Outrageous Brownies

This month the Barefoot Bloggers recipe was selected by Eva of I’m Boring . Eva has chosen Outrageous Brownies which can be found in The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook on page 172. These brownies were definitely outrageous. They were very yummy. I would make them again if it were not for the million plus calories. I'm happy I made them and that I followed the recipe. Other than the calories, the only drawbacks are the cost of all the ingredients, $19.50, and waiting to cut and eat them. Try them you'll be happy you did and so will your personal trainer.

Ingredient

• 1 pound unsalted butter
• 1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, divided
• 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 6 extra-large eggs
• 3 tablespoons instant coffee powder
• 2 tablespoons real vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided (1 cup for batter and 1/4 cup in the chips and nuts)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 cups diced walnut pieces

  

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 13 by 18 by 1 1/2-inch sheet pan.

Melt together the butter, 1 pound chocolate chips, and unsweetened chocolate on top of a double boiler. Cool slightly. Stir together the eggs, instant coffee, vanilla and sugar. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture and cool to room temperature.

Stir together 1 cup of the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chocolate chips with 1/4 cup flour to coat. Then add to the chocolate batter. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until tester just comes out clean. Halfway through the baking, rap the pan against the oven shelf to allow air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Do not over-bake! Cool thoroughly, refrigerate well and cut into squares.

Stuffed Tomatoes with Rice

Our wonderful friends/neighbors gave us this fantastic Tapas cookbook and I thought I would share some of it with you guys.
This is an easy recipe for summer. It's so great because you don't have to heat up your kitchen and it's light and healthy. This is a great dish for a side at a BBQ or as an appetizer.

Stuffed Tomatoes with Rice from "Tapas the Food and the Music"

Ingredients:

• 3/4 C Long Grain Rice
• 3/4 C Olives, pitted and chopped
• 3 tbsp Olive Oil
• 4 Beefsteak Tomatoes, halved
• 4 tbsp Fresh Parsley
  

Directions:

• Cook rice until just tender. rinse with cold water and drain.
• Line dish with paper towel and allow rice to dry about 1 hour.
• Mix rice, olives, olive oil and parsley together and let stand for 8 hours.
• Scoop out the seed of the tomatoes and discard.
• Scoop out the rest of the pulp, without piercing the skin, chop and add to the rice mixture.
  
• Season the tomatoes shells with salt and turn over on paper towel to dry for about 1 hour.
  
• Pat the inside of the shells with paper towel and fill with the rice mixture. Sprinkle a little bit of parsley on top and serve.

Pasta with Tomatoes and White Beans

This is a quick but yet very satisfying recipe. Great dish to serve now that the weather is warmer, or hot if you are in Texas. If you think you need some meat added, sausage would be nice.

Recipe adapted from All-recipes,SUBMITTED BY: Joelene Craver

INGREDIENTS

• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
• 1 (19 ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 10 ounces fresh spinach, washed
• 1 Onion, Chopped
  
• 1 lb penne pasta
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
  My folders:

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente.
2. Saute Onion until soft in a large non-stick skillet.
   
3. Combine tomatoes and beans bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes.
4. Add spinach to the sauce; cook for 2 minutes or until spinach wilts, stirring constantly.
5. Serve sauce over pasta, and sprinkle with feta.

p.s. still no camera.

Tuna Salad

It’s Barefoot Bloggers time. The recipe was selected by Kate of Warm Olives and Cool Cocktails who has chosen Tuna Salad. I was born and raised in South Florida and consider myself a BIG fan of anything seafood. Tuna would be the one exception. The only time that I like tuna fish and especially tuna salad is on a boat after a long day spent scuba diving. Strange I know but that’s my little quirky seafood issue. Anyway, I put on my big girl pants and got busy making Ina’s version of tuna salad. My husband loved this meal and even asked if I could suck it up and make it again some time soon. Truth be to told this was not awful. Making it a salad and not tuna salad saved it, in my opinion. The dressing was very good and a very nice complement to the tuna.

Ina’s recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus extra for sprinkling
• 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black, plus extra for sprinkling
• 2 limes, zest grated
• 1 teaspoon wasabi powder (I didn’t use this)
• 6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (3 limes)
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 10 dashes hot sauce (recommended: Tabasco ) (didn’t use)
• 1 to 2 ripe Hass avocados, medium diced
• 1/4 cup minced scallions, white and green parts (2 scallions)
• 1/4 cup red onion, small diced (didn’t use)
• English Cucumbers
• Roma Tomatoes
• Carrots
• Fresh Spinach

Directions

Brush the tuna steaks with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the tuna steaks in a very hot sauté pan and cook for only 1 minute on each side. Set aside on a platter.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the olive oil, salt, pepper, lime zest, wasabi, lime juice, soy sauce and hot sauce. Add the avocados to the vinaigrette.

Cut the tuna in chunks and place it in a large bowl. Add the scallions and red onion and mix well. Pour the vinaigrette mixture over the tuna and carefully mix.

Stacked Burrito Pie

I feel like I've been playing catch up ever since our computer died a few weeks ago.
I'm working to get back in the groove, which is not easy now that I've lost my camera too. It's been a bit of a technology black hole at our house. First the computer, then my daughter put my cell phone in the toilet and now I've lost my camera. Anyway, the short of it is that I'm trying to get back on track and hope you all understand why I've been a bit flighty lately. Don't forget you don't need glasses it's just the stinky pictures from my cell phone.

Stacked Burrito Pie.
Adapted from " family-fun Magazine"

Ingredients
1 Medium Onion, chopped
2 Cloves of Garlic, Chopped
1 lb ground beef. (I used chicken this time. We had some leftover from grilling)
2 Tsp Chili Powder
1 Tsp Cumin
2 tsp paprika
Salt and Pepper
1 Can Black beans, drained and rinsed
1 Can Corn (I cut mine off the stalk. again leftover from grilling)
4 - 10 inch flour Tortillas
Sour Cream
Salsa
Cheddar or Monterey Cheese ( I used the Mexican blend that Costco sells)

Directions:
Saute in skillet garlic and onion. Once soft add spices and brown. When the meat is browned, add the beans and corn and cook until almost all liquid is evaporated. Let cool 10 minutes or so.

Using a spring-form pan, greased on bottom, begin to layer.
Spread a thin layer of sour cream, Salsa, beef and then grated cheese. Repeat three more times ending with cheese.
Bake at 350°f until heated through (about 30 minutes). Allow to cool another 10 minutes then carefully remove from pan. I left the outer rim of the pan loosely in place while I was cutting.

Banana and Raisin Cookies

Is there such a thing as a spring cookie? Well if not there should be and I have the perfect cookie for such a title.

Banana and Raisin Cookies

Recipe adapted from “I love Sugar” cookbook

Ingredients:

¼ C raisins (add more ½ a cup is nice)

½ C Orange Juice

1 C Butter, softened

¾ C sugar

1 Egg Yolk, lightly beaten

2 ½ C Flour

Pinch of Salt

3 OZ dried Bananas , finely chopped

Directions:

Soak the raisins in the orange juice for 30 minutes, drain and reserve 2 teaspoons of the juice for the cookie dough. OH I GUESS I BETTER MENTION NOW THAT I’M A BIT OF A LAZY BAKER. I ALMOST ALWAYS COMBINE ALL THE INGREDIENTS AT ONE TIME AND LET MY MIXER DO ALL THE WORK. Sshh, DON’T TELL MARTHA. So combine all the ingredients including the two teaspoons of OJ and mix.

Drop by the spoonful onto lined cookie sheet, then flatten them gently and bake at 375°f for 12-15 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire racks and try not to eat them all at once.

Stuffed Chicken with simple Sauce

My husband brought home some boneless, skinless chicken breasts the other day from the grocery store and asked if I wouldn’t mind making stuffed chicken for dinner. Well I guess I didn’t mind because that is what we had that night. I usually have some frozen sauce which makes the dinner very easy and quick to prepare. I guess it’s been a little while since I made sauce because I had none on reserve. So, having committed to making the chicken and not having the 5 plus hours required to make my sauce, I had to make a quick substitute that didn’t taste like a last minute stand in. I also didn’t use basil to stuff the chicken as ours are just starting to pop out of the ground in our herb garden. The sauce and chicken turned out well. I do like my thicker, harder sauce better but this was a nice spring substitution.

Chicken Ingredients:

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast

Fresh Mozzarella (fresh mozzarella is so nice in this dish)

Parsley, chopped

Oregano, chopped

Salt and Pepper

Sauce Ingredients:

1 lb Sweet Italian Sausage

2 Cans Diced Tomatoes

3 or 4 Cloves of Garlic

Red wine

Onion, chopped

Salt and Pepper

Chicken Stuffing Directions:

Pound the chicken out and flip it over, lay mozzarella on top of the chicken, spread herbs on top of the cheese and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roll the chicken up as tight as possible and hold closed with a toothpick or two. Set the chicken aside in a casserole dish until the sauce is ready to be poured over the chicken.

Sauce Directions:

Sauté the onion and garlic in the red wine until the wine is almost fully evaporated then add the sausage and brown. Finally, add the tomatoes, salt and pepper and simmer for a few minutes. Try to avoid the urge to add more herbs to the sauce. The chicken has so much favor and you don’t want it to have to compete with your sauce.

Pour the sauce over the chicken and bake at 350°f until the chicken is fully cooked. I serve my on top of spaghetti.

P.S. I lost my camera and had to use my phone.