The Lean Mean Cooking Machine Continues

The weekend has come and gone and with it some kitchen successes worthy of sharing (I think, anyways).

Success Number 1: Brownies with Mascarpone Frosting

I swear by the brownie recipe on the back of the Ghirardelli cocoa container. It's quick, it's simple, and needs few modifications. I usually up the amount of vanilla and throw in whatever spices I feel like adding. I did all that on Saturday, but instead of baking them in whatever-sized pan I have, I baked them in muffin tins. (Note: these brownies don't have much rise to them, so what you end up with is rather dense, flat, cupcakes....but so, so, so delicious.) After bringing them out of the oven, I realized that I really needed to top them with something, something good. I had a mostly full container of mascarpone cheese left over (about 170 grams worth) from a previous experiment and I thought to myself...mmm-mmmm....what about a cream cheese frosting made with mascarpone instead?

As the brownies cooled, I let the cheese come up to room temperature, I hand creamed the crap out of it, added a healthy dose of powdered sugar and several pinches of cloves. I smeared generous scoops over the brownies. Over the top indulgent. (Next time I might cut each brownie into a top and a bottom and do a layered-brownie concoction.)

Success Number 2: STEW!

I've been bemoaning my lack of crockpot. Crockpots are just so darned terrific. Pop the ingredients into the slow cooker in the morning and come evening, voila! Done dinner. This weekend was chilly and grey and cloudy and damp. Total stew weather. But without a crockpot, what was I to do? Oven stew. It's easy and far quicker than using a crockpot (but a bit more labor intensive). My steps were simple (I did this all in a stove-top and oven appropriate pot):

Buy a hunk of meat, cut it into cubes, brown it, and put it in a bowl.
In the beef cooking pot, cook up some onion and give it a good sprinkle of garlic powder.
Add a glass of wine and scrape up all the bits from the pot.
Add some tomato paste.
And some water (don't make it too soupy).
Put the beef back in and add a few diced carrots.
Sprinkle in some basil, oregano, black pepper, and whatever other spices fit my fancy at the time.
Throw in a few bay leaves.
Put the lid on and stick it in the oven (set at, oh, 250 F or so) for 2 hours.

Okay, so the ingredients weren't super inspired, but it was gooooood. Hot, steamy, filling stew. I went to the bakery and bought a nice crusty whole wheat bread to go with it. Good fall food.

Success Number 3: Cookies

Note to cookie makers: hand creaming butter sucks. But the results were worth the pinky cramps.

I adapted a recipe a colleague gave me last year. The next time I make these, I'll use less flour and more choclate. Here's what I did:

Cream together 5T of butter and 1/2 muscovado sugar.
Beat in 2 eggs and a good dose of vanilla (I used 1T, the recipe called for 1t).

In a small bowl, mix together 3/4 C corn flour, 3/4 C whole wheat flour, 1 t baking powder, about 1/4 t baking soda, a pinch of salt, and a healthy sprinkle of cardamom.

Put the butter mix into a larger bowl (at least in my case) and add in the flour mixture. Mix well.

Form the dough into balls. Take a choclate bar and break it into small pieces. Put a small piece inside the dough ball and flatten.

Bake at 375-ish for 12 minutes.

Next time I'll also sprinkle large grain sugar on top (or do it with a fork like you might do with peanut butter cookies).

I am enjoying the challenge of cooking in such a small space with limited gadgetry. I was a little grossed out by having to handle the raw beef so much (one doesn't go to the store and buy a little cellophaned package of stew meat...you go to the butcher, buy a hunk of whatever is in the case and take it home and chop it up yourself), but it was manageable. Creaming butter by hand is a bit tougher, but if the butter is allowed to sit out for a while and soften, it isn't an insurmountable task. I miss my KitchenAid.