Comfort Foods and Indulgences

Oh.

No, really, oh. Oh as in “Oh my, these brownies”  and “Oh damn, these brownies.”  Oh as “Oh I can’t believe this recipe is so amazing” and “Oh there goes any bit of self control I had.”

Get the picture?

You can roll your eyes a bit when you say “Oh”.  It helps.

Even though I don’t claim to have the world’s largest sweet tooth and go for salty over sweet most days, I can’t help but claim this brownie recipe as one of the best I’ve ever tasted. Because to me, brownies seem like the perfect treat in theory. Chocolately, studded with fun things like nuts or fruit, small and compact and enough to satisfy thanks to their rich nature. But sometimes, well, you can’t help but feel let down sometimes when you bite into a brownie that’s dry, too moist or not moist enough, tastes like a mix or worse, doesn’t resemble a brownie at all.

Friday’s I clean out my fridge.  I had about two cups of both cream cheese frosting and butter cream frosting left over. Rarely do I throw food away, but there are those times that something just cannot be saved.  In the past, I have found myself whipping up a soba salad to avoid getting rid of a few cucumbers, almost yucky tomatoes can be turned into fresh, roasted salsa or bacon hash, and zucchini inevitable becomes a cake.  Upon cleaning out the fridge, I did in fact have two zucchini’s that needed some attention. The light bulb went off and a chocolate zucchini loaf with cream cheese frosting was born.

This cake was delicious.  It will become my go to cake when I need something in a quick pinch. 

What a meal.  Busy life = slow-cooking meat = happy family. 

Again, I am embracing the slow-cooker.  It's saving me! However, have you ever been home all day while the slow-cooker is going?  Or worse asleep at night while it's cooking? I feel like I snack more while those amazing smells are wafting from the kitchen.  Then the kids come home from school and whine until dinner because they smell the food too.  And want it.  Oh well, a small price to pay for an awesome meal.

This pork, is melt in your mouth delicious.  And you can literally throw it together in 5 minutes and be on your merry way.  When you get home you will have a fabulous, slightly sweet and savory meal that goes QUITE well with mashed potatoes.  And there is so much juice to pour over the meat, leaving it moist and yummy. Ah, bliss.

We will be doing this one again and again this winter.

Chocolate, almonds, and marshmallows are one of my all time favorite combinations.  Thus, I love, love, love a “rocky road” anything. My kids also love this combo. As well as anything with caramel, blueberry muffins, a fruit tart, any kind of cookie and  s’more.  S’mores = Summer. They could care less if it is made over a camp fire or on the stove.  It is the all time favorite summer dessert and I am embarrassed to say that they eat way more than I care to admit.

A couple of years ago I came up with way to combine the two.  Sometimes, I add a bit of chocolate chunks right into the ganache.  I have been known to make some homemade marshmallows and last year I made a marshmallow meringue top – torched it and made a group of 12 year old boys very, very happy.

Last month, I had made some homemade graham crackers.  A few of them got a bit over done so I stuck them in the freezer (I think you all know by now, I hate wasting anything). Instead of using store bought, I made my crust using the “not so perfect” graham crackers and no one knew the difference.

A rocky road tart gives us the perfect combo of a s’more and a rocky road candy bar. One cannot really go wrong with graham crackers, creamy chocolate ganache wtth a bit of marcona almonds and marshmallows on top!