until crispy and then served them with a potato pancake (similar to latkes) in a spicy broth. I made mine a little differently by using a colorful stuffing and skipping the egg whites and baking the pepper instead of frying. It's slightly healthier (you could always omit the cheese and make it a lot healthier) and not as heavy but still incredibly delicious.

recipe after the jump:

Back to Basics

Last quarter, I took my first kitchen class (no knives were used in baking) and from the very beginning, I was haunted by the final. A pass/fail hour and a half practical which involved knife cuts, chicken fabrication and meal consisting of chicken chardonnay, cream of mushroom soup, whipped herb potatoes, glazed carrots, and broccoli florets with hollandaise sauce all served hot. I busted my ass trying to finish on time, keeping everything hot and praying to every deity to not let me overcook my chicken. I did alright, finishing with 20 minutes left on the clock and with an edible chicken breast.

This quarter, we were allowed to choose our own menu based on a mother sauce. The only requirements were that there be chicken, a starch, mother or secondary sauce, and a vegetable. After several days of racking my brain over the menu, I decided I was not going to rush through my final and just get by. I was going to walk in there, pull out my knives and make dinner.

  Chicken Supreme with Oven Roasted Thyme Carrots and a Smashed Potato. I fell in love with the simplicity of this dish and came out on top. Everything came together wonderfully. The sauce was just right, the carrots were tender, the potatoes baked crispy, and the chicken- the chicken was absolutely perfect. Juicy and moist and everything it should be. I was like a proud mother standing over this harmonious meal.

Chicken Supreme w/ Oven Roasted Thyme Carrots and Smashed Potatoes