CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

VALENTINE STRIKES AGAIN

Black Bean Brownies

Samson Sous Chef returns.

Samson seemed a little skeptical, but I have been feeling very experimental in the cooking department. I had a friend send me a recipe for brownies based on black beans. The recipe can be found here:
http://vegetablewithmore.allrecipes.com/Recipe/Recipe.aspx?nprid=161701

I took the advice of some folks on that website, and I substituted some coconut oil for the vegetable oil, and 1tsp cinnamon for the instant coffee, and added 1/2 tsp of baking powder.
Basically you just put everything in a blender, give it a whirl, and bake! It was so easy! I sprinkled some mini chocolate chips on top:
The batter tasted good, so I was fairly confident these 'brownies' would be quite tasty.
They smelled wonderful while they were cooking!

And, best of all, they tasted great!

Bacon Explosion!

Guest Blogger: Pat with Chloe Sous Chef

If you want your new food creation to become an Internet viral sensation, give it a great name, and make sure it includes lots of bacon.

When I first saw a bacon explosion in a New York Times article, I knew the question wasn’t, “If?” but “When?” I would make one. And there didn’t seem to be a better time to make one than during an office potluck luncheon in which bacon would be featured in every dish.

One of the great things about a bacon explosion is its infinite versatility. The basic concept—ground meat surrounding crumbled bacon, and surrounded by a bacon lattice, lends itself to a near infinite variety of additions, substitutions, alterations, and creativity. Here is how I went about making my inaugural bacon explosion.

First, a quick jaunt to my local grocery store was in order. At some point in my planning process, I had decided that my meat base would be a 50/50 combination of ground beef and ground pork. I found a 1¼ lb package of ground sirloin in the meat case, and decided that an equivalent weight of ground pork sausage would work. For good measure, I also requested 1¼ pounds of the store-cured bacon. While I was at the store, I figured my inaugural bacon explosion required a suitable libation, and on a friend’s recommendation, I went with a Wells Banana Bread beer. It didn’t disappoint!
Upon getting home and making sure my camera was charged up, and with constant supervision from my trusty Sous Chef Chloe the cat, it was on to getting on with the cooking. I made a 6 strip by 6 strip weave of bacon on parchment paper, and put the rest of the bacon in a cast iron skillet to fry on the stovetop. I gave the bacon lattice a thorough sprinkling of a homemade barbecue dry rub featuring all the ingredients one would expect in a homemade BBQ dry rub. While the bacon was frying, I mixed the ground meats in a mixing bowl by hand, and applied it evenly on top of the bacon lattice.

The cooked bacon was allowed to cool, then crumbled and placed in the center axis of the ground meat. I then rolled the loaf by “folding” it into thirds, and worked it by hand to a cylindrical shape. The parchment paper helped keep it from sticking to the work surface. A final coating of dry rub finished the spice contribution.

Meanwhile, I also fired up my smoker (Google “Frankenbrinkman” to see the inspiration for my smoker modifications) with lump charcoal and a few pieces of maple hardwood. I inserted the water pan into the smoker and filled it with boiling water, then put a grill immediately above the water pan and placed the loaf on the grill. A meat thermometer was placed in the center of the loaf. The smoker temperature was maintained at 220 degrees, give or take.

Approximately 2 ½ hours into the smoking process, I brushed on a healthy coating of homemade tangy, tomato-based barbecue sauce on all sides of the loaf (no photo here; I couldn’t simultaneously apply BBQ sauce and snap pictures). After 3 ½ hours, the internal temperature hit 165 degrees, so I took it off the smoker, and after snapping one last quick picture, I covered it tightly in foil and refrigerated it in anticipation of the potluck the next day.

To serve, I reheated it and cut it into slices approximately one-half inch thick. A drizzle of BBQ sauce finished it off. Voila!

I was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out. I was expecting something tasting like over-the-top gluttony, but that really wasn’t the case. The smoke created a mouth-watering aroma. It had a distinctively meaty flavor, and the spice and tang from the BBQ sauce added a nice, but not overpowering tang. I was honestly surprised at how the different meats, smoke, and BBQ sauce complimented each other, leading to a very balanced flavor. The comments I received from my fellow potluckers were extraordinary:

“Supreme…like a smoky bacon meatloaf.”

“Words cannot express! So much smoky, salty goodness in one bite… Only nodding and grunting can truly communicate the delight.”

“It brought back fond memories of camp fire cooking delight. The smoke ring was truly impressive.”

“I’m ready for round 2!”

“It was so good that I’m currently dreaming about it in a bacon-induced food coma….z.zzzzzzzzzz……..huh?.. what was the question agai…..n..zzzzzzz…bacon…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”

“Best dish at the potluck.”

“It’s making me fat, but I’m still eating it.”

“It was a meat-tastic art masterpiece.”

Bon appétit y’all!

FINALLY. TREATS FOR THE DOGS!

OK....so today I finally made something WITHOUT any of the following ingredients: butter, sugar, white flour, more butter, more sugar and sugary decorations. Instead, I carefully selected some healthful ingredients to create some delicious (?) dog treats. They resemble human peanut butter cookies. Here's why:

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup plain oatmeal
1/8 cup oat bran
1/2 cup unsweetened banana chips, crushed
1/2 cup natural crunchy peanut butter (I used Trader Joes no salt added version)
2 cups of hot water

DIRECTIONS:
preheat oven to 350 degrees
crush banana chips in a bowl (I used the back of a glass for my crushing)
mix dry ingredients in a bowl: flour, oatmeal, oat bran and banana chips
add peanut butter and water and knead dough (sprinkle in additional water if dry ingredients remain).
with hands, roll out balls of dough and place on a cookie sheet.
with a fork, press dough balls down and make a cute crosshatch design on top (they DO look like people cookies)
bake for 40 mins, and turn oven off and allow to cool in oven overnight.

I cruised the internet for ideas, ingredients and inspiration. I found a lot of good places to start on this website: http://www.dogtreatkitchen.com
They do a nice job of explaining which foods to avoid with dogs, as well as provided THIS recipe that I expanded on.

I gave the dogs a smidgen of the dough and they liked it. I'm excited to see how they feel about the final product. They were pretty tired from running around in the snow, and running errands with me earlier, so they weren't much company in the kitchen today. Good thing they make such excellent couch companions!



I had to add in our new pal, Huxley, enjoying his delicious treats! He is being SUCH a good boy, patiently waiting for it to be OK to chomp his cookie! The expressions on his little face are priceless....

IT MATTERS NOT WHAT SOMEONE IS BORN, BUT WHAT THEY GROW TO BE.

It was my bosses birthday last week, and I knew I wanted to bake him a cake. He and I share a minor (major) love for Harry Potter, so I got to thinking.

WHAT IF.....we all had Horcruxes? Not like "He who must not be named" in the sense of evil...but little seemingly worthless items that represented something near and dear to us. Tiny insignificant significant symbols that could be a 'pocket collection' of major things in our lives. I was onto something. WHAT IF I found out what some of these were, and BAKED them into a cake? Taking a cue from the famous 'King Cake'???? Would it work?

As I was walking out of the office one night, I casually posed the question to my boss, "If you were to have Horcruxes, what would they be?"

He bit right on my trap, and proceeded to rattle off 4 right then and there. I repeated them over and over in my head until I got in my car, and furiously typed them into an email to my coworker while sitting in my car (9 degrees out, thank you very much!) He arrived at work the next day, and happily forked over two more for me to consider. Since I couldn't FIND these actual items, I did the next best thing and googled them and printed their images off on card stock. I found these nifty little 'jars' at Meijer in the travel shampoo section and I was set! Each Horcrux was neatly folded into a jar. Now, how to incorporate them into the cake??!!??

I made a double layer white cake (secret ingredient, buttermilk) with traditional buttercream frosting. I used food coloring, and swirled the batter once it was in the cake pans, to add a fun element of whimsy. I decided against baking plastic INTO the cake- I had no idea if the things I got would melt...and frankly, no time to test it.

One other new experience was the use of Fondant. I bought a box, opened it up, and there was this white, plasticky brick of edible goop? I read the directions, thought about what I wanted to make and went for it. I rolled vanilla into it, along with the food coloring, and basically molded it by hand into.... Harry's Broomstick! I think it's cute. I also made a Lightning Bolt, too.

It was getting late, so I had to limit my creativity. I placed the Horcruxes around the bottom of the cake, and piped red (it turned out quite pink) frosting around and over top of them.


As usual, my abilities are no match for my dreams. The cake looks like a child made it, but I don't care. I think the cake turned out delicious and the idea, Horcruxes and all, was a hit.
(I also only made 6 for him, forgetting that V had seven)


I also made a Birthday card out of the Marauder's Map, thanks to my friend Melissa over at Cake Hero!! She was kind enough to share her awesome file with me. She had an amazing Harry Potter party that you can check out HERE.



Charley was not interested in helping me make this cake, not after a fun day at DayCamp...instead my Sous Chef for this project was sweet, little Dakota.

Bacon! Bacon! Bacon!

Guest blogger: "Samson Sous Chef"

A few of my co-workers and I decided we needed to have a "bacon appreciation luncheon". Basically a pot-luck where every item must contain bacon. This was inspired by my watching the Food Network a little while ago and seeing a show on all the things one can do with bacon. Also, my buddy Pat's wanting to make something called a "bacon explosion". Google it. It's nuts.

Anyway, I chose to bake the bacon in the oven. It's easier to do large quantities that way.

The cooking bacon was driving Samson crazy!

Then I melted chocolate chips in a pan over very low heat.

When the bacon had drained on paper towels and cooled, I dipped the bacon in the chocolate and laid them on parchment paper to solidify.

They didn't look too appetizing, so I added some white snowflake decoratifs!