Food Friday - Pack A Picnic

from Kris B.

Sometimes life just seems completely backwards.  Over the summer, I have the time and energy to cook, especially to try all those recipes that I have been collecting throughout the school year.  The problem is that I don't have much of an appetitie when it is miserably hot outside.  The only things that really sound good to me during the hot Texas summers are fruits and vegetables.  Some days I have to force myself to eat "real food."  Even then, I often end up eating some kind of salad.

This week's offering from me is more of a suggestion than a recipe.  This Italian Pasta Salad is simple and can be easily adapted to suit your particular taste.

It requires pasta..

Any kind and shape of pasta will do.  I often use rotini because all of the other ingredients tend to attach themselves to its "threads" and the salad stays nicely mixed.  This, however, is personal preference.  The trip-color pastas make for a pretty mixture.  Cook the pasta according to its package directions.

Then toss in something Italian.

The dressing (your favorite bottled Italian dressing will do just fine) and cheese are integral ingredients, but if pepperoni is not your thing,  you can certainly omit it.  I don't care much for pepperoni except in this salad.  If you want to use a different meat, ham or Canadian bacon work well.

Then add some diced salad veggies.

I always use celery and a mixture of red and green bell pepppers.  Again, whatever veggies you like, toss them in there.  Think of this salad kind of like a cold pizza.  The pasta is like the crust, the pepperoni and veggies are the toppings, the Italian salad dressing is the sauce and the cheese tops it all off.  So throw in whatever ingredients you would normally put on a pizza.  And just in case you are wondering, no, I do not put celery on my pizza, but it adds a nice crunch to this salad.

Place all of the ingredients in a bowl.

Pour the bottled dressing over them and gently toss.

And that's it...other than to enjoy!

I ususally use a 16 oz. box of pasta, one package of pepperoni cut into bite-sized pieces, a couple stalks of celery, one each medium red and green bell peppers, one cup of dressing, and one cup of grated mozarella cheese.  That said, this is not rocket science.  I am not a big salad dressing fan; I don't want my veggies searching for a life vest because they are drowning in dressing.  So, you may want to use a little more dressijg than I do.  If you are a mushroom and olive fan, toss them in.  I'm not so I don't.

This is meant to be a simple, no fuss, but tasty meal to take and share on a picnic or enjoy at home when it is too hot to cook anything.  

Experiment.  Make it your own.  And most importantly...

Enjoy!

by Tracey G.

I have to laugh, Kris is sweltering in the heat and I'm dealing with chilly weather and wondering where my sweatshirts are, lol. Yesterday it never got any warmer than 60° F here - not exactly what I'm looking for in the downside of June!!! Watch, we're going to be slammed one day with 90° F and it will stay there, lol. For days on end....

Originally I called these "Cinnamon Brownies", but that seemed like a deceiving title/name because there's not that much cinnamon in them for you to be able to say "Oh there's cinnamon in here!", but it's enough to where you think "hmmm, what is that little bit extra?", so I guess Hint of Cinnamon Brownies sound better and are more accurate, lol.

My mom and I used to be avid Food Network watchers (I still love it, but find that it also creates weight gain, lol!!), and Sara Moulton was/is one of my favorite "celebrity" chefs. Her stuff was always simple and made sense and tasted good. :-) This recipe is adapted from hers that I'd seen on one of her shows. It's also the very first from-scratch brownie recipe I'd ever tried. I'd always just stuck with a mix, and then I saw her make these and she made it look so very easy, I knew I could do it too, lol. And I must say this was at least, um, 12-15 years ago, lol, and I've been making them ever since. :-)

I ended up with more photos than usual this time around, but it seemed like more steps involved, but they are easy so when you're making them, it really doesn't seem like you're doing a lot. But I also didn't get any ingredient shots, lol. So here they are listed out, exact amounts in the recipe at the end of the post:

24 oz chocolate

butter

eggs

granulate sugar

brown sugar

vanilla

flour

baking soda

cinnamon

First, you need to melt your chocolate. I use just semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you can use any 24 oz. of your favorite chocolate if you have a preference. You combine the butter and the chocolate in a saucepan and start melting over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. I stir pretty frequently as I don't want the bottom chocolate to scorch until the butter melts in.

Once you get the chocolate and butter melted smooth, you remove from heat and allow to cool completely. Here's where I've goofed up a couple times in the name of getting things done quickly - if you don't let it cool completely, it has the potential to scramble your eggs when you add it to your egg-sugar-vanilla mixture, lol. I've done it before, but it was my own fault for not being patient to let it cool properly!

If you've let it cool properly, you should have a mixture that looks like this once you get the melted chocolate and egg-sugar-vanilla mixture combined. 

Next, you add your flour-cinnamon-baking soda mixture to the chocolate mixture, and you should have a pretty thick batter.

Now, you don't have to do this - you can just grease your 9x13" pan and leave it at that - but I like to go one step further. I like to grease it, then line it with parchment paper with sides extending (I use scissors to snip the corners of the paper so it tucks in well) so that when the baked off brownies are cooled, I can lift them out of the pan and cut them without dealing with them being in the pan, lol. ;-)

Next, you get the batter spread evenly into your prepared pan, and bake 30-40 minutes in a 350° F oven or until a toothpick comes out clean. Here's another place I've had some variations - yesterday I think I clocked my bake time at 50-55 min. Once I reached the 35 minute mark and my toothpick was pretty coated in batter, I added about 10 more min, then after that I added minutes in 5 minute increments - until the toothpick inserted in or near center came out ALMOST clean. I've way overcooked them before waiting for that toothpick to come out totally clean, lol. I've learned my lesson! ;-) So, I say start checking after the initial called-for bake time, and go from there.

Here they are right out of the oven, and what mine ended up looking like - they were baked just right! Then, once they cooled completely I pulled them out of the pan, lifting them with the over-the-edge parchment paper and then cut them as desired. I used my 2 different brownie cutters, one with a wavy edge and the other like a metal cookie cutter that does the rounded-corner-rectangle shapes. :-)

Hint of Cinnamon Brownies

Preheat oven to 350° F

24 oz chocolate or chocolate chips

1 c + 2 tbsp butter

6 eggs

3/4 c granulated sugar

1 c + 2 tbsp dark brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 c flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

butter, shortening or cooking spray to grease pan, parchment paper if desired

1) In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the chocolate with the butter, stirring occasionally. Set aside and cool completely.

2) In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and cinnamon, set aside.

3) In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs, both sugars and vanilla. Stir in the melted chocolate-butter mixture. Stir the flour mixture into the chocolate-egg mixture until well combined.

4) Grease pan as desired. Pour the batter into the pan, and bake 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool to room temperature before cutting.