Homemade Chocolate Brownies

It happened a couple of days ago when brownies came up on a Twitter conversation.  And then a day or two later, they came up again. Before you know it, I was having a serious desire for brownies. Ah, the power of suggestion. 

This has been our family go-to brownie recipe for well, as long as I can remember, back when recipes were passed about on hand penned paper or photo copies of typed notes. In fact, I lost it a couple of times over the years, and tried loads of other brownie recipes in between, but this is the one I always came back to. In the moving about between Mississippi and Louisiana and back again in my younger years, and upgrading to new computers, I know I had to retrieve it several times from my sister and I'm grateful that she, unlike her wayward sister, managed to hold on to the recipe!

I've considered trying to make changes to the recipe - such as using chocolate in place of cocoa, or  butter in place of the oil - and even trying to replace the fat with a lower fat option, but every time I consider altering something, I end up going right back to the real deal. Frankly I figure, I don't make brownies every day, and well... why mess with what works?

I must give you fair warning - even with the lack of butter, there ain't a thing even close to resembling low fat here. Go ahead and try it if you like, but I'm not messin' with it myself. Nope, not gonna do it.  To me, this is the best brownie I could ever come up with - just the right amount of chocolate, just the right sweetness, just the right kind of tender and moist, and nearly gooey insides, with a so slightly crunchy top crust. Nothing high falutin' here - just the true perfection and deliciousness that belongs in a brownie. Just be sure to do everything in order.

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Homemade Chocolate Brownies
From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish

3/4 cup Hershey's cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup canola oil, divided
1/2 cup boiling water
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 handfuls of walnuts or pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray a 13 x 9 inch baking pan with non-stick spray and place a sheet of parchment paper across the pan so that there is overhang on both sides of the pan. This is so that you can easily lift the brownies out of the pan in one piece and make it easier for cutting.

In a medium sized bowl, stir together the cocoa and baking soda. Blend 1/3 cup of the canola oil into cocoa until well mixed and shiny. Add the boiling water and stir until the mixture thickens.

Add the sugar and stir in the remaining 1/3 cup of oil and the eggs, mixing until smooth. Add the flour, vanilla and salt, blending completely. Add nuts. Pour into the prepared baking pan and bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center returns with just a bit of sticky crumb clinging on it. Do not overcook, or your brownies will be dry! Cool in the pan for about 2 hours,  then use the parchment to lift from the pan and cut into squares. Store in a covered container.

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Source: http://www.deepsouthdish.com

Check These Out Too!

My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Peanut Buddy Bars
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Caramel Bars

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Time for a GIVEAWAY!

Giveaway is CLOSED! Click here for the winner! Thanks for participating!

Okay all you foodies out there – do I have a terrific giveaway just for you!

Many of you likely know by now, that I’m working with RO*TEL as a judge on their RO*TEL Across America Recipe Contest, where one original winning recipe will receive a grand prize of a cool $2000, but… maybe you’ve been too busy to make your way over there to visit the site or submit a recipe yourself.

1 - Well, I’m hoping to nudge you just a tad, so I’m giving away a full case – yes, that’s right – a FULL CASE of RO*TEL Original Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies to one lucky blogger!

2 - And, just for fun, WE'RE GONNA THROW IN THIS NICE, PRETTY SERVING BOWL TOO, for you to make up some salsa or some queso with all that RO*TEL! Isnt' it pretty?

All you have to do to enter, is pop over to the RO*TEL Across America Recipe Contest page and click on the Facebook “Like” button. Then, poke around a bit, browse the site, and have a peek at the recipe entries submitted so far.

Come back here and leave a comment about why you’ll be submitting a recipe, or... why you won’t! That’ll earn you ONE entry for a chance to win this FULL CASE OF RO*TEL and a lovely serving bowl.

Blog about the RO*TEL Across America Recipe Contest {http://www.rotelacrossamerica.com} - feel free to grab the graphic above if you like. Come back and leave me a link to your post and you earned yourself 5 BONUS ENTRIES for this case of RO*TEL and cool serving bowl giveaway. That’s it!

I know we're all busy, so if you prefer, grab a badge for your sidebar here http://www.rotelacrossamerica.com/thank-you.php as a way to let your readers know about the RO*TEL contest instead, and I'll give you the bonus entries anyway! Don't forget to come back and comment to let me know!  All I ask is that you please leave the badge up until the end of the contest on June 13th.

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Good luck y'all and thank you all so much in advance for your help in getting the word out about this fantastic RO*TEL contest and the opportunity for someone – possibly someone you know - to win $2,000!

Giveaway closes Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 12:00 p.m. CST.  Open to U.S. residents only please.

Disclosure: ConAgra Foods has provided me with the products for this giveaway.


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Memorial Day Recipes

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Update:  Be sure to pop over and check out my
Labor Day menu ideas and recipes
with these and more updated recipes!

Memorial Day is right around the corner y'all! Why is it time drags when you are young, but once you become a man or woman of a certain age, it seems to fly by? It is almost June! {and, ugh.. hurricane season for us}

Besides the commemoration of our country's servicemen and women who have died in the line of duty, Memorial Day also kicks off the unofficial beginning of summer in the U.S., with sporting events like the Indianapolis 500, family gatherings, picnics and, of course, yummy barbecues!

If you're looking for some time-tested, tried and true recipe ideas for your party, I've gathered below a few of my own recipes fitting for a Memorial Day feast.  Hope you find something yummy for your event!

Homemade Fresh Lemonade

Frozen Watermelon Margaritas

Basic Humble Deviled Eggs

Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalapeno Peppers

Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad

Tri-Color Italian Rotini Pasta Salad

Grilled Hot Dogs with Cajun Style Hot Dog Sauce

Homemade Beef Sliders

Carolina Style Crockpot BBQ Sandwich Meat

All American Burger

Memphis Style Dry Rub Grilled Ribs

Fall Off the Bone Oven Baked Pork Ribs

Grilled Backyard Barbecued Chicken

Southern Fried Chicken

How to Cook Corn on the Cob and Some Compound Butter Blends

Southern Style Baked Beans

Cold Baked Potato Salad - Like The Shed BBQ

Traditional Southern Style Potato Salad

Coleslaw

Fresh Strawberry Pie Like Shoney's

Texas Sheet Cake

Homemade Southern Banana Pudding

Homemade Southern Peach Ice Cream

Need more ideas? Check out this list of some of my favorite cookout foods!

What's your favorite food for Memorial Day?

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A delicious party appetizer, these bacon wrapped, smoked sausage and cheese stuffed jalapenos are a true crowd pleaser.

Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalapenos

Bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos, like its deep fried cousin, are such a tasty little popper, that although this recipe is written for roughly 24 of these bite size jewels, you'll probably want to make up many more.  People do these all sorts of ways and cook them as many. I imagine that smoked they must be killer, but y'all know how I feel about that time commitment, so I usually just bake mine. 

These are all over the internet, and there's nothing really out of the ordinary here, but I made 'em so here they are!  For me, it's just a simple cream cheese and cheddar cheese blend that gets stuffed into cleaned peppers. I like to leave the stem on one of the halves just for presentation, but definitely use some kitchen gloves when handling any kind of hot pepper.

Some people also like to cut out just a sliver off the top and make sort of a boat, instead of cutting the peppers in half. Others also stuff the two halves, stick in a sausage and put the halves back together before wrapping the bacon around it. 

You can use regular smoked sausage, cut up and seared in a pan, or simply use the  Lit’l Smokies® Cocktail Links for convenience. You'll need about half a package or so.

I also like to slightly precook the bacon just a bit to give it a head start - I just throw pieces of bacon into piles on a paper plate, top with a paper towel and nuke it just a couple minutes in the microwave. Wrap each of the halves up with a slice of the bacon - though on some of the smaller peppers you can get away with a half slice of bacon.  You really do want to wrap the pepper well though, since the pepper softens as it cooks, while the bacon gets crisp, so if you have it, go for the whole piece. You don't really need to secure the bacon unless you're gonna grill these poppers and in that case, I would suggest threading them on a skewer just for ease of getting them on and off of the grill. Once you get them wrapped, sprinkle with just a bit of Cajun seasoning, or really any great grill or rub seasoning that you favor. Put them on a rack on a foil covered baking sheet - keeping them elevated helps the bacon to crisp up better on the bottom.

Pop them in a preheated 450 degree oven, about 15 minutes, or until the bacon is cooked and run them under the broiler a few minutes if you want to crisp them up further. Allow to cool before transferring to a serving platter.

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Recipe: Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalapenos

From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish

Prep time: 15 min |Cook time: 20 min |

Yield: About 12 servings

Ingredients:

• 12 to 24 slices of bacon
• 12 average to large sized jalapenos
• 1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup of shredded sharp cheddar
• Pinch of garlic powder, optional
• 24 cocktail sausage links, like Lit’l Smokies®
• Cajun seasoning like Slap Ya Mama, rub or
   grill seasoning, optional

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place an oven safe rack on top. Slightly precook or microwave the bacon covered, on a paper towel lined plate for about 3 minutes and set aside to let cool slightly.

Meanwhile, halve the jalapenos lengthwise and remove ribs and seeds. Combine the cream cheese, cheddar cheese and garlic powder. Fill each jalapeno half with some of the cheese mixture and set aside. Press one cocktail sausage into the cheese in each jalapeno half and wrap each jalapeno half completely with one slice of bacon. Secure with toothpicks if needed. Place the peppers on the rack, cut side up and sprinkle with seasoning, if desired.

Bake at 450 degrees for about 15 to 17 minutes, or until cheese is bubbling and bacon is cooked. If desired you can run them under the broiler, with the door ajar, until bacon crisps up further. Let cool slightly and use tongs transfer to a serving platter.

Tip: Always use kitchen gloves when cleaning any hot pepper. Jalapenos can also be threaded on skewers and grilled, or cooked on an indoor grill. If the jalapenos are on the smaller side, you can often just use a half strip of bacon if you prefer. You may need to secure the half with a toothpick.

Variation: Substitute regular andouille or smoked sausage - you'll need About 2 links. Cut the sausage in half lengthwise and brown in a skillet with the oil. Remove and drain on paper towels.

Note: To crisp up the bacon further, after baking, put them under a preheated broiler, with the door ajar, and brown. Thick sliced peppered bacon is especially delish with these.

Source: http://www.deepsouthdish.com

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Fried Jalapeno Poppers
Awesome Jalapeno Popper Dip
Kickin' RO*TEL Restaurant Style Salsa

Posted by Mary on May 23, 2010

Images and Full Post Content including Recipe ©Deep South Dish. Do not repost elsewhere without explicit permission. All rights reserved.
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Creamy Scrambled Eggs with Garden Fresh Herbs

These creamy eggs were featured in the Spring menu section of the April issue of Good Housekeeping magazine, and it reminded me of how delicious eggs are with herbs freshly clipped out of the garden.

If you don't have room for a big vegetable garden, at least put in one small, raised bed or some containers of basic herbs that you enjoy. When you can walk out your door and snip off some fresh chives, flat leaf parsley, oregano, thyme, or basil to use in a recipe, you'll be so glad you did.  I am absolutely no gardening expert by any means, but if you are interested, you can click over to my other blog to check out my crazy escapades. Over there I show you step by step how I built my very first raised bed, square foot gardens, one of which is a bed of basic herbs, and you'll see my ongoing efforts to have fresh veggies in the backyard.

I have also been the recent benefactor of a good source of farm fresh eggs and I was also just notified that I was one of the winners of a year's supply of Eggland's Best eggs for my Healthier Huevos Rancheros contribution in the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program.  I could not be a happier girl because I love eggs - and they are such a great nutritional powerhouse. What better way to combine farm fresh eggs and fresh garden herbs, than these wonderful creamy scrambled eggs.

I love the use of Dijon mustard here and I used Emeril's Kicked Up Horseradish Mustard - a peppery mustard that combines the tang of horseradish with the heat of cayenne pepper and is just yummy.  The secret to ultra creamy scrambled eggs, is to use a very low heat, and to keep them constantly moving with a gentle whisk.  At the end, I like to just turn the heat up a tad to firm them up and then transfer them to a plate, top them with a tiny pat of butter and a light garnish.

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Creamy Scrambled Eggs with Garden Fresh Herbs
From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish

8 eggs
2 tablespoons of butter, plus extra for the plate
2 tablespoons of heavy cream or half and half
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 tablespoon of spicy brown mustard
1/8 cup of packed Italian flat leaf parsley leaves,
   chopped, reserving a pinch for garnish
2 tablespoons of chopped chives, plus additional
  short strips for garnish

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium low.  Whisk together the eggs, cream, salt and pepper and add to the skillet.  Using a whisk, gently whisk the eggs in the skillet, moving constantly, until very wet curds begin to form, about 7 minutes.

Whisk in the Dijon mustard; then add the parsley and chives. Turn the heat up to just under medium and using a spatula, continue moving the eggs around until they have firmed up. Transfer to a platter or individual serving plates, top with a small pat of butter, and garnish with additional herbs. Serve immediately.

Serves 4

Source:  http://www.deepsouthdish.com

Check These Out Too!

Dirty Fried Eggs
Healthier Huevos Rancheros
Oeufs Poches - Poached Eggs
Perfect Boiled Eggs
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Known as a Suddenly Salad copycat, this pasta salad made with small shell pasta, ranch seasoning mix, peas, carrots and mayonnaise, is a well loved dish for any potluck, church supper or other gathering.

Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad

This recipe for Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad is pretty much the same one floating around the internet everywhere for what they call a Suddenly Salad copycat, with a few of my own twists of course! I honestly used to love that boxed stuff when I was younger - so quick, easy and good - but it's been so long since I actually had pasta salad out of the box {not that there's a thing wrong with that}, that I can't even tell you if this tastes anywhere near the original. It is definitely another good one to add to the repertoire of pasta salads here, even if it's not so photogenic.

I didn't have any of the tiny shell pasta in the house when I decided to make this, but the regular medium sized shells will work fine too, as will rotini, macaroni, or other small pastas. If you have access to the Le Sueur peas, use those, but they are very tender so don't add them until the end after you've given everything else a real good mix, otherwise they'll mash up. You can certainly substitute other peas, including frozen.  As with most pasta salads, there are lots of add-ins you can use - celery, black olives, red onion, green or red bell pepper, a seeded and chopped tomato, just to name a few, and of course, all kinds of shredded cheeses - there really are endless possibilities. If you do want to add in tomato, clean, seed and chop it and add it right before serving. If you add it in the beginning, it will make your pasta salad watery.

Be sure to allow the flavors to meld together a bit in the fridge for several hours, or even better, overnight, before serving, because the flavor improves over time.

Here's how to make it!

Click Here to Read More & to Get Recipe »

Delicious little mini burgers made with very thin meat patties, melted cheese and real minced onion.

Homemade Beef Sliders

I don't call these authentic "Sliders" or "Slyders" because heaven forbid that someone scold me for trying to claim these little mini burgers to be an authentic copycat of the original White Castle Slyders - which by the way, we never had around here.  Only Krystal's little yummy burgers were available around this part of The Deep South, but they sure were a favorite late night after party snack after a long night of dancing back in the days of disco. Well, I'm not looking to duplicate an authentic "Slyder" only to make yummy, mini burgers at home, somewhat reminiscent of those Krystal burgers that I remember.

I poked around the internet for the different versions of how other people were making homemade sliders, and found that there are basically two methods used in the preparation part.  One involves pressing or rolling the meat out very thin sometimes over a bed of minced, dried onion. The raw meat is scored, then partially frozen, then has a series of holes poked all over the patties, then frozen more solid,  before finally cooking the individual patties.  Sometimes the onion is added to the grill pan and the raw meat patties cooked on top on the onion. The holes are purportedly to help steam the top of the meat because at White Castle, the beef is cooked on top of the onion scattered on the grill, with the buns on top, so the meat is never flipped.

The other way, and the one that seemed much more sensible to me, was to just let the oven do the work.  Just call me the audasticbombasiticrebelistic chick that I am, because I am all about the ease of things, so oven it is. Besides, I saw that some of my smartest foodie friends did it this way too.  I did notice that mostly folks seemed to be using dried onions though, because that was supposed to be more authentic, but I personally like these little burger bombs with fresh, though finely minced onion, and a lot of them. Yum. How 'bout we make some?

Click Here to Read More & to Get Recipe »

Grilled Backyard Barbecued Chicken

One of my favorite grilled foods is backyard barbecued chicken. Mine starts with a brine, gets a nice rub before hitting the grill and is basted with sauce at the end. Delicious!

Backyard Barbecued Chicken

Grilled barbecued chicken - meaning chicken cooked on the grill and doused in barbecue sauce - is one of my favorite foods. I just simply love it. It's been a little bit hard to get it in here lately though, since April showers seem to have surfaced full force here in May, and I don't have a covered patio.

My barbecued chicken starts with a whole chicken that I cut up myself, then dump in a brine. After that, it gets a marinade with a basic dry rub for a few hours, and finally is grilled, using a smoker box and some wood chips, and a finish of barbecue sauce at the end.  This produces a tender, moist and juicy bird y'all, so yummy.  Directions here are written for a gas grill, because that is my tool of choice, so adjust as needed for yours.

Click Here to Read More & to Get Recipe »