Chocolate Fudge Pie

"He showed the words "chocolate cake" to a group of Americans and recorded their word associations. "Guilt" was the top response. If that strikes you as unexceptional, consider the response of French eaters to the same prompt: "celebration."

 - Michael Pollan "In Defence of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

This is a pretty interesting quote. Chocolate has come a naughty snack, the one you sneak out of the cupboard, scarf down as fast as you can, then pretend that it didn't happen. I think that the next time I sit down with some serious chocolate I will take the time to savour and enjoy it. Chocolate should be a celebration, enjoyed occasionally for good fun. Maybe if we enjoy quality chocolate a few times, than
sub-par chocolate several times.

I have never really had cravings for chocolate. I've never been caught in a grocery store staring at the candy bars by the check-out. I haven't had to drive to a store to get a candy bar, or to keep a secret stash for when I desperately need to satisfy my chocolate craving. Which is why it was strangely odd the other day when I actually got a chocolate craving.

What a nightmare! I think I snacked on five different things in my fridge before I realized that there just wasn't any avoiding it. I needed chocolate, and I needed it now. It wasn't just chocolate I was craving, or else I'd just pop in some chocolate chips and be done with it. What I wanted was hot, delicious chocolate. I had brownies on the brain.

After a quick scour of the Internet, I came across this beauty. It was all my cravings in one! A crispy crust, hot melted yumness of the inside, the chocolate flavour... this was the pie for me.

Did it totally meet expectations? Nope... It didn't. But it was close! It was hot, but not in the melty stick-to-your-mouth kinda hot. It had a good crust, but not a chewy, texture satisfying kinda way. It had the chocolate flavour, but not the deep, dark, pure chocolate thing going on. I'm really, REALLY good at talking up my recipes.

But, it was also delicious. Especially being that it disappeared within two days. I mean it's still a chocolate pie. Not enough to satisfy a crazy specific chocolate craving, but still a delicious recipe. But if you have a recipe that meets my eerily specific craving, let me know! Until then, I'll just have to enjoy this one!


Chocolate Fudge Pie
Adapted from IslandEat

Butter - 1/2 cup
Baking Chocolate - 3 tbsps
Sugar - 1 cup
Eggs - 2, beaten
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Flour - 1/4 cup
Milk - 2 tbsps

Preheat the oven to 350 F

Grease an 8 inch pie plate with butter.

Melt the butter and chocolate. You can either do this on the stove top over low heat, stirring constantly, or you can pop them in the microwave, melting at 30 second intervals.

Mix the sugar together with the eggs and stir so it's totally combined. Mix the butter and chocolate in together and combine. Add the milk and vanilla together as well.

Fold in the flour mixture, stirring until no flour chunks remain. Do not over beat.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Serve hot and with ice cream (something that I didn't have but desperately missed). Enjoy it!

Sausage and Red Pepper Polenta Cobbler

"Savory pies are like a well-loved blanket: warm, satisfying, and marvelously easy to snuggle into"

 - Greg Henry

As soon as I got an e-mail about reviewing this cookbook, I was in. Hot, flaky, comforting pies is a food group that I totally live for. After a day of snow, wind and cold, coming into the house is something special. It fills the house with a smell that gets the tongue salivating and the stomach rumbling. Pulling it out of the over with a golden crust and steam rolling off the top is as much a feast for the eyes as this meal is for the stomach. 

Man, I love hot pies. 

Greg Henry's Savory Pies: Delicious Recipes for Seasoned Meats, Vegetables and Cheeses Baked in Perfectly Flaky Crusts makes sure you get the chance to explore a wide variety of pies. Almost disappointingly, there isn't a section for the usual fruit-filled variety, but by the end, you don't really miss them. 

Instead, this cookbook has them all broken down into crusts, appetizers, meats and seafood, vegetarian and some hand pies. Henry fights expectations by not having every pie inside of the typical pie crust, but also has tarts, phyllo cups, flatbreads, and other pastries. The cookbook is littered with tasty pictures, so you have a fairly good idea of what you're cooking. 

The recipes are also well written and laid out, and often tips and tricks and be found in the side bar. For those of you with an eye for the finer things in life, there are also a few wine pairings to be found. All in all, a very well thought out cookbook, and one welcome on my shelf! 

He also has a wide variety of ingredients and options, so each recipe really could be interchanged fairly easily. You have to enjoy the flavour combinations that he has set up in this book as well. I had plans to make a rabbit pie with thyme, but ran out of time. I still have it planned though, as I'm not quite sure what else to do with the rabbit carcass sitting in my freezer. I was just happy it didn't come with ears... 

However, I was scrambling for a tasty meal one night, and happened to remember this beauty! Not a lot of effort, not a lot of time, but a beautiful tasty outcome. Cobbler's are named so because the top is supposed to resemble England's cobbled streets. It's another perfect example of a type of pie to be found in this book that doesn't require the usual crust. 

Sausage and Red Pepper Polenta Cobbler

Olive Oil - 1 tbsp

Farmers Sausage - 3-4, removed from casings

Salt and Pepper

Onion  - halved and sliced

Bell Peppers - 2, halved and sliced lengthwise (1/4" strips)

Flour - 1 3/4 cups

Chicken Broth - 2 cups

Tomato Paste - 2 tbsps

Spinach - 3 cups, loosely packed

Polenta (I actually swapped in cornmeal) - 1/2 cup

Baking Powder - 1 tsp

Baking Soda - 1 tsp

Parmesan Cheese - 1 cup, grated

Butter - 6 tbsps, chilled

Heavy Cream (I swapped in milk)  - 1 3/4 cups

*Henry cooks his straight in a skillet, which I lack. I swapped it out later in the recipe for a casserole dish. However, as long as you have an oven-proof skillet, cook it all in one. 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. 

Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and season with a little salt and pepper. Cook until browned, breaking down with the back of a wooden spoon. Once the meat is cooked, about 10 minutes in, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Remove all but 2 tbsps of the sausage fat. 

In the same skillet, add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes or until softened. Add the pepper strips and cook for 5 more minutes. 

While the onions and peppers are cooking, whisk together 1/4 cup of flour and tomato paste. Slowly whisk in the chicken stock until combined. Add to the onion mixture along with the spinach and reserved sausage. Stir in to combine, and cook for about 2 minutes until thickened and the spinach is lightly wilted. Remove from heat. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 1/2 of flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and a pinch of salt. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Add the Parmesan cheese and stir in to combine. Add the milk until a rough dough forms. 

Drop 6-8 large mounds of the cornmeal mixture onto the sausage mixture with about an inch of spacing between them. Brush the top of the biscuits with milk, then place in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the mixture is bubbling. 

Love it. 

Creamy Spinach Mac and Cheese

"You cannot see your reflection in running water, only still water"

-Elizabeth Gilbert

I have returned to yoga, and it is destroying me.

The first yoga class that my wife and I attended was called Yoga Relaxation. It was perfect for us as beginners because it went through the basic steps and didn't throw too many curve balls our way. 

This time, we signed up for a class called Yoga Flow. It is WAY more intense and everytime I come home, I feel a new part of my body starting to ache. This week, my butt and sides hurt. Last week was my legs, and the week before that was my shoulders. This yoga instructor is doing everything in her power to take my body and beat the crap out of it! But I keep going back with a smile on my face, thinking about how healthy and wonderful this is for me... then leaving cursing and moaning. 

I think the part that drives me crazy is watching ladies way older than myself bending in impossible ways, having no issue with extended lunges while my leg muscles jiggles and threatens to topple me over. I sometimes imagine walking up to them and demanding they meet me on a soccer field or in a squash court... Oooh  BOY would I make them work for it then! But then I remember yoga is supposed to be competition free and relaxing. Besides, these ladies have probably been more flexible than myself since I entered Middle School, right? 

I know I'm pretty new at this yoga stuff. I had only been once before, and that was a year ago, but my competitive nature doesn't make me leave all zen-like. Well... not totally zen-like. I do come away from yoga feeling cleansed, even with parts of my body in open rebellion. Perhaps it's more of a mental clearing? 

I am going to argue now, that Macaroni and Cheese is a perfectly zen-like food. Is it the best food to eat before/after a yoga exercise? I'm not sure. But I do know the perfect harmony between the noodles and cheese is enlightening for me! And in this particular recipe, the addition of earthy spinach and spicy jalapeno offer a different counter-balance. Come on... prove me wrong on this one! 

Creamy Spinach Mac and Cheese

Pasta - I used Fusilli

Olive Oil - 1 tbsp

Garlic - 3 cloves, minced

Spinach - a handful, finely sliced

Cheddar Cheese - 1 cup, grated

Almond Milk - 1/4 cup approx.

Flour

Jalapenos - 1, roughly diced

Salt & Pepper

In a large pot, get some water boiling. Heavily salt the water, then add the macaroni noodles and start cooking until al dente. 

In a small pot, heat up some olive oil. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant,about 1 minute. Add the spinach, and cook until wilted. Add the cheddar cheese, almond milk. Stir until well combined and the cheese has melted completely. You may need to add more milk to get it down properly. Start adding a little bit of flour at a time  It should start to look a bit like a light slurry. Add the jalapenos and stir to combine. 

In a large bowl, mix together the macaroni noodles and the cheese mixture. Grind a little salt and pepper over the top and serve. 

Creamy Brussel Sprouts Dip

"Brussels Sprouts are misunderstood - probably because most people don't know how to cook them properly. 

-Todd English

You know the ones I'm talking about. The only way that brussels sprouts made an appearance around my kitchen table growing up, was steamed or boiled. Just boiled (or steamed) in water, served hot, and may... drizzled with a little bit of vinegar.  Nothing fancy about it at all.

Unfortunately, I think that this is the way that brussels sprouts have been treated for almost their whole existence. It wasn't as if people talked about the amazing brussels sprouts recipe they made last night. And with that idea in mind, it's no wonder that these little cabbages get such a bum rap from the majority of people.

I had a friend (and still do) that brought up how his girlfriend made him a delicious roasted brussels sprouts dish one night, with hot chili peppers, onions and bacon. I was intrigued! It was a sudden slap in the face that these veggies didn't require to be steamed/boiled and that there were a whole host of other recipes that could be experimented with. This phenomena hasn't occurred only to me, as numerous brussels sprouts recipes have showed up on food social media sites. I'm stating it now, but 2013 will be the year of brussels sprouts.

But enough of them. I haven't been eating them enough lately to ramble on about them for five more paragraphs. Instead, let's talk football. Those that follow the food blogging community have probably recognized the sudden influx of chip dips, fried foods, and appetizers. 'Tis a glorious (and unhealthy) foodie event.

Football and I don't seem to get along as much anymore. I enjoy watching a game, but I don't get as emotionally invested in the teams as I used to. Mostly this is because the pace of the game seems to have slowed way down, with less big plays, and a lot more commercials. As a bonus downer, Canada doesn't get the same commercials during the Superbowl that our southern neighbours do. So often I get to watch repeated Canadian Tire and Bell ads instead. Definitely not as exciting. I have been told that College Football is a lot better though, so perhaps next year I'll try to get into that one.

This is a great dip that you can serve no matter what sporting event you may be watching. Except tennis... no appetizers really seem to go well with tennis. This dip takes the perfectly healthy and wholesome sprout and transforms it into a completely unhealthy but delicious dip. I was fairly addicted to this recipe, and will definitely be making it again. The sprouts are an unusual flavour addition that brings some earthy tones to this dish. And if you aren't really a fan of the sprouts, eat it for the cheese gooey-ness that comes along with it. Totally worth it!


Creamy Brussels Sprouts Dip
Adapted from Minimalist Baker

Brussels Sprouts - 8-10, roughly chopped
Onion - 1/2, diced
Garlic - 3 cloves, minced
Greek Yogurt - 1/2 cup
Cream Cheese - 4 ounces
Mozzarella Cheese  - 1 cup
Parmesan Cheese - 1/4 cup
Salt & Pepper - A healthy pinch

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Heat a little Olive Oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. Once warmed, add the chopped onion and garlic. Cook until translucent. Add the brussels sprouts and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook until slightly wilted and tender. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and stir until well combined. Add the cooled brussels sprouts and mix together.

Grease a small casserole dish with either cooking spray or a little olive oil. Add the sprout mixture and smooth to fit the bowl. Add a sprinkle of a little more Parmesan cheese and cook for about 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown and starting to bubble a little.

Serve hot with veggies, baguette, pita bites, or tortilla chips. Now... tell me how you like brussels sprouts.