teacher by day - chef by night
I think that I am a little late for the whole Mardi Gras thing this year (didn’t miss Fat Tuesday though!) but I ended my Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras with some good ‘ole Gumbo. For Christmas this past year Rich’s whole family all got me cooking …
I decided while in school yesterday that I wanted to make donuts for Fat Tuesday today (but I hate frying things and was not going to find & buy the cool new donut pan). After talking to my resident baking expert in my building, I …
Everyone LOVES brownies… seriously, what is not to love!? I have recently baked up two different brownies for people that I care a lot about.
Brownies #1 – Brownies from a box (doctored up a little) that are so totally amazing!! A few weeks ago I chaperoned my High School’s Theatre trip to NYC to see Addam’s Family, starring Nathan Lane 🙂 I ‘promised’ my director and his wife (my building’s band teacher) who both happen to be great friends (and frequent readers of my blog) that I would make brownies – so I couldn’t let them down! I got up early before heading into school and whipped up a batch of these super-easy & super-amazing brownies for good friends as well as the high schoolers who were on our bus (and a great bunch of talented, helpful, sweet kids). Due to the AM rush, there are no photos of these… but I’ll make them again!
Oh yeah – talking about those great kids… they perform Bye Bye Birdie THIS WEEKEND (March 3 – 5, 2011) & as their Properties Mistress (and a fan of the Bangor High School Theatre Department) they are great! I’m just home from Opening Night & proud of them, so hopefully you read this before the run is over and get to see the show, I’m going to miss a lot of these kids who are graduating this year and put out as much time on stage as they do for the backstage work. The BAHS Class of 2011 is leaving big shoes to fill!
Brownies #2 After making cupcakes for my Big Boulder Ski School Family last weekend, I got a request for Brownies – so immediately, my thoughts went to this “better than *bleep* brownies” recipe that I had bookmarked a while ago! I ended up spending my Saturday with my Bangor kids for Bye Bye Birdie, then woke up Sunday with a migraine – but when I finally made it up to the mountain just after lunch on Sunday my Ski School Family inhaled these!
They were pretty good – but in the words of Jolene (elementary band & production manager extrodienair) “these are good, but not sure if they are better than bleep”. My parents didn’t like the rice crispy top. I thought the flavors were good, but the textures were off – so I’ll have to work on a chocolate/peanut butter/with crunch brownie that works.
COMPARING: survey says… (keep in mind, these were made almost 2 months apart) the easier to make Chocolate Caramel Brownies are the Winner!
Brownie #1 – Chocolate Caramel Brownies (from a box – nice!)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×13 baking dish and set aside. Combine cake mix, butter, 1/3 cup evaporated milk and vanilla. Mix well and spread ½ of the batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes.
Melt caramels and 1/3 cup evaporated milk over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. OR just use about 1/2 a container of caramel ice cream topping!!! Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the partially cooked brownies. Pour the melted caramel mixture over the top and with a teaspoon, drop the remaining ½ of the batter evenly over the top. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Let cool (pop in the freezer if you just can’t wait at this point) and cut into bars.
Brownie #2 – “Better than Beep Brownies”
For the Brownie Layer:
In a large bowl, beat together all ingredients until smooth. Spread into the bottom of a lightly greased 8×8 inch baking dish. Bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes, or until the brownie is cooked through. Cool completely before frosting.
For the Peanut Butter Frosting
In a large bowl, beat together peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar until softened. (I also added some milk as needed which was not called for – but I needed to soften & cream it up a bit). Press atop cooled brownie.
For the Chocolate Krispie Layer
In a medium, microwave-safe bowl, melt the milk chocolate chips and heavy whipping cream together for 45 seconds or so. Stir. Microwave an additional 30 seconds, if needed. Just enough to make the mixture melty, smooth, and creamy. Stir in Rice Krispies cereal. Immediately spread over peanut butter layer. (feel free to throw in some mini marshmallows the 2nd time you throw it in the microwave too). Allow layer to cool & set before slicing & serving. (store in the fridge)
![[Banana] Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes](https://www.teacher-chef.com/wp-content/themes/kale/sample/images/thumb3.jpg)
Cupcakes = Good Banana Bread = Comfort ‘healthy’ Dessert Peanut Butter & Jelly = Childhood Classic Banana Cupcakes filled with Jelly & topped with Peanut Butter Frosting… oh yeah! As I was getting ready to make cupcakes for my “kids” & co-workers at Big Boulder …
“Sweet and Spicy” – that explains me pretty well. I try to be sweet and do things for others, but I’m stubborn and don’t take garbage from anyone so I guess that I can be called pretty spicy usually too, and we wonder why I love those two flavors, haha! Enough about me – prepare to get into the kitchen for the best of both worlds!
Now you wait just one minute before you stop reading (actually – you need to start reading in order to start, but don’t stop before you even start… if that even makes any sense). These are not pancakes like you would eat for breakfast… think instead pancakes like potato pancakes, or chick pea patties, or something like that! Yeah – that kind of pancake!
I am continuing my healthy green kick tonight with these Green Spinach Pancakes (which yes – once again are pretty gosh darn healthy for you!). After finding these on  another wonderful WordPress Blog (thanks Five & Spice – these are awesome, and the photos are a lot better – I plan on visiting the blog of this ‘down to earth’ nutritionist a lot more often!), I decided to make these for dinner. But keep in mind that these would make a great side dish or appetizer or part of a “tasting” dinner menu!
Spinach pancakes (with ‘yogurt’ sauce)
Sauce: In a small bowl, combine the yogurt [sour cream], lime juice, lime zest, and mint leaves. Put in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve the pancakes. Stir once again before serving… just to be safe
Wash the spinach, then put the spinach in a large sautee pan with a sprinkling of water, cover, and cook over medium heat (stirring a few times) until the spinach is wilted. This will only take a couple of minutes. Put cooked spinach into a colander and let it cool down so you can handle it. Once cool, use your hands and squeeze out as much of the liquid from the spinach as possible. Then chop the spinach up well and set aside. [a box of frozen spinach would probably work well here too)
Heat your tablespoon of butter in a sautee pan over medium-high until it is foaming. Stir in the chopped onion and cook until it has gotten nicely browned. Turn the heat down very low and allow to cook for about 3-5 more minutes, stirring occasionally, to get them a bit caramelized.
In a bowl: whisk together the flour, eggs, milk, 2 Tbs. olive oil, cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper. Stir in the spinach and onion until all combined. You will have a very thick ‘batter’
Pour enough olive oil into a large sautee pan to coat the bottom. Heat over medium-high heat until the oil is shimmering. Drop heaping spoonfuls of batter into the pan & try to make them circular and even thickness (with spoon OR pressing down on it with the spatula). Cook until the bottom sides have turned golden brown, then flip and cook another couple minutes (no more than 5 minutes total for each batch). Transfer the pancakes to a serving platter (if needed, keep warm in a 200F oven) and continue frying – using more olive oil as needed- until all the batter is used up. Serve the pancakes accompanied with the mint-yogurt sauce for generously smearing them with. These reheat well too! 🙂
… with all these green recipes: you should be all set for St. Patrick’s Day this year!