Several months ago my parents took a trip to Hershey, PA, and my mom brought me back a cute little tin full of Hershey recipes. My parents came over Sunday night for dinner (cheesesteaks from Danny Mac's), and I told Neil to select a recipe from the Hershey box and I would make it for dessert.
What Neil selected was Hot Fudge Pudding Cake.
Hershey's Hot Fudge Pudding Cake
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Hershey's Cocoa, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/4 cups hot water
Whipped topping (make it yourself, it's better!)
1. Heat oven to 350° F.
2. Stir together 3/4 cup granulated sugar, flour, 1/4 cup cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in milk, butter and vanilla; beat until smooth. Pour batter into ungreased 9-inch square baking pan. Stir together remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar and remaining 1/4 cup cocoa; sprinkle mixture evenly over batter. Pour hot water over top. Do not stir.
3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Let stand 15 minutes; spoon into dessert dishes, spooning sauce from bottom of pan over top. Garnish with whipped topping. Makes about 8 servings.
For the whipped topping I combined one cup heavy whipping cream, a tablespoon of sugar, and a half teaspoon of vanilla. I beat it on high until it was whipped cream. (There is no excuse for Cool Whip!)
Anyway, the cake. I don't know how, but we managed not to take any photos of it. But basically what happens is that the top turns into something cakey in texture, and the bottom turns into a thick gooey chocolate sauce. It's really neat! And also incredibly good. It's very rich without being overly sweet and disgusting.
What's really awesome (and kind of dangerous) about this is that it's made of stuff I always have in the house. And it's super quick and easy. I can make a gooey chocolate dessert (something I get a craving for not infrequently) whenever I want and with minimal effort! And now you can too!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Fun Article from the NYT
This kid is totally awesome: 12-Year-Old's a Food Critic, and the Chef Loves It.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Reunited and It Feels So Good
As you may or may not recall (or know the details of), Neil and I broke up back in May and I moved into my own place. It was good that we broke up, because there was no other way for us to resolve certain issues that had been plaguing our relationship. I felt strongly that I needed to be on my own for a bit to get my head on straight and figure out what I really needed out of a relationship.
In August we went on vacation together and came home with a tentative agreement that we wanted to try things again. We quickly fell back into the swing of our relationship and things were great. The only problem was that not only had I just signed a lease, I loved (and continue to love) my new apartment, in particular my kitchen. It has an obscene amount of counter space and cabinets, as well as a dishwasher. Neil's kitchen, in contrast, is a bit of a cook's nightmare; no dishwasher, few cabinets, and literally almost no counter space.
At first I thought I would just wait until my lease was up and move back in with Neil, since we were spending most nights together again and were quite in the habit of sharing a residence, having done so for two and half years. But I really, really didn't want to give up my new place. So then we talked about him selling his house and moving in with me, but in this market that didn't seem wise or even necessarily possible. We finally came up with a plan: Neil (and our cat and dog) would move in with me, and a friend of ours would rent Neil's house.
Why am I going into all of this in my food blog? Because today, although all of Neil's stuff is still at his house, we moved the pets over, and I imagine Neil will be sleeping here from now on. Today felt like the first day of really being reunited as a household. And one of the things that made it feel that way is that we cooked.
I decided to make a roast for dinner. I'd never done this before, so I started simply and used this recipe. I also decided to make mashed potatoes using this recipe. I've made mashed potatoes many times before, always improvising the ingredients, with various degrees of success. I decided to use a recipe this time so I'd have predictably delicious results. We rounded out our grocery shopping with some asparagus and frozen rolls, as well as some Granny Smith apples for an Alice Waters apple tart.
The roast was ridiculously easy. I used two cans of cream of mushroom with garlic soup, mixed it with the onion soup mix, slathered it all over the meat, and baked it for four hours. While that was in the oven (and in between putting coats of polyurethane on my dining room table) we had a light lunch:
Benedictine sandwiches with fresh cucumber and turkey bacon. Mmmmmm.
After that I made some pastry dough for the apple tart using Alice Waters's recipe. If you already own The Art of Simple Food (and really, you should), the dough recipe is on page 174, and the the apple tart recipe is on page 180. I'm not going to transcribe the recipes here because: 1) I feel a little squicky about the copyright implications of doing so and 2) I'm lazy. Suffice it to say that the dough involves flour, a ton of butter, and a little bit of water, and making the tart is a matter of rolling out the dough into a circle, arranging a bunch of sliced apples on it, folding over the edges, brushing (or drizzling) the whole thing with more butter, and sprinkling it with sugar. (And we added some cinnamon too, though it wasn't in the recipe.)
Dinner really practically made itself. The roast worked its magic in the oven, we cooked the potatoes and mixed them with their butter and milk, and we wrapped up the asparagus in foil with some olive oil and tossed it in the oven. When dinner came out of the oven the apple tart went in.
I must say, there was an awful lot of anticipation surrounding this roast, both because it was my first one and because it made my entire apartment smell amazing. We were really excited about trying it. We unfurled the foil packet to find..
Delicious steaming meat!
It was so tender that I had trouble getting it onto our plates; it kept falling apart. I know that using two cans of soup and a packet of soup mix does not equate to gourmet cooking and that Alice Waters herself would not approve of all these processed, packaged foods, but damn this roast was good! Tender, juicy, flavorful, and emerging from the oven in a package of its own gravy, which required absolutely no effort on my part. I approve!
A plate full of deliciousness!
In August we went on vacation together and came home with a tentative agreement that we wanted to try things again. We quickly fell back into the swing of our relationship and things were great. The only problem was that not only had I just signed a lease, I loved (and continue to love) my new apartment, in particular my kitchen. It has an obscene amount of counter space and cabinets, as well as a dishwasher. Neil's kitchen, in contrast, is a bit of a cook's nightmare; no dishwasher, few cabinets, and literally almost no counter space.
At first I thought I would just wait until my lease was up and move back in with Neil, since we were spending most nights together again and were quite in the habit of sharing a residence, having done so for two and half years. But I really, really didn't want to give up my new place. So then we talked about him selling his house and moving in with me, but in this market that didn't seem wise or even necessarily possible. We finally came up with a plan: Neil (and our cat and dog) would move in with me, and a friend of ours would rent Neil's house.
Why am I going into all of this in my food blog? Because today, although all of Neil's stuff is still at his house, we moved the pets over, and I imagine Neil will be sleeping here from now on. Today felt like the first day of really being reunited as a household. And one of the things that made it feel that way is that we cooked.
I decided to make a roast for dinner. I'd never done this before, so I started simply and used this recipe. I also decided to make mashed potatoes using this recipe. I've made mashed potatoes many times before, always improvising the ingredients, with various degrees of success. I decided to use a recipe this time so I'd have predictably delicious results. We rounded out our grocery shopping with some asparagus and frozen rolls, as well as some Granny Smith apples for an Alice Waters apple tart.
The roast was ridiculously easy. I used two cans of cream of mushroom with garlic soup, mixed it with the onion soup mix, slathered it all over the meat, and baked it for four hours. While that was in the oven (and in between putting coats of polyurethane on my dining room table) we had a light lunch:
Benedictine sandwiches with fresh cucumber and turkey bacon. Mmmmmm.After that I made some pastry dough for the apple tart using Alice Waters's recipe. If you already own The Art of Simple Food (and really, you should), the dough recipe is on page 174, and the the apple tart recipe is on page 180. I'm not going to transcribe the recipes here because: 1) I feel a little squicky about the copyright implications of doing so and 2) I'm lazy. Suffice it to say that the dough involves flour, a ton of butter, and a little bit of water, and making the tart is a matter of rolling out the dough into a circle, arranging a bunch of sliced apples on it, folding over the edges, brushing (or drizzling) the whole thing with more butter, and sprinkling it with sugar. (And we added some cinnamon too, though it wasn't in the recipe.)
Dinner really practically made itself. The roast worked its magic in the oven, we cooked the potatoes and mixed them with their butter and milk, and we wrapped up the asparagus in foil with some olive oil and tossed it in the oven. When dinner came out of the oven the apple tart went in.
I must say, there was an awful lot of anticipation surrounding this roast, both because it was my first one and because it made my entire apartment smell amazing. We were really excited about trying it. We unfurled the foil packet to find..
Delicious steaming meat!It was so tender that I had trouble getting it onto our plates; it kept falling apart. I know that using two cans of soup and a packet of soup mix does not equate to gourmet cooking and that Alice Waters herself would not approve of all these processed, packaged foods, but damn this roast was good! Tender, juicy, flavorful, and emerging from the oven in a package of its own gravy, which required absolutely no effort on my part. I approve!
A plate full of deliciousness!Just as we finished dinner and relaxed with our wine (a 2006 Mirassou cab), the apple tart was ready.
Mmmmmm, rustic!
The beauty of Alice Waters's cooking lies in the beauty of food itself: simple recipes with real ingredients taste better and are better for us and the environment. This apple tart was amazing; the crust was flaky and tender, and I don't think I even have to describe what happens when you mix apples, butter, sugar, and cinnamon. I think next time I might try this in a turnover format, perhaps with apples and cream cheese.
Now Neil and I are sitting in the living room using our respective laptops, drinking our wine and watching as Franklin, our cat, slinks around his new home (he spent at least an hour hiding inside the sofa, but is now bravely investigating the rest of the room). I love these days of easy couple-ness - running errands together, doing odd jobs around the house, and ending the day with an amazing meal that we have planned and prepared together. I started to enjoy cooking around the same time I was falling in love with Neil, and I think those two things will be forever intertwined.
Here's to pot roast, and to us!
Mmmmmm, rustic!The beauty of Alice Waters's cooking lies in the beauty of food itself: simple recipes with real ingredients taste better and are better for us and the environment. This apple tart was amazing; the crust was flaky and tender, and I don't think I even have to describe what happens when you mix apples, butter, sugar, and cinnamon. I think next time I might try this in a turnover format, perhaps with apples and cream cheese.
Now Neil and I are sitting in the living room using our respective laptops, drinking our wine and watching as Franklin, our cat, slinks around his new home (he spent at least an hour hiding inside the sofa, but is now bravely investigating the rest of the room). I love these days of easy couple-ness - running errands together, doing odd jobs around the house, and ending the day with an amazing meal that we have planned and prepared together. I started to enjoy cooking around the same time I was falling in love with Neil, and I think those two things will be forever intertwined.
Here's to pot roast, and to us!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
The Cheapest Dinner in Town
Times are tough all over. A lot of us have watched our retirement savings shrivel away, some of us have lost our jobs, and one in five (soon to be one in four) homeowners owes more on their mortgage than their house is worth. The immediate economic future isn't looking too bright. But fear not! I am here with happy financial news:
Neil and I have discovered how we can have dinner for two for $3.19. $3.19. Value has spoken to us, and her name is Double Dragon.
Neil and I have known the cheapness of Double Dragon for a while; we often split an order of General Tso's chicken (half an order is still almost too much), paying about $8 for the entree and an extra eggroll in addition to the one it comes with. Our latest discovery, however, is that our very own Germantown Chinese take-out establishment will sell us two two-cup containers of soup - I favor egg drop, while Neil likes hot and sour - for $3.19. We found this out recently when we waited too late in the day for lunch and didn't want to ruin our appetites for dinner. I'd been craving egg drop, and we thought soup sounded like a good snack. Both soups ended up being hearty and plentiful enough to serve as meals on their own. We just had them again tonight and we continued to marvel over the fact that we got dinner for $3.19!
(And as if that weren't enough, Neil also got the following fortune in his cookie: "A man's best possession is a sympathetic wife." Free sexism to boot!)
Double Dragon
1255 Goss Ave Louisville, KY 40217
(502) 635-5656
Neil and I have discovered how we can have dinner for two for $3.19. $3.19. Value has spoken to us, and her name is Double Dragon.
Neil and I have known the cheapness of Double Dragon for a while; we often split an order of General Tso's chicken (half an order is still almost too much), paying about $8 for the entree and an extra eggroll in addition to the one it comes with. Our latest discovery, however, is that our very own Germantown Chinese take-out establishment will sell us two two-cup containers of soup - I favor egg drop, while Neil likes hot and sour - for $3.19. We found this out recently when we waited too late in the day for lunch and didn't want to ruin our appetites for dinner. I'd been craving egg drop, and we thought soup sounded like a good snack. Both soups ended up being hearty and plentiful enough to serve as meals on their own. We just had them again tonight and we continued to marvel over the fact that we got dinner for $3.19!
(And as if that weren't enough, Neil also got the following fortune in his cookie: "A man's best possession is a sympathetic wife." Free sexism to boot!)
Double Dragon
1255 Goss Ave Louisville, KY 40217
(502) 635-5656
Monday, November 3, 2008
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