Brenda from The A to B of Cooking came over the other night, when I had no idea what to make for dinner. She proposed trading her cooking for my photography… um, yeah, of course I’ll take that trade!

Lucky for her, it’s pretty rare that I feel like making dinner — but I’m always up for taking photos.

I’m looking forward to your next visit, B! Yum!!

this recipe makes a huge amount of brownies. during this go-round, i made two 9″x13″ pan-fulls of brownies. my mom used to make one giant pan and cover half of the finished brownies with walnuts. (i preferred eating the walnut-ed side.)

so thank goodness the recipe is immortalized in the cookbook that my sister worked on for mom’s birthdays a few years ago (or maybe more like 10 years ago, there is no date on the book). credit for the recipe simply states: from Sheila.

the brownies:

2 cups sugar
2 cups flour (sifted)
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup butter
½ cup oil
½ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs

sift flour, sugar and cocoa in a bowl. in saucepan, bring water, butter and oil to a boil. pour over dry ingredients and beat until creamy. add baking soda to buttermilk. beat eggs. pour in buttermilk mixture to main batter, then add eggs and vanilla. beat thoroughly. bake in greased jellyroll pan for 18 minutes at 400°.

the frosting:

⅓ cup cocoa
⅓ cup buttermilk
½ cup butter
1 pound powdered sugar (about 3 ½ cups)
½ teaspoon vanilla

bring ⅓ cup cocoa and ⅓ cup buttermilk and 1 stick of butter (½ cup) to a boil. add 1 pound of powdered sugar and ½ teaspoon of vanilla. mix well and spread over cooled brownies.

the frosting sets quickly as it cools!

savor your masterpiece. then enjoy a taste, too!

i actually found this as a suggested alternative to cooking a whole turkey for thanksgiving. i was into the idea, until i realized that without cooking a turkey, i wouldn’t be able to have awesome gravy to pour over everything on my plate.

so i made this a couple days prior to thanksgiving for jason and i, on a smaller scale — using chicken instead of turkey.

2 boneless, skinless turkey breast halves, each about 1 ½ pounds
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
½ pound Brie or Camembert cheese, rind on, cut into 8 slices
20 fresh basil leaves
3 ounces prosciutto, thinly sliced

1. Preheat over to 350°F.
2. Make a large pocket-like slit in each turkey breast half. Unfold like a book. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place cheese and basil evenly on half of each breast. Fold over filling. Loosely wrap each breast with half the prosciutto — about 3 slices for each.
3. Bake 35–45 minutes or until turkey registers 160°F on a meat thermometer. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing. Serves 8.

i really enjoyed sampling the brie while i worked through the recipe.

i also wrapped fresh garlic into the mix. yum!

Recipe by Karen Adler and Judith Fertig, published in relish, November 2011.

I cheated on these a little bit.

But Betty Crocker knows how to do things right, so I trusted her to help me.

I borrowed the second part of this recipe from How Sweet It Is (again).

Pumpkin Layer
⅓ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 large egg
1 cup pumpkin puree
½ cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 425° F.

In a bowl, whisk together sugars and egg until smooth. Add in pumpkin and spice, again mixing until combine. Finish by adding in heavy cream, stirring until everything is mixed, then pour on top of the cooled brownie layer and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake for 10 minutes (9×13 dish) or 15 minutes (8×8 dish), then reduce heat to 325° F and bake for 18–20 minutes (9×13 dish)/22–25 minutes (8x8dish) or until pumpkin layer is set. Let cool completely (ideally overnight, or about 3–4 hours) then slice and serve.

While I waited for everything to cool, I admired our first Christmas tree together. We have a blue/bronze/brown motif going on with our ornaments. I think it’s pretty special.

Since I was already feeling sentimental, I decided to make these brownies a sweet(er) special treat for Jason and me.

We opened a bottle of dessert wine that we bought while traveling around New England in September 2010 — Roughshod from Blacksmiths Winery in Casco, Maine.

Delicious! I will definitely make these brownies again next fall, but we’ll just have to go back to New England to get another bottle of Roughshod…

I’ll preface this by saying that I’m a wee bit obsessed inspired by one particular food blog lately: How Sweet It Is. Because another kitchen experiment I performed over the last weekend is also from this site.

This was a pretty extreme kitchen experiment for me — making bread. And now?

Man, do I wish I had a stand mixer with a dough mixing attachment. Because my hand mixer really didn’t work.

And I didn’t really dig kneading or mixing with my actual hand, either.

I enjoyed taking photos of the process, but the result was not quite what I was hoping for. The rolls were quite dense and not as buttery as they could have been. I don’t think I have the proper tools in my kitchen (in fact, I started an Amazon wishlist to add to as I continue my little experiments).

I made these the night before our Thanksgiving feast. I wonder if they’d have been better if I had baked them the same day as the feast? I was already feeling over-committed a couple days prior to the dinner, though, so I don’t think I could’ve taken care of these while I was cooking everything else.

They were great for soaking up the gravy left on the plate, though.