Brain Food. Sort of.

Not really. I've been studying and researching for a paper I have to write for school. What goes well with reading and researching? Brownies! Specifically Dark Chocolate and Mint Chip Brownies.

I turn to Tollhouse for the recipe for these yummy treats. The Dark Chocolate Mint Chips were my own addition because they were in my pantry and I couldn't resist.

Ingredients
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, melted
2 tablespoons water
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (or 2/3 c. all purpose flour + 2/3 c. whole wheat flour)
3/4 cup NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Baking Cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

6 oz. Dark Chocolate Mint Chips
*I leave out the salt, nuts, and powdered sugar from the original recipe

Back in the day when I was in college I would have eaten this (the batter) as a study snack. Really.

Directions
PREHEAT oven to 350º F. Grease 13 x 9-inch baking pan. I like a thicker, chewier brownie so I use a 9x9 pan.

COMBINE granulated sugar, butter and water in large bowl. Stir in eggs and vanilla extract. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder in medium bowl; stir into sugar mixture. Stir in chips. Spread into prepared baking pan.

BAKE for 18 to 25 minutes (30-35 minutes if you use a 9x9) or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out slightly sticky. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired. Cut into bars.

I could eat these all day. I've almost eaten the whole pan, but I probably shouldn't confess that. I've had a little help. A little.

So when pages and pages of this gets to be overwhelming...

These "brain food brownies" make it much better!

What's For Dinner: Meatloaf

When I got married I knew there would be certain things Kenny would want to eat that I either didn't know how to make or didn't like (I'm picky).  Well, meatloaf was one of the things that I didn't know how to make, and I thought I didn't like it.  Like the good wife I am ;-) I agreed to try my hand at meatloaf and my mother-in-law was kind enough to fill me in on how she makes her meatloaf. It's delicious!  I also like to make this because we get at least 2 meals out of it- bonus.

Another thing that I love is having fresh beef.  We have recently replenished our stock of frozen meat from a guy Kenny works with who has cows and knows a butcher... in other words, we have fresh beef.  I love restocking our freezer because I feel like we are doing one more thing to be healthy, and it tastes SO GOOD. There is a difference. A big difference.

So this week I made meatloaf. Here's how:

Ingredients
2 lbs ground beef
About a cup of Italian bread crumbs
About 1/2 a cup of tomato sauce
1 egg
1/2 an onion- roughly chopped
(there are many, many variations where you can add ingredients such as corn, rice, bell pepper, bacon, whatever... I made plain ol' meatloaf this time)

Directions
Place all ingredients in a bowl (I leave the onion out of this step and save it for later, you can add the onion in now if you want) and mix by hand until just combined.

Place the mixture on a baking sheet if you want a "crispier" outside, or in a loaf pan if you want a softer texture on the outside.  I shape mine into 3 smaller loaves because 1) my oven cooks slow, 2) we always have leftovers and they are easier to store this way, and 3) I don't like onion but my husband does :-) If you've left the onion out, now is the time to add it in. Put the onion on top of the loaf.

Bake at 375F (or 400F if your oven is slow, like mine) for about an hour or until desired doneness- we prefer ours well done, some people like a little pink. Still takes about an hour.

After about 30 minutes of cooking, take the meatloaf out and top it with a sauce made by combining 1/4 cup of tomato sauce, 2-3 tbs. each of ketchup and mustard, 2 tsp brown sugar.  Return it to the oven to finish baking.

The perfect side dish to meatloaf: mashed potatoes.  I mash my potatoes with milk, butter, and sometimes, sour cream. I usually don't measure... I just add what I feel like. Not too helpful, I know. You can also make brown gravy- my husband likes McCormick's brown gravy and I prefer to add a little extra butter to my potatoes instead :-)

So good! Leftovers make great sandwiches too.

Dinner: Super Easy BBQ Pork Sandwiches

I saw a Pampered Chef recipe and decided that it sounded yummy, but I needed to alter it a bit. The biggest change I made was that the original recipe had microwave directions and I had enough time to use the oven. I also used our favorite rub and sauce instead of the suggested PC ones.  So here's my take on PC's Mini BBQ Pork Sandwiches... mine weren't mini, so I guess I should just call them
Super Easy BBQ Pork Sandwiches.

Ingredients
1/2 an onion
1 tbs. oil
2 tbs. BBQ Rub (I used McCormick Grill Mates- Barbeque)
1 Pork Tenderloin (between 1 and 2 lbs.)
BBQ Sauce (our favorite is Kraft Original)
8 Rolls or Hamburger Buns

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350F.

Slice the onion into 1/4 inch thick slices and place in the bottom of the baking dish.

Trim the silver skin and fat off the pork tenderloin. Brush the tenderloin with the oil and then rub with the BBQ Rub.  Place the tenderloin in the baking dish, on top of the onion. Now I know that you want the onion to be covered by the pork. :-)

Cooking times will vary, follow the directions on the tenderloin package (that is, if you're like me and buy a packaged pork tenderloin).  The 1-1/2 lb. one that I made took about an hour and 15 minutes, but our oven is slow.  Make sure the internal temp is at least 160F.

Let the pork rest for 5 minutes.  While it is resting, slice the rolls. Then, slice the pork thin and arrange on the buns, top with BBQ Sauce and some of the onion slices.

I served mine with green beans sautéed with bacon bits and onion, and Ruffles.  That's what we always have with BBQ :-)

This is the first time I've made this recipe, and it was so good! My house smells amazing too!

Saturday Sweet Tooth: Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

These cookies are brought to you by Pampered Chef. They are delicious! This was the first time I tried the recipe so I didn't alter it, and honestly, I probably won't change anything except using butter instead of vegetable shortening.  I do have a few recommendations that I've noted... consider them lessons I learned while baking.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 cup crunchy-style peanut butter (all I had was creamy and it worked fine, the crunchy texture would be good though)
3/4 cup vegetable shortening (all I had was butter)
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 package (6 ounces) chocolate morsels

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Measure peanut butter, shortening and brown sugar into Classic Batter Bowl using Measure-All® Cup. Here's why the Measure-All Cup is p-e-r-f-e-c-t...

 ...no "left overs", no mess!

Add granulated sugar, egg and vanilla; beat until thoroughly combined.
In Small Batter Bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Add to peanut butter mixture; mix well. Stir in chocolate morsels.

Using Medium Scoop, drop batter 2 inches apart onto Rectangle Stone (keep the dough in the fridge in between batches). Bake 10-15 minutes. Let stand 2 minutes (make sure you leave them on the cookie sheet for the full 2 minutes, they are very crumbly until they cool); remove cookies to Stackable Cooling Rack to cool (let them cool completely :)).

Yield: 4 dozen cookies

Paula's Blueberry Muffins

Paula Deen is fantastic. So are her blueberry muffins. I have made these almost every weekend for the past month- I blame the craving on this pregnancy, but I think it could also be because they are really good muffins.

So yummy.

I found this recipe at pauladeen.com I decided to make a couple of changes to the recipe- indicated in italics :)


Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 egg, slightly beaten
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup granulated brown sugar or white sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin.

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and sugar. In another bowl, combine butter, egg, almond extract, and milk and mix well. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and with a spatula, stir until just combined. Do not beat or over mix; it’s okay if there are lumps in the batter. Gently fold the blueberries into the batter.

(how do you like that product placement?)

Spoon the batter into the muffin tray, filling each cup about 2/3 full.

Bake for 10 minutes and remove from the oven. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the granulated brown or white sugar and return the muffins to the oven to bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool for about 10 minutes in the pan before turning the muffins out.

You can also put the sugar on top of the muffins before you put them in the oven.  I have done it both ways and they turn out great whatever you decide to do.

Delicious.

The One With The Coffee Cake

Our neighbor is one of the sweetest people around.  She is such a great neighbor.  She is a huge OSU fan, loves the little boy, and is just a good person.  This week she had shoulder surgery so I decided to take her some goodies as a "neighborly" get well gesture.

I told you that story to tell you this story: as I was grocery shopping for the weekend, I had to walk down the bread aisle.  There is not only bread on the bread aisle, but there are also donuts, muffins, and assorted other sweet breakfast items.  Usually, these products don't really tempt me, but on this day, a package of Hostess Coffee Cakes caught my eye... Then I heard them calling my name. O no. When I was a kid I loved those little individually wrapped cakes with cinnamon topping.  It was dessert for breakfast- what kid wouldn't love that?  In a moment of nostalgia, I almost put a box in my cart... but then I thought twice (who knew a pregnant woman craving sweets could have such self control?).  If I bought those little coffee cakes I would get them home and first, look at the nutrition facts and cringe, then, decide to just eat them and not care, and finally I would spend the next week disappointed that I ate them.  So, I made myself a deal that I would make my own (healthier) coffee cake and, as my "get well gesture" I would give half of it to my neighbor along with some blueberry muffins. Crisis solved.

I came home on a mission to find a really good coffee cake recipe. Cue allrecipes.com.  I love this site and the people that review the recipes!  Apparently, in the world of coffee cake, there are many variations.  There are fluted pan coffee cakes, streusel coffee cakes, apple, blueberry, pineapple, pecan, and hazelnut varieties.  I had no clue which kind I was looking for, but I knew what ingredients I had so that narrowed my focus to something of the cinnamon variety.  I found a recipe that had 4.5 stars and the title was "Quick Coffee Cake". Works for me!

If you've never read the reviews on allrecipes.com you're missing out on an even better recipe than the one you pulled up.  Seemingly "expert" reviewers make suggestions on improving the recipe.  Not all the suggestions are good, however, most of the time they are quite helpful.  So here is the recipe with reviewer changes made, in brackets are substitutions or changes I made... this may also be a good time to tell you I NEVER add salt when I'm baking- NEVER.  Try it, you won't miss it, I promise.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour [1/2 c. of this sub Whole Wheat Flour]
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 6 tablespoons white sugar [I doubled this and it wasn't too sweet :)]
• 1/3 cup [margarine]
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons [margarine], melted
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch square pan.

2. In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and sugar. Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender to the size of small peas.

3. In a separate small bowl, beat the egg well, then stir in the milk and vanilla. Add the egg-milk mixture to the flour mixture all at once. Stir carefully until just blended.

4. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Drizzle top with melted butter. [I drizzled the butter after adding the topping because one reviewer said it made the topping crispier. I'm not sure if that's true or not but it worked for me.]

5. In a small bowl mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Sprinkle on top of cake. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean

This was a really great coffee cake.  Much better than the store bought one would have been :) 

Just a side note (read: shameless plug) the Square Pan and Mini-Serving Spatula are the perfect compliment to this recipe. Ask me how you can use them in your kitchen or go to my Pampered Chef website: www.pamperedchef.biz/lynnseychildress and make them yours!

Yes, he is eating the crumbs out of the pan. This recipe is also toddler approved!

This is what I took to my neighbor, I hope she enjoyed them!

Sweet Tooth

I confess: I have a very big sweet tooth. It's true. I like to have something sweet around the house at all times.  It's not the best habit for my waist line though.  The husband and little boy don't have quite the same passion for sweet things and after having the little boy I realized that I was eating batches of cookie by myself- not a good way to squeeze back into pre-maternity clothes. 

So, some where along the way I started experimenting with substitutions: applesauce for shortening, margerine for butter, egg beaters for eggs, and whole wheat flour for all-purpose.  I have grown accustomed to these healthier substitutes, however, when I am making something to share with others I don't cut back.  I am a firm believer in "everything in moderation" and decadent sweet treats are no exception.

I love desserts and sweet breakfast treats the most- here are some of my favorites that are very simple.  In the future there will be an individual blog about each of these:

Mint Chocolate Chip Brownies: so good, ice cream optional.

Higby's Chocolate Chip Cookies: a recipe my Aunt first started making, thicker than the Tollhouse variety and the perfect cookie for milk dunking.

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing: so, so good.

Cupcakes: this is a Food Network recipe baking, but I am an equal opportunity cupcake eater- I will eat them from anywhere, at any time!

Sugar Plum Pull Apart Bread: basically Monkey Bread, so gooey and yummy!

Paula Deen's Blueberry Muffins: I add whole wheat flour and you can't tell a difference.  These have been my favorite breakfast during this pregnancy.

Pampered Chef S'more Cups: I'll blog more about Pampered Chef later, but this was the first recipe I made after becoming a consultant and it continues to be a favorite!

Honey Whole Wheat Bread: This may not seem like a sweet treat, but after discovering how easy it is to make my own bread (again, another blog or two about this to come) one of my favorite "sweet" breakfasts is this bread with a smear of butter and a drizzle of honey- MMmmmm.

So there's your sneak peek into what I love to bake.  There are many variations and stories behind the recipes that will come out eventually.  You've got to start somewhere though!

Episode 1: The Birth of A Blog

Over a year ago, my friend Lauren and I were making Christmas cookies and laughing about everything- as usual.  We decided that if we ever had a show on Food Network, it would be called Hot Stuff in the Kitchen.  We still laugh about this today and so the name of this new blog is a tribute to our hilarious friendship!

A food blog is something I've been thinking about for a long time. I love to bake, I like to cook and I do my best at taking pictures... add those things together and it sounds like another food blog to me.

The difference between other food blogs and mine is that I am a complete amateur! I quite prefer my amateur status, while I have no intention of looking into baking Olympics, it does allow for me to make mistakes.  And I do make mistakes.  Sometimes the mistakes work out for me, sometimes the don't. But I am more than happy to embrace my mistakes and the amateur status that comes along with them.

One things that makes me so sad is that kids these days have no idea how to make cookies or mash potatoes.  My job takes me into a lot of elementary schools and part of what I talk to students about is nutrition.  Most of them know how to make their own frozen pizza (in the microwave), but most of them have no clue what an eggplant is. *Now, I will say, I am quite a picky eater and I do not cook with eggplant- but at least I know what it is and how to cook it.  A lot of kids think that cookies come from a yellow package in the fridge and cakes are made from red boxes in the pantry.  While I do not discount the convenience or yumminess of these options, in my opinion, nothing compares to homemade baked goods.

I supposed you could say that this blog is a food diary so that I can feel better about my kids learning to bake and cook like I did growing up.  While my son's involvement in the kitchen right now is playing the drums on my stock pot, he is more than comfortable being in the kitchen and soon enough he will help with measuring and pouring.

I really hope that this turns into a fun adventure that leads to many memories to laugh about for years to come.