Bake Sale Buzz Kill

My timing couldn't have been worse. Now that I finally know how to bake sweet treats from scratch, New York City is voting today on whether to amend the pre-existing ban on selling homemade goodies at school "bake" sales.

According to yesterday's New York Times' "City Room" blog:

The new regulation is meant as a compromise between the city’s concerns about childhood obesity— which they cite as the reason for the restrictions — and the fund-raising needs of student and parent groups, some of which are struggling amid difficult economic times, especially after losing one of their most lucrative sources of revenue.

Under the new rules, students may sell fresh fruits and vegetables, or one of 27 specific packaged items that have been approved for sales in city vending machines, between the start of school and 6 p.m. on weekdays. The same goes for parent groups, except for an exception carved out for one no-brownies-barred Parent Teacher Association bake sale during the school day per month.

No homemade or unpackaged items are on the list of “approved” foods because “it’s impossible to know what the content is, or what the portion size is,” said Kathleen Grimm, the deputy chancellor for infrastructure and portfolio planning, who oversees the regulation.

As a mom of two school-age children, I'm all for limiting the sweets intake. But I don't see how packaged items such as Dorito's and Pop-Tarts (both of which are on the list of approved items) are healthier than my homemade brownies.

Happy Undomesticated New Year!

It's a back-to-school, back-to-work, back-to-blogging sort of day. I think I'll ease back into this place slowly. In other words, I'll keep this post short and sweet. Very sweet.

I didn't do much cooking over the holidays. Instead, I grazed on appetizers and finger food at various holiday parties and satiated myself with festive cookies and cakes. On vacation in the Berkshires, we mostly ate out.

Brownies were the one exception. They became my my standard party gift -- cheaper and more satisfying than bringing booze. From Hanukkah to New Year's, I was the brownie lady. I found an effortless recipe from Food Network's "How to Boil Water: Life Beyond Takeout" that I can just about whip up from memory by now. But I'll jot it down here for you:

Brownies

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for the baking dish
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large cold eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour

Note: If you don't have enough light brown sugar, you can compensate with white sugar and vice versa.

Note #2: Splurge and buy genuine vanilla extract

1. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8x8 -inch square metal or glass baking pan with foil so it hangs over the edges by about an inch. Butter the bottom and sides of the pan.

2. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate and butter in the microwave on 75% power for 2 minutes. Stir, and microwave until both are completely melted, about 2 minutes. You can do it the old fashioned way by heating in a saucepan on the stove, by why bother?

3. Stir the sugars, salt, adn vanilla into the chocolate mixture. Add the eggs and beat vigorously until fully incorporated (the batter should be thick and glossy). Add the flour and stir gently just until it disappears.

4. Pour batter into the pan and bake until the top is crispy -- about 40 to 50 minutes.

5. Cool brownies in the pan on the counter or a rack. Try not to nibble at them until they're fully cool. It won't be easy. Lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil as handles. Peel off the foil and cut brownies into squares.

Note: Feel free to add 1 cup of chopped nuts just as the flour gets mixed in.

There are so many different varieties of brownies. These fall into the classic, rich, gooey variety. They were a bit too dark (e.g. "grownup") in flavor for Jesse, but that meant more for the rest of the family.

I know everyone is griping about the pounds they packed on during the holidays, but do yourself a favor and try out these brownies. It will help get you through the mid-winter blahs.

Easy As Pie!

Friends and family members have been calling and e-mailing to find out how it turned out, so I figured I'd announce it publicly: I made an apple pie today and it looks darn good (see picture). The verdict won't be in until tomorrow, but I'm optimistic.

I don't want to get all cocky about it, given I haven't even tasted it yet. But it wasn't so difficult to make. Even the homemade crust wasn't such a big deal.

In case you're wondering, I ended up using a variety of apples: Cortland, Winesap, and Gala.

I guess I've caught the baking bug because after I finished the pie, I baked sugar cookies with Ruby. We both had fun using her toy-sized cookie cutters to make various shape cookies: stars, hearts, little people. But eventually, Ruby lost interest and turned to Play-Doh to bake a "birthday cake." Sadly, the sugar cookies were pretty tasteless. Her Play-Doh cake probably tasted better.

"Think I should serve them tomorrow?" I asked Avo.

"Are you proud of them?"

"No."

"Then don't serve them. I wouldn't."

Good advice.

Instead of wallowing in my minor failure of the afternoon, I decided to bake brownies. Nothing too fancy. Just basic brownies. Once I whip some cream tomorrow, they'll be delicious. Of course, I'm hoping all eyes will be on the apple pie!

I'll report back.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Alice Waters, watch your back!

Family and friends from near and far have been calling and e-mailing wondering how Friday night's dinner went.

Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but a couple of people have asked, so in service to efficiency, I figured I'd post the full report here.

The short answer to the question "how did it go?" is: great.

If you're interested in more details, read on...

First off, let me say "yay!" I did it. I really did it. I cooked a full meal, poached salmon with cucumbers cream and mint and sauteed grated zucchini with herbs -- without burning either the food or myself. And the food was good, even Avo thought so.

Thankfully, my friend Blair was standing by to answer my questions or I might have given up early on.

The first smart thing I did before beginning to cook was turn on the TV so the kids wouldn't bother me. In theory, I'd love to cook with my kids. But given that it was Friday afternoon after a long week and they were nearing meltdown (and so was I), TV was the only reasonable option.

I had no problem with the first steps:

1. Rinse the salmon, pat it dry, refrigerate
2. Get out pantry items (I substituted Kosher salt for sea salt)
3. Get out tools (I never thought of a skillet as a tool!)
4. Assemble the ingredients (although I always get my herbs mixed up)
5. Open the wine and chill it (and since it's open, you might as well take a sip or two).

Things got tricky once I began to prep. The web site I was following, notakeout, instructed me to "grate the zucchini on the large holes of a box grater." Amazingly, I was able to locate a box grater, but I couldn't figure out how to use it. Was I supposed to peel the zucchini? Luckily, Blair helped me situate myself so I was able to use the grater (although I think I contracted tennis elbow!).

Blair's advice: "Next time, use a Cuisinart with a grating attachment."

We went to our back garden to pluck the mint and the basil. I got quite a kick using ingredients we grew ourselves. Wouldn't Alice Waters be impressed?!

When it came time to seed the cucumbers, Blair handed me a spoon and said "You do it. Seeding a cucumber is something one needs to experience." I tried it and it was -- fun! It was so satisfying watching those cucumber seeds fly into the sink and knowing I was responsible.

Meanwhile, Blair scoured the pantry looking for measuring cups, but no luck. Finally, I found them on a top shelf.

"I knew we had them because I've seen Avo use them before," I said.

By this time, Blair and I were drenched in sweat.

"Why are we so hot?" I asked.

"Um, the oven is on." Apparently, we had forgotten to turn it off after baking brownies.

One thing I learned is that poaching is really easy. I basically just flopped the salmon into the water and remembered to flip it after 3 1/2 minutes.

Ruby helped to set the table and we all scrambled to clean up in time for Avo to return home from his 2nd day of work at the new job.

We timed everything so that the meal would be ready at 7:30. Luckily, Avo arrived just in time for us to sit down at the table.

"Surprise!" the girls yelled as he walked in the door.

Avo was indeed surprised to find a gourmet meal waiting for him -- and was especially happy when I handed him a glass of the Sauvignon Blanc.

The meal turned out perfectly -- except for the brownies, which were too flat and gooey (even after I let them bake for 7 minutes longer than the 20 minutes the recipe specified).

"It's interesting that of all of the things you made, the brownie is the one that didn't work since it's the easiest," said Blair. "Luckily, it's chocolate, so it still tastes good."

I loved using notakeout as a guide, except I had one big problem with their recipes. They listed some ingredients by weight: 4 ounces unsalted butter and 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate for the brownies.

So we had to turn to wiki answers to determine that 4 ounces of butter = one stick. The equation didn't work for chocolate chips, so Blair spread them on a plate and eyeballed it.

Maybe that's why the brownies were so mushy. We'll just have to try making them again sometime soon! I'm sure the kids won't mind.