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Orange Brownies
I started with Paula Deen’s recipe and after the first test batch it was apparent I would have to make some adaptations. Her original recipe was so over the top buttery and sweet it overwhelmed every other flavor. If you like gooey, buttery brownies, her recipe works well. I was baking for an audience that likes citrus more than sweet, so I adjusted accordingly. It’s a lighter, more tangy recipe.
Orange Brownies
Photo from Just a Pinch.com because my photos didn't turn out.
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate (do NOT add water)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp grated orange zest
- 1 tbsp grated lemon zest
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan.
Whisk together flour, granulated sugar, and salt in a bowl. Add butter, eggs, orange juice concentrate, zests and vanilla. Using a handheld electric mixer beat until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until light golden brown and set. Remove from oven. Allow to cool slightly and pierce entire cake with a fork. See frosting directions.
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 4 oz cream cheese, softened
- 2 tablespoons softened butter
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, more as needed
- 2 tbsp orange zest
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons orange juice, more as needed
In a large mixing bowl, whip the butter and cream cheese together with a hand-held electric mixer. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until it is all combined and smooth. Beat in the orange zest and juice. The spread should be light, whipped and moist, not stiff or firm. Spread 1/2 over brownies while they’re still warm. After cooled completely, spread remainder.
Roasted Mozzarella Asparagus
Sorry for the light posts. I do have some fun things in mind though, starting with Orange Brownies tonight. So there’s that. Roasting is our menu exchange theme for tomorrow, so I thought I’d start things off with some asparagus which I think would go very well with JeffreyW’s flatiron steaks. He made them look so good, I’m going to try one this week. I usually go for sirloin, but these looked amazing, so I’ll give them a taste. I’ll let you know how they turn out. Now for a side:
Roasted Mozzarella Asparagus
- 2 pounds fresh asparagus
- Good olive oil
- Salt & Pepper
- 1/2 cup fresh, shredded mozzarella
- 1/2 tsp lemon zest
Baking sheet
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Break off the tough ends of the asparagus. A quick trick is to keep the rubber band in place, snap off one or two to see where the tough break is, then use a knife to cut them all at that place. Remove rubber band and wash stalks thoroughly, pat dry.
Place the asparagus on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, then toss to coat completely. Spread in a single layer and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for 25 minutes, until tender but still crisp. Spread mozzarella and lemon zest evenly over the top and broil for 2 minutes or until the cheese is melted and golden.
If your weather allows, you can also do these on the grill, use a nice grilling pan and adjust the time according to grill temp.
Thursday Recipe Exchange: Zesty Lemon Chicken UPDATE w/Photo
Tonight was suppose to be about unusual fruits, but I never made it to the Asian Market to pick up the fruits I wanted to work with, so we’ll save it for another time. Instead I was in the mood to cook up a batch of this wonderful lemon chicken. It’s a bit labor intensive, so I don’t do it often, but it is oh, so good. Hopefully there’ll be pictures later, it’s about ready to go into the oven.
Let’s make this exchange about lemons and chicken. Do you have any favorite lemon recipes? Chicken? Lemon and chicken? And most importantly, what are your cooking plans tonight or this weekend? Hit the comments with your dinner plans. Next week: Mushrooms
Zesty Lemon Chicken
(adapted from Crème de Colorado – serves 6)
- 6 boneless chicken breasts
- 10 whole lemons, (enough to make 2 cups juice, reserve 2 tbsp for later)
- 1 cup flour
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup oil
- 2 tbsp lemon zest (grated peel)
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup chicken broth*
- 1 whole lemon, sliced thin
- minced parsley for garnish
skillet, bowl, baking dish
In an airtight container, combine chicken breasts and lemon juice. Marinate for 1 hour. Remove chicken. Pat chicken with paper towel, but don’t dry completely. Mix together flour, salt, paprika and pepper. Dredge chicken in flour mixture until well coated.
In large skillet heat 1/2 of the oil and fry breasts a few at a time until well browned, adding and heating more oil as needed. (about ten minutes) Arrange chicken in a single layer in a large baking dish. Sprinkle evenly with lemon peel and brown sugar. Mix chicken broth with reserved lemon juice and pour around chicken. Pace a sliced lemon on top of each breast and sprinkle with minced parsley. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until tender.
*I added the broth to the frying pan, deglazed it and then added it to the baking dish. Yum.
Toasted Oats
Thought this was a pretty picture, unfortunately I don't have an original credit for it.
I hate oatmeal. Something about the texture just does me in. But I love oats, oat bran, granola, Cheerios, oatmeal cookies – you get the idea. I was craving granola over the weekend, but because of the sugar and fat in most granolas, I try to avoid them. Lots of calories for a very small amount of oats. Never very satisfying and too, too sweet.
Instead I did something I’d been thinking about for a while. I toasted some oats to see if it would help satisfy my craving. The first batch I did was about 1/2 cup and it came out tasty enough that I went ahead and did 4 cups next. I keep it in a nice glass jar and have already used it in my strawberry frozen yogurt (homemade in my vitamix) and with milk and a bit of honey for breakfast this morning.
Here’s the recipe I put together:
Toasted Rolled Oats
- 4 cups rolled oats (not quick oats)
- 1/4 cup of butter, melted
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- dash of cinnamon
- dash of salt
bowl, baking sheet
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In bowl, toss oats with melted butter, sugar and spices. Make sure oats are well coated. Spread out on baking sheet. Place in oven and turn down to 300 degrees. Bake for 10 minutes, stir, continue baking for an additional 5 minutes or until oats are a golden brown. My first batch cooked in 10 minutes, my next 20 minutes, so keep a close eye on it.
Let cool and store in an airtight container.
Thursday Recipe Exchange: Biscuits
JeffW's awesome biscuit photo. So beautiful I wouldn't even try to compete with my own.
I’ve been making a lot of biscuits in the last few weeks, no particular reason, it just seemed to be the perfect addition to several meals. A while back, JeffreyW posted the photo above and I commented that my biscuits were never quite that fluffy. He promptly pointed me to the recipe he used. I’ve used a variation of it ever since. These are by far the best biscuits ever and I can’t believe how easy they are to make, and they come out great every time.
I have plenty of biscuit variations, too: Cinnamon Biscuits, Cheddar Cheesy Biscuits and Whole Wheat Biscuits
Heavenly Biscuits
Big, fluffy and moist, they easily compete with any biscuit I’ve had, even at my favorite restaurant Lucille’s. I bake them in my large cast iron skillet.
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 1/3 cup butter (this really gives them a buttery flavor), softened, really, really softened
- 1 cup buttermilk – (I use 4 tbsp buttermilk powder to 1 cup water)
mixing bowl, baking sheet or cast iron skillet
In mixing bowl whisk together dry ingredients. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Gradually add milk. Mix together until dough pulls away from sides of the bowl. I had to add additional flour, this is a very moist dough. Turn out onto well floured surface and knead 10-15 times. I couldn’t roll this dough out it was too moist. I just flattened it by hand (about an inch thick, maybe a little less) and cut out the biscuits. With the extra flour I came up with 7 very large biscuits.
Bake at 425 degrees for 13-15 minutes, until golden brown. Put your oven rack in the middle to keep them from browning too much on the bottom. ====
Thursday Recipe Exchange: Mmmmm, Bacon
photo by JeffreyW
Last week I opened up the ingredients to requests. I had two, bacon and mushrooms. We’ll start with bacon and I’ll serve up some mushroom recipes at a later date. JeffreyW tantalized us all with bacon cups (“ba-cups” he christened them!) and today seemed like a good reason to try them. He used bread in his first batch as the base, but suggested hash browns. I did half hash browns and half bread. Then I was able to cook up the remaining hash browns in bacon grease. Yum. The recipe that follows is for the bread bottoms. Not content with just bacon, he followed up with Prosciutto Cups.
Are you a bacon person? Ever tried bacon ice cream? What are some of your favorite bacon uses? Next week: Biscuits
JeffreyW’s Ba-Cups
- 6 thick slice bacon
- 6 eggs
- 3-6 slices of rye or other firm bread
- 2 oz shredded sharp cheddar (or cheese of choice)
- 2 tbsp of butter
skillet, 6-cup muffin tin (alternately you can use custard bowls)
Lightly butter each muffin cup. Cut a circle out of each slice of bread to fit in the bottom of the muffin cups (I was able to get 2 from each slice). Place in the buttered bottom of each muffin cup. Now you can either lightly fry the bacon and then arrange into the cups, or leave it raw (see JeffreyW’s notes below). Crack one egg into each cup, season with salt and pepper, top with shredded cheese. Bake at 375 degrees until bacon is fully cooked and egg whites are set, 20 to 25 minutes. Run a small knife around cups to loosen toasts. Serve immediately.
JeffreyW’s notes on bacon cups:
I like my bacon on the crisp side, and love runny yolks, so the next time I make these I will fry the bacon a bit before I assemble them. By the time the bacon in this set was edible, the eggs were cooked hard. A thin cut bacon could help, as well.
I cut some circles to fit the bottoms of the muffin tin out of rye bread. Any bread will work, and a fellow in a comment elsewhere mentioned using hash browns on the bottom as a possibility. I see merit in his suggestion.
I tried several cheeses on the tops, some shredded cheddar, a couple with parings of asiago, and one with a Greek cheese called Kasseri. I am happiest with the cheddar, although perhaps using grated cheeses will be the preferred method in the end. More experiments! Wonder if I can get a grant?
Thursday Recipe Exchange: Braised Italian Chicken
Happy Thursday. I don’t know about you, but I could have used the weekend two days ago, it’s been that kind of week. Let’s get right to tonight’s ingredients: chicken and vegetables. This was really just my excuse to be able to test drive a recipe I’ve been thinking about for a while. I came across a recipe for an Italian braised chicken in a white wine sauce served over pasta and my first thought was, I wonder if you could do that with a traditional red sauce? I love chicken cacciatore, but the texture of the chicken leaves a lot to be desired. I could go with a traditional chicken parmesan, but that isn’t quite the same, the meat isn’t permeated with sauce flavor in the same way. This recipe gave me just what I was looking for, a nice textured chicken packed with flavor.
In case Italian chicken isn’t a favorite, I posted two other chicken recipes this week: Barbecue Chicken with Spinach and Grilled Lime Chicken. Next week: I’m taking requests. What would you like?
Now for tonight’s recipe:
Braised Italian Chicken
- 8 bone-in chicken thighs, skin on
- Olive oil
- Flour
- Dried: basil, oregano, rosemary, cayenne pepper, pepper, salt, thyme
Sauce:
- 6-8 green onions, chopped
- 1 small zucchini cubed
- 1 carrot, diced
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 4-6 button mushrooms, washed and sliced
- 2 tsp crushed garlic or equivalent
- 1/2 cup good red wine
- 6 oz can of tomato paste
- 14 oz can of diced tomatoes or equivalent (I use unsalted)
- 2-15oz cans of tomato sauce (again, I use unsalted)
- 2 tsp dried basil (or fresh equivalent)
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (opt)
- Pinch of rosemary
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 10-16 oz of favorite pasta (I like angel hair with this dish)
Bowl, Saucepan, Skillet, Baking dish or Dutch oven
In a bowl, mix together about 2 cups of flour and a good amount of the spices. Wash and dry thighs. Dredge in flour and fry in large skillet in about 1/2 cup of olive oil (I start with skin side down and do not touch it until it moves easily when I nudge it with a fork, then I flip it). When browned on both sides, remove to a plate with paper towels to drain a bit. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, heat 1 tbsp of oil and add diced vegetables, cook until the onions are translucent. Add garlic and cook for another minute, then add wine, stirring to deglaze the pan. Add remaining ingredients, stirring to mix well. Let simmer, covered, on the stovetop while chicken browns.
In baking dish, add enough sauce to come 1/2 way up the side of the baking dish. Nestle chicken in the baking dish, skin side up. Now here is the important part, ladle additional sauce AROUND the chicken as needed, but DO NOT cover the top. Leave enough room for the browned top of the chicken to remain above the sauce. This lets it braise and the skin still stay crispy. Bake, UNCOVERED, for 1 hour and 30 minutes. At the 15 minute mark, check to make sure the sauce is barely bubbling, if it is boiling, reduce heat to 300 degrees. Chicken is done when it gives easily, but not falling off the bone.
Leave remaining sauce on the stove to simmer on low while the chicken cooks, you’ll probably want extra for the pasta. Prepare pasta just before chicken is done. Serve with salad or green beans and a nice deep red wine.
Prep time is a lot on this meal, so I suggest it for weekends or special guests. I also doubled the sauce and froze 1/2 for another meal.
Tonight we also get a glossary: What is braising? What is deglazing?
TaMara
jeffreyww
LFern7
indylib
