Winter Weekends

I decided to keep Friday night quiet since I had a heck of a long week (please refer to Thundersnow for the worst of it). So after having a wonderful talk with my beautiful friend Wendy, I decided to pour a glass of wine and do a little cooking and baking. On the menu for dinner was a simple pantry inspired dinner. 

Pasta with a spicy mushroom tomato sauce: (2 servings)

Whole Wheat Spaghetti

1 can whole tomatoes

1/2 package sliced white mushrooms

1 small onion chopped

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. butter

sprinkle of crushed red pepper

1 can Cannellini Beans (or other white bean)

Salt and Pepper

Cook pasta as directed on packaging Sautee onions in butter and olive oil for about 3 minutes, add mushrooms, continue to cook for another 3 minutes then add tomatoes, crushed pepper, and S+P. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes then add beans. Add pasta and toss....delicious and quick and hearty! 

Onto to the chocolate!!! I had a craving for chocolate, no surprise there, and what happened to be on the cover of my new Bon Appetit?? Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter and Walnuts, sign me up...I love to bake and might even go out on a limb here and say I prefer baking to cooking. But I think that it might just be the Goldsmith sweet tooth that has me saying that. I love to read Bon Appetit (and Gourmet magazine before it went under) but the recipes always seem a little bit challenging or maybe a little to exotic for me to try. Take for instance brown butter. This is a very common cooking term, used in many many recipes out there. Brown butter is just another way to add depth of flavor to what you are cooking. You wouldn't think that this little term would scare me away from a recipe, but you would be wrong. I have avoided any and all recipes with brown butter included in the title. I was afraid to try it because very simply I was afraid to burn the butter instead of brown it...I was afraid to fail. But this is a new year,  and a time to try new things. So I dove head first into the recipe. I already had all of the ingredients in my pantry (it really was a night of pantry cooking). I read through the recipe carefully, making sure I didn't miss a thing. I started with the browned butter, 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter cooked over medium heat for about 5 minutes. I watched intently as the butter began to foam and bubble. The grip on my spoonula was vice like. I was determined not to let this butter burn. I adjusted the flame a few times throughout the 5 minutes trying to gauge the correct temperature. As the little bits of brown began to form I immediately turned the heat off and continued to stir. I added the sugar, cocoa, vanilla, water, and salt and VOILA I did not burn the butter, success!! I went ahead and finished adding the rest of the ingredients and popped the brownies into the oven. I left the kitchen came over to my computer to respond to an email and after what I thought was about 10 minutes (I never actually looked at the clock) I realized I never set the timer!! Oh no I was not going to let these brownies go to waste. So I ran to the kitchen swung open the oven door to find the brownies were still safe. You better believe I was keeping a close eye on them for the duration of their baking. Once the toothpick came out clean I knew that I had least gotten them out of the oven safely without over cooking. Now just what would they taste like? Would the browned butter really make a difference?

 I waited about 10 minutes, that was all my patience would allow. I cut into the warm, gooey chocolate, took a bite and mmmm a little taste of browned butter heaven. I could've eaten half of the pan but I stopped at two small pieces :) The rest are for my weekend buddies Sarah and Emily who I will be joining for a 2 hour Zumbathon later today to burn off these little critters! You can find the recipe here: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/02/cocoa_brownies_with_browned_butter_and_walnuts