brownie conundrum

Jessica
Sep 5, 2009
Post a comment

I've been searching for the perfect brownie recipe for a while now, and after my latest batch of delicious chocolatey failures I finally decided to solicit the help of the Internets. Can you help, Internets?

Here are my requirements:

I like dense, fudgy, gooey brownies with crisp tops best
I'd like a low-sugar or alternative-sweetener version if possible (Agave preferably)
Full-fat is fine (desirable, even) and the more butter, the better

So, what say you? My Slightly Less Unhealthy brownie recipe yields brownies which are too bread-like and ungooey for my tastes (Not So says they taste kind of like bouchon, which we love but are a poor substitute for brownies IMO). Point me in the direction of some recipes!

QotD: Trash Talk

rey
Aug 25, 2009

What's something you should throw away, but can't?

Photo

These are a pair of Pony City Wings that I bought on October 28, 2006 from a shop in Camden.

I own a lot of sneakers but these are my all time favourite pair. Although they are battered to the point that I can't wear them any longer (they have holes and everything), I love them so much that I can't throw them away. I've been trying to find another pair to replace them but I've had no luck — I've been looking for a long time :)

This is what they looked like the day I bought them.

Unrobbed

Anil
Jun 8, 2009
5 comments

Yesterday and early this morning, while talking about our impending move to a new apartment a few blocks away in a much bigger building (and no longer on the ground floor), Alaina and I talked about how being in a larger complex essentially acts as a fairly effective form of security through obscurity. Unfortunately, as always seems to be the case, the conversation was prescient.

I was at home this morning in the bedroom of our tiny apartment when someone just walked right into our place. At first I thought it might be my wife and then a guy's voice said "real estate agent" to quiet my dog's barking. That explanation seemed plausible because we're about to move and our place is up for rent, so a ton of agents have been by to show the place.

Then I realized the agents don't have a key to our place. How did this motherfucker get in my house?

I pulled on some pants and came out to the living room, but the guy was already gone. I grabbed my keys and went outside after him, barefoot. "Hey, what are you doing?"

He was about 30 feet in front of me and didn't turn around, just said, "It's cool, I'm with the real estate agency." I found out later he'd even nodded at our building supervisor on his way out to say hello. I said "what agency?" (the sort of silly question that always stands out in retrospect) and he just repeated his line about how he was with a real estate agency. I shouted "STOP" and then he took off running. At that point, I had just noticed he had both my wife's and my MacBooks under his right arm. Despite being in my bare feet, I gave chase.

We sprinted down to the end of our block, and then around the corner onto 1st Ave, and I started screaming "STOP THAT THIEF! CALL THE COPS!" over and over. We covered one block downtown pretty quickly, and one friendly guy at the end of the block joined in the case as well. The three of us rounded the corner onto the next street. Halfway down the block, the thief cut in to a skate park that is next to the neighborhood high school. The samaritan saw that the thief had tossed the laptops into a plastic trash can in the park and peeled off to (as I later found out) tell the cops down the street what had happened. I had just caught up to what was going on and saw the laptops sitting undamaged in the trash can. Absurdly, he'd even taken the time to unplug the power cord and take it with him, which I had noticed at the start of the chase, and the cord was sitting on the ground next to the trash can. As it turned out, his pausing to get the power cord probably made up for the time it took me to get my pants on, and is what ended up making the difference of me getting our stuff back.

The samaritan disappeared without me being able to thank him; I did thank the little kid that tried to follow the thief through the skate park though. I came back home with our laptops under my own arm, and found nothing else missing, and realized that the kid had probably done the math -- two guys chasing him, and him carrying 10 or 12 pounds of gear, he wasn't likely to get away scott free. And I got an interesting taste of that uniquely male, testosterone-fueled rush that comes from scaring away the intruder who comes into your cave. That was an adrenaline buzz that lasted most of the morning.

Our super changed the lock on the door, and the young cops whose patrolcar had been flagged by the samaritan came by to take my report. One of the cops was just shakng her head. "That thief, " she said, "Was pretty ballsy. I'm glad you got your stuff back." It seems, upon reflection, that this was probably at least partially an inside job, with the rental office for our current building loaning keys to agents, one of whom probably tips off this kid about where to go. (The escape path the kid used to run away reveals that he knows the neighborhood well.)

So, that was today's adventure. We're moving out of here in a little over two weeks, just a few blocks away. Because this post is public and I know people might share the link, some important points: New York City is safe. Safer than ever. I've never had a single other issue of getting anything taken from me for any reason in the dozen years I've lived in this city. I'm still gonna live in the same neighborhood, and hope to do so indefinitely. Had any guns been introduced into the mix of what happened today, the situation would only have been worse. NYPD's new generation of young, multiethnic and increasingly gender-balanced recruits are professional, thoughtful and truly representative of our great city.

Finally, Finally

Anil
Apr 28, 2009
3 comments

Maxwell's "Pretty Wings". I've been waiting 8 years for him to put out a new record, and two years since I first heard a snippet of this track. Worth the wait.

My bald spot is famous!

Anil
Mar 12, 2009
5 comments

Oddly, I was on air on the Jimmy Fallon show for about 10 seconds last night.

On the plus side, I got to meet Questlove! Squee!

Kanye!

Anil
Mar 4, 2009
1 comment

I love this guy. The ending might be the best part.

Say You Will

It's like Hamburger without the Helper

Jessica
Feb 11, 2009
Post a comment

I'm a big fan of convenience foods, but I've got this pesky MSG allergy which makes boxed dinners a bit hard to take. This recipe makes something remarkably similar to Hamburger Helper, but it uses actual food and tastes just as good. Crazy!

Beef, Cheese, and Noodle Bake

The original recipe (from Cooking Light) called for a pound of ground beef, but I switched half to ground pork (cheaper! And also yummy). I also use full-fat cheese, but mostly because I am lazy and don't ever remember to buy the other kind. Don't go easy on the onions!

Ingredients

1 (8-ounce) package small elbow macaroni
Cooking spray
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup shredded carrot
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 pound lean ground sirloin
1/2 pound lean ground pork
1 cup tomato sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup fat-free milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) 2% reduced-fat shredded sharp cheddar cheese (such as Cracker Barrel), divided

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°.
Cook pasta according to the package directions, omitting salt and fat; drain. Lightly coat pasta with cooking spray.
Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion and carrot, and sauté 4 minutes. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Add ground beef; cook 5 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. IF USING PORK: brown in separate pan and drain; add to main mixture. Add tomato sauce, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes or until most of liquid evaporates.
Add pasta to beef mixture in pan, stirring to combine. Spoon pasta mixture into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.
Add pasta to beef mixture in pan, stirring to combine. Spoon pasta mixture into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

Search, share, and cook your recipes on Mac OS X with SousChef!