Brownies, Chocolate Marshmallows and a "Biguana"!

This past weekend saw the arrival of a petting zoo at my grandson's house to help him celebrate turning 4!  I did wonder how it would all work out with tarantulas, mice, rats, snakes, turtles, chickens, ducks and a special guest iguana (which my grandson called a Biguana) sharing a house with small children and their parents......turned out to be ok.  In fact better than ok, it was really fun.  And the girls left those little boys in the dust - they were braver and handled more animals than the boys.  Even my grandson, who loves all animals and couldn't wait for this party, was too frightened to even touch most of these creatures!  Little girls rule!!

My daughter wanted to host a fantastic event for the first birthday party held in her new home, so I was not permitted to help - very much!  But I was asked to make some wraps that I had discovered on the Pillsbury website years ago. These are always a hit and Whitney loves them.  However, they are time consuming and I quite often buy the ingredients and run out of time.  Here is the link though - well worth a go! 
Pillsbury Ranch Roll Ups  So, I didn't make these! 

At Christmas time, I discovered an easier wrap recipe, almost as delicious, with less than half the work and ingredients.  I thought this was on the Southern Living website, but I can't find it! However, I didn't use the recipe for Corbyn's party, but threw a bit of salad dressing into some cream cheese. Spread that over tortilla wraps and sprinkled dried cranberries and sliced green onions over the cheese then wrapped them as tight as possible.  Put them in clingfilm and in the fridge for 2 hours, sliced about an inch wide....and they were delicious! 

Then I made the simplest thing possible for a child's party - I have seen these at parties, but never had them at any of my children's parties - a marshmallow with melted chocolate and an M&M on top.  They were simple and a huge hit.  I used the leftover chocolate and some extra M&M's to make Whitney a treat!  (I was very tempted to keep it for myself though)

So then I decided this was still not enough, even though I was only requested to do wraps!  So I decided to make brownies from scratch.  I know ages ago I promised a Brownie recipe that a good friend of my stepmother gave me - this is not it!  I was in too much of a cooking frenzy to take the time to look for that, and I have a Brownies cookbook I bought one time in the States and had never tried.  So I found one that promised to be quick and doubled the recipe!  I will post it here not doubled though.  And the brownies were so good, I had to take the extras to work to get them out of my house!


My brownies came from the Good Housekeeping Farvorite Recipes  "Brownies!" cookbook and it states that these brownies can be whipped up "on the spur of the moment with pantry staples."

Recipe without photos at the end of this blog. 

I would also like to add that all my conversions to metric are approximate.  I try to convert the measurements, and hope they are correct!  If anyone has suggestions or discovers mistakes, please let me know. This is a learning curve for me too!

Prep:  10 minutes  Bake:  25 minutes   Makes:  16 Brownies  (I cut them in one inch sizes and got 30)

Cocoa Brownies

1/2 cup all purpose flour       (90g plain flour)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa  (70g)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter or margarine  (100g butter)  (I used butter flavored Crisco just because I had it)

1 cup sugar                           ( 250g granulated or caster sugar)

2 large eggs

1teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped (optional) 

         (I didn't use these since I was baking for children and try to avoid nuts)

1. Preheat oven to 350F or 170C.  Grease 9 inch square baking pan.  In small bowl, with wire whisk, mix flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. 

2.  In 3-quart saucepan, melt butter over low heat.  Remove from heat and stir in sugar.  Stir in eggs, one at a time, until well blended; add vanilla.  Stir flour mixture into sugar mixture until blended. Stir in nuts, if using.  Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. 

3.  Bake until toothpick inserted 2 inches from center comes out almost clean, about 25 minutes.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack. 
(like that is really going to happen!)

4.  When cool, cut into 4 strips, then cut each strip crosswise into 4 pieces.  (I made this 5 strips and 5 pieces, they were big enough this way.)

According to the cookbook, each larger cut brownie contain:  About 132 calories, 2g protein, 17g carbohydrate, 7g total fat (4g saturated), 42mg cholesterol, 110mg sodium.

Weightwatcher propoints - 3

 Cocoa Brownies

1/2 cup all purpose flour (90g plain flour)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (70g)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter or margarine (100g butter) (I used butter flavored Crisco just because I had it)

1 cup sugar ( 250g granulated or caster sugar)

2 large eggs

1teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped (optional)

(I didn't use these since I was baking for children and try to avoid nuts)

1. Preheat oven to 350F or 170C. Grease 9 inch square baking pan. In small bowl, with wire whisk, mix flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.

2. In 3-quart saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Stir in eggs, one at a time, until well blended; add vanilla. Stir flour mixture into sugar mixture until blended. Stir in nuts, if using. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.

3. Bake until toothpick inserted 2 inches from center comes out almost clean, about 25 minutes. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

4. When cool, cut into 4 strips, then cut each strip crosswise into 4 pieces. (I made this 5 strips and 5 pieces, they were big enough this way.)





According to the cookbook, the larger cut brownies contain: About 132 calories, 2g protein, 17g carbohydrate, 7g total fat (4g saturated), 42mg cholesterol, 110mg sodium.

Weightwatcher propoints - 3

      

"Childhood smells of perfume and brownies."

                                                           David Leavitt quotes 

First attempt at scones!

I have been off work this week due to stress and bereavement issues.  After 6 months of the roller coaster of Mom's health, I didn't really cope very well when she finally gave up her struggle.  It was the strangest reaction - I just couldn't stay awake!  I guess it could have been worse, I think I was just exhausted.  Luckily the system in the UK allows people to be off work with no hassles.  (as long as justified anyway) and I have terrific employers!  Add to this that my job is to help people make complaints to the National Health Service about their healthcare, and think of the pressure that would have put on me.  So a week off was just what the doctor ordered (literally) and I feel the better for it.

My long suffering husband has been a rock and such a wonderful person through all this. I don't know what I would have done without him.  Anyway, he mentioned once he would like to try to make scones, I had never done that either.  So on the last day of my "sick" leave, we decided to give it a shot.  In the early days of married life, we tried our hands at making fancy cakes, the most famous was a sandwich, complete with lettuce leaves (all icing of course), there must be a picture of that somewhere! 

Having never made scones in my life, we were on even ground.  I found a scone recipe in Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess" and decided we could trust her!

I forgot how nice it was to bake with Alan, but I also had to remind myself this was a team effort and I was not the team captain!  Alan wanted to make the biggest scones possible and I thought maybe we shouldn't.....so we compromised and used the second biggest cutter.  And we had to seriously discuss exactly how big 3cm is!  To the extent that Alan got a ruler out!  I still think that was too high.....

Here is the recipe and I will let you know our results following that! And I apologize - I forgot to find American equivalents while I was in the process of measuring and mixing.  So if and when we try this again, I will try to do better. 

This is Nigella's recipe copied directly from page 67 of the Domestic Goddess cookbook:

Lily's Scones

500g Plain Flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsps bicarbonate of soda
4 1/2 tsps cream of tartar
50g cold unsalted butter, diced
25g Trex, in tea spooned lumps (or use
another 25g butter)   (Trex is just like Crisco and I actually used Crisco)
300ml milk
1 large egg, beaten, for egg - wash
6 1/2  cm crinkle edged round cutter
1 baking tray, lightly greased

Preheat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7.

Sift the flour, salt, bicarb and cream of tartar into a large bowl. Rub in the fats till it goes like damp sand.  Add the mill all at once, mix briefly - briefly being the operative word - and then turn out onto a floured surface and knead to form a dough.

Roll out to 3cm (1 1/2 inches) thickness.  Dip the cutter into some flour, then stamp out at least 10 scones. You get 12 in all from this, but may need to reroll for the last 2.  Place on the baking tray very close together - the idea is that they bulge and stick together on cooking - then brush the tops with egg-wash.  Put in the oven and cook for 10 minutes or until risen and golden.

Always eat freshly baked, preferably still warm from the oven, with clotted cream and jam.

Makes 12

Alan rubbing in the fats. (my nails are too long and it was fun to watch how he did this!!)

 

 

Here are the scones in the oven, yum!

As a result of using the second largest cutter we own, the recipe only made 7 scones, and they also did not cook as quickly or as well as I had hoped. We have agreed to try them again and make them a more normal size next time! 
The freeform one in the foreground was an experiment with the last remaining dough,  didn't work though!!
And why is it that any reference to American scones makes them triangular shape?  The only time I see triangular scones in Scotland is when they are soda scones, which are completely different.

Fresh from the oven works for me, and with no clotted cream, I made do with lowfat margarine!

                                                                                

 

Scrooge McDuck: I wouldn't miss this for all the scones in Scotland!

Movie Name: DuckTales: The Movie - Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990)

 

Going Home

This will be a difficult blog for me but I feel that it is one I need to do. 

On New Year's Eve, at 11:40am, my mother finally gave up the fight for her life.  I have mentioned her throughout this blog because she has been in one hospital or another since just before this blog was begun.  Emmy Simmons fell over nothing at all on July 21 and broke her left hip.  At the age of 86, most people would accept this was a death sentence. But not Mom.

After almost not surviving the hip replacement surgery due to complications of her congestive heart failure (CHF), she virtually bounced back! At one particular visit to the rehabilitation hospital about 2 weeks after the surgery, I remember the staff nurse chasing her down the hallway as she followed my grandson to the play area. Don't get me wrong, she was using a walking frame and moving at a snail's pace, but this was faster and more energetic than I had seen my Mom in years - honest!  The nurse was only concerned that Mom would push herself too much and get too breathless (that old CHF again).

Literally the very next day we got a call that she had been sent back to Ayr Hospital and later learned this was due to an infection in the hip joint itself. Tuesday "running" down the hall, Wednesday - back in acute care, Thursday transferred to High Dependency, Saturday put on the Liverpool Pathway of Care for the Dying.......Monday woke up calling for me, transferred back to the orthopedic ward, where I spent 8 days sleeping on her floor and helping care for her.  I stayed until she was well enough to irritate even me with her demands through the night because she was bored! 

Bored!  That meant she was getting better!

And she kept working at getting better, one step at a time, then 2 steps back.  She got urinary tract infections, chest infections, shingles and a few other things.  Luckily, no hospital acquired infections! Considering she was in one hospital or another for almost 6 months, she was extremely lucky in that respect. 

Mom was discharged and sent home at the beginning of November, but only for 4 days.  The medical staff did not realize she was now suffering from bleeding ulcers. Took us over a week to convince them Mom was not ever confused before and that there truly was something wrong.  She did get her memory back, but not her energy. 

At the end, it was Pneumonia that got her, like so many other elderly people who break their hip and end up in hospital....

Mom was valiant and gracious throughout this whole period.  And we were blessed with many friends who took on regular visiting rotas to allow Alan and I some days off.  This was much appreciated by both us and Mom. I think she really enjoyed seeing someone other than us!!

And when Mom chose to leave us, she picked a time when all the family was in town.  My son lives and works in London and was scheduled to leave on the 1st of January.  Everyone else lives nearby, but might have been working.  Perfect timing, apart from the fact that I got norovirus and didn't get to the hospital when I should have because I could not move without being sick.  That was when she passed away.  Maybe it was meant to be, maybe we willed her to stay longer than what she would have chosen.  I have to tell myself this, otherwise I will become heart broken that I was not with her at the end, after being with her at every other step of this journey.

Mom's funeral was yesterday and I have never been to a more lovely service.  Our minister, who is also our friend, has regularly visited Mom in hospital and had known her through social and church occasions as well.  Not only did he sum up her personality and spark, but he also incorporated my niece's planned eulogy for when we have a service for Mom in her home town in Belleville. 

It was such a wonderful, interesting and uplifting service, that even I did not cry very much!  And I am deeply grateful to Neil for captivating my attention at such a delicate time.

Why am I writing this tribute to Mom on my food blog?  Because "Pat's Kitchen" would probably not exist if she had not insisted on helping us fund it.  Mom lived with us and her "wing" was through the kitchen.  She might even have wanted it jazzed up more than we did!

And she did get to see the finished product, when she came home for those 4 short days.

"A mom's hug lasts long after she lets go." 

~Author Unknown