No Rehab for Brownie Brittle Addiction.

Sheila G's Brownie Brittle

Website: http://browniebrittle.com/

Hello, my name is Mary and I am addicted to Brownie Brittle.  It all started when I saw an advertisement on Facebook; yes, that evil Facebook drew me to this villainous snack.  I tried finding it at the local City Market locations, even at Walmart, but no luck.  Then I happened to be at Sam's Club in Farmington, New Mexico and there is was in the snack aisle; large bags of Brownie Brittle (Chocolate Chip) and I purchased two.  I am a sad case, as I was going to give the second bag to someone else to try, but I kept it; yes, I kept it and ate it all myself.











Brownie Brittle, how can I describe this delectable snack?  Imagine a rich, deep chocolate brownie, sliced into 1/8 inch thickness.   Then baked to a light, airy crispness that can be enjoyed by crunching onto it, or letting it just melt into chocolaty goodness.  The crispy squares are 4 inch by 4 inch; 6 of them are only 21 grams of carbohydrate and 4 grams of fat.  No, I wouldn't push these as nutritious, but they are so wonderfully good, who cares!  As to the amount to eat, I have to admit, as addicted as I am, that two goes a long way in satisfaction.  Brownie Brittle is very delicate, so can break apart, or crumble easily; makes a great topping for pudding or ice cream.  I don't know who Sheila G. Mains is, but I would hug her till she popped for creating Brownie Brittle.

Just yesterday I stopped at Safeway in Cortez, Colorado and in their baked goods aisle I found....Brownie Brittle!  Smaller sized bags than the ones at Sam's Club, but in different flavors such as Salted Caramel and Toffee Crunch.  I love this addiction!!!

Redemption; I purchased extra to give to that friend.  I may be a Brownie Brittle addict, but I still have a conscience.  Become addicted too, it's so good.

Mary Cokenour

Gotta have Fry Bread at Goulding's.

Goulding’s Stagecoach Dining Room

1000 Main St
Oljato-Monument Valley, UT 84536

(435) 727-3231

Website: http://www.gouldings.com/dining-room/







Recently I was in Monument Valley, on a group tour, and it included Goulding's (dining room, lodge, museum, supermarket, RV park, campgrounds, and much, much more); I'm going to concentrate on the Dining Room.  The guide explained that the building first started out as a movie prop when John Ford began making movies down in Monument Valley.  It then became the mess hall for the movie crews; the cook would prepare the food, ring the bell (still displayed out front) and everyone would come in and eat family style.  When tourists began staying at the Lodge, they would eat there; but the Health Department visited one day and stated it was unsafe.  The Gouldings tore down the old building and rebuilt a more modern structure with windows that look out upon Monument Valley.  Current management of the Dining Room is Scott and Alexa Laws who have years of restaurant experience under their belts; no wonder the place is clean, the servers and greeters polite and knowledgeable, and the food is great.

After being seated at a booth or table, you'll notice that each table includes a beautiful Native American jug for the water.  There are menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner; we were there to enjoy lunch and, most especially, fry bread.  Fry Bread is an unleavened bread that is slightly crispy on the outside and pillow soft on the inside.  Alone, as a side, or with toppings, it is a "cannot miss out on this" item when visiting the Southwest.








My husband had the Patty Melt which he stated was almost...almost, as good as mine.  The marbled bread was toasted nicely, the burger was thick and perfectly cooked, melted cheese and onions.  The only difference is that it had less cheese and onions than I put on, and he could live with that.  The fries were crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside with the usual Utah fry sauce served on the side.





Now Goulding's best seller is the Navajo Taco and I could see why from the platters served to other nearby diners. However, when I spied the Rez Bah' on the menu, I knew I had to try it out; it is huge by the way.  A choice of roast beef, ham, grilled chicken breast or 2 hamburger patties on fry bread with roasted green chilies, tomato, lettuce and onion; extra fry sauce for a condiment.  This had to be one of the best sandwiches I've ever experienced; the fry bread was perfect, absolutely perfect (it's still on my mind!).  The heat of the chilies, sweet of the tomato and crunch of the lettuce enhanced the flavor of the chicken.  The fry sauce was unnecessary, and I took out the raw onion as it detracted from the other flavors.  My hubby though enjoyed the onion on it; he ate the other half of it later on and hid the empty box, so I wouldn't know...I knew.



Whether you're staying at the Goulding's Lodge, touring Monument Valley or just passing through; when you're hungry, satisfy that hunger at the Stagecoach Dining Room.

Mary Cokenour

Wrap, Wrap, Wrap; Wrap it up, I'll Take it.

Notice how the fast food giants like Burger King and McDonalds are now offering a variety of wraps. Wraps are basically another form of the sandwich; another form of a convenient, on the go, can be held with one hand, type of meal. They can be made at home, with the exact ingredients you want, and you can have it your way. This is going to be a simple blog post about making chicken wraps, since this is the type of protein mainly pushed by those giants.

The nice thing about wraps is that you can have many textures inside the bread component (usually a tortilla), so your taste buds and hunger are fulfilled.  If you choose grilled chicken, crisp vegetables give you the crunch; but if you choose fried chicken, then softer veggies provide a balance; like I said, have it your way.

When I fry up chicken strips (sliced up boneless, skinless chicken breasts) or chicken tenderloins, the coating I use depends on either what is see in the pantry first (Italian flavored bread crumbs or Panko), or how much crunch I want in the final product. For chicken wraps, it has to be ultra crunchy, so I'm going to be using Panko. (Link to recipe)



I'll be giving you an idea for three wraps: All American, California and Mexican.  All three will have chopped lettuce and diced tomatoes, and that's as basic as I'm getting with those vegetables.  While I'll tell you what I put in these versions of wraps, your version can be what I suggest, or anything your heart desires.  In the photo is a general idea of what goes into making a wrap, besides the proteins and vegetables; some type of shredded or grated cheese, a sauce which offers moisture, flavor and smooth texture, and the wrap.  Although I used a 10 inch flour tortilla for each, a flavored tortilla such as spinach or red bell pepper can work just as well.  For the chicken strips I recommend only two, since the tenderloins or tenderloin sized strips are on the large size.  You're also going to notice that I do not put amounts for most of the ingredients since it all depends on how much the maker of the wrap wants inside.  A lot of decision making pressure, I know, but I'm sure you can handle it.

All American

California

Mexican

All American Chicken Wrap

Ingredients:

chopped lettuce
diced tomatoes
honey mustard dressing/sauce
2 chicken strips
4 slices crisp bacon
cheese

California

Ingredients:

chopped lettuce
diced tomatoes
green goddess dressing (if you can't find this, use cucumber dressing)
2 chicken strips
4 slices avocado

Instead of lettuce and tomatoes, my hubby prefers bean sprouts and peeled, sliced cucumbers.



Mexican

Ingredients:

chopped lettuce
diced tomatoes
spicy ranch dressing
cheese
2 chicken strips
jalapeno slices

Preparation:

Lie the tortilla on a flat surface.  Place a layer of lettuce and diced tomatoes first to create a barrier; the crisp chicken won't poke holes through the tortilla.  When putting down dressings/sauces, use  a bottle with a nozzle to control the flow; in a right to left (or vice versa) motion, draw a line over the lettuce, tomatoes, and onto the exposed tortilla surface also (helps hold the cheese in place).  Put down the chicken strips and whatever other toppings desired.

Fold the bottom end of the tortilla over the fillings, but not so tight against them that the tortilla will begin to break.  Fold over one side, tucking in the corner piece that will be sticking out from the folded bottom.  Now depending on how much you've put in as filling, you can either roll the tortilla to close up the other side; or fold the other side over to finish enclosing the ingredients (tuck in that other bottom corner). 

Now open your mouth wide and enjoy!

Mary Cokenour

Interesting Bag of Herbs You Have There.

I admit it, I take pleasure in displaying my plastic bags filled with dried herbs; making sure the label side is out of view. I watch the reaction when folks visit, see the bags on the counter and typically do a double take.   Oh, another good one, is knowing someone is coming over, and an unmarked bag "accidentally" falls out of a cabinet.  You know, you know, what they are thinking; but what makes me laugh the hardest is when I explain they're my dried cooking herbs and I get this question, "Do you bake a lot of brownies?"

Anyway, I've already done a post on drying herbs individually, but this time I'm going to discuss making your own herbal mixture.  I do a lot of Italian based cooking, so an herbal mixture geared towards this genre is no stranger in my kitchen.  Containers of Italian Herbal Mix are available in basically any supermarket; ingredients are basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, parsley, dried garlic and dried onion.  In some brands you might also find savory, sage and marjoram.  The questions you should ask are, "When were they dried and packaged?", "How much of each item were dried together?"; and you're not going to get the answers.

Simple solution, make your own; you know exactly what herbs are being used, how much is being dried, when it was made, and that its freshness will last about six months as long as it's kept in a sealed container or bag.  Dried garlic and onion shouldn't even be in an herbal mix and I suspect they're used more as a preservative; they're better fresh anyway.  Of course, you can also dry each herb separately to create whatever mixture you need at the time of cooking; but for me, this is more convenient.

Whenever Bountiful Baskets has their "Italian Pack" offered, I usually jump on that deal because of the large bunches of fresh herbs you receive.   This last offer had rosemary, oregano, parsley, thyme and basil; sage, cilantro and Mexican oregano are usually in the "Mexican Pack", so each is dried on its own if I purchase that offer.  If you don't have Bountiful Baskets available in your area, take advantage of farmers' markets and stores that only concentrate on selling fresh produce, fruits and herbs. 


What I did this past time was simply line my large jelly roll pan with paper towels, pull the leaves off all the stems and mix them all up.  Don't worry if any small stems get into the mix; once dried, they'll be easier to spot and pick out.  Here in Utah, with the almost non-existent humidity, it only took five days for the herbs to dry out completely.  If you're unsure, check on them every three days, mix them around a bit; you'll be able to gauge the dryness and estimate how much longer it will take.

Once dried, pick out any stems and store the leaves inside an airtight container, or resealable plastic bag.  My mixture filled up a one gallon bag to a one inch thickness; simply lay the bag flat on a counter or table and carefully begin rolling from the bottom sealed side upwards towards the open end.  If you do this step too fast, the rush of air out of the bag will take dried herbs with it; why lose any of what you so dearly covet?  Seal the bag and slowly unroll; flat and air free just like one of those "space bag" commercials you see for clothing.

I know when this mixture was made, how long it will stay fresh, who made it and where, and exactly what went into the mixture.  Dried herbs concentrate their scent and flavor, so are wonderful for any recipe requiring a long period of cooking time.  They're easy to store and keep on hand for whenever they're needed; no disappointment that the local market doesn't have what you need. 

Mary Cokenour

Good Heavens, but That's Good Gravy.

Gravy making, why does it seem to be so complicated? Growing up, the only gravy I remember having at a meal was at Thanksgiving time; it wasn't homemade, but came out of a can. During my first marriage I would watch my ex-mother-in-law make a slurry of flour, garlic powder and water, pour it into the meat drippings and it would be a lumpy, oily mess. Not very good examples for making my own gravy, and I avoided the issue whenever I could. Thank you, thank you, thank you for whomever invented the crock pot; not just for the easy cooking it afforded the home cook, but for the luscious stock that could be made into a stupendous gravy.

"Impossible!", you say; "Can't make gravy without drippings from roasted meat or poultry!", you say...yep, you can.  First I'll tell you how using the crock pot, and then how from drippings; and without butter, cream or extra flour added.  Now sit back, relax and have a good read...

Scenario: Making pot roast in the a crock pot; put your meat in first, but before you put it in, coat it liberally with flour (this is all you'll need for that gravy later on); put in your veggies, seasonings and then pour two cups of beef stock over it all; cover, set it and forget it till done.  If making chicken, use chicken stock instead, but use the same coating with flour and veggies over the top process.



The meat is done, put it on a platter to rest with 3/4 of the vegetables.  Now looking into the crock pot, you'll see an oily sheen on top; that is the oil that came out of your meat during the cooking process.  Don't worry, we're going to get rid of that easily, but not lose any flavor. 



The liquid inside the pot is also very thin; the flour you coated the meat in wasn't enough to thicken, but just enough to help with the process.  The 1/4 portion of vegetables that you left inside is going to be your true thickener.  What is neat about this is that anyone that refuses to eat their veggies, but loves gravy is going to eat veggies and not even know.  Well they will if you tell them, but we're keeping this a secret, right? Of course, you can leave larger bits of veggies if you like, and no one you're serving to is a problem eater.




Now you all know how I love my immersion blender, but if you still haven't purchased your own (why!!?!!), then a regular blender will do.  Begin pulverizing the vegetables inside the pot, being careful not to raise it too high and splash the liquid around the kitchen.  Not only will the soon to be gravy be thickening up, but you'll see it turn to a rich color; you'll be tempted to serve it as is, but patience grasshopper. 

To get the oil out of your gravy, pour the amount of pureed liquid you need into a plastic container and place into the freezer for one hour.  Take the container out of the freezer and you'll see that the fats have solidified on top; carefully spoon them out and don't forget to scrape it off the sides of the bowl. You will probably have a lot more gravy left over which can be defatted,  frozen and reheated when needed; because you did not use any dairy in its making, the chance of separating is none.  

 

Now just warm up the gravy and serve with your meal; you shouldn't have to add any seasonings, especially salt which would have come from the stock you initially used when cooking your meat.  Now if you really need to have a smooth gravy, go ahead and strain out all the little bits that the blender could not pulverize.  We like it rustic; it proves that it is homemade, not out of some can or jar.

Ok, now for the roasted part of this post; you're going to need a deep roasting pan for this process.  Either use a rack to lay your meat or poultry on, or a very thick layer of cut up vegetables will work too.  In the pan, lay out all your cut up vegetables and sprinkle a little flour over all of them; pour your stock over all; then place the rack with meat, or the meat itself on top and roast until done.  Now just follow the same gravy making process as I explained for the crock pot; you just might want to transfer your liquid and 1/4 portion to a deep bowl first though.  Oh, don't forget to season your meat or poultry; as the fat melts, it'll take some of the seasoning with it and add it to the veggies down below.

How come I didn't use any water in the crock pot or roasting pan?  The vegetables gave me all I needed; during the cooking process, they sweated out their excess moisture, so adding water at the beginning would have thinned out the gravy way too much at the end.

Making gravy is not so hard after all; just remember to not add any seasonings until after the process is done and you've tasted.  You will be very surprised.  Enjoy!

Mary Cokenour

Pizza on Flatbread; Yeah, About That.

I've been experimenting with different types of "bread" bases for pizza making as options for real pizza dough. When I did the Tortilla experiment, it came out pretty well...not excellent, but pretty well. While watching television, a commercial for Subway came on and suggested that flatbread can be your bread, instead of one of their rolls. Flatbread is unleavened bread made from water, flour and salt; no yeast, nothing to feed the yeast such as oil or honey; or a sourdough culture. A few typical examples are pita, tortilla, fry bread, pane, and roti; there are many more depending on what region of the world you're living in, or visiting.

Since I was going grocery shopping in Cortez the next day, flatbread was added to the list, along with any other ingredients I might need.  Once again I was going to keep it simple and basic; following the list of ingredients from the tortilla experiment:

Ingredients:

1 (10 – 12 inch) flatbread
½ tsp olive oil
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided in half
½ cup pizza sauce

I followed the exact same preparation instructions, but changed two of the actual cooking steps.   Flatbread is much thicker than a tortilla, so there was no need to preheat a pizza pan and place the flatbread on it; it went directly onto the oven rack which had preheated in the oven anyway.  The second item changed was the cooking time; 7 minutes and the bottom was still not browned; 10 minutes was just right.

The bottom was nicely browned with darker lines from the rack; the crust edges were airy and crispy.  However, the rest of the flatbread was, well I kind of associate it with "lightly toasted bread", very bready on the inside and basically soft.  You see, while the bottom had browned, it had not crisped up like the edges had, so each piece of the pizza was floppy.  The overall taste was good though, but that was due more to the oil, sauce and cheese than the flatbread itself.



I have to say that I would definitely try a flatbread pizza if I saw it offered at a restaurant; how else am I to compare?  If it is better than my experiment was, I certainly would pick brains to find out how it was done; what was the restaurant's secrets.  Now I just have to get a hold of my friend Anita, and get some of her homemade Navajo Fry Bread; can you guess what I'll be making?

Mary Cokenour

Sad? Eat a Cookie. Depressed? Get Help.

Sadness is emotional pain associated with, or characterized by feelings of disadvantage, loss, despair, helplessness and sorrow. Clinical Depressionis a mood disorder in which feelings of sadness, loss, anger, or frustration interfere with everyday life for weeks or longer. Here are the typical definitions for sadness and depression; while sadness can grow into depression, it is usually more easily dealt with.   Why am I writing about this on a food blog?  Currently I'm in an extremely sad place, but my cooking, photography and writing help ease the pain...I can deal.  For others though, the pain of their sadness is so intense, they need a professional; no matter what, help them get the help they need. 

Now when it comes to females mostly, there is the saying, "Chocolate cures everything" which is basically true.  I'm not going to get scientific here, but the gist of it is that chocolate stimulates your endocrine gland to emit hormones that make you happy.  It won't cure depression, but when it comes to stress and sadness, it helps to calm you down enough to allow you to assess your situations better.  Another thing you can do is be active, even if it is the simplest of tasks, or even trying out a new recipe; it gets your mind off of your sadness, even if just for a little while.  So what better way to deal with sadness  then to combine a chocolate chip cookie recipe with baking in the kitchen.  You're up, moving about, concentrating on a task and you'll end up with a delicious snack that will be lead you to your happy place.

This recipe will give you about 2 and 1/2 to 3 dozen cookies depending on how large you make them.  I usually make a ball of dough about 1 and 1/2 inches in diameter and get the 2 and 1/2 dozen; less cookies, but larger cookies...less does equal more!  The cookies are soft and chewy, and if you do not keep them in an airtight container, they will get dry and crumble easily.  I also use Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips; much larger than those morsels, more chocolate flavor and when they're all melty, you feel no pain, just pleasure.  The recipe is similar to the original Toll House recipe I posted with a couple of slight changes.

Chocolate (Ghirardelli) Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 and 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter; softened, but not melted
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, beaten
1 and 1/2 cups Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350F; I recommend using AirBake baking sheets instead of regular nonstick, or ones that need to be sprayed.  Whether it is cookies or biscuits, no sticking and clean up is with a damp, clean cloth.

Whisk the flour and baking soda into a large bowl, set aside.  In another large bowl, cream together the butter, white and brown sugars until smooth.  Add the salt, vanilla extract and eggs; on medium speed for one minute.  Continue to beat while gradually adding the flour mixture; scrape the sides occasionally.  When well combined, stir the chips in with a heavy duty spoon being careful not to break them.

Create balls of dough from 1 inch to 1 and 1/2 inches in diameter; place on the baking sheets 2 inches apart.  Bake cookies for about 10 minutes; edges will be browned, but still slightly soft in the center.  Let the cookies rest for about 2 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack for complete cooling.  When completely cooled, place in an airtight container.

Makes 2 and 1/2 to 3 dozen cookies.

Feeling sad?  Bake a batch of these and watch the sadness melt away as the chocolate chips melt in your mouth.  Here's to feeling better!

Mary Cokenour