You guys. The best thing to make when it's been rainy and chilly all week is spiced brownies. Fudgy, rich, spicy, crunchy. Yes. With piping hot coffee, please.
Just follow Smitten Kitchen's recipe for Best Cocoa Brownies, but add some spices to the cocoa/butter/sugar mixture when you take it off the heat. I added something like:
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp smoked paprika (or anything smoky like chipotle or adobo things)
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
random couple of shakes of crushed cayenne pepper
You can add anything you want, really. Nutmeg (probably 1/4 tsp), ginger, black pepper. I'd also use ground cayenne if you have it in place of crushed to get more of an even heat throughout. I'm out, so the crushed cayenne I used made it so every now and then you end up with a spicy red pepper bit. A bit disconcerting.
My standard with these brownies is to add white chocolate chips in place of the nuts, but this time I crushed up some toasted hazelnuts instead and threw in an extra 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips. I am 99% against nuts in baked goods, but this was fine. All in all, these brownies are delicious. Highly recommended.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Knits and Corn
It's fall, so pumpkin ALL THE THINGS. Usually, I'd like to roast and puree my own pumpkin, but right now I only have time to open a can. Therefore, I will use this as an opportunity to compare home-roasted vs. canned pumpkin! Last time I made these muffins was several months ago, so we'll see what I remember. I'll get back to you on this soon, I promise!
Knit-wise, there has been nobody with a fancy camera (or even iPhone) who I have been able to convince to take too many pictures of my hands with mitts. This is why there is only one hand in these pictures. Believe me, I knit two (I love it when they drop the title of the blog into the post) fingerless mitts of each pattern, one for each hand.
The first are gorgeous, gorgeous Straightforward Mitts made from that Dirty Water Dyeworks Lucia in the Seaweed colorway I won in a giveaway for Holla Knits. These were surprisingly fast and incredibly fun. I think it took twelve hours per mitt or so. I didn't use the chart for long. In fact, I didn't use it at all for the second one. I will wear these every day probably. Forever.
The second pair are a scrappy version of Black Lodge Mitts made from very leftover yarn. Kind of odd colors but fun. Very slouchy. I used a bit of creative license with the increases and decreases (m1 either right- or left-leaning as needed, and slip2tog knitwise, k1, pass 2 slipped stitches over for a neutral non-leaning decrease). They're not the classiest mitts in my book, especially after those Straightforward'uns.
I went to the farmers market when it was still warm out and somehow ended up with a dozen ears of corn. I get excited when surrounded by fresh vegetables. So, I did the logical thing and made a Great Pyramid of Maize. Then cooked it and froze it! I've used it so many times so far, in soups, salsa, etc. I can't wait til I make chili and share that recipe. You should be excited. There's a lot of spice-type ingredients, but whoa it's good. Back to the corn. Long story short, caterpillars and rot, a dozen ears becomes ten.
Then poof! Suddenly ten ears of corn becomes four 1.5cup baggies of freezable quick corn! Nommm. Boil for about 4 minutes then plunge into ice water for about four more minutes. Then slice the kernels off.
See you next time!
Knit-wise, there has been nobody with a fancy camera (or even iPhone) who I have been able to convince to take too many pictures of my hands with mitts. This is why there is only one hand in these pictures. Believe me, I knit two (I love it when they drop the title of the blog into the post) fingerless mitts of each pattern, one for each hand.
The first are gorgeous, gorgeous Straightforward Mitts made from that Dirty Water Dyeworks Lucia in the Seaweed colorway I won in a giveaway for Holla Knits. These were surprisingly fast and incredibly fun. I think it took twelve hours per mitt or so. I didn't use the chart for long. In fact, I didn't use it at all for the second one. I will wear these every day probably. Forever.
The second pair are a scrappy version of Black Lodge Mitts made from very leftover yarn. Kind of odd colors but fun. Very slouchy. I used a bit of creative license with the increases and decreases (m1 either right- or left-leaning as needed, and slip2tog knitwise, k1, pass 2 slipped stitches over for a neutral non-leaning decrease). They're not the classiest mitts in my book, especially after those Straightforward'uns.
I went to the farmers market when it was still warm out and somehow ended up with a dozen ears of corn. I get excited when surrounded by fresh vegetables. So, I did the logical thing and made a Great Pyramid of Maize. Then cooked it and froze it! I've used it so many times so far, in soups, salsa, etc. I can't wait til I make chili and share that recipe. You should be excited. There's a lot of spice-type ingredients, but whoa it's good. Back to the corn. Long story short, caterpillars and rot, a dozen ears becomes ten.
Then poof! Suddenly ten ears of corn becomes four 1.5cup baggies of freezable quick corn! Nommm. Boil for about 4 minutes then plunge into ice water for about four more minutes. Then slice the kernels off.
See you next time!
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