Shabbat/Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah Menu

[gnomi]

We're home for two meals, hosting for one. Here's my current mental menu:

-- Challah
-- Maybe roasted garlic for the challah
-- Maybe honey butter
-- Corn chowder
-- Lasagna
-- Some veggie or other (honey glazed ginger carrots? roasted marinated string beans?)
-- Maybe corn kugel a la ALB (is corn chowder and corn kugel too much corn?)
-- Brownies (mint-and-chocolate glazed?)

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Carrots and corn kugel, yes.

Shall I email this to our guests?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

You could, or there's a chance that one third of the guests will be reading here.

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

You have my super-easy brownie recipe that can be dressed up, right?

Adapted from the Silver Palate Cookbook. Happy accident because I misread 6 oz for chocolate as 8, and dang it, chocolate comes in 8 oz bars! Tried them the "real" recipe way, and so not as good.

Butter and flour an 8" brownie pan and set aside. I don't care if it's non stick, butter it. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

8 oz high quality chocolate (I highly recommend Ghiradelli's double chocolate)
1 stick butter , room temp. (1/4 lb.)
1/4 cup chocolate syrup
3/4 cup sugar (actually, I start with 1/2 cup, and then add to taste...).
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pinch salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten

But the chocolate chips in a medium sized bowl (large enough to hold entire batter mixture) and put them in the microwave for 2 minutes. They won't be entirely melted, but for goodness' sake, trust me when I say they'll continue to dissolve out of the microwave. Burnt chocolate is horrible to clean up.

Dump the stick of butter in there and stir until it's all melted and combined. In a beaker or measuring cup, add chocolate syrup, eggs and vanilla. Beat together, then add to chocolate mixture and stir until combined.

Sift together salt, flour and 1/2 cup of the sugar. Add to mix slowly so it won't clump. Now, I like my brownies dark and not too sweet, so I add the remaining 1/4 cup until I decide it's good enough. I'd say I probably end up using something like...5/8 of a cup of sugar? note:these days I use just the 1/2 cup of sugar.

Pour batter into pan, bang it around to level it, and pop in oven for 30 minutes. In my heavy, nonstick 8" pan, it takes exactly 30 min. In our lighter, slightly larger shiny pan, it takes 35. I think it has something to do with the heat absorbing properties of the darker pan. (All hail Alton!)

Brownies will be very moist, so don't worry if a testing toothpick doesn't come out completely clean. A crumb or two is okay...a smear of batter is not.

Let them cool on a cooling rack completely. Seriously. Otherwise you'll have very yummy crumbs. Cut in tiny one-inch squares, 'cause these babies are rich rich rich. And you'll feel more virtuous that way.

A simple cold glass of milk, or a raspberry sauce (frozen raspberries and the zest and juice of one orange )and unsweetened whipped cream make excellent counterpoints. Yummy.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Nomi will be happy to make those for me.

Hey, Nomi, what's for dinner tonight? Do we want to get JP again? I'm heading straight home after work.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

If we do JP, we should do it without the P due to lack of sukkah.

I ordered photos to the CVS in Cleveland Circle, so I may stop there to pick them up (otherwise I'll get them tomorrow), but I could pick up dinner or something.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Well, for the usual Thursday reason, I'm not running errands today unless I get to CC early, in which case I will get the mail.

If you could pick up the photos tomorrow, that might make more sense. Unless you want to do dinner other than JP. And yes, I can't eat the P because of the lack of S. But we could use the P tomorrow night.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

JP dinner works for me. The usual?

And if I get around to making C tomorrow, we won't need the P.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

The usual, yes, please.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

OK. I'll order it when I get to CC and then bring it home (I don't want to guess what time we'll get back to Brookline, so I don't want to order it now).

[eireangus.livejournal.com]

This whole interaction has me laughing away in my office :-D

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

Try them with dried cherries. NOM.

[autotruezone.livejournal.com]

JP? You guys have ice cream for Dinner?

My wife and I occasionally use the code phrase "Jet Propulsion Labs" for JP Licks when the kids are around.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

JP can also stand for Jerusalem Pita.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

You posted this recipe not long ago, no? It looks very familiar.

Yum! :-)

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

I dunno. It's my post 199, and we're well into the thousands, now. I might have mentioned that I made it for my dinner party?

[aunt-becca.livejournal.com]

YUM!!!! I can't wait for dinner! Corn chowder is delish, and you know my thoughts on baked garlic. Mmmmm...garlic breath......

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm so looking forward to having you join us!

[eireangus.livejournal.com]

mint chocolate glazed brownies?

You are killing me here! :)

[aunt-becca.livejournal.com]

corn kugel recipe, porfavor

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I made the mint brownies for the first days - they always go over well. (Though I may use a different base recipe, but it shouldn't make much difference.)