new orleans brownies

A group of my friends get together and make a dinner around a theme. We’ve done tasting menus, a Spanish night, and a Mastering the Art of French Cooking night. My sisters just went to New Orleans and wanted to a Cajun/Creole night.

I remembered hearing about Cooking Up a Storm on NPR. After Katrina, people began writing into the Times-Picayune of New Orleans asking for recipes they had lost. They decided to do a cookbook of the popular requests.

I ended up making McCain brownies (not particularly Cajun or Creole but absolutely delicious). They were served at McCain Girls High School in the 40’s.

The brownies went fast and I was glad I chose to bring them.

It was a fun night overall. There was fried chicken, jambalaya, gumbo, and cornbread with friends from college, grad school, and work.

pre baked brownies

1 cup white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
pinch of salt
1 cup butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, slightly beatened
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup pecan pieces

Preheat oven to 275F.

Grease 9 by 13 inch baking pan.

Mix flour, cocoa, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Add sugar, beaten eggs, and vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients. Fold in pecans by hand.

Spoon batter into pan. Bake for about one hour.

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Latin Spice Rub

To go with the mashed lima beans, I made the Latin spice rub from Canyon Ranch: Nourish. I had to make a few substitions and put the rub on chicken. I browned the chicken on each side and removed it from the pan. I deglazed the pan with a little chicken stock and added a little of the leftover spice rub. The chicken went back into the pan to finish cooking while the sauce reduced.

The chicken was served with a little sauce and the mashed lima beans.

Latin Spice Rub on Chicken with Mashed Lima Beans

Latin Spice Rub

adapted from Canyon Ranch Nourish

1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp red chili powder
2 tbsp cumin powder
1 tbsp sea salt

Mix spices.

Latin Spice Rub

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veggie lasagna

So what with loving cooking, food, running, and triathlon-ing (‘you can verb anything’- Bucky Katt), I am somewhat interested in sports nutrition. I also love to read so I picked up Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook. Great advice but even better, there are recipes!

She calls this lasagna fit for company and it’s awesome with sun dried tomatoes, plenty of cheese, and even spinach.

company's coming lasagna

It is meatless but with the cheese and whole wheat noodles it’s not a bad source of protein.

Lasagna

Adapted from Sports Nutrition Guidebook

12 whole wheat lasagna noodles
8 or 9 sun dried tomatoes
2 clove garlic peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp olive oil
12 oz skim ricotta
3 oz shredded mozarella
nutmeg
1 tsp oregano
16 oz spinach (if starting with frozen, defrost, and drain it)
20 oz crushed tomatoes (I added about 1 tsp sugar after tasting them)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cook noodles per package directions.

Place the sun dried tomatoes in boiling water. Drain, cool, and chop.

Saute garlic in the olive oil, making sure not to burn.

Combine ricotta, mozarella, nutmeg, oregano, spinach, tomatoes, and garlic.

ricotta mixture before mixing

Pour sauce on the bottom of the pan, layer on noodles, add the ricotta mixture (even though there’s no picture, I really did add it), then add the crushed tomatoes, and alternate layers ending with noodles and then sauce.

beginning layering

adding noodles

topped with Parmesan cheese

Add Parmesan cheese to the top, cover with foil, and bake for 30 min.

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oniony pasta

onions

I made the best pasta from Amanda Hesser’s book, Cooking for Mr. Latte: A Food Lover’s Courtship, with Recipes. I started by carmalizing some chopped onions and draining yogurt in a colander lined with a kitchen towel-if only I had Greek yogurt I wouldn’t have had to.

draining yogurt

I also crumbled some feta cheese to top the pasta with while the pasta cooked.

feta cheese

After the pasta was drained, it was mixed with the yogurt, carmalized onions, and feta. It was so delicious that it was gone before I could take a picture of the finished dish.

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Julie & Julia

The movie based Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen is coming out. Having seen some articles and a preview or 2 I am kind of excited.

I read the book and enjoyed. It even inspired me to a do a Mastering The Art of French Cooking dinner with my friends where we all made recipes from the book. I am looking forward to seeing the movie and hope it’s good. It sounds like people put a lot of effort into it. I hope it pays off.

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