Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles

The words Mexican Chocolate trigger something hiding within my brain whenever I read my Recipe RSS. “YES. STOP HERE.” Says my brain, and it does.  But here’s the thing, I’m not really a fan of Mexican Chocolate.  Katie is.  She’s the only reason I spend time trying to perfect the recipes that you see here involving this particular ingredient.  She gladly fills the stereotype of the girl who loves chocolate.  She believes that a Mexican meal is a failure without some type of mole sauce with which to smother her enchiladas. What can I say, she loves the chocolate and the spice.  I am still a believer that sweet and savory, at least where desserts are concerned, should remain on opposing sides of the mixing bowl.

So when I saw this recipe I knew I would at least have to try it. I stuck directly to the recipe, from Culinary in the Desert one of my favorite food blogs, for the first go around.  Now that I know the end result, there are things I’d definitely change.  I could the batches 1-2 minutes less, closer to 7-8 minutes to ensure a softer cookie.  I would also find a richer, deeper cocoa powder than the one I had available (Herhsey’s).  And if I’m feeling particularly spicy, maybe toss some tiny chocolate chunks dusted with cayenne pepper…for kicks.

But, that isn’t to say, this recipe isn’t any good.  It’s quite good, as most of my coworkers would agree. I just have a ridiculously high set standards for what I consider one of the best, softest, cookies in existence.

Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles (from Culinary in the Desert)

Ingredients

For the cookie dough
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

For the sugar coating
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

To prepare cookie dough
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cayenne and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together oil, sugar, maple syrup, milk and vanilla. Pour mixture into the dry ingredients, stirring with a wooden spoon until combined.

To prepare sugar coating
In a shallow dish, stir together sugar and cinnamon.

Roll dough into walnut sized balls, then gently flatten each ball into a 2″ disc. Place once side of the dough disc into the sugar coating, pressing to adhere. Place dough, sugar side up, onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing them at least 2″ apart.  Place into the oven and bake until the cookies have spread and are crackly on top, about 9 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and place baking sheet on a wire rack – let cookies cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 24 cookies.

Veggie Chicken Peanut Ginger Curry w/ Rice

What happens when you just randomly try experimenting with recipes?  You tend to over prepare; which is exactly what happened when I made my peanut ginger sauce two weeks ago.  The ice cream I finally made used maybe 1/8 cup of the peanuty, gingery goodness.  That sadly left me with nearly 3 cups of the stuff left to use in another recipe.  The results of some more mad science?  A curry meets a dipping sauce!  Sure.  Why not.  Who doesn’t love Indian and Thai food together in an unholy marriage?

Veggie Chicken Peanut Ginger Curry

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 cups Peanut Ginger Dipping Sauce
• 1/3 cup unbleached flour
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp powdered ginger
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 16 oz chopped veggie chicken

Put the onion and water in a large saucepan.  Cook and stir until the onion is soft.  Add the chopped veggie chicken.  Add the dipping sauce and stir well.  Gradually mix in the flour to thicken the sauce.  Add the curry, ginger and sugar and stir thoroughly.  Add more curry if you’re looking for a spicier dish.  Serve over brown rice.

Serves 4-6

Simple Taco Soup

Who doesn’t love easy?  Ten hour work days and hours of comicon recovery time has left me with little initiative to get any food prepped for the week.  But alas, the leftovers are gone, and I’m forced to throw something together.  And now we have taco soup.  To give it a heartier vibe I added some spices, veggie chicken and orzo to great effect.

Simple Taco Soup

• 8 oz uncooked orzo
• 7 cups vegetable broth
• 2 15-oz cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 1/2 cups chunky mild or medium salsa
• 2 1/4 cups frozen corn kernels
• 12 ounces veggie chicken strips
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cayenne (or to taste)

Boil water in a medium sauce pan.  Cook the orzo according to package directions.

In a large soup pot add the broth, beans, salsa, chicken strips, and spices.  Cook over medium heat until simmering.  Adjust to low heat and let flavors blend.  Add the cooked orzo, stir and serve.

Serves at least 8 people.

Recipe – Vegetarian Fiesta Con Queso Soup

Photo courtesy of Biggest Menu

Fans of Panera soup may recognize this soup. Every other year or so, around the fall season/Chrismas time, Panera unleashes what is easily their best soup ever. You heard me right. EVER. Ask around. Ask the people I spent 6 months working with, enslaved inside the Christmas Around The Mall store, where it was ALWAYS Christmas. Even well into the middle of January, there we were wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

And if you think the bargain hunting BEFORE Christmas was bad, you never saw the people wondering if the 5 dollar ornament that was already 75% off was going to drop even further in price.

Although, to be fair, some of my best memories come from that store, and it’s also where Katie and I ultimately ended up becoming a couple. Even if it was much to the chagrin of the other employees.

But Panera’s Fiesta Con Queso soup was our addiction. We were there every day it was offered, sometimes buying 2 or 3 extra bowls to have at home during the week. It was like heroin for cheese junkies. The next winter, they didn’t release the seasonal soup and I made it my goal to find a suitable recipe replacement. Searching around the internet, I finally found a recipe that comes pretty damn close to the original, if not slightly spicier.

This dish may be high in vitamins, but be forewarned; it’s all butter and cheese. This is your daily saturated fat. It may be your weekly saturated fat. But that’s what winter soups are for right?

Fiesta con Queso
8-10 servings/5 quarts

1/8-1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 cup onions, diced
1/2 cup carrots, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3-1/2 cup diced roasted Anaheim chilies (I use 1 medium sized pepper)
4 vegetarian vegetable bouillon cubes (extra lg. cubes)
4 cups hot water
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
4 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 lb sliced good quality American cheese
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1/4-1/3 cup roasted red peppers, julienne then roughly chop
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1/4 cup hot sauce
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1. Over medium heat melt butter or margarine in a 6 quart stock pot, add onions carrot and celery and saute until onions are transparent and carrots have softened, add garlic toward the end and allow to soften (about 2 minutes), remove from heat.
2. In a blender combine sauted onions, carrots, celery and garlic with roasted anaheim chili, 4 cubes of bouillon and 4 cups of hot water– puree.
3. Return vegetable puree to stock pot and place over medium heat, add both packages of cream cheese stirring until completely blended with vegetable puree.
4. In seperate bowl blend 4 tablespoons of flour with 1/2 cup of the warm cream cheese and vegetable puree mixture to get out lumps then stir in 1/2 cup boiling water, combine with contents of stock pot.
5. While stirring the pot bring contents to a boil.
6. Allow contents to boil while stirring for about 2 minutes then simmer.
7. Add the 1/2 lb of American Cheese a couple of slices at a time until melted.
8. Once cheese is melted incorporate the can of tomoatos (with juice), roasted red pepper, corn, hot sauce, cayenne pepper and cumin.
9. Allow to simmer for at least 1 hour stirring occassionally to prevent burning.
10. Serve and enjoy!

Eat It! Celebrating Eating Challenges – Day 3

St Elmo's "make-you-cry" Shrimp Cocktail

Day Three’s eating challenge was brought up in conversation last week when I was first discussing the idea of this eating competition hullabaloo.  My good friend Chris was telling us a tale of years gone by where he attended a friend’s bachelor party in Indianapolis when they went to “some steak house” that promised “the hottest cocktail sauce” they’ve ever had.  The waiter promised that if it didn’t make them cry, it would be free.

After some digging around on the ol’ intertubes it turns out that place was St. Elmo Steak House, and the cocktail sauce lives on.  In fact, the restaurant itself has been in the same place for over 100 years.  Now that’s an institution.

I haven’t seen any mention of the cocktail being free if you don’t cry, but I have found reviews telling of the “make-you-cry” cocktail sauce.

It’s a common tale, and one that is the main reason for why I’m celebrating eating challenges over the course of the week.  People who think they’re tougher than the challenge presented to them.  In this case, a table of grown men convinced that the horseradish wasn’t nearly as spicy as promised…until they started uncontrollably crying a few minutes later.  Chris shared that he didn’t even realize he WAS crying until he felt his wet face.

That, my friends is hot.

Wings To Go

There is a place that does still offer up some free swag (at least the NV location) if you can survive their hot sauce.  Wings to Go dares you to try their homicide wings.  Do you hear me?!  They fucking DARE YOU.  It says so right on their menu.

“Eat 20 original Homicide Wings in 10 minutes (no drink…no dressing…no celery). If you survive, you will get a Picture on the Wall Of Fame and a I Survived A Homicide T-Shirt & Hat. Oh, not to mention, we will pay for the beer and/or soda if you SURVIVE.”

There’s a story on the Brown Daily Herald that gives a firsthand account of people attempting to handle these wings.  A small excerpt:

After the Super Bowl, I found the three incapicitated in their rooms. The wings had hurt, bad, and the consensus was, to paraphrase, that the wings hurt even more going out than in. One housemate, Ike, said he kept on waking up in a sweat after he went to sleep that night. Another Hundred Winger, Jin, asked me for a bottle of Tums. When he returned it two weeks later, it was nearly empty. He had had an upset stomach the entire time, and had fallen victim to hot flashes.

We, and by we I mean most boys who occasionally lose the faculty to think, have all had this experience.  I bit into a pepper at Big Bowl after being warned against doing it.  The result?  I couldn’t feel my lower jaw for 2 hours, making it impossible to finish my meal with full tastebuds intact.  My friend who joined in with me?  Couldn’t eat his meal at all.  He just cried for a bit.  Good times.

I had another friend who decided he could handle the spiciest of spices at BD’s Mongolian Barbecue.  He didn’t care what went on there, as long as there was a warning attached to it.  The end result was a bowl of stirfry so nuclear that from 3 seats down *I* was crying the heat was so strong.  Needless to say, he didn’t finish more than a bite.

Because, as I said, we boys are occasionally quite dumb and stubborn.  Don’t tell us we can’t do something, because we’ll try and prove you wrong.  Even if it comes at great personal pain to us.