Coffee Musings - 021408

Happy Valentine's Day! I found a recipe for Almond Fudge Brownies on www.lovenbake.com. I needed a reason to use up past almond paste, but I bought a new tube of almond paste in case. I just used all of the new tube, and I still need a reason for using up the remainder of the old tube. Go figure! Taste isn't bad. They are tall brownies, and the baking time was 1.25 hours, but I only did it for 1 hour. We'll see how my work likes them!

Also, after 6 months, I'm finally seeing Becoming Jane on DVD! I woke up at 5am to bake brownies, and watch Becoming Jane. Today is sponsored by the Letter B!

Coffee Musings - 021108

Two of my nieces have birthdays this week. They are siblings, too. Neither was born on Valentine's Day, but they definitely can take advantage of all the love in the air.
I baked brownies last night, and they were good! I used roasted pecans. As the pecans were cooling from roasting I tried a couple and knew I was on the right track. I definitely recommend roasted pecans or roasted walnuts with brownies. If you like nuts, that is. Hazelnuts/fiberts and almonds are too hard, and the textural invasion takes away from the taste pleasure.

Coffee Musings - 020608

Today is the first day of Lent. I consistently visit Pearl Jam Synergy Board, and someone wrote a thread asking what others were going to do for Lent. Ooops, I forgot! Last year I gave up fear, and it worked! I ran more mileage in one week than I have any other week in my entire life. Also, I ran more in one run than I have in my entire life. March 2, 2007 I ran 10 miles non-stop on a treadmill. Pretty cool! Well, this year, I'm going for mileage per week again as I am training for the Cherry Blossom Run. However, I want to give up meat (except eggs and dairy products) and I want to bake at least 3 loaves of bread. That's why I modeled a random selection of my bread cookbooks. As you can see they are almost in pristine condition. A couple I've had over a year, and a couple I've had over 3 years. I haven't baked bread since I moved to Maryland in 2003, but the thought is always there. I attended pastry school, and it totally sucked, so that's probably why it takes a while for me to get into baking something new. Of course, now I bake quite a few sweets, and it's time to expand my horizons. My best sections in pastry school were cookies and bread. This makes sense because I baked bread and baked cookies growing up. Potato bread, here I come!
I baked a pan of brownies yesterday, and there are some things I recommend you DO NOT do. From the book, Culinary Artistry I saw that lemons could be paired with chocolate and almonds. Eureka! Why don't I add roasted almonds and organic lemon zest to the On the Fence brownie recipe from the King Arthur Cookie Cookbook? I did, and don't do it. I added 4 oz of roasted almonds. The texture is not right with brownies. It reminded me of a time I had a Spring ravioli dish at Dahlia Lounge. Usually, I like their spaghetti dishes, but they added corn to the top of the ravioli, which is a BAD BAD Texture combination. Almonds and brownies reminded me of that. Roasted walnuts or roasted pecans are better choices with brownies. Also, I added the zest of one lemon. If I wanted more of a presence I should have added zest of two lemons.

Coffee Musings - 013108

The best things I ate today were brownie and biscotti alle mandorle. The best drink besides water was this cup of coffee. Sometimes simple is best, and tastes the best. Right now I'm boiling water for spaghetti, and my night will end with nirvana. Is there anything better than a plate of spaghetti?

Coffee Musings - 012908

There is only one thing to do when I have all the ingredients for brownies - Make Brownies! Yippee! I tried Ghiradelli chocolate along with the remaining amount of an organic chocolate. I'm trying to buy less organice ONLY because of expense. Ghiradelli was available at the chain store grocery store.
I roasted the walnuts for cookies last week, and I had enough for the brownies. They are SUBLIME! Eventually, I'll try the recipes for the biscotti my grandma sent to me. I'm all set for the chocolate anise biscotti, and I should do them soon so the anise doesn't lose it's power.