Dirty Slutty Brownies

10 Dec

Dirty Slutty Brownies | Adventures of a Hungry Redhead
Remember that slutty brownie recipe? Remember how I said the variations were endless on how to pair the cookie dough, cookie and brownies flavors? Well… I went there. I went to a dark and dirty place and I took that innocent maiden Little Debbie with me (although maybe she’s gone all Lindsay Lohan now that Hostess caved). If you are a chocolate fiend, if the words “too rich” are not part of your vocabulary, if you take your brownies darker than your coffee, then these are for you. I dub them: Dirty Slutty Brownies.

Warning: these are probably illegal in 20 states. And if not, they are most definitely the scourge of the American Diabetes Association, Weight Watchers, the National Dental Association and your ass. Continue reading →

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Fired Up Friday Dec 7

7 Dec

Blisters and Bruises | Reasons To Be Fit
I’m probably a year or two late to this party, but I love CrossFit. I purchased a Groupon for a local CrossFit gym and it’s totally sucked me in. It’s like boot camp class on steroids and it’s amazing how some of the simplest moves — no weights, no machines — can be so challenging (google search “CrossFit Wall Climbs”). I also like how you can pack a mega intense workout into 30 minutes or less. At first I felt like a slacker because I only worked out for 20 minutes, but I push myself harder in those 20 minutes than I do on an hour-long run. Is it weird that I like the feeling of my muscles giving up and going into spasms? Or that I love being so sore the next day I can’t take my jacket off?

Equally as awesome, the CrossFit gym by me has kickboxing too. Not Billy Blanks TurboJam, we’re talking pounding on a heavy bag for 40 minutes until sweat is dripping into your eyes, which sucks because you have boxing gloves on your hands and can’t do anything to stop it.

Not so awesome is how expensive CrossFit is. Damn I’m going to be sad when my Groupon is up.

In celebration of the CrossFit spirit, I present Kanye West’s new dish “Clique” for Fired Up Friday. Hip hop is always blasting through the speakers at CrossFit and it promotes a general badass feeling when one completes their WOD or throws a perfect punch. Go get some!

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Chocolate Bread Pudding

6 Dec

Chocolate Bread Pudding | Adventures of a Hungry Redhead
Remember when I said that I could make chocolate bread pudding that would make any man want to marry me? At this point, that is just a theory, as I’ve only served it to a)women and b)married men. I mean, bread pudding isn’t really something you can bust out on a date.

Waitress:  And would either of you care to see the dessert menu?
Date: I don’t know, what do you think — Erin? Hey! Where are you going?
Erin: Hold on, I brought dessert! I just need to grab my bread pudding out of the car. Can you run back to the kitchen and find an open oven?  Set it to 350 please. Thanks! And make sure they have vanilla ice cream!

Not awkward at all. Second date would be booked by the third bite (his third, not mine, I’d be on my second bowl by then… amateur). Continue reading →

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Peppermint Cappuccino and Cream Cookies

5 Dec

Peppermint Cappuccino and Cream Cookies | Adventures of a Hungry Redhead
Let’s go behind the scenes at Adventures of a Hungry Redhead.  I am a Type A personality (or an ISFJ if you know the MBTI indicators), so I like to plan and organize. My blog posts for the month are already set. They’re not all written out, but the topics are mapped out.

Monday was supposed to be about Cappuccino and Cream Cookies from my new cookbook The Daily Cookie – the one I recommended in my holiday gift guide – but those did not go according to plan. They were strangely flat and stick to your teeth chewy. The flavor was good, but the texture was not. Little did I know The Daily Cookie comes with tech support. I emailed Anna (The Cookie Madness goddess) and reported the issue. In less than 24 hours, I had a troubleshooting guide in my inbox as Anna attempted to recreate and solve the problem all the way in Austin.

We narrowed it down to two likely suspects: baking powder and parchment paper. Continue reading →

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Banana Bread

4 Dec

Banana-Bread
This bread is bananas: B-A-N-A-N-A-S! Banana bread is like the toast of the baking world – everyone should know how to make banana bread. It’s what you do with over ripe bananas. You can’t screw up banana bread. Actually you can, you can use under ripe bananas, or watery bananas, or you can over mix the batter, or use bandanas instead of bananas. But, I am here to prevent your banana bread blunders. I am the toothpaste to your cavity. I am the apple to your doctor. I am the condom to your —WHOA —I am not going there.

This Allrecipes.com banana bread recipe has been my go-to for awhile. The sour cream makes it super moist and I think the tang of it only enhances the banana flavor. Speaking of enhancing flavor,  to crank my banana bread to 11, I always roast two of the bananas to mix in with the batter and slice a third banana to add at the end. Ain’t nobody going to ask you what kind of bread they’re eating with all that flavor packed into each bite. But if they do, I suggest you invoke Gwen Stefani per above. This bread is bananas : B-A-N-A-N-A-S . Continue reading →

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Christmas Gifts for Kitchen Fiends

3 Dec

Tis the season to buy people stuff! Do you think the three wise men purchased their gifts for Jesus at a Black Friday sale? If they really are wise men, I bet they bought it all online. I did not attend Sunday school —or church for that matter— as a kid, so I’m allowed to say that kind of stuff. You know, like how if you have a friend who’s a minority you can make racist jokes. I don’t know what the wise men actually brought the baby Jesus, thus I can make Jesus jokes. Wait, I got that backwards didn’t I? I need to go to church before I can make Jesus jokes.

Sometimes I fear because you can’t hear my voice and see my face when I say things like the above you think I’m a disrespectful idiot. Hopefully that didn’t just happen. I swear I’m harmless. Just a dark sense of humor, no filter and no gauge for inappropriateness. Good thing my day job is public relations.

Back to the task at hand: you’re Christmas shopping and you’ve got someone on your list who is a butcher or a baker, but definitely not a candlestick maker. You’re in search of a gift for someone who spends a lot of time in the kitchen. Well guess what? I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and I spend almost as much time wandering the isles and websites of King Arthur Flour, Williams & Sonoma, Sur La Table etc.

Here are my top picks for the culinary genius in your life… Continue reading →

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Fired Up Friday Nov 30

30 Nov

Guess what? It’s my TWO month blogiversary. How’s that for fired up? I’m surprised I haven’t included a Kyle Minogue song yet for Fired Up Friday since I’m pretty much obsessed with her music. So let’s go with the latest single, Timebomb, which until today I didn’t realize has an awesome video. Probably because MTV doesn’t play videos anymore or MTV2 for that matter. Although, they do play Saved by the Bell reruns now. I’m so excited! Right Jessie? You have no idea what I’m talking about, so quick explanation…

Most gripping and emotional episode of Saved by the Bell ever, with an Emmy-worthy performance from Elizabeth Berkley.

But back to Kylie, who is going to motivate you to drop it like its hot this weekend since a) she’s hot, b) she’s a breast cancer survivor and c) she’s 44 people! I’m not a big fan of the leather jacket with a giant heart, but damn, I’d be lucky if I looked that good at 44.

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Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

29 Nov


We’re winding down our post-Thanksgiving detox and that means it’s time for dessert. “But Erin, isn’t vegan taking this a bit far?” you ask. What are you afraid of? It’s almost a dirty word isn’t it? Vegan. It conjures images of tofu, alfalfa sprouts and soy burgers, or drum circles and communes. Please, that’s so 1975. The vegan diet has been brought to a new level, one that includes macaroni and cheese, scrambled eggs and meatloaf. Yes, all of those can be veganized and no, they don’t taste like paste.  You would be shocked at how good vegan food has become, including these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, which you’d never guess are egg and butter free.

I am not vegan. I like to say I’m vegan curious. I enjoy cooking vegan dishes and eating at vegan restaurants because I’m constantly amazed by a)how you can get non-meat to taste like meat and b)how you can get vegetables to taste so delicious. It’s not just making vegetables or soy taste like meat, eggs or ice cream etc., it’s how it looks remarkably like the real thing too. Taste begins with the eyes after all.

Continue reading →

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Applesauce Oatmeal Bread

28 Nov

Applesauce Oatmeal Bread | Adventures of a Hungry Redhead
Sometimes people do amazing things: change your flat tire, give you rides to the airport, fly on the trapeze with the greatest of ease. These occasions call for bread. These heroes need your bread. Many times these heroic deeds happen without much warning and your pantry is not prepared with say, bananas or pumpkin or cream cheese. Enter Oatmeal Applesauce Bread to save the day. And no, you don’t need to bake your oatmeal applesauce bread a loaf of bread for saving the day, but you could, in which case you would have a loaf of bread all to yourself after you bestow the first one upon the deserving hero.

This bread rocks because you don’t need softened butter (who ever remembers to take it out of the fridge anyway), you don’t need to use a stand mixer  and you’re more than likely to have oats and applesauce lying around. If you don’t, I suggest you restock your pantry. Continue reading →

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Brussels Sprouts Salad

27 Nov

Brussels Sprouts Salad | Adventures of a Hungry Redhead
The detox continues with more green vegetables and today I choose brussels sprouts. I think brussels sprouts get a bad wrap. They have the stigma of the vegetable you feared your parents making you eat, or worse still, a vegetable so bad your own parents wouldn’t dream of forcing it on their children. People seem to think brussels sprouts belong in the same food group as buttermilk, radishes, pickled eggs and liverwurst — a.k.a. food only people who lived through the depression eat. This is only true if you chose to boil and overcook your brussels sprouts without any seasoning, thus leaving your kitchen smelling like senior housing.

Brussels sprouts get a bad wrap because they’re generally not cooked right. First of all, never, ever, ever, ever get the frozen ones, even if they say they come in a butter sauce. No amount of frozen butter is going to make that taste good – get fresh ones.

Second, don’t boil or steam them. Something that already smells funny  is made worse by being soggy and squishy.

You know what we do to vegetables to make them taste right? I already told you yesterday : we fry them! The moment I had brussels sprouts with a crisp brown char to them was the moment the mystery was unlocked. From that point forward I could eat bowls of brussels sprouts on their own (usually with a little bacon for good measure).

Continue reading →

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