Marcia's Best Brownies

Baking.
For me it's an addiction, a comfort, a return to childhood. A going home.

Is it the food that I love? Or the memories attached to it?

Here's a recipe that's been part of a number of family gatherings, thanks to my sister Marcia. Always up for a good time and good food, Marcia is famous for coming through with delicious desserts.

This is one of our favorites.

Here's Marcia, last weekend, in what she refers to as her favorite blouse. 
Do we still call them blouses?

The notation on Marcia's recipe is "Frost with Creamy Chocolate Frosting, if desired".

This is a super-delicious fudgy, cocoa-y, mouthful of lusciousness. Frosting is superfluous. Shakespeare said it best:

Therefore, to be possess'd with double pomp, 

To guard a title that was rich before, 

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, 

To throw a perfume on the violet, 

To smooth the ice, or add another hue 

Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light 

To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, 

Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

William Shakespeare, from "King John"

Marcia's Best Brownies

1/2 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. melted margarine or butter
2 c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1 c. unsifted flour
2/3 c. unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Blend oil, melted butter, sugar and vanilla in large mixing bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. 

After the last egg has been added

Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. 

Ahhh, the aroma of that wonderful cocoa

Gradually add to the egg mixture. Spread into a greased and floured 13 x 9 pan. Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes or until brownie batter pulls away from sides of pan. Cool in pan.

Frost with Creamy Brownie Frosting if desired.




Creamy Brownie Frosting

3 TB butter or margarine, softened
3 TB cocoa
1 TB light corn syrup or honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. confectioner's sugar
1 to 2 TB milk

Cream butter or margarine, cocoa, corn syrup or honey and vanilla in small mixing bowl. Add confectioner's sugar and milk, beat to spreading consistency. Sprinkle with chopped nuts. Cut into squares.

Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins

A trip down memory lane

When I was little, we weren't constantly leaving the house to go shopping. It seems like nowadays we're always running to the store for something. I remember that most of the time we were just hanging around the house. If I wasn't in school or outside playing with the neighborhood kids, I was inside the house in my room or spending time with my mother. Of course, from 2 to 4 in the afternoon we were glued to the radio listening to Gus Saunders and the callers on the Yankee Kitchen. But, for the rest of the time, we were outside in the yard or watching TV. A lot of TV.

Circa 1961 when I was little. At home in our living room in Bridgewater, Mass. 

We loved watching The Mike Douglas Show and the game shows. We liked Password - but my mother couldn't stand it when Alan Ludden would look into the camera like he was completely disgusted with the last incorrect answer from the other team. The Match Game was a favorite of ours as was Hollywood Squares. I loved Concentration!

We ate up the cooking shows - The Galloping Gourmet (oh! Graham Kerr - what a doll!) and The French Chef (we worshipped Julia Child!). Then there were the soaps - Days of Our Lives, another one I can't remember, and The Doctors.

In my middle school years, I was addicted to Dark Shadows! My mother thought that the show was morose. I think it may have been when I was in 6th grade that school went into double sessions. Since I got home late in the afternoon I'd ask my mother to watch the show for me and tell me what happened. "Oh, I don't know... there was that guy, you know the one that looks like a vampire, and then there was that other one...."

I do remember going to the grocery store with my mother. We went to Hockomock Farms in West Bridgewater. One time when we were there I was looking at the paperback rack and saw a book that my 8th grade English teacher recommended to the class. The book was Eldridge Cleaver's "Soul on Ice". I remember my mother looking at that book and saying, "Are you sure that this is the book?" "Yes," I said. "I know it is." And it was. Now THAT's a story for another time!

May 1979, Graduation from Bridgewater State College. Same house.

Our biggest outing by far was an occasional trip to Jordan Marsh at the Braintree Mall (aka the South Shore Plaza).

Each time we went, my mother would take me to the Jordan Marsh Restaurant. I can recall one time looking at the fancy dolls and Christmas decorations in the store just outside the restaurant. And I remember getting one of those dolls for Christmas. Each time we went, before we'd go home, we stopped at the store's bakery to buy some Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins.

This recipe was shared on the Yankee Kitchen. Later when I was on my own, I bought some Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins and made this recipe. I added this notation:

 "Conducted a taste test w/a JMB muffin & it tasted identical!"

Well-worn and well-loved

Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins

1/2 c. shortening, margarine or butter

1 c. sugar (my notation: reduce to 3/4 c. for a less sweet muffin)

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

1/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 c. milk

2 c. flour

1 pint blueberries

extra sugar 

Beat shortening & sugar together. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Mix dry ingredients together. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Fold in berries. Thoroughly grease 12 muffin cups and around top edges, too. Dust muffin cups with flour. Fill with batter and sprinkle generously with sugar.

Bake at 450F for 5 minutes. Reduce to 375F and bake 30 minutes more. Cool in pans. Remove.

Fresh Peach Pie with No-Roll Crust

Leave it to the Red Hat Society to feature more peach desserts than any of the other cookbooks on my shelf. Those ladies know how to cook... and eat! How many other cookbooks do you know feature desserts in the first chapter?

I received this book recently from a delightful woman with a great sense of humor and a wonderful outlook on life. Mary Lou is from North Carolina. She was one of the last people I met when I lived down there, but I wish I had met her first. Just like the book says, eat dessert first. She is a peach.

Naked peaches ready for slicing and the crumble mixture

Fresh Peach Pie with No-Roll Crust

Crust

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

Filling

4 cups sliced fresh peaches

2 TB cornstarch

1/2 cup sugar

1 TB lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 425. For the crust, combine the sugar, flour, and salt. Cut in the butter and mix with a pastry blender or fork until crumbly. Reserve 3/4 cup of the "crumbs" for the topping. Press the remaining crumbs into the bottom and up the side of a 9-inch pie pan.  

For the filling, combine the peaches, cornstarch, sugar, and lemon juice. Mix well. Pour the peach mixture into the crumb shell. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the top with the reserved crumbs. Return the pan to the oven and continue to bake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the top is lightly brown and the peaches have softened. Serve warm. Ice cream makes an excellent topping. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Shirley Wright, Queen Sweetie

Super Sun Sweeties, Apache Junction, Arizona

From The Red Hat Society Cookbook, Rutledge Hill Press, c2006.

Variations on a theme

This is one fantastic dish, inspired by a Better Homes and Gardens recipe and tweaked by Yours Truly.

An After-Valentine's Day meal served with my favorite everyday wine and discounted Valentine's Day chocolates for dessert.

 Boneless chicken breasts coated with pulverized stuffing mix.
Sauteed spinach in a balsamic vinegar reduction along with a simple couscous

This dish made me think back to the days of my youth when my step-father would say to my mother, "Your meals are better than anything you could ever get in a restaurant!" How true!


Herbaceous Chicken with a Balsamic Spinach Sautee


2 boneless chicken breasts, sliced and pounded to 1/2 inch thickness
3 eggs 
1 6 oz. pkg. Stove Top Chicken Stuffing
freshly ground Himalayan sea salt
freshly ground pepper
freshly ground allspice
1 8 oz. package fresh spinach
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
couscous


Pulverize stuffing mix in a food processor and place in a wide bowl. Whisk 3 eggs in a bowl and add salt. Dip chicken in egg mixture, Place chicken in stuffing mix and press with fingers until chicken is well-coated on both sides. Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan. Add chicken and saute on both sides until done.

Place sauteed chicken in a baking dish and keep warm in a pre-heated 275 degree oven while preparing side dishes.

For couscous - boil 1 1/2 cups water in saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup couscous. Cover pan and let rest for 5 minutes.

Rinse spinach. Heat a tablespoon of oil in the pan in which you sauteed chicken. Add spinach, freshly ground pepper and allspice and a few generous dashes of balsamic vinegar. Saute until wilted.



Serve with a Cline of your choice and some chocolates. These caramel filled Hershey Hearts were delicious!