Category Archives: I Cook, Too

Some of my favorite recipes.

Maria’s Semi-Sweet Brownies

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I get to use an oven!

I’m home from Howard Mesa, at least for a while. Although our camper (where I was living at HM) doesn’t have an oven, my house does. And today, with a craving for something chocolate, I’m making brownies.

Unlike other people, I usually bake from scratch. That means I measure out all the ingredients, mix them the way they need to be mixed, and pop them in the oven to do their thing.

Today, I made brownies based on the instructions on the Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate Squares package. I say “based on” because I’ve modified it for my own tastes. Here’s my version.

Ingredients:

4 squares Bakers Unsweetened Chocolate. Now if each square is 1 ounce, that’s 4 ounces. So if you don’t use Baker’s brand, you can figure out how many squares it is for your brand. I’ve successfully made this recipe with semi-sweet chocolate from Trader Joe’s — you know, the kind in the big bar. If you do that, just cut back on the amount of sugar you add.

3/4 cup (or 1-1/2 sticks) of butter or margarine. I used a stick of butter and a half stick of margarine.

1 cup sugar. The recipe calls for 2 cups of sugar, but I think that’s too darn much. Last time I made it with 1-1/2 cups and it was still too sweet for me. So I cut it back to a cup this time around. (Note: After tasting these, I decided that a cup wasn’t enough, even with the chocolate chips. Next time I’ll try 1-1/4 cups.)

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup flour

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate pieces. Yes, I mean chocolate chips. The recipe calls for 1 cup of nuts, but I don’t like nuts in my brownies, so I never put them in. I added the chocolate this time to make up for the reduced amount of sugar.

Preparation Instructions:

The recipe is really easy and only takes one bowl and one spoon. Since the baking pan is foil covered, cleanup is very easy.

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (or 325°F for a glass pan).

2. Line a baking dish with foil. The recipe calls for a 13 x 9 inch pan, but since I don’t have one, I used a 10 x 7 inch pan. Grease the foil. I use spray oil because it’s easier.

3. Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave in a large microwaveable bowl. 2 minutes should do it. When it’s melted, stir it until it’s well blended.

4. Add the sugar and stir until blended.

5. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir until blended.

6. Add the flour and stir until blended.

7. Add the chips (or nuts or both) and stir until blended.

8. Spread the chocolate batter into the prepared pan.

9. Bake until done. I figure about 40 minutes, but you want to keep an eye on it after 30 minutes. Overbaked brownies suck. You can use a toothpick or knife inserted into the center to check for doneness; it should have fudgy crumbs when it’s done.

10. Cool in pan.

11. Lift out of pan onto a cutting board. Cut into squares or whatever shape your heart desires. (I’m doing triangles this time.)

I find that some of the best recipes are the ones that come on the packaging for an ingredient. I once found an excellent recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies on a chocolate chip package; that’s my favorite type of cookie.

And no, I don’t make recipes off Cool-Whip packages or cakes with pudding in them.

If you try this recipe, let me know what you think.

In the meantime, I’m going to put a glass of milk in the freezer so it’ll be all ready when my brownies emerge from the oven.

Bird Biscotti

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A recipe for parrot treats.

A while back, I surfed the ‘Net and found a bunch of recipes for bird treats. I wanted healthy, homemade treats for my parrot, Alex the Bird.

I followed one of the recipes, called “Bird Biscotti,” to make cookies for Alex. I had to substitute a bit, using Avian Essentials in place of wheat grass and egg shells. And the batter turned out too thin, so I added more cornmeal and flour to get the right consistency. The resulting creation was very green. Alex, however, liked them quite a bit.

That one batch of cookies lasted about two months. I stored them in the freezer to keep them fresh. When it was time to make another batch, I decided to experiment, adding ingredients that another recipe suggested. Here’s my concoction:

1 cup granola cereal
1/4 cup 7-grain hot cereal, uncooked
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon Avian Essentials
4 eggs
4 eggshells, washed and ground
2 large carrots, cooked and finely chopped
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup flax seeds

A few notes about all this.

The 7-grain cereal is a hot cereal mix I bought at Safeway supermarket. It’s something I happened to have in the house and figured I’d throw in. If you can’t find that, skip it or use oatmeal.

Avian Essentials is an off-the-shelf bird supplement you should be able to buy in a good bird or pet store. It contains spirulina (which is why it’s green), cuttlebone powder, and wheat grass.

These provide beta carotene (vitamin A), essential amino acids, and calcium.

Ground eggshells also provide calcium. Frankly, I could have skipped this, since I used Avian Essentials — I actually did skip it in the first recipe. But I wanted to see how hard it was to prepare the eggshells. So I washed them, let them air dry, and used my mortar and pestle to grind them up. It took about 10 minutes total. The resulting powder didn’t look anything like eggshells.

The carrots were easy to prepare. I cooked them up in the microwave, drained off the water, and ran the carrots through my food processor. If I’d added other ingredients with them (or had used the smaller food processor bowl), I could have turned them into a paste. But that didn’t really matter. The original recipe called for carrot baby food, but I didn’t feel like running to the store to buy it.

I’d bought the sesame and flax seeds at my local health food store. (Yes, there is one in Wickenburg: Ginny’s Vitamin Village.) According to another bird treat recipe I’d found online, these two ingredients provide nutrients that help prevent feather plucking. So why not throw them in, too?

If you mix this all up, it should result in a green, dough-like mass with orange flecks. (Sounds good, huh?) If it’s too runny to work with your hands, add more whole wheat flour to thicken it up. If it’s too thick (unlikely but possible), add unsweetened fruit juice or water.

I split the dough into about 5 pieces and used my hands to make long cylinders. I put these on a lightly greased cookie sheet and baked them for 30 minutes at 325°F. Then I pulled them out, cut them into 1/4 to 1/3 inch pieces, and laid the pieces flat on the cookie tray for another 10 minutes of baking. Alex likes his cookies crunchy.

When the cookies cooled, I gave one to Alex to sample. He loved it!