St. Patrick's Day Recipes, Holiday Recipes

I'm still trying to play catch up on my blog recipes. I'm finally sharing my St. Patrick's Day meal from this year, just about 3 weeks behind, but better late than never, right? They will be here early for next year's Holiday recipes :)

I've never really made a full blown Irish dinner on St. Patrick's Day before and wanted to this year. I searched through a number of cookbooks and found a LOT of different Irish foods. I ended up going with Corned Beef and Cabbage, Irish Soda Bread, and some Glazed Mint Brownies for dessert. They were all a hit and everyone in the family loved them all. Here are links to each of the dishes, with the recipes included for the Irish Soda Bread and the Glazed Mint Brownies.

I will definitely continue the tradition of making Irish food next year. Maybe I'll find some other recipes to try next year. In the meantime, enjoy these, we loved them all!

IRISH SODA BREAD (includes recipe)
CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE
GLAZED MINT BROWNIES (includes recipe)
 

Glazed Mint Brownies Recipe, Taste of Home Recipes

I wanted to make something appropriately festive for dessert for St. Patrick's Day and decided to go with this Glazed Mint Brownies Recipe from a a little small publication I picked up from Taste of Home last year called Irish Food & Fun. I can't find the publication online anywhere to provide a link to purchase the publication, nor could I find it at Taste of Home's website either, so apparently it was a one time, limited publication. That being the case, I'll share the recipe since I can't find it anywhere to purchase.

Firstly, however, here's our critique of these chocolaty minty brownies.... We liked them, but they came out more fudge like than brownie like. Not that we're complaining, we liked them a lot and ate every single one of them over the course of the next few days, but they weren't as much cake like as they were fudge like. 

It is a recipe I'd make again, as we all liked them flavor of them, but they need a little tweaking on. Mine didn't rise very much in the middle and kind of sunk so they were very thin in the middle. I do, however, live at 7,500 feet in elevation, and tweak on my recipes a little bit to adjust for high altitude cooking, but these still didn't really work in adjusting for the altitude. If they were made at a normal elevation I'm sure they'd turn out perfectly.

Another thing I'll mention is that these were to be made in a 9-inch square pan, which I did, and I thought they were quite thin, especially when it came to the layers. I barely had enough of the layers to cover the previous layers, especially with the chocolate glaze on top. Just a little more would have been better. 

Bottom line, they were good, just need a little tweaking on, at least in high altitude.

Here's the recipe, enjoy!

GLAZED MINT BROWNIES

BROWNIE LAYER:

• 2 squares (1 ounce each) unsweetened chocolate
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour

In a microwave, melt chocolate and butter; stir until smooth. Cool slightly. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and flour until blended. Stir in the chocolate mixture.

Pour into a greased 9-inch square baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

MINT FILLING:

• 3 Tbsp. butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' (powdered) sugar
• 2 Tbsp. milk (approximately)
• 3/4 tsp. peppermint extract
• 3 to 4 drops green food coloring, optional

In a small mixing bowl, beat the filling ingredients until creamy, you may need a little more milk if it seems too stiff. Spread over brownies.

GLAZE:

• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 Tbsp. butter

For glaze, in a microwave, melt chocolate chips and butter on half power, stirring every 15 seconds, until smooth. Spread over filling.

Refrigerate until filling and glaze are set.

Makes 12-16 brownies.

Chocolate Lava Cakes with Pistachio Cream

A bit delayed, but here are our favorite recipes for February 2011, and a featured recipe.

There were several recipes that we really liked last month, and it was difficult to pick just one favorite recipe.

My favorite recipe for the month was the Linguine with Two Sauces. Brian had a hard time picking just one recipe. What he really liked was the whole Valentine's Dinner that I made. When I asked him to pick his one favorite "recipe" he couldn't come up with one, he liked the main dishes together as a whole that I cooked on Valentine's Day, which included Pepper-Crusted Filet Mignon with Horseradish Cream, Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic-Shallot Butter, Rosemary Garlic Fingerling Potatoes (no recipe, I just do my own thing with those), and Steamed Lobster Tails (recipe found online somewhere). We also had a Heartthrob Salad, which we didn't like very much, and Chocolate Lava Cakes with Pistachio Cream for dessert, which we both liked very much. He finally said if he had to pick one recipe, he ended up choosing the Pear Dutch Baby Pancake because it was one complete dish in itself.

So in trying to come up with an agreement on one recipe that we both liked as much as the other, and one I know will be a great recipe for anyone to make, I've chosen the Chocolate Lava Cakes with Pistachio Cream to feature as the Recipe of the Month for February. So here's the recipe. This recipe comes from the Best of Cooking Light Cookbook, which can be purchased here. Enjoy!

CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKES WITH PISTACHIO CREAM

• 1 cup shelled dry-roasted pistachios
• 1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 large eggs
• 5 large egg whites
• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• Cooking spray
• 1 cup 2% reduced-fat milk
• Dash of salt
• Powdered sugar (optional)

1. Place pistachios in a food processor, and process until a crumbly paste forms (about 3 1/2 minutes), scraping sides of bowl once.
2. Place 1/4 cup pistachio butter, 1 1/4 cups sugar, cocoa, eggs, and egg whites in top of a double boiler; stir well with a whisk. Add chocolate, cook over simmering water until chocolate melts and sugar dissolves (about 3 minutes). Remove from heat; add baking powder and vanilla. Stir with a whisk until smooth. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Chill 2 hours.
3. Place remaining 1/4 cup pistachio butter and 1/2 cup sugar in food processor; pulse 4 times or until combined. Add milk and salt; process until smooth. Strain mixture through a sieve into a small saucepan; discard solids. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 4 minutes or until thick. Remove from heat; pour into a bowl. Cover and chill.
4. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
5. Bake the cakes at 450 degrees for 9 minutes or until almost set (centers will not be firm). Let cool in pan for 5 minutes.
6. Invert each cake onto a dessert plate; drizzle about 2 teaspoons sauce over each serving. Garnish with powdered sugar, if desired.

Serves 12

Chocolate Lava Cakes, Chocolate Lava Cakes with Pistachio Cream

So, today was Day 29 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT and I ended up making this for dessert tonight. This was supposed to be our Valentine's Day dessert, and you absolutely must go with a rich chocolate for Valentine's Day, so I went with the Chocolate Lava Cakes in the cookbook. However, we were so full after eating all the other food I made for Valentine's Day we did not have room for dessert, so I kept these in the fridge ready to put in the oven and eat at a later date, which, fortunately for us, happened to be tonight. Here's what we thought of them....

CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKES WITH PISTACHIO CREAM, DIVINE!!!!!!!!!!

You're supposed to make the chocolate cake batter and put it in muffin tins and refrigerate for 2 hours. Since I was making these for Valentine's Day I made them in heart shaped ramekins, and since we were too full to eat them on Valentine's Day I ended up refrigerating them for 2 days instead of 2 hours. In lieu of that, and because of our altitude, and that the ramekins were slightly larger than a muffin cup, I let these bake for an extra 2 minutes, which was slightly too long; 1 extra minute would have been perfect. They weren't quite a ooey gooey as they could have been. They were slightly gooey, but could have had a little more ooze to the chocolate "lava".

I did have a hard time getting them out of the ramekins. I think brushing the ramekins (or muffin tins) with melted butter would have helped them to come out easier than just spraying the pans with non stick cooking spray. However, a little run of the knife around the edges and I was able to get them out.

The flavors of these cakes were absolutely delicious. You ground up pistachios to make a pistachio butter, which was remarkable. You used some of it in the cake, and the remainder in the pistachio cream that went with it. The sauce really looked disgusting, to be quite frank, it looked much like split pea soup (or baby poop as my daughter said), but the flavor was absolutely divine. My husband wanted me to load his up with lots of sauce, he wanted it drenched in the sauce.

I am not really sure how these are "light", but apparently they are, at just 232 calories each, and with 7.7 grams of fat each, they're not too terribly bad for you. For a rich, decadent, chocolate dessert, these are heaven!

So, would I make these again? ABSOLUTELY! and probably will. I have the other 8 in my freezer to make for our Bed and Breakfast guests. We serve a 3-course breakfast and always serve a dessert for breakfast as well. I think these will go over quite well.

54 recipes down, 493 more to go.

Valentine's Day Dinner

Today was day 28 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT. Since it was Valentine's Day I decided t make a romantic Valentine's Day Dinner for my hubby and me. I made a Heartthrob Salad, Pepper-Crusted Filet Mignon with Horseradish Cream, Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic-Shallot Butter, Roasted Fingerling Potatoes (not from the cookbook), and Steamed Lobster Tails (also not from the cookbook, which hubby cooked). I had also made some Chocolate lava Cakes with Pistachio Cream, but we were too full after the other dishes that I didn't cook the lava cakes and they're still in the fridge waiting to pop in the oven. I'll review those as soon as have those.

Since there are several recipes here, you can click on each of the links below to review our thoughts about each of them...

HEARTTHROB SALAD
PEPPER-CRUSTED FILET MIGNON WITH HORSERADISH CREAM
ROASTED ASPARAGUS WITH BALSAMIC-SHALLOT BUTTER
CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKES WITH PISTACHIO CREAM

54 recipes down, 493 more to go.

Crostini, Green Chile Salsa, Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie, Ricotta Won Tons

Today was day 22 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT. It was Super Bowl Sunday tonight (Go Packers!) and I decided to make a few of the appetizer recipes from the cookbook, and one of the dessert recipes. I cooked 4 recipes, and decided to feature them each in their own blog post, so I'll just post their titles, pictures, and a short synopsis here, and you can click on he links to find out more about each of them...

ROASTED TOMATO and GREEN CHILE SALSA; SALSA de MOLCAJETE
Very good fresh salsa recipe, check it out by clicking on the title above.

HERBED RICOTTA WON TONS with SPICY TOMATO SAUCE
Won Tons weren't very good, but the spicy tomato sauce was, probably won't make it again, click on the title above to find out more about this dish.

CROSTINI with GORGONZOLA, CARAMELIZED ONIONS, and FIG JAM

Very good, loved the flavor combinations; click on the title above for more about this dish.

BLACK BOTTOM BANANA CREAM PIE

Pretty good, most liked it a lot; click on the link for more about this dish.

So, we whittled down a few more recipes tonight while enjoying the big game (commercials and half time show for me). It's been a busy day for me, I've been cooking all day, starting with breakfast for our Bed and Breakfast guests, then making these 4 dishes, and 2 others that my hubby specifically wanted for game day (sweet potato fries and buffalo wings). I'm pooped and ready for bed, but will back tomorrow with more reviews of tomorrow's dinner.

43 recipes down, 504 more to go.

Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie

BLACK BOTTOM BANANA CREAM PIE

good...

This was a good pie, our daughter and son in law really liked, as did my hubby. I thought it was fine, but after eating all the appetizers throughout the Superbowl today, I was a bit full by the time dessert rolled around, so didn't have much of an appetite. However, I do think it was a good pie.

The fat free whipped topping was a bit loose and runny so I had a hard time getting it to look decent after it was cut. And trying to get a decent picture didn't go over too well. Overall, it was a decent dessert and worthy of making again.

40 recipes down, 507 more to go.

Beef Pot Roast, Rustic Tart

Day 20 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT and I made two dishes; a Beef Pot Roast (Traditional Yankee Pot Roast as it's called in the cookbook), and a Rustic Tart (Rustic Grape Tart, to be specific). It's been so cold here lately I thought a good comfort meal was in store.

So cold that one of the pipes froze and burst in our B&B and wasn't discovered until after dinner; hubby, son in law, and son in law's father spent all evening at the Lodge cleaning up the mess and fixing the pipe. Still not sure how much damage was done and if our gorgeous oak table and hardwood floors will come back ok or not, only time will tell.

I was also going to make one of their biscuit recipes as well and my hubby wanted me to make my own biscuits instead. I'll save the cookbook biscuit recipes for future meals. Here's our thoughts on these two dishes...

TRADITIONAL YANKEE POT ROAST, good flavors, but the meat was overdone...

I have never been able to make a good pot roast for the life of me. I've tried many recipes over the years and haven't been able to master a good one yet. I even cooked this meat 15 minutes less than the directions called for and it was still overdone. I have no idea why a pot roast decides to do battle with me, but it wins every time.

The flavors, however, were really good, and the vegetables were cooked perfectly, just barely done. I tend to like my veggies a little more done, but everyone else in my family likes them less done. I typically cook them for the rest of the family's taste, and these came out perfectly for them.

All in all with this recipe, everyone agreed it was good, and worthy of making again, but the meat needs to be cooked less.

RUSTIC GRAPE TART, not one I'd make again...

Ok, just from the picture in the cookbook, and the type of fruit in this tart, it did not sound appealing to me, nor anyone else in my family, but I had a ton of grapes on hand and it was a recipe I needed to make for the sake of getting through the recipes in the cookbook, so we gave it a shot.

The crust we all loved. I had a hard time getting the crust to come up the sides of the fruit without breaking, probably a little more liquid (orange juice, which was gave it a good flavor) would have helped. There was corn meal in the crust as well and everyone liked the texture and flavor of the crust.

The fruit, on the other hand, did not go over well at all. There was very little to mix in with fruit, a small amount of sugar, cornstarch, vanilla and cinnamon. And the fact that the grapes were left whole did not provide any juices to mix in. The recipe called for half red grapes and half black grapes. Since I had a ton of red grapes on hand and no black grapes I just used red grapes without the black grapes. I'm sure the flavor of the grapes would have been different, but I don't think it would have changed the outcome of this tart overall.

And when it came to cutting and serving this tart, it was not a pretty site. There were grapes flinging off the tray and even onto the floor when my son in law tried to get a bite.

And then the flavors... hmmm.... just not a good idea to make a tart out of strictly grapes. Would have been good with other fruits such as berries or peaches, but not grapes.

This was not a winner with us and we'll not make it again. The crust, though, is a keeper.

37 recipes down, 510 more to go.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls; Pumpkin Cinnamon Streusel Buns

Day 19 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT and I made some Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls (Pumpkin Cinnamon Streusel Buns as they're called in the cookbook). I was a little unsure about these since I already have a Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll recipe that I've learned to master, and I make a regular cinnamon roll frequently that I've been making for years that my family think are the best ever (they're biased, however). Here's what we thought of these cinnamon rolls...

PUMPKIN-CINNAMON STREUSEL BUNS (Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls), good, but need just a tad of tweaking...

Surprisingly, these were actually pretty good cinnamon rolls. My hubby was convinced you could not make a "light" version of a cinnamon roll, but lo and behold, this recipe passed the test, even by him. He still prefers my cinnamon rolls, but these cinnamon rolls were acceptable, even to him.

Just a couple edits that should be noted...

The recipe tells you to cut the dough into 12 slices and place in a 9-inch square pan, however, 12 rolls don't fit proportionately in a 9" square pan so I used an 8-inch by 11-inch pan and had them 4x3 in the pan and it worked just fine.

The recipe says to cook them at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, but they needed to go longer. I cooked them at 375 degrees for 25 minutes, and they were still slightly doughy. 30 minutes would probably be more adequate. My usual cinnamon rolls get cooked at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

And the icing measurements were not appropriate. The book says to use 1 Tbsp water, but it was nowhere near a drizzle consistency, not even a spreadable consistency, it was still dry clumps. I had to add an extra tablespoon to get it to a thick drizzle. I didn't think it was going to be enough icing, but it was just the right amount.

I served these to our Bed and Breakfast guests this morning as well and they all disappeared, so they went over well with the guests also.

Overall, these were a good cinnamon roll and I would make them again if I needed to make a light version.

35 recipes down, 512 more to go.

Lemon Chicken, Layered Chocolate Pudding Dessert

Day 18 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT and I made 2 dishes today... a Lemon Chicken, and a Layered Chocolate Pudding Dessert. Here's what we thought of them...

BAKED CHICKEN WITH LEMON, delicious all around (one of our favorites)...

Everyone loved this chicken. My hubby even said it's one of his top favorites so far, along with the Pan Seared Scallops on Linguine with Tomato-Cream Sauce. The recipe has you soak the chicken in a brine for 8 hours or overnight, saying the uniform salting produces a very moist bird. And we all agree, the chicken was extremely moist. I thought the chicken was slightly salty, which would make sense from it soaking in the brine, but the lemon flavor really was an interesting twist I wouldn't have thought of doing. We all enjoyed it very much, and loved how moist and juicy it was. A definite keeper that we'll make again. And it's really quite easy to make.

OUTRAGEOUS WARM DOUBLE-CHOCOLATE PUDDING, good, rich, chocolate dessert...

For this recipe being "light", which it truly was, at only 257 calories and 7 grams of fat per serving, it was really a good chocolate dessert, that really did seem rich and decadent.

I've made a couple things out of this cookbook that call for fat free evaporated milk, and the other 2 dishes weren't that great, especially the Lasagna Chicken Florentine (our least favorite so far), but it works great with this recipe, especially since you're adding chocolate to it. How can you go wrong with chocolate, and dark chocolate at that? And you use an egg substitute, but we couldn't tell at all. It really was rich and decadent. Not as good as the real thing (not light), but for a substitute when you need to cut calories and fat, this is a definite winner!

This dish has 2 layers to it, so it takes time to make, about 2 hours from start to finish (nearly 1 1/2 hours is baking time). I took a picture after we'd had a few bites so you can see the layers. And the fat free whipped topping is definitely missing the richness of real freshly whipped cream, but it was ok.

This recipe is supposed to be served hot from the oven. We ate it after it has set about 20 minutes because it was done about the same time our dinner was done. It was good "warm", not sure it would have made much difference being "hot". I have taken the extras and put them in the fridge and I'll serve those cold, like a chocolate creme brulee. I think they'll be good. We'll find out when I serve them tomorrow. Will post a follow up to this blog after we've tried them cold.

All in all, a good chocolate dessert, definitely worthy of making again.

34 recipes down, 513 more to go.

Macadamia Cranberry Cookies

Day 17 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT and I made one of the cookies in the cookbook. I made some Macadamia Cranberry Cookies. Here's our thoughts on these cookies...

MACADAMIA BUTTER COOKIES WITH DRIED CRANBERRIES, good flavor, but dry...

These cookies had a wonderful flavor to them, but were dry. I could tell when I made the dough that there was no way it was going to stick together to roll into balls, so I added a few teaspoons of water. It still needed a bit more, or maybe a bit more macadamia butter.

It was interesting to use macadamia "butter". It was really easy to make, just put the macadamia nuts in a food processor and grind them until they're the consistency of butter. I think that's what made the flavor of these cookies so good. Maybe I'll add more macadamia nuts next time around.

I also needed to cook the cookies for an additional 1 1/2 minutes, which happens frequently with the high altitude where I live.

Also, instead of rolling the balls in sugar like you do for peanut butter cookies, you dip just the tops in sugar, and it was plenty sweet enough, but obviously much less sugar.

Overall, we liked these cookies, but they needed to be a little more moist. I will probably tweak on the recipe and make them again, the flavors were very good. I served them at our Bed and Breakfast Inn today. I'll know tomorrow when I chat with the guests how they liked them.

32 recipes down, 515 more to go (looking forward to getting below 500 in another week or two).

Banana Pudding, Pork Tenderloin Medallions, Mozzarella Tomato & Basil Couscous

Today was day 14 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT and I made Fresh Mozzarella, Tomato, and Basil Couscous Salad; Pork Medallions with Olive-Caper Sauce; and Banana Pudding. Overall good, but it's all relative to people's personal tastes, likes and dislikes. Read on for our thoughts...

FRESH MOZZARELLA, TOMATO, AND BASIL COUSCOUS SALAD, good, not sure that it was the appropriate side for the pork dish though...

I have never had couscous before, have been a little afraid of it for some reason, but my fears have been laid to rest. This was a good salad, and everyone liked it. I used the leftover buffalo mozzarella from last night's pizza in this, and would probably have liked more mozzarella in the salad. The flavors blended well together, and were mild, nothing was overpowering. This was a cold salad and would have been better served with something other than the pork medallions, but it was good, nonetheless.

PORK MEDALLIONS WITH OLIVE-CAPER SAUCE, excellent pork, the olives and capers were either hit or miss...

This dish I personally loved! However, if you don't like olives or capers, as some people in my family don't like, the dish may not be a favorite. The kalamata olives and capers were added in the last 4 minutes of simmering, so they didn't overpower the flavor of the pork. The pork tenderloin was delicious and very tender, everyone loved the pork, even if they scraped off the olives and capers ;) This was definitely a dish I would make again. Hubby's comment about it was it was good, but not one of his favorites, which is his polite way of saying "you don't have to make this one again". I think if it didn't have the olives and capers he would have been fine with it. As for me, and the rest of the family, we all loved it just the way it was. I recommend this recipe, and it was really easy to make :)

BANANA PUDDING, a winner for everyone...

This recipe was good, but I think it would have been better served cold. The recipe says it can be served warm or cold, and I ended up making it this afternoon so it was still warm when we served it. I made the mistake of buying mini vanilla wafers instead of regular sized vanilla wafers, and didn't realize it until I went to create this dish. I don't think I put enough vanilla wafers on the bottom and middle of the dish, and it could have used more. But other than that, everyone was as directed. When we scooped into the pudding to serve it, the pudding/custard was oozing water, but after we scooped out the first serving, it seemed to evaporate or get dissolved, but went away for some reason. Maybe if the pudding were cold it wouldn't have had the watery consistency to it. At any rate, it was still very good and everyone enjoyed it. And the meringue on top really gave it a nice flavor as well. My hubby even said we could make this in small individual dishes and serve it to our Bed and Breakfast guests, which I probably will, but cold, which will be nice because I can make the pudding itself the day before and just add the meringue and brown the top in the morning. Definitely a keeper recipe for sure.

29 recipes down, 518 more to go (it doesn't seem like the number to go is really moving much, this will be a long project, hope I can finish in a year!)

Blueberry Crisp Recipe, Berry Crisp Recipe

Today was day 12 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT and I just went with a dessert tonight.  The dish today was a blueberry crisp recipe, but I made a triple berry crisp recipe instead. Here's our thoughts on this recipe...

BLUEBERRY CRISP a la MODE... EXCELLENT (one of our favorites)!!!!!!

I think this is my favorite recipe that I've made so far. After doing a number of recipes in this cookbook exactly as directed, there's been a lot of them that I would have tweaked on or changed slightly, so I decided today I'm just going to take the recipes from the cookbook and tweak on them and change them up a little to suit our family and our likes or dislikes. So, with that in mind, I decided to not just do "blueberries, but make it a triple berry crisp. I used blueberries, blackberries and raspberries, and it was absolutely delicious! I'm sure it would have been just as good with just blueberries, but I happened to have the three berries on hand so used them, and I'm glad I did.

The other thing I tweaked on was that it was supposed to be baked in an 11 x 7-inch baking dish. I put it in three small pie dishes, which serve 2 each. I thought the portions were perfect. My hubby and I split one, and my daughter and son-in-law split one, and we have an extra one for tomorrow.

Also, the recipe calls for low fat frozen yogurt to put on top. I had vanilla ice cream on hand and just used that instead. I know it's not "light", but just wanted to use what I had. Not sure that it ended up being a "light" version of the crisp since I didn't use yogurt, but it sure was worth every calorie! I will definitely keep this recipe and make it again, and will probably make it for my Bed and Breakfast guests as their dessert course sometime.

23 recipes down, 524 more to go.

Caramel Chocolate Brownies, Easy Chocolate Caramel Brownies

Today is day 9 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT I decided to do just one recipe today, but make it a good one (hopefully). I made Caramel Chocolate Brownies (Easy Chocolate Caramel Brownies as the cookbook calls it). Here's our take on these brownies...

EASY CHOCOLATE CARAMEL BROWNIES (Chocolate Caramel Brownies is what we're calling them), most definitely definitely delicious!

Ok, these were petty easy. There still were several steps to making them, but they really were easy. I probably only spent about 20 minutes total on the actual work of making them, plus the bake time.

The recipe called for reduced fat chocolate baking chips, but I couldn't find any, even after going to 2 different stores, so I just used regular chocolate chips. There's only 1/2 cup in the recipe, so the difference in calories and fat per serving was pretty minimal.

The recipe said to spray with cooking spray and flour the bottom only of the baking pan, but because there's caramel in here, it stuck to the sides of the pan and I had to use a knife to really scrape out the sides. Next time I'd probably spray the sides of the pan as well, and just spray and flour the bottom of the pan.

The recipe says to spread 2/3 of the batter on the bottom of the pan, and it would be thin. Because the batter was so stiff, it would be difficult to "spread" it out across the whole pan, I ended up dropping small amounts all throughout the bottom and spreading it out that way, which made it a little easier to spread along the bottom of the pan.

I think they were cooked slightly too long as well. Next time I'll reduce the final baking time by 5 minutes and I think they'll come out a little softer. They're soft in the middle, but the edges and tops are harder. The recipe says to put the pieces in the microwave for 10 seconds to soften them if you want softer brownies. We ate them while they were still slightly warm (the best way to eat brownies I think), so they were still soft on the inside, but hard around the edges.

However, the flavor of these brownies were very good. We all agreed we liked them a lot and could definitely make them again. I'm going to be serving them to by bed and breakfast guests this afternoon as well. They'll probably never know they're a "light" brownie!

Finally, the recipe says to cut these into 36 pieces, which we feel are much too small, so I cut them into 24 pieces. Yes, we know, more calories and fat, but hey, being a lighter version, it's ok, right?!

19 recipes down, 528 more to go.

Gingersnap Scones, Scallops with Linguine, Gingerbread with Lemon Glaze

Day 3 of Cooking from "THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT" and I made Gingersnap Scones with Espresso Glaze for breakfast this morning, Pan-Seared Scallops on Linguine with Tomato-Cream Sauce for dinner, and Warm Gingerbread with Lemon Glaze.

GINGERSNAP SCONES WITH ESPRESSO GLAZE, good but needs a tiny bit of tweaking...
I changed the recipe just a little. The recipe called for the dough to be rolled out to a 10-inch circle and cut into 10 scones. I thought they would be a bit on the thin side if I did that, so I rolled the dough into an 8-inch circle and cut it into 8 scones. I liked the size of the scones. The texture of the scones was good, not as dry as scones normally are, and we liked that about these scones. The glaze was much too thick and not of a "drizzle" consistency, so I needed to add additional water to it to thin it enough to drizzle on the scones. We liked the flavor of the icing. The scones themselves were not sweet and the icing helped with that. I didn't really care for the walnut on top, so I only put the walnut (for garnish, really) on half the scones. We served these to our guests in our Bed and Breakfast Inn, Rocky Mountain Lodge & Cabins, this morning, and they were a hit. I'd make this recipe again, the same way I made them this time, but without the walnuts.

PAN-SEARED SCALLOPS ON LINGUINE WITH TOMATO-CREAM SAUCE, Brian said a 10 on a scale of 1-10 (obviously one of our favorites)...

Since Brian can never get enough pasta, and loves scallops, I thought I'd make this recipe for him. He loved it and said I could make this recipe as much as I wanted and he'd eat it over and over again. The only variation I made on this recipe was that I used whole wheat linguine instead of regular linguine. Part of the recipe was a little unclear; it called for 1 1/2 cups hot cooked linguine, but it did not tell you how many ounces of dry pasta to cook. I cooked about 6 1/2 ounces of dry pasta, which I think was more than 1 1/2 cups, but Brian says you can never have too much pasta. The recipe said to cook the scallops for 2 minutes on each side, but the scallops did not look done on the sides so I cooked them for 3 minutes on each side, and they were done perfectly. Chef Gordon Ramsey would not have reason to throw these scallops out for being raw or overcooked (in my humble opinion). The portions seemed to be large, but that could be because I had a little more pasta than the recipe called for, but there were a lot of scallops too. So far, this has been Brian's absolute favorite recipe.

WARM GINGERBREAD WITH LEMON GLAZE, good, but needed more glaze...
I have another gingerbread with lemon sauce recipe that I make every year for Christmas, it's Brian's favorite Christmas dessert. I didn't make it this year because I wanted to make plum pudding instead (which took a month to prep and make) for a novelty. We'll be going back to gingerbread next year. Anyway, this recipe was up against my gingerbread recipe, and although this recipe was good, we still prefer my standby recipe. We liked the bites with the lemon glaze through the cake, but thought the gingerbread itself lacked a little flavor and the bites that didn't have the glaze throughout it was a little dry. The flavor of the lemon glaze was delicious, however, there was a lot of fresh squeezed lemon juice in it. We like my other recipe where you serve warm lemon sauce over the cake. And the frozen reduced-fat whipped topping does not stand a chance against home made real whipped cream.

Man, you'd think I was a food critic the way I talk about these recipes, sheesh! We ARE enjoying eating them. I don't think Brian likes the clean up afterwards though ;)

8 recipes down, 539 more to go.

Until tomorrow...