Brown Sugar

February 2012
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Snicker Pretzels

February 21, 2012 brownsugarma 2 Comments

Did I ever tell you that I was a genius? No? Well let me tell you now, I am a genius! I mean I am so much of a genius that I can’t stand myself sometimes. I can’t stand the genius that I am that my brain can’t stand me. So, why am I a genius? Every now and then I have these brainstorming sessions where I sit down with my food blogging journal and concoct different recipes. That is where I created my idea for the “brookie”, my burger, those delicious white chocolate cupcakes, and several other recipes that are on this blog. But this idea was amazingly awesome that I almost considered it divine intervention when it came to mind. That idea was Snicker Pretzles!

So, you’ve had Snickers before right? Okay, if you are anything like me, once I have had something very sweet to eat, I have to have something a little salty to offset the sweetness that I just endured. That salty treat is usually a pretzel. That is when I was intervened with divinity. “Why not combine the two?” my genius self said to myself. Myself responded, “Genius self, that is not a bad idea! Holy Mackerel! You are a genius, genius self!” This is an incredibly easy sweet treat to make and to share with your friends and family. Also, if you are a lover of the sweet and salty combination, then you will appreciate these as well. Tell yourself that my genius self said “Your welcome”.

You will need a bag of the Pounder Pretzels. Get them as thick as you can get them but do not get the soft kind.

Ingredients 1^st layer: Nougat

¼ cup butter
1 cup sugar
¼ cup milk
7 oz jar marshmallow fluff
¼ cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Melt the butter in a pot on medium heat. Add the sugar and whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Add the milk and whisk for 5 minutes. Begin to add the fluff and the peanut butter with a rubber spatula and fold until dissolved. Lastly add the extract and turn down on low heat. Continue to stir so that the mixture won’t stick to the pan.

Ingredients 2^nd layer: caramel

14 ounces caramel candies
¼ cup whipping cream

Directions

In microwavable bowl, add the caramels and the whipping cream. Warm them up in the microwave for a minute at a time and stir until it is creamy.

Ingredients 3^rd layer: Chocolate

Bag of milk chocolate chips

Directions

I used the double boiler method where I placed the chip on the boiler and melted them until the chocolate was creamy. You can use whatever method you like.

Ingredients 4^th layer: Peanuts and Toffee pieces

2 cups salty peanuts

1 cup toffee pieces

Directions

In a food processor or chopper, chop your peanut but do not chop them into a powder. You just don’t want them to be bulky. Place your peanuts and toffee in a bowl for dipping.

Assembly

Dip the pretzels in the nougat. It may seem as though the nougat is not sticking to the pretzel but keep dipping and it will and then place them on a cooling rack and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Once they are cooled dip them in the caramel and place back on the cooling rack and allow cooling for another 10 minutes.

Note: You can take a butter knife and clean up the excess dripping off the pretzels for a cleaner look.

Finally, dip in the chocolate and roll the pretzel into the peanut and toffee and place back onto the cooling rack. Allow to cool completely for 25-30 minutes before eating.

Enjoy!

The Last Birthday of My Twenties

February 17, 2012 brownsugarma No comments

Smooches

Here are some of the pictures that were taken last weekend when I celebrated my birthday. I know you are thinking that these are not a lot of pictures. Believe me, I know. Some of the pictures where taken when I was pretty intoxicated and some just don’t make the final cut for my blog. But I did want to share a few of them with you. It was one of the best weekends of my life! Bring on 30!

Me & Loren

"Say huh, say what?"

"To the Window...."

Angie & Michelle

Italian Potato Skin Boats

February 16, 2012 brownsugarma 6 Comments

I am sucker for some good potato skins. I love mine loaded with sharp cheddar cheese, bacon, lettuce, sour cream and chives. Well last year when I got serious about losing weight and feeling great, I had a small dinner party with some girlfriends of mine. I made baked chicken, a nice salad, and potato skins. The skins that I made weren’t the unhealthy, heart stopping ones that I mentioned before. In fact, I had to figure out what to put in them. That is when the masterpiece came! I had some spinach, a couple of tomatoes, and some feta cheese in my fridge and I thought that would make a perfect combination as a filling to the skins. They were a huge hit! My friends loved them because they were satisfying, comforting, yet healthy.

These babies can be served as a meal or as a side dish. I call them boats because I used the one pound potatoes. You know? The big long ones. Those are the kind of potatoes that you are going to need to make these. I made them again for you to try at your next tailgate party or group gathering. Let me know how you like them!

Ingredients

4 1 pound potatoes

3 cups fresh chopped spinach

½ cup fresh chopped cilantro

3 medium size tomatoes diced

2 tblsp minced garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil

1 tablespoon dried Italian seasoning

8 oz feta cheese

Parmesan cheese

Chopped prosciutto (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

Take the potatoes and rub them with olive oil and salt, then place them on a baking sheet. Insert the potatoes in the oven on the lowest rack and allow to cook for about an hour or until done. Turn the potatoes every 15 minutes to make sure that they cook thoroughly throughout.
Once the potatoes are done, take them out of the oven and allow them to cool. This can take about 30 minutes.
While the potatoes are cooling down, in a medium size bowl, add your chopped spinach, cilantro, diced tomatoes, and feta cheese and drizzle with olive oil. Do not use canned diced tomatoes or the frozen chopped spinach. It will not taste the same and it make not cook as well because of the added moisture.
Turn to your potatoes and cut them in halves. With a spoon, scoop out the middle of the potato leaving a deep insert for the filling. You can save the middle part of the potatoes for mashed potatoes or some other potato dish.

5. Begin to fill the potatoes with the spinach mixture and top with Parmesan cheese to your liking. If you are choosing to add the chopped prosciutto then you may add that in this step as well. Bake for 15 minutes on the top rack. Once they are finished baking, enjoy!

Before

After

Vodka Infused Chocolate Covered Strawberries

February 14, 2012 brownsugarma 2 Comments

So its Valentine’s Day and you are trying to plan one of the most romantic evenings for that special person. You have prepared a romantic candlelit dinner, sparkling champagne, rose petals, but you don’t have a dessert. Well not to worry! I have perfect the solution for you.

These strawberries are infused with Smirnoff Strawberry Vodka and covered with milk chocolate and drizzled with white chocolate. They are the perfect ending to a romantic evening. The best part of them is that you can’t really taste the vodka. These sweet and juicy berries have no sign of alcohol once bitten into. I’m telling you, if you make these for your person of interest, things are bound to happen (wink). Once you try them, I want you to send me a message letting me know about your night . But with subtle detail my friends.

NOTE: You will need a flavor injector for this recipe. If you do not have one, they are fairly inexpensive and can be used for other dishes as well.

Ingredients

- Package of Strawberries

- 8 oz Smirnoff Strawberry Vodka

- 16 oz candy coated chocolate

- melted white chocolate for drizzle (optional)

- toffee pieces (optional)

Directions

1. Rinse the strawberries and place them on a plate. After you have rinsed them, take a napkin and dab the strawberries so they are not wet. If the exterior of the strawberries are too wet this will make the chocolate less likely to stick and make the melted chocolate separate.

2. Take the flavor injector and fill it with the vodka. Individually, take a strawberry and stick it with the injector at the bottom of the strawberry (at the peak). Slowly fill the strawberry with vodka. The strawberry may begin to overflow with the vodka and that is when you need to stop. This usually happens with smaller strawberries, but the bigger the strawberry it is less likely to do this unless you want a lot of vodka injected in them.

3. Once all of your strawberries are injected, dab the strawberries again to remove any excess moisture from the vodka and place them in the freezer for 10-12 minutes. This will allow the strawberries to set.

4. Melt the chocolate however you choose. You can melt them by using the microwave or a double boiler. I used a double boiler. Also, if you are using the white chocolate drizzle effect, place the white chocolate in a squeeze bottle for later use.

5. Take the strawberries out of the freezer and begin to dip them in the chocolate and place them on a cooling rack. If you are wanting to coat them with toffee, roll them in the toffee after your dip them in the chocolate. Once all of your strawberries are coated, take the squeeze bottle with the white chocolate and drizzle over the strawberries.

If you are going to make these, I recommend making them the night before or 3-5 hours before and let them refrigerate. This will allow for the vodka and the flavor of the strawberry to marry in holy matrimony. The juice will be sweet and delicate.

Have a Happy Valentines Day!

Brownie Cheesecake

February 09, 2012 brownsugarma 2 Comments

I have a thing for brownies (as if you can’t already tell). I have already combined brownies and cookies making a “brookie”. Now I am combining brownies with cheesecake. The concept doesn’t seem too far fetched but I still had to try it. This recipe combines brownie, cheesecake and caramel. So if you are counting calories then you do not want to make this dessert. But it is so amazing and worth the extra workout if you ask me. So I want you to try this and let me know what you think.

Ingredients

- 2 boxes of your favorite brownie mix or you could make your own from scratch. If you do make enough for two 9 inch pans.

- 4 blocks cream cheese

- ½ cup sugar

- 14 oz can condensed milk

- 5 eggs

- 1/3 whipping cream

- 2 tablespoons flour

- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

- Pinch salt

- 1 ½ cup white chocolate, coarsely chopped (I didn’t add this ingredient)

- 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

- 2 cups coarsely chopped Snickers bars or Turtles (also optional)

- ½ can dulce de leche caramel sauce

Directions

1. Pre heat your oven to the set temperature on the back of the brownie box. Prepare the brownies as instructed. Place the brownie mixture in two separate 9 inch square pans.

2. Once the brownies are finished, allow them to cool for about 10 minutes. In a greased springform pan, take one of the pans of brownies and place them in the form of a crust in the spring form pan. You don’t need to cut the brownies neatly. Simply take your hands and press the brownies in the springform pan until you cannot see the bottom of the spring form pan. You may not need to use all the brownies for that unless you want a heavy crust. Once you are finished, place the springform pan in the freezer for 10 minutes to allow the crust to become firm.

3. The other pan of brownies cut into small chunks to be folded into the batter later.

While that is happening, let’s begin to make the cheesecake.

1. With electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and the sugar until smooth. Add in the condensed milk and blend in the eggs, cream, flour, vanilla, and the pinch of salt until smooth, about 5 minutes on low speed.

2. Remove one-third of batter and mix it with the white chocolate. If you are opting out of the white chocolate then use the chocolate chips. Pour into the pan on top of crust. With the remaining batter fold remaining ingredients (snickers, brownie chunks, and semi sweet chocolate chips if you used white chocolate) into cheesecake batter, except the dulce or caramel sauce. Fold gently by hand to avoid break up the brownie chunks too much. Pour half of this batter into the pan on top of the white chocolate cheesecake batter. Drop dollops of half the dulce or caramel sauce all over. Top with remaining batter and then remaining pour the remaining dulce or caramel sauce on top. Stir briefly with a knife.

3. Set filled springform pan on a baking sheet. Bake 40-45 minutes, until set.

4. Cool in oven an hour and then in refrigerate overnight. Remove from pan and place on serving plate

5. To finish the cheesecake drizzle melted milk , white and dark chocolate over top, allowing it to drip down on side (I had some left over chocolate ganache).

Healthy Fish and Chips

February 07, 2012 brownsugarma No comments

Another place to go downtown Cincinnati is Nicholson’s Tavern & Pub. They are one of the few restaurants that have my favorite beer, Strongbow, and they have excellent fish and chips! Fish and chips are a popular meal that originates from the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand. It consists of beer battered fish deep-fried and served with French fries. It is a very yummy combination. I have only been to a few places where the fish and chips were excellent and Nicholson’s is definitely at the top of the list.

In the pursuit of living a somewhat healthy lifestyle, I decided to create a healthy version of fish and chips without all the oil and trans-fat. If you like fish and chips as much as I do, you will enjoy this recipe as well.

Make the chips first!

Ingredients for chips

- Potatoes (you decide the amount)

- Salt and cayenne pepper to taste

- Olive oil

Directions for chips

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees

- Cut the potatoes to your liking and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place evenly on a baking sheet and place in the oven until browned and crisp. This should take about 25-30 minutes.

Ingredients for fish

- Olive oil cooking spray

- 2 ¾ cups crushed cornflakes

- Salt and pepper to taste (seasoned salt is better if you have it)

- 3 large egg whites

- 3 fillets of Polluck (another firm white fish is okay if you prefer something different)

Directions for fish

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

- Take a baking sheet and spray with cooking spray and set aside.

- Crush the corn flakes with your hands until they are crumbs and season your fish with salt and pepper to taste.

- In a separate bowl, whisk your egg whites until they are slightly foamy.

- Dip the fish in the egg whites and then roll in the crumbs until evenly coated, place them on the baking sheet, and spray with olive oil cooking spray.

- Place the sheet on the bottom rack until crisp, which should take about 12-14 minutes.

Venice on Vine

February 06, 2012 brownsugarma 2 Comments

One of my favorite movies is Eat, Pray, Love based off the book written by Elizabeth Gilbert. This book is based on her experiences in life and her journey to spiritual fulfillment. Although I have not yet read the book, I mirror so many of the emotions and experiences that she has gone through. I envied her ability to travel the world. And if I am as fortunate as she , I would do it in a millisecond and I would go alone. I would go to India and seek wisdom from the spiritual elite; I would travel to China and pray at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing; I would get my palm read by Ketut Liyer in Bali; I would lease a bungalow in Bora Bora and swim with the sea turtles and walk on the beach alone everyday. But my journey would not be complete if I didn’t go to Italy…to eat.

Well that was fun day dreaming. Seeing how I am not in a place to do such extensive traveling, I will settle for the nooks and crannies around the city and in more affordable destinations. One of those nooks and crannies that I speak of is one street over from me called Venice on Vine. Venice on Vine is located in Gateway Quarters (upcoming area located downtown Cincinnati). I was attracted to this restaurant not because of the food, but because of the restaurant’s willingness to help inner city residents who have unattractive backgrounds to most places of employment, and offer them an opportunity by providing basic life skills and paid job training. I love things like that. So one Saturday, my best friend and I went to this little piece of Italy in Over the Rhine to give it a shot.

The restaurant is very cute. It has red and white checkerboard table clothes, cute little flower vases, and the pizza is served to you straight from their pizza Dutch ovens. So cute! Shortly after I noticed the décor, I started to think that my eyes were deceiving me when I saw the prices! One slice of pizza was only $1.50! An 8 inch of pizza was $5.00! WHAT THE WHAT!!! Now, some of you are thinking, “You get what you pay for”, right? Well let me tell you, if you ever eat at this quaint Italian inspired pizzeria, the pizza is served to you hot and delicious. Very, very good! They not only serve pizza, but they also have a menu filled with hoagies, breads, pastas, and gelato and sorbeto from Madisono’s: Cincinnati’s First Gelato Company.

If you are downtown Cincinnati and you are looking for a good cheap eat, I recommend Venice on Vine! I enjoyed my meal and the service. I did not try the gelato, so if you get that, you will have to let me know how it is!

White Chocolate Cupcakes w/ Marscarpone Raspberry Buttercream Icing

February 02, 2012 brownsugarma 2 Comments

Insight about myself…I am pretty picky about food. Now I know what you are thinking, “How could that be when you are food blogger?” And the answer is, “I don’t really know”. There are some foods that are simply nasty to the taste such as liver; whereas there are some foods that aren’t nasty they just don’t do appeal to your taste buds such as avocado and mushrooms, for me. Well white chocolate is in the middle of both for me. You probably will never see me eating a white chocolate bar but you will see me eating these cupcakes that I created.

As I have said before, chocolate goes very well with berries. Raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, you name it and it probably will be a good marriage. So in this creative mind of mine, I wondered what it would taste like to join raspberry and white chocolate in holy matrimony. So where did the mascarpone come from you ask? Well, how many of you know what mascarpone is and taste like? Well, I’ll tell you. It has the consistency of cream cheese and it taste like nothing, to me. But it gives the icing a soft sweet cheese taste that is light, enjoyable, without the sharpness or bitterness that cheese sometimes carry. So you combine that flavor with butter and raspberries and you are in cupcake heaven my friend. Make these for Valentines Day for your place of work, parties, or for your Valentine. Trust me, you won’t fail.

Ingredients Cupcakes

1 ¾ cup cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 stick softened unsalted butter

2 large eggs

½ cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoon raspberry extract

½ cup hot water

8 oz melted white chocolate

Directions

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees

Beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add all of the dry ingredients and then adding the melted white chocolate and hot water last. NOTE: White Chocolate is hard to melt so you might have to use a little milk or cream to get it to become creamy.
Fill your ready cupcake tins with the batter about 2/3^rd of the way and bake between 15-20 minutes.
Once your cupcakes are done baking, transfer them to a cooling rack so the heat in the pan doesn’t continue to bake the cupcakes.

Ingredients Icing

1 stick of softened butter

8 oz mascarpone, room temperature

4 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon milk or cream (if needed)

½ cup of raspberries

½ cup melted white chocolate

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon raspberry extract

Directions

With your mixer, beat butter and mascarpone to blend. Add white chocolate, extracts, raspberries and powdered sugar slowly. If your icing is too thick, that is where the tablespoon of milk comes into play. Once finished, ice your cupcakes as desired.

Honey Chipotle Seitan- Spicy Vegan Dish

January 29, 2012 brownsugarma 1 Comment

Aside from food that I prepare for my blog, I am a fairly healthy eater. I always have wanted to cook with tofu, but it seems pretty intimidating. But I have cooked with soy crumbles and other faux meat. They all turned out pretty good. But I had an idea to make something with Seitan, which is a “wheat meat” or gluten meat product. Very high in protein and has the same consistency of meat, for those who are skeptical. I wanted to combine seitan with a sauce that was similar to Chili’s honey chipotle sauce that is used for their chicken strips. If you never had them, you should try them. But this dish is the healthiest dish I posted so far and the spiciest. I say that as a precaution. But it could be me. Everyone’s spice tolerance is different. I hope you like it!

Ingredients Sauce

¼ cup honey

½ cup purred canned chipotles in adobo sauce

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp ancho chili powder

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp canola oil

½ tsp coriander

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp paprika

1 tbsp water

8 oz packet Seitan, sliced

2 tbsp olive oil

1 chopped onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 green onion, chopped

5 mushrooms, chopped

Green onion, chopped

*Or you can omit the above ingredients and use a bag of stir fry vegetables instead.

Directions

In a small bowl, combine honey, chipotle sauce, mustard, oil, and water and whisk. Now, this dish is spicy, if it is too spicy for you add more water and honey. I added more honey and it was fine, but still spicy. Then add the chili powder, salt and pepper, coriander, cumin, and paprika and whisk. Taste. Is it okay?
In a skillet, turn the heat up to medium high. Add the olive oil and once it is hot, add your chosen veggies. Stir until your veggies start to wilt. Then add your seitan. The seitan will come in big chunks. Make sure to cut the seitan in smaller pieces to your liking. Stir the seitan and veggies for 3 minutes and then add the sauce. Turn down the heat to low and simmer all the ingredients for 10 minutes. Serve over brown rice or white rice.

Enjoy!

Orange Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Scones

January 24, 2012 brownsugarma 2 Comments

Have you ever had a scone? Most people know them to be a hard and a drier version of a biscuit. But I don’t make them like that. They are not as soft as a biscuit, but they are still moist and delicious. The first tasty scones I had were at a Farmers Market in West Chester from The Wooden Shoe Baker and they were great! It was the first time I had a scone that wasn’t as hard as a rock. So, what do you think I did? That’s right, I made my own!

If you are ever stumped on coming up with two flavors that work well together, try orange and vanilla bean. I put those two flavors together in a cupcake and I decided to try to put them together in a scone. They were perfect! They were rich, buttery, flaky, and slightly sweet. They were perfect! I took them to work and shared them with some friends of mine and they loved them. I hope you do as well. What are your favorite scones?

Ingredients

4 cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup sugar

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 ½ cup unsalted butter

1 large egg

1 ¾ cups buttermilk

4 oranges

1 vanilla bean

1 ½ cup water

½ cup sugar

*melted butter and sugar for dusting as a finish

Directions

- Preheat oven to 425 degrees

In a food processor, add flour sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and blend briefly. Add butter and pulse to make course, grainy mixture. TIP: If you do not have a food processor you can use a pastry blender or a fork to blend well. Also, use a cheese grater to grate the butter before you add to the dry mixture.
Before Milk & Grated Butter
Turn the mixture to a large bowl and make a well in the center. Add the egg to the center and in a tall measuring cup or bowl, add the buttermilk, the beans out of a vanilla bean (don’t throw away the shell of the vanilla bean), grate the zest of half an orange, and squeeze the juice from half of the orange as well. Whisk well and then slowly pour the buttermilk into the well also. Interchange by pouring the buttermilk and mixing the mixture with a fork or your hands.
Once all the ingredients are blended, the dough should be shaggy.
Turn out the mixture onto a lightly floured surface and knead 8 to 10 times until the mixture is just barely rollable. Pat or roll out to 1 inch thickness and cut into three inch wedges with a cookie cut or pizza cutter. Brush the top with milk or melted butter and dust with sugar.
Bake until golden for about 12 to 15 minutes.

Glaze

While those scones are baking, we are going to make a glaze that you can use for a few purposes. You can use the sauce as a glaze, you can use the oranges as a garnish for another dish, or you can use the syrup as the foundation for another glaze, sauce, or syrup. We are going to use the syrup as a glaze.

Ingredients

3 ½ sliced oranges

The shell of the vanilla bean

1 ½ cup water

½ cup sugar

Directions

Cut the oranges into long slices and place them in a large sauce pan.
Add the water and sugar to the sauce pan and bring to a boil. Also, add the shell of the vanilla bean and boil for 30 minutes.
When the water becomes “syrupy”, turn down the heat. Take a pastry brush and brush some of the syrup on top of your scones.

If you would like a picture display of this process, you can go the blog of The Repressed Pastry Chef.

Eat and Enjoy!

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Snicker Pretzels

The Last Birthday of My Twenties

Italian Potato Skin Boats

Vodka Infused Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Brownie Cheesecake

Snicker Pretzels

The Last Birthday of My Twenties

Italian Potato Skin Boats

Vodka Infused Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Brownie Cheesecake

Healthy Fish and Chips

Venice on Vine

White Chocolate Cupcakes w/ Marscarpone Raspberry Buttercream Icing

Honey Chipotle Seitan- Spicy Vegan Dish

Orange Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Scones

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Food, Citylife, & Sex

ME

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