Happy Halloween from Roxannosaurus

Well I have to admit that these cupcakes are made from a box.

Sorry.

But that's not the point!  The point is the cuteness!  I made that pretty orange frosting (recipe to follow), and the sprinkles were a gift from my wonderful mother.  I literally received an envelope full of sprinkles.  And I was most pleased.

The muffins cups and skull-toppers are from Sur La Table.  I couldn't resist getting them.  Here is the problem with Portland: at one intersection, three of the four corners have stores where I spend horrible amounts of money: Powell's books, Anthropology, and Sur La Table.  If I have to go buy something at one of those stores, I will inevitably end up shopping at all of them.  It is a serious problem because I have no money.

So naturally a few weeks ago, when I needed to pick up a book from Powell's, I ended up actually buying three books, and well as some oven mitts shaped like cats, a spatula, and these adorable Halloween cupcake decorations.  Actually not as bad as it could have been.

So I made these cupcakes for my residents, and they were pretty well-received.  Here's the amazing delicious recipe I used for the icing:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1-2 tbsp. heavy whipping cream

Beat the butter and sugar on low speed until well blended, then beat on medium speed for another three minutes.  Add vanilla and cream and beat on medium for another minute.

Happy Halloween, all!

More from Magnolia: Double Chocolate Chip Heath Bar Cookies

Today was the last day before our four-day Fall Break, and I had only one class.  To celebrate I made these deliciously evil cookies, adapted from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook.  But before I tell you about these cookies, let me introduce you to my workspace here at school:

So here's the kitchen in my dorm.  Keep in mind that this is the "good" kitchen on my floor.  The one on the other side of the hall is basically made up of a closet with a sink in it and an alcove containing a small refrigerator with a microwave on top of it.

Maybe that picture didn't really illustrate how narrow the space is, so:

Oh yeah.  The width of the room is approximately that of a door (or, one human and one trash can).  Did I mention that this kitchen is shared by sixteen people?

If I'm in there baking cookies and Corey needs to come in and heat up some taquitos, I have to glue myself to the wall to let him get to the microwave.  There's barely even room for my disgruntled cat timer!

No fancy gadgets, no counter space, and other people's dishes everywhere.  It's quite the challenge.  But we make it work!

Now, on to the recipe...

The recipe calls for pecans, but man, do I not like pecans.  So instead of pecans, I put in EXTRA chocolate chips.  If you are weird and you don't hate pecans, you should put in 1 1/2 c. pecans instead of 1 1/2 c. milk chocolate chips.

2 1/4 c. flour
2/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder (I used 1/3 c. regular cocoa powder and 1/3 c. black onyx cocoa powder)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/3 c. (2 2/3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 c. packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
3 tbsp. milk
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. MILK CHOCOLATE CHIPS (not damn pecans)
1/2 c. white chocolate chips
4 coarsely chopped Heath Bars or similar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars.  Beat in eggs.  Beat in milk and vanilla.  Beat in flour mixture and mix thoroughly.  Stir in the chocolate chips and Heath Bars (oh, fine, add the pecans too).

Drop in teaspoon-sized balls onto ungreased cookie sheet; bake 10-12 minutes.

Here's an extreme close up of a cookie with a very shallow depth of field.  Isn't it a freaking delicious-looking cookie?  Because it's freaking delicious.  I think I ate at least one from every batch I made, and I made about six batches.  Yikes.

Make some cookies now!

Magnolia Bakery's Sour Cream Breakfast Buns

I am back at school now, and have been baking up a storm.  My favorite new cookbook is one from Magnolia Bakery, which my mother sneaked into my luggage before I left home.  Magnolia is a New York favorite, and they recently opened a location in Los Angeles as well (sadly I didn't get a chance to visit this summer, but I sure will over winter break!)

So far I've made two types of cupcakes, some corn muffins, and these breakfast buns from the cookbook.  All were delicious, but these really made me go "MMMmmmmmmm."  The sour cream makes them light and fluffy, and the cinnamon sugar on top melts into the batter and it is just the best ever.  So here's the recipe:


Ingredients:
3 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 c. sugar
3 large eggs (room temperature)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. sour cream

Topping:
1 1/3 c. packed light brown sugar
2 c. pecans (okay so I didn't put the pecans in.  I'm allowed to do my own thing okay?)
2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; grease a muffin tin (the recipe calls for "large" muffin cups, but I suspect you could use regular muffin cups.  The baking times might be a bit different though.)

In a bowl combine (or "sift," if you're into that) flour, baking powder and baking soda.  Set aside.

In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar on low speed for about 3 minutes, or until fluffy (I like to time it with the length of a song--this time it was, unfortunately, Britney Spears).  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Mix in the sour cream.  Spoon the batter into muffin cups.

Here's the tricky part.  The recipe didn't say how much batter to put in the muffin cups, so I experimented.  The first batch I filled almost to the top of the tins.  They came out HUGE.  I'd recommend filling the tins only about half way up.

Mix the ingredients for the topping and sprinkle it generously over the batter.

Bake 20-25 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

Don't they look incredible?  I love my mommy for getting me this cookbook, and I'm betting the other kids on my hall do too. 

Om nom nom nom nom.

Ice Cream in a Cookie? Whaaaaat??

I know it sounds crazy, but it is true.  I have made cookies that contain ice cream.  I found the recipe on Picky Palate, and of course I had to make it.  My go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe is the one found on the back of Tollhouse chocolate chips, but recently I've felt I wanted something else.  A more voluminous cookie.  And here I have found it.

They were delightful.  I'm excited to try different combinations of ice cream and add-ins; my next attempt will be cookies and cream ice cream with Oreo cookies. 

2 sticks softened butter
1 c. granulated sugar
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tbsp. pure vanilla (that's 4 1/2 tsp.)
Heaping 1/2 c. vanilla ice cream (frozen from container)
4 c. all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 bag chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat butter and sugars until fluffy.  Add vanilla and eggs and mix until combined.  Add ice cream and mix until combined.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.  Add flour mixture and chocolate chips to wet ingredients and mix until combined.  Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment.  Bake 9-11 minutes and allow to cool 5 minutes on the sheet before transferring to racks.

Makes about 5 dozen.

Molten Lava Chocolate Souffle Cakes (with guest chefs Sophie and Claire!)

We had some house guests staying with us last week, and all we did was cook and eat and cook and eat.  Not a bad deal.  The girls and I wanted to make dessert, and Sophie said "I'm thinking of something chocolate with, like, pudding in the middle."  Her wish is my command.

I've made this recipe before, and it is very easy, very delicious, and probably very deadly.  But you should expect no less from me.  The recipe is from The All-American Dessert Book by Nancy Baggett.  Here goes:

12 oz. bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, broken up or coarsely chopped
2 sticks butter, cut into chunks
5 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk
3/4 c. granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch of salt (can be omitted if using salted butter)
2/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 tbsp. unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder (of course we used my favorite Black Onyx)

Grease six 3/4 c. ramekins or souffle dishes.  In a double boiler (or a pot in another pot that has water in the bottom), warm the chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring frequently, until partially melted.  Remove from heat and set aside, stirring until completely melted and slightly cooled).

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and yolk until blended.  Add the granulated sugar, vanilla, and salt and whisk until incorporated.  Whisk in the chocolate mixture.  Add flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder and whisk until incorporated.  Divide the batter equally among prepared dishes.

This is a good point at which to cover the cakes and put them in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook them.  They will keep up to 48 hours.

When you're ready to bake, position a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 400 degrees.  Place the dishes on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes (may take longer if the cakes are cold).  The cakes should look a little undercooked in the middle.  Run a knife around the edges of the cakes to loosen them and allow them to cool about 6 minutes.

To serve, position a dessert plate over the top of a ramekin and (using oven mitts because they will be hot) quickly flip the ramekin over.  I had to shake mine a bit.  Top them with whipped cream or ice cream and enjoy!

Cheddar-Bacon-Garlic-Chive Muffins

Although this is a cooking blog, I would like to give an anecdote from my weekend.  I was flying home from Rochester, and my flight was delayed by two hours.  The ever-helpful (not) Delta employees assured me that, if everything went smoothly (which it clearly had been so far) I would have 20 minutes in Detroit to catch my flight to LA.

Try four minutes.  Try running through the Detroit airport, across 12 moving walkways and up and down 6 escalators.  While I have a terrible cold.  While keeping an eye on a small asthmatic girl that I have decided to take care of because her mom (in heels) can't keep up.  And then I slip in a puddle of soapy water that no one bothered to put signs around.  Gaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.

Anyhow, I fortunately made my flight, but have spent the day getting over my illness and butt-bruises from the fall.  And, as always when I am sick, I decided I wanted to cook something.  So I decided to try and make some cheesy muffins.

I had tried a recipe from The Pioneer Woman, and I thought it was just O.K.  I didn't like the addition of sugar.  So I made some modifications, and I am extremely happy with the outcome.

I do still have a problem with this recipe.  The problem is that it makes twelve muffins.  Twelve is not enough!!  But nevertheless, here you are.

Ingredients:
1/2 stick butter
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt (and pepper, to taste)
3 c. shredded cheese (cheddar or jack works well, but feel free to get creative!)
1 c. milk
1 egg
4 slices bacon, crumbled
2 tsp. chives

In a small pan, melt the butter and stir in the garlic.  Fry your bacon and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and pepper.  Stir in cheese.

In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, egg and butter mixture.  Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir with a wooden spoon.  Stir in chives and crumbled bacon.

Butter or grease a muffin tin and divide the batter among cups.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

C-C-C-Cinnamon Rolls!

My mom texted me from Alaska saying "We should make cinnamon rolls!"  From which I cleverly deduced that I should make cinnamon rolls.  It was not something I was thrilled about, because typically cinnamon rolls are not my favorite things.  But by chance I stumbled upon this recipe from Whipped, and it looked so good that even I got excited.  And MAN, did it not disappoint.

I trick myself into thinking that cinnamon rolls are not bad for me because they are breakfast, and thus automatically good.  While my logic may not be sound, this recipe certainly is.  Instead of the recommended butter frosting, I instead used a simple caramel-ish recipe.  Here's how that looked, with a pecan:

1 cup milk (heated approximately 1 minute in microwave)
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F.)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 eggs, room temperature and beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
5 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten (which apparently is good for the dough but doesn't seem to affect the overall outcome because I didn't use it and they were PHENOMENAL.)
3 teaspoons instant active dry yeast



CINNAMON FILLING:
1/2 cup butter, melted or softened
1 cup firmly-packed brown sugar
4 to 5 tablespoons ground cinnamon
3/4 to 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)


For the dough, combine all the ingredients in the bowl of a mixer in order.  Use a bread hook to stir everything until dough forms.  Turn the dough onto a lightly oiled surface and knead until elastic, about 10 minutes.  Return to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for another 10 minutes.

Butter a 9x13x2" pan and set aside.  When the dough has rested, stretch it into a 15x24" sheet.  Use a rubber spatula to spread the softened butter over the dough.  Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and sprinkle it over the butter.  Begin rolling the dough, starting with the long end, and pinch seams to seal.


Mark the roll into 1 1/2 inch sections.  Use a serrated knife to gently saw the sections apart.  Place cut-side up in the prepared pan (don't squish them close together).  I got 16 rolls out of this recipe, and baked them in two batches.

Cover and let rise in a warm place for 45-60 minutes (mine didn't seem to rise much, but they came out so nicely anyhow).  Heat the oven to 350 degrees and bake 20-25 minutes.

While they're still warm, smother them with this delicious sugary sauce:


1 1/2 c. butter
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
3 tbsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
Powdered sugar


Melt the butter, add the brown sugar, vanilla and salt.  Remove from heat and add the powdered sugar until it is the consistency you want.

 Enjoy!

A Feast for the 4th

My dear friend Zoe and I got together to make an elaborate feast for America's birthday.  It came out pretty spectacularly.  Our menu included:

 Salt and vinegar potato salad

Chipotle-caesar salad with grilled avocado (we omitted the corn, however)

 My special delicious burgers (see recipe below)

And these patriotic cookies, adapted from Sprinkle Bakes (I dunno how hers came out so nice, but I am determined to make a more beautiful spiral cookie).

Here is Zoe reveling in sugary patriotic goodness:

It was a wonderful feast (though way too much for us to eat on our own).  Here is a (very) approximate recipe for the burgers:

Ground beef
An egg
Bread crumbs
Milk
Worcestershire sauce
Salt
Pepper

Mush all those thing together in a bowl.  I have faith that you can use your best judgment on the proportions.  Make them into patties and grill 'em up!

Grandma's(?) Zucchini Bread

In the summer my family grows zucchini.  We grow so much of it we don't know what to do.  We give it away, we roast it, we fry it, we fill it with tomato sauce (which I consider a failed experiment).  I get so sick of it.  Luckily, I have a tasty recipe for zucchini bread, which is an easy and delicious way to use up zucchini.  Plus you can give it away to friends and neighbors!

I think this recipe was my grandmother's, but it looks like it's written down in my sister's handwriting, and was discovered in my mom's cupboard, so who knows.  Nevertheless it makes some damn fine bread.

1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 c. zucchini, grated (I always peel mine first, but you don't have to)
1 c. canola oil
3 eggs
3 tsp. vanilla extract
3 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. coarsely chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl mix sugars, zucchini, oil, eggs and vanilla until well combined.  Add flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon and mix well.  If desired, add the nuts (I never add nuts ever).

Grandma then instructs that you bake "1 hour or until done."  Thanks, grandma, I will bake it until it is done.

This recipe makes two 9x5x3" pans of bread, but I only had one pan that size so I made two small loaves instead, as you can see.

A Savory Interlude: Quick and Easy Tomato Sauce

I've been baking a lot recently, but I do like to cook actual food as well.  This weekend I have the house to myself, so I'm making my own dinners.  We had frozen meatballs that we bought from Ikea (Ikea makes meatballs--who knew?) which I suspect were meant to be Swedish meatballs, but a meatball is a meatball really.  So I wanted to make pasta, but didn't feel like making the elaborate tomato sauce my mom makes (which is really the best).

Then I remembered this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, which I have made a few times before.  It's not the most thrilling sauce, but it is delicious, easy and cheap.  Perfect for nights like tonight!

The recipe has only 3 ingredients:

one 28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes
one yellow onion, peeled and halved
5 tbsp. butter

Put the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Lower the heat to keep the sauce at a steady simmer, stirring occasionally and crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pan with the back of a wooden spoon.  After about 45 minutes, or when drops of fat float free of the tomatoes, remove from heat and discard the onion.

Easy, isn't it?  And it has a simple but fresh flavor.  The recipe says it makes 4 servings, but I prefer a lot of sauce so I found it only made two.  What a glutton.

Vanilla Cupcakes a la Billy's Bakery

Aren't they pretty?  The recipe is from Billy's Bakery via Martha Stewart, but the colors are my doing.  Billy appeared on Martha Stewart's show because his cupcakes were deemed the best in New York City.  And while I'm not 100% convinced that's the truth, I can vouch for the deliciousness of these cupcakes.  Here's the recipe, which has now replaced my old vanilla cupcakes recipe:

1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour.

In a large glass measuring cup (or a bowl or whatever, there is no real reason to use a measuring cup in particular), whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  Once cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula to frost tops of each cupcake. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired (I personally had no such desire, but I'm sure it would be lovely).  Serve at room temperature.

It occurred to me that I forgot to post my frosting recipe last time.  This is because I don't have a frosting recipe.  But here's how I do it:


Use about one stick of butter for every dozen cupcakes.  Beat the butter until it is fluffy.  Pour in powdered sugar until it looks really dry, then start adding cream.  Go back and forth between sugar and cream until it looks like enough.  Then add a teaspoon of vanilla extract.  And make it a pretty color, for funsies.  Om nom nom.  Nom.

Still on a quest for perfect chocolate cupcakes

HOW cute are those monkey cupcake wrapper thingies?

Here is a secret: I don't like cupcakes very much.  I don't really like making them, I don't really like eating them.  But somehow they became kind of a specialty of mine.  So I keep making them.  And now I'm on the search for the perfect chocolate cupcake.

To me, the perfect chocolate cupcake is dark (obviously) and sweet (again, obviously), but the most important thing is the texture.  It needs to be light and fluffy and actually pretty much fall apart in your hand so you do that awkward "ahh" laugh as you get crumbs down your shirt (maybe that's not a problem for someone more graceful than I).  I though I'd found that cupcake in this recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

I was wrong.  I don't mean the recipe isn't fantastic.  The cupcakes were a huge hit despite the fact that my frosting looked like mustard, and several people mentioned that I was clearly my own worst critic.  But they weren't perfect.  They were just a little too heavy, and really kind of bitter (though my buttercream frosting disguised that for the most part).

I would make them again if I needed a dozen chocolate cupcakes RIGHT NOW, but I think I'm going to try and tweak the recipe a little until I get it really right.  For the time being, here is the recipe, and be prepared for a lot of whisking:

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup (1 1/2 oz) Dutch-processed cocoa
3/4 cup (3 3/4 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
3/4 cup (5 1/4 oz) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup (4 oz) sour cream


Preheat oven to 350 degrees (with the oven rack in the lower middle position).  Line a muffin tin.

In a double boiler (or a little pot over a slightly larger pot), combine butter, chocolate and cocoa.  Heat mixture until butter and chocolate are melted and whisk until smooth and fully combined. Set aside to cool until just warm to touch.  Meanwhile, whisk flour, baking soda and baking powder in small bowl to combine.

Whisk eggs in second medium bowl to combine; add sugar, vanilla and salt and whisk until fully incorporated. Add cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Pour about one-third of flour mixture over chocolate mixture and whisk until combined (the recipe says sift but I never sift anything ever); whisk in sour cream until combined.  Add remaining flour mixture and whisk batter until it is homogeneous and thick.

Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Bake until skewer inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean, 18-20 minutes.  Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before icing, about 30 minutes.

Death by Chocolate Brownies

This is the reason I make food.  Look at these things.  They are pure evil, but oh, they are a magical and irresistible treat.  MAGICAL I SAY.

Also, I'm already almost completely out of that cocoa powder.  But it has been put towards noble efforts.

Anyhow, Hannah and I made these for dessert yesterday.  Hannah likes a nutty brownie, while I prefer mine plain.  So we made two small batches.  I should mention that I've made this recipe from Buns in My Oven several times, and that I've somehow only managed to make it "right" (i.e. actually following the recipe) twice, and even the mess-ups are unbelievably good.

That said, a recipe:
1 c. (2 sticks) butter
2 1/4 c. sugar
1 1/4 c. [dark chocolate] cocoa powder
4 eggs
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. espresso powder
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. flour
2 c. chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter a 9x13 baking dish (since we wanted some with nuts and some without, we used two smaller pans, but we noticed the baking time didn't change much).

Melt putter over low heat in a saucepan.  Once the butter is melted, add the sugar and stir for about 1 minute.

Pour the butter mixture into a mixer (or, if you're ghetto like me at college, a bowl with a wooden spoon).  Beat in the cocoa powder, eggs, salt, baking powder, espresso powder and vanilla.  Mix until well combined.  It will look all sexy and rich and dark, like my ideal man.  Wait, what?

OOooooh.  Hannah goes "Can I touch it?"  Why yes, you can.

Mix in the flour and chocolate chips.  If you're making a batch with nuts, add those now too.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 30 minutes, until the outside looks set but the inside is still slightly gooey.

Hannah made a little happy pecan man.

Hannah swears these tasted magical as well, but I hate pecans so I didn't even bother.

A Cautionary Tale

So my friend Hannah and I decided to try out a mac 'n' cheese recipe from Evil Shenanigans.  But, we didn't end up making that mac 'n' cheese.  Instead we invented one on the fly.  We learned something today: evaporated milk goes bad.  And the evaporated milk I had in my pantry went bad in 2007.  Luckily we figured this out before we tried to eat it, or even cook with it.  So my advice to you: check the date on your evaporated milk before you open it.  It's gross when it's old.  Like really gross.  Also we had some cayenne pepper drama, which is too icky for me to recount.

So instead of making the recipe we planned on, we had to wing it.  Thus, I don't know exactly what measurements we used, but mac 'n' cheese is the kind of thing that you should adjust to your personal tastes anyhow.  Here are the ingredients (with approximate measurements) and procedure:

Approximate measurements:
8 oz. macaroni
6 oz. grated cheddar cheese
1 tbsp. butter
1/3 c. milk
1 egg
1/2 tsp. chili powder
salt and pepper (to taste)

Put water on medium heat.  When it boils, add the pasta, and cook it until it is al dente (follow directions on package).  Drain the pasta and put it back in the pan.

Cooking over low heat, add the butter and stir until melted.  Stir in the milk, egg, and chili powder, and stir for about 3 minutes.   Remove from heat.

Stir in the cheese in 4 additions, making sure that each section is fully incorporated before adding the next.  Season with salt and pepper.

Now I enjoyed the our impromptu macaroni, but I'd still like to try the Evil Shenanigan recipe, which looked deliciously gooey.  Here you see Hannah delighting in our achievement:

Kawaii desu ne?  Also, COMING SOON:  Death By Chocolate Brownies, which we made for dessert!  They are literally too gooey for me to take pictures yet.

Double Chocolate Coal Cookies

Do you know what this is?

This is Black Onyx Unsweetened Cocoa Power from Culinary District.

I bought it today at Surfas, a wonderful restaurant supply store in Culver City.  And it makes my life amazing.  For example, observe its effect on these Double Chocolate "Coal" Cookies, the recipe for which I adapted from Peace of Cake.

Take a look at those babies.  Mmm, mm-mm-mmmm.  I TOLD you dark chocolate cocoa powder was important.  So if you want to make these delicious cookies (and why wouldn't you?) just follow along.
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. dark cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. espresso powder
1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. light brown sugar (packed)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat your oven to 375 degrees.  Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and espresso powder.  In a separate bowl, beat the butter until fluffy, about 1 minute.  Add sugars and beat again, about 2 minutes.  Beat in vanilla, then eggs (one at a time, beating for about a minute after each egg).

Mixing at a low speed, add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients until just incorporated.  Mix in the chocolate chips.  Here's a picture of the sexy, sexy batter:

Mmmmmmmm.  Oh baby.

Ahem.  Drop the batter in tablespoons on a cookie sheet (I don't line or grease mine, but it wouldn't hurt).

There are my tablespoonfuls, and some Bad Romance in the background for good measure.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until gooey on the inside but crunchy around the edges.

And now you have cookies that resemble coal in appearance but not in taste!  The best of both worlds!