I’ve been making this brownie recipe foreva! I started out using the recipe on the back of the Baker’s Chocolate box (who else can remember the disappointment when you bit into a block of Baker’s unsweetened chocolate? YUCK!). Back then, I’d chop up milk and dark chocolate Hershey’s bars to make them “triple chocolate”—Hey, we did not have a lot of chocolate choices back then. I thought I was very clever at the time.
When I was a kid my mom and I loved beets. Yes, even canned. It seems that almost everyone, including my brothers, hated them. I love how they came back into fashion even got trendy. Now everyone’s a beet lover like they were never hating on them. Sure… Sure… If I’d shown up with a roasted beet salad with a preserved lemon dressing topped with dukkah crusted labne balls I would have had to eat it alone.
Name Drop Alert!
Breakfast with Martha Stewart? What an offer—one I couldn’t refuse. I was lucky enough to be invited to Martha’s headquarters for breakfast to hear about Martha’s upcoming PBS shows.
OK, I admit it. I’m a cupcake SNOB! I poo-poo most of them. Too sweet. Too colored. Too much unnecessary crap on top. These cupcakes are for adults and kids who are looking for a more sophisticated CHOCOLATE cupcake experience. The predominate flavor is chocolate. The cake is tender. The ganache frosting is just cream and chocolate… as it should be. I did put a practically inedible silver dragee on the one in this photo, but that was just for the photo which for “food porn-ability” I deemed necessary. Luckily, there are many recipes and places you can get cupcakes where SWEET is predominate flavor experience. For the rest of you, read on.
This is my go-to chocolate frosting. I could give the person who came up with the idea of mixing chocolate and cream a big, sloppy wet one. This is what I put on my Chocolate Cupcake recipe.
While mushroom caps stuffed with a hearty shepherd’s pie filling, topped with mashed potatoes and Irish cheddar cheese was inspired by St. Patrick’s Day, it’s not really one of my celebrated holidays. I’m not one to run out and make a bunch of green-colored food, especially if the green color does not occur naturally. PLUS, I’d never, ever drink green beer (shuddering).
CRUNCH! Who doesn’t freaking love that sound? Well, maybe not when it’s the sound of your glasses as your foot descends on them, but I’m talking in my mouth! It’s one of my favorite eating sounds and sensations. I’m actually obsessed with crunchy food.
Everyone LOVES Deviled Eggs! I LOVE them too, but I hate how quickly they disappear when I make them, so I made a giant one that you can serve with vegetable scoops so it’s healthier.
Ahhh…Swiss Miss. That’s what you got when you were out and asked for a hot chocolate in the “sad old days” of hot chocolate in America. Overly sweet, mediocre cocoa and powdered milk mixed with hot water—WATER?!!! Some people must love it or not know better because it’s still around. I say, “To each his own.”
As much as I have fun inventing dishes, there are some dishes where I consider tradition sacred. Collard Greens which can include mustard greens, turnip greens or any combination of the three are always cooked with smoked pork, rutabagas, garlic and olive oil just like my Jamaican grandmother used to make them. I have no traditional American Southern roots except for those that my grandmother picked up in Harlem where she learned to cook as well as her mother who didn’t even teach her to boil water.