Holiday Brownies

Brownies!

I wanted to get into the holiday spirit in a couple of ways. For one thing I felt like doing some baking. But really, what I really wanted, was to have some special medicated snacks available over the holidays. I'm a grown ass man (with no kids) and I want to celebrate on Christmas.  Now, I don't want to be ducking in and out of the house all day -- I'll be with family for one thing -- so I thought it would be a great idea to make some heady treats!

a jar of ABV (already been
vaped) material

This kind of food goes by many names: "special" brownies, space cakes, cannabutter, etc. But no matter what you call it, for the social- and health-conscious consumer, eating your recreational herb is about as good as it gets. I use a vaporizer most of the time, and you can actually bake with the leftover material. Yep, you can use it again. When consumers use a vaporizer, they dump the used material into a glass jar. Because you don't use a flame when vaporizing, none of the plant matter or potent ingredients get burned away when you vaporize. This is great news when you're actually vaping -- 100% of the carcinogens are eliminated. But it's even better news once you're finished vaping -- you have leftovers to bake with.  It's commonly known as ABV (already been vaped) material.

ABV + oil & heat = Yay!

You can actually add the ABV directly to a recipe -- any recipe that uses oil -- or, ideally, you can use it to make "green" oil or butter ahead of time, which you then use in whatever recipe you want. The basic idea, just like baking with regular herb, is that the heat and oil activate the chemical ingredients, which, of course, you then eat. Consumers in more progressive areas are well aware of the variety and creativity abundant in the medicated snack industry.

Here are some basic principles:

1. If you're going to put the ABV directly into the recipe, use something like a coffee grinder to grind the material up. You want it to be really fine.
2. Add an extra egg to make the batter gooier to mask the ABV.
3. Use about an ounce of material per batch of brownies. (You need about 4 or 5 times as much used as you would fresh.)
4. If making the butter or oil ahead of time, you just need to heat them together over very low heat in any of a variety of ways, and then strain it.
5. Use a low temperature -- about 280-300 -- for all baking of this type. This is key.
6. Check out Kads Baker's demonstration!

ground up nice and fine in the Magic Bullet

I used 71.8 grams of ABV in
a double batch of brownies.
It was plenty.

oil and material

It will sizzle when heated!  

I sort of did both techniques. I did make the oil ahead of time and strain out a bunch of the matter, but I let plenty of it go in, which is no big deal. So I'm sure I ended up adding about half of the material into the recipe anyway. To make the oil, I dumped the ABV into a glass baking dish and then mixed in the oil. I put it in the oven for about an hour at 300 degrees.

Here's the brownie recipe I used after I made the oil:

• 1 cup ABV oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Mix the oil, sugar, and vanilla, and then beat in the eggs.
2. Combine the remaining dry ingredients and add to the wet mixture.
3. Spread the batter into a 9x13 greased pan and bake at 300 for 45-60 minutes.
4. Brownies are done when inserted toothpick pulls out cleanly.
5. It might take longer to bake since the temperature is low.

After they cool, try just a couple of bites to see how strong they are. Wait an hour or two to feel the effect before eating any more!

Family Style Mac and Cheese

I love macaroni and cheese -- and pork chops. And I really like when the mac n cheese incorporates some tomato or tomato sauce. Friday night I made tomato sauce, and I had a couple of servings with pasta, but I was wondering what else to do with the leftover sauce.  So I decided to add it to some mac and cheese!  I figured I'd grab some pork chops as well.... 

I've heard this style of mac and cheese referred to as "family style" before, so that's what I'll call it.  Here's what I used today:

• 16 oz cooked pasta (today I used orecchiette)
• shredded cheese, today I used:
• 7 oz TJ's unexpected cheddar 
• 12 oz TJ's raw milk cheddar
• 4 oz goat cheese
• pork chops (I used 3 boneless -- dipped, breaded, and browned)
• tomato sauce (I only had about 8 ounces today)
• bread crumbs on top

breaded and browned, not cooked

1. First I dipped the pork chops in milk/egg mixture.
2. Then I rolled them in a breading mixture.
3. Brown in butter for a few minutes.
4. Cook the pasta.
5. Add all (pasta, pork chops, cheese, tomato sauce) to a deep dish.
6. Top with bread crumb mixture.
7. Bake for an hour at 350.

Mmm, I am eating this right now.  The flavor is great.  The breading did not stick to the pork chops, though.  I shouldn't have mixed in any bread crumbs -- just stick with a flour mix. The pork chops are also kind of dry.  But when I baked it at 350 for an hour they weren't done.  So I added another 15 minutes at 400.  But maybe if I had just let it sit they would have cooked through.  Hmmm. It could have used less pasta or more cheese. Or a creamier cheese -- like a mozzarella.

It was hot and bubbly when it came out

Next time try:

• just flour mixture on pork chops, not bread crumbs -- too soggy
• Bake a little longer
• More cheese, try mozzarella

Green Beans with Salsa Verde

I really need to try this recipe.  It looks simple and fresh, and contains ingredients I like and am familiar with.  I'm always looking for ways to cook/eat/serve green beans.  

Green bean salsa verde recipe

Spaghetti Sauce

Check out this video of the sauce cooking

Alright, so, this JoeSoBakery weblog is going to have to include cooking as well as baking.  I mean, I have enough of these god forsaken blogs already, I'm not adding another one.  But I want to keep track of recipes that I cook (not just things I bake), particularly staples and recipes I want to use again and again. I want to both master the basics to the point where I have a great traditional whatever-it-is-I'm-making plus gain the skill to spin off my own versions to suit different tastes or handle various pantry situations (i.e., make do with what's on hand).

ingredients

On this rainy Friday night I'll make a spaghetti sauce, which is definitely something I need to master.

I've made tomato based sauce before, but never anything that came out that well.  I just want to start with a basic, traditional spaghetti sauce, and then work on adding a little spice to it.

1. Heat 2 T olive oil in large saucepan. Add:

2 small onions, chopped

4 cloves of garlic

2. Cook till tender, 3-5 minutes.

3. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 2-3 hours:

2 can tomato paste + 1 can water

1/4 C. beer or wine

4-8 small tomatoes, or canned (24 oz.)

sugar

basil, oregano, 2 bay leaves

Try: 

• chopped green pepper
• spicy: maybe a chile pepper or red pepper flakes, or salsa verde
• add cooked gimme lean at the end
• cream cheese???

Ok I'm about to eat this... over spaghetti with goat cheese on top...

The sauce has a very nice thickness.  There could be a little more liquid to soak the noodles, but the viscosity is overall nice.  The flavor is good.  It's actually  very good.  It is, however, too spicy.  That's because I used the canned salsa verde and some green chile pepper -- because I didn't have enough tomatoes.  I had a little bit of ketchup to add to counter balance the spiciness.  Meat would be great in this sauce. Or even gimme lean -- that's a good idea!  I actually like the goat cheese.  When I take a bite of the pasta that has a chunk of the goat cheese, it gets really creamy and gooey.  Could I use cream or maybe cream cheese?  To give it a nice creamy cheesiness?!  You know, it's actually not even too spicy.  I think if I skipped the green chili pepper and just used some of the salsa verde it would work out well.

Next time:  Just 1 bay leaf -- don't use anything spicy

Check out this demo (on the left) and video of the sauce cooking (right).

viscosity demo :-)

Today's cooking playlist featured Talvin Singh, 50 Cent, Nate Dogg, Non Phixion, Squarepusher, Betty Lavette, Tommy McCook, and Arrested Development, in that order.