3 Tbsp. butter, then one more because “that doesn’t look like enough.” You run the risk of your husband rolling his eyes and saying, “Whatever you say, Paula Deen.”

One and a half cups of powdered sugar

A few Tbsp. of lemon rind, freshly grated. Then go ahead and add some more, unless you really hate grating lemon for some reason. It’s really good, and pretty! See those little flecks?

The juice from that lemon. Cut it in half and squeeze it through a cheese cloth directly into the bowl. You’ll get pulp if you use a lemon juicer and seeds if you don’t use the cheese cloth.

Some vanilla.

Maybe some water, if it still looks too thick after the lemon juice and vanilla and you don’t feel like slicing up another lemon.

Some kosher salt. Not a lot, so it’s salty, but some so that there’s depth of flavor. If you add too much salt… um, you’re effed. Try scooping it out, I guess? Basically, you want to add the salt slowly. I think maybe about half a teaspoon? But maybe start with a quarter and work your way up to that.

Cream everything together and then spread it on the cake.

Well, I did it. And you guys were right… Brussels sprouts are really good!

First I washed them in our trusty one-armed colander. Rob and I can’t quite bring ourselves to replace it.

Then I cut off the tough-looking bottoms, where they attached to the stalk, and halved them. This made some of the outer leaves fall off. I saved them.

The bunched up layers of leaves made excellent olive oil holders.

In addition to the olive oil, I tossed them with salt and paprika, because I always roast things with salt and paprika, and I figured a good way to ease into trying a new veggie is to prepare them in a familiar way.

I dumped them in a pan…

…and roasted them at 450 until they looked like this. I don’t really know how long. It was about one episode of People’s Court with the commercials fast-forwarded through.

I ended up eating the whole pan for lunch on Friday, which put me in the lamest and stupidest of lame and stupid food comas.

The leaves that I’d thrown in ended up super flavorful and delicious.

I now have a new vegetable to add to dinners. Next I’ll try them in butter and brown sugar and then I’ll sautee them with garlic to see how that works, too.

Thank you!

This recipe is zero Points on Weight Watchers and only has one ingredient.

You start with a banana. (Uh, you end with a banana, too. That’s how the whole “one ingredient” thing works.) Peel it and take out that weird blackish gray thing at the bottom. Freeze it until it’s rock solid. The first time I did this, I didn’t peel the banana first. Trying to get a frozen banana peel off of a frozen banana qualifies as one of the worst things ever.

Chop the frozen banana into chunks.

I’m doing two here because I’m making some for Rob, too, and found that one banana per person is a good ratio, but you can totally eat both bananas worth of ice cream yourself. Also, if you don’t have a good sharp knife, it might be helpful to freeze the banana already chunked. Me? I like the satisfying “chop-chop-chop” of dicing up a frozen banana. To each her own.

What is the verb for when you’re food processing something? I’ve sat here for a while thinking, and I don’t know. Do you say “food processor” it? Whip it? Whip it good? Can I “Devo” the banana in the food processor?

Ah, there we go.

At first it will look like this, and it’s gross:

Keep Devoing.

Then it starts to look like this:

Keep going.

Now is the time to add in anything else you want as a mix-in (this will probably bump up the Points, depending). You can try peanut butter, cocoa, coconut, jelly, vanilla… whatever.

Then, with little tiny angles singing in the background, it turns into this.

Creamy, custardy banana. You thought it would be gross and squishy! But it’s not! In fact, it is delicious.

I use a rubber spatula to put it into bowls.

It is fantastic all by itself, but it is even better with chocolate sauce.

P.S. Do yourself a favor and get all the parts to the food processor clean immediately – before the banana sets out too long.

brown sugar and molasses; the foundation of love

Beef + Bulgar Chili

1 cup of bulgar wheat
2 cups water, boiling
evoo
2 cloves of garlic, minced
one small onion, chopped
one red pepper, diced
1 pound of beef, ground
one 28 oz. can of tomato purée

The Love:
4 TBS brown sugar
2 TBS molasses
4 TBS cider vinegar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp. dry mustard
2 tsp. honey

In a medium bowl pour boiling water over dry bulgar wheat and set it aside for about half an hour, until the water is mostly absorbed. In a big stock pot, drizzle some olive oil and sauté the onion, garlic and pepper until the onion is soft, using medium heat. Add the beef and cook it until it’s medium rare. Add the tomato purée and cover. In another bowl, mix up the Love with a whisk and scrape it into the pot using a rubber spatula. Dump in the bulgar wheat when it’s ready, and then let the whole thing simmer until you get really hungry from the smell and have to have some, about half an hour or whatever.

Vegetarianize it by doubling the bulgar and skipping the beef. You can veganize it by doing that and swapping the honey for maple syrup.

Normally I’d take a photo of more stuff in the process, but I got so wrapped up in paying attention to the steps, and writing, that I spaced (this is my own recipe, and I wrote it as I was cooking).  The final product looks just like chili.  You can use your imagination.  But that combo of brown sugar and molasses, I thought, was just too beautiful not to share.

all gone!

Last night was the Fifth Annual Casserole Crazy Party hosted by Emily Farris, author of the book Casserole Crazy: Hot Stuff for Your Oven!. Rob and I cooked up a mac and cheese creation that didn’t place in the competition but received an even higher honor – several people came to us and said that ours, more than anyone’s, captured the spirit of a casserole: comforting, cheesy, and just a little bit trashy.

We wanted to make a “man food” casserole and ended up calling it a Sooper Bowl Casserole (Because Super Bowl is trademarked!). I was envisioning a potato and cheese something, but last minute scrapped the potato idea entirely and wrote a new recipe. Late in the afternoon I had the inspiration to infuse it with beer, and last second Rob said, “Bacon would be awesome in this”. Since we keep kosher up in here he ran out and grabbed some Bacos (which are vegan) and we sprinkled them in.

Casseroles aren’t a usual part of my repertoire, but I think they should be. They’re a great mix of cooking and baking and a fantastic way to get rid of leftovers or disguise veggies for picky eaters – everything rocks when it’s smothered in cheese. I’m converted, and I’m going to be making more in the future. Friends, you have been warned.

Here is Emily’s recap on the competition and there are more photos over here at MetroMix New York, which is where I pulled the above photo of me holding up my empty casserole dish.

The recipe is below. I suggest you half it if you aren’t feeding a ton of people – this filled two 13×9″ dishes.

Sooper Bowl Casserole

1 small white onion
2 lbs. medium shell pasta, al dente
2 sticks butter + some for onion
12 tbs. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. paprika
3 cups milk
12 oz. lager, sipped once or twice
6 cups shredded cheese
1/4 cup Bacos
potato chips

Cook and drain pasta. Chop onion into bits and then simmer in butter until caramelized. Preheat oven to 350 F. In large sauce pan, melt butter on low heat. Whisk in flour, salt and paprika. Cook until smooth and bubbling. Add milk, incorporate, and add beer. Cook for 10 minutes on medium heat, whisking slowly, occasionally. Add onions and cheese, cook to melting. Remove from heat, stir in Bacos. Mix with pasta and pour into greased dish. Top with crushed potato chips. Bake 25 minutes covered in foil, bake 5 minutes uncovered, until crushed potato chips are golden.

Beer – Brooklyn Brewery lager Cheeses – sharp cheddar, goat and gouda.

I rarely make cake from scratch; like brownies, the box mix for cake is usually just as good as, or better than, the results of slaving over the stove and measuring ingredients.  Purest bakers will disagree. They can bite me.

Still, I was feeling adventurous when I made some vanilla cupcakes from scratch for the Cupcakes for Charity event, and they were a success! I was going to try a new recipe for frosting, too, but I ended up making my tried and true Damn Frosting. It was an excellent combo. Anna, one of the fabulous event organizers, demanded the recipe for my cupcakes, so lady, this one’s for you.

I’m 90% sure I dug up this recipe up from the bowels of 52cupcakes and promptly lost again forever. It’s specifically a cupcake recipe, and I have no idea if that makes a difference in full sized cakes. If you try it for a sheet or round cake, let me know how it goes.

Vanilla Cupcakes

3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking posder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 12 sticks unsalted, room temp. butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cups milk

Heat your oven to 350* F. Cream together the butter and sugar until it’s fluffy (about 4 minutes). Meanwhile, in medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the eggs to the batter one at a time. Beat in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture and milk alternatively, beginning and ending with the flour. Bake on the center rack of the oven for 20 minutes, and cool the cupcakes on a wire rack.

Happy baking.

1. Roll a crust.  Press it in.  Every time I do this, I think of Mary Poppins comparing pie crusts to flimsy promises: “Easily made and easily broken.”

2. Wash the blueberries, then toss them with sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and love.

3. Berries in the crust.  This is the point I have to summon all my strength to not eat them all.

4. Put on the top and cut holes.  You see that little white blob peeking out through the hole on the left there?  That’s a pat of butter.  Butter makes it better.

5. Bake until golden.

6. Blueberry pie has the distinction of being one of the few baked goods better served cold.  Like revenge.

This is the recipe I used.  It’s from my friend Ellen, who apparently doesn’t believe in writing recipes in order, and also likes to sprinkle commentary throughout.  It made me happy, even if it was a little bit of up and down reading to get through it.  It’s from her grandmother.

Filling:
Combine 4 cups fresh blueberries with 3/4 -1 cup of sugar, 3 Tbs all-purpose flour, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, a dash of salt, and 1/2 tsp grated lemon peel (although I NEVER use the lemon peel).

Line 9 inch pie plate with pastry (see below). Add filling. Sprinkle with 1 tsp lemon juice (this is why I never put in the lemon peel AND I never measure the juice – I just shake until I feel like stopping!). Dot with 1 Tbs butter. Lay top crust over the top, adjust and cut slits for escape of steam. Seal edges. Bake at 400 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.

Double Crust Pastry:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening
8-10 Tbs cold water

Stir together flour and salt. With a pastry cutter, cut in the shortening until the pieces are pea-sized. Sprinkle 1 Tbs of water over the flour mixture and gently toss with a fork. Repeat using 1 Tbs of water until the whole flour mixture is moistened. Divide in half and form each into a ball. On a lightly floured surface, roll out each half until they are about 12 inches in diameter.

It’s warmer, and I make damn good iced coffee, so here is my recipe.

Start with quality beans. There is a saying that says, “Anything worth doing is worth doing right”.  I don’t think that applies to everything, but it certainly does to coffee.  Iced especially.

Mine is whole bean, organic, shade-grown and fair trade, because I’m “like that”.

Make coffee as you normally would, but do it double-strength. 1 standard coffee scoop equals 2 tablespoons, and one scoop of the ground beans makes 2 cups of coffee. Simply – a tablespoon of coffee grounds per cup for normal joe, and so two tablespoons per cup for iced.

This is as good a time as any to give you my two cents about coffee-making methods. French presses rule. Coffee pots take up huge amounts of space and don’t make coffee nearly as well.

I recommend only doing a day or two’s worth of coffee at a time. Day-old ice coffee isn’t horrible like day-old regular coffee, but if it sits too long, even in the fridge, it’s just as gross.

While your coffee is brewing (or steeping), put as much sugar as you’d like in the bottom of a clean glass jar. (The glass jar trick is something I got from my grandmother – the Italian one.) The glass holds up to the heat better than a plastic pitcher would, and, of course, if you use an old sauce jar like I did, you’re recycling, and woo hoo for that!

Pour the hot coffee on the sugar and stir it to dissolve. Alternatively, you can make simple syrup so that people who don’t want sugar in their iced coffee can drink this along with people who do.  If you think that’ll be the case, though, it’s simpler to make two jars and label them sweet and non.  But I give you options.

Screw on the lid and move the jar carefully to the fridge. It’s really hot (I burned myself). It will also look like swamp water in a jar in your fridge. Warn your family you haven’t lost your mind bottling pond scum; it’s just coffee.

Don’t add milk; wait until it’s being served to do that, or it will taste off.

THE NEXT MORNING:

Pack plenty of ice in your cup. Brewing the coffee double-strength is what helps it stand up to being watered down by ice melting.

Pour the coffee over the ice. I probably didn’t have to tell you that, but I had a picture for this step. It was pretty tricky snapping photos with one hand while pouring with the other, and I managed to do it without spilling or dropping the camera. So just appreciate this pouring photo, even if you don’t need it, ok? Thanks. You’re awesome.

Add your milk, stick in a straw if you want one (I like mine bendy, and with pretty red stripes as you can see), and enjoy!

Happy summery mornings to you!