I was in Porter Square Books yesterday; I never buy anything, but I like to pretend I might. I was looking at Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious, which had made it to the discount section. Most of the recipes seemed to be ‘puree something that’s close in colour and blend it in; using pureed carrots as the moistener in meatballs, for example, one that kept on my mind was her original ‘recipe’, a couple spoonfuls of butternut squash in some macaroni and cheese. It just stuck in my brain, so I decided to try something similar.

I am not a child, and I am actually very fond of roasted squash, so in this case, I wasn’t trying her method (which was, basically, to mix in very small amounts of squash so that kids wouldn’t taste it. I went all out; the mac and cheese sauce started with a dark roux (non-traditional, but I really like the nuttiness that it brings over a light roux). I made it with bread flour instead of regular flour, and it was great; the finer texture made it much smoother much faster. Then I melted half a block of cream cheese into it, and added maybe half a cup of roasted, pureed acorn squash (butternut squash, while delicious, and technically cheaper than acorn, all weighed at least 4lbs, while the acorn was under 1lb. I like squash, certainly. But I’d be eating it for 4 days if I’d gone for that).

That got whisked until smooth (I added a small bit of pasta water when it seemed it needed it), and then I added about a cup of sharp cheddar, and a few sprinkles of ground cayenne (my paprika is missing).

I reflect that when I was a child, I thought that recipes were astonishing, and I remember, being 9 or 10, and thinking to myself that I hoped when I grew up, I’d be able to write just one recipe. I didn’t even think of the idea of making more than that - recipes were obviously *hard*, and I just wanted to create *one*. Now that I can create recipes, including pastries and such, from my head, I never measure anything. It’s *awful*. People ask me for my recipes for things, and I haven’t the foggiest (I can’t give you the recipe for my baitcon frozen custard- it all just got made up on the fly). I’m also terrible at how I measure; the only reason I know the cheddar amount is because I put it into a 2 cup measuring cup while it was waiting. I shredded it ‘until I have about a fist sized lump.

This is totally useless as a measurement to anyone who doesn’t have access to my fist at time of shredding.

anyway, it was AMAZINGLY good. Probably the best mac and cheese I’ve made. Eben had a bowl and said it was quite good, so I’m definitely going to do it again.

First there was the Bacon and Cheese Roll. Then the Bacon Explosion swept the nation, and even the New York Times wrote about it.

Now there’s the Vegetable Explosion. Unlike the approximately-50-bazillion-calorie Bacon Explosion, this actually looks good for you, if not quite as picturesque as either of the other two. It sounds pretty tasty as well, but I think I would want the outside to be more browned and maybe a little bit crispy. Brushing with a bit of melted butter might take care of that.

If Stephanie and Ny have another bacon party, I’m going to bring one of these.

Ever read one of those recipes that just makes you go, ‘I have to try that. Not because it’s good or bad, but because it simply has to be tried.’ You won’t be disappointed if it sucks, because that’s really not why you’re trying it. This is one of those recipes. I’m mostly sticking it here so I remember where it is!

It’s from an older article I found on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s site, which has several other ‘gourmet’ pb&j recipes, if this one isn’t to your taste.

So last week I got a second copy of The Sweet Potato Queens Book of Love, which is funny, and has recipes in it that are southern, and so COMPLETELY BAD FOR YOU. I was leafing through it and I saw this one, for a thing simply called ‘Chocolate Stuff’ (it apparently is a pudding like thing, but no one ever asks the author for it by name, they just ask her to make ’some of that chocolate stuff’, and thus…)

This recipe is deceptively good. Like, you will make it, and you will say, ‘what the hell?’ because it is so good, and it’s so simple that my roommate said, ‘Man, that’s hardly even really baking.’ When this roommate first tried it, he actually had the, ‘eyes close, roll up, you moan ‘Oh, god” chocolate response, and I’ve never seen that from a straight man before. He and I ate half the pan in about 10 minutes after it came out of the oven.

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 stick of butter
• 2 heaping tablespoons cocoa (I really heaped them; it was prolly more like 3)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• nuts (optional)

Beat two eggs with a cup of sugar and a half cup of flour. I did this in my mixer to get it really well mixed and slightly fluffy. But not meringue fluffy. In the microwave I melted the butter with the cocoa, and then beat them with a fork until smooth. Dump the butter/cocoa into the egg/sugar/flour and then added the vanilla, and blended it some more. If you add nuts, you’d stir them in now (it’s a southern recipe, so they should be pecans).  Pour this into a loaf pan, then set loaf pan in a pan of water, and cook at 300 degrees for (according to the book) 40-50 minutes. I wound up going a little longer; the book describes it as having a slightly crunchy top, and at 50 minutes, it seemed a little soft yet, so I gave it 10 more minutes.

It’s sort of like a brownie, but imagine a brownie where every bite has both the crunchy edge bits and the gooey melty bits. Warm was good, it was even fabulous cold this morning; it retained both the soft gooey underside and the crunch, even covered overnight.

with maple syrup instead of corn syrup.

and it will, for the record, rock your socks off.

I can’t afford to do it a lot; maple syrup is a lot pricier than corn syrup (in Canada, golden syrup was also usable, but here the cost of imported golden syrup is higher than maple syrup). But due to a number of people deciding that What Stephanie Needs is a thing of maple syrup from Canada, I have rather a lot of it here, and it’s all Grade A, which is too thin for my pancakes.

So I have sponge toffee made from it, and still LOADS of sugar, but the syrup is low GI at least (about 50GI for maple syrup).

1 cup sugar
1 cup syrup (maple, dark corn, golden)
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon sifted baking soda

Spray or butter a 9-inch square thing. I used to use a cake pan, but I recently started using a 9×9x5 Glad reusable storage thing. For taking to parties, it’s great, because some of the fun in this is breaking the stuff. So you make it in the Glad container, then just seal it when cool and take to the party so people can break it their own damn selves!

Combine everything but the baking soda in a large, deep saucepan. Cook until a candy thermometer hits 300, stirring gently every 2-3 minutes (just to avoid burning, not to really mix). Remove from heat, and add baking soda. It will FOAM like mad. FOAM FOAM FOAM. Be prepared for it. Whoosh. Do not underestimate the FOAMINESS. Stir until well mixed, and pour into the prepped pan/container.

Let it cool completely, then seal it up tightly or if you were doing this for yourself, break it up and start eating. It’ll keep about a week. Or so I’m told. I’ve never had it around that long.