Chocolate Sprinkle Rice Krispies

My city is surprisingly green. When you think Texas, you think cowboy hats, boots, and Clint Eastwood. We have most of those things (sans Mr. Eastwood), but there are parts of this diverse state that are totally green, and my area is one of them. It's lush, while being hot, humid and muggy. 


Which is exactly how it's been this weekend. 100, and humid as hell's bath houses. I don't mind though, I've finally caved and turned on the AC--bill be damned! So it's a cool 84 in my house, which is surprisingly cool compared to the outside temperature. 


Gone are the days of sitting on the back porch, coffee in hand, wondering when the flowers would bloom. Instead, we have lovely sun flowers starting to bloom, gorgeous morning glories winding up our trellis, and random weeds peeking up out of the ground and blooming. But we also have unbearable heat that forces me to remain indoors and enjoy their beauty with my ice water. 

Anyways, now that the AC has made its way into our lives, I've gotten more hungry. You ever notice that? The cooler it is in the house, the hungrier you are? If it's hot, all you want to eat is ice and three pieces of lettuce (no dressing. too hot for dressing.) Yeah. That doesn't work for me. It's sends me into a pit of food-despair: wanting the taste in my mouth, but not the weight in my stomach (a weight compounded somehow by the humidity). 

So my first real AC recipe: rice krispies treats. But not just any! Chocolate sprinkle rice krispies treats. That's right, when I do RKs, I do 'em classy-like. 


This is a super easy dessert, and great if you need to take something quick, easy, and homemade into work. It really lakes very little time, but looks pretty. I got the idea when I was in Central Market, and saw these AWESOME RK treats with all kinds of treats on top, like nuts, sprinkles, marshmallows, etc. Anyways...enjoy! 


Chocolate Sprinkle Rice Krispies Treats 
Adapted from Kellogg's Rice Krispie's Recipe
4 cups mini-marshmallows (plain white, 1 pack) 
6 cups rice krispies
3 tbsp. butter
Extra butter to butter a pan
3 oz. chocolate (bittersweet, chopped) 
2 tbsp. heavy cream
Rainbow Sprinkles (or any other topping you want)


Cover a 9 x 13 in. pan with foil, and butter the foil pretty well (this stuff sticks).


Then in a medium saucepan or sautepan, melt the butter on low heat. Then add in the marshmellows. Keep in on medium-low heat and mix occasionally while the marshmallows melt. 


Meanwhile, in a large bowl, pour out 6 cups of rice krispies. After the marshmallows are melted, add it to the bowl. Mix well. Press this mixture into the pan evenly. Put it in the fridge for 20 min. 


Then in a medium saucepan, bring some water to a gentle simmer. Place a heat-proof bowl on top to create a double-boiler. Put in the chocolate and the heavy cream, and stir while the chocolate melts. When the chocolate has melted, remove bowl from the water and allow it to cool. 


While this is happening, pull out the RK treats from the fridge, and cut them into squares (as big as you'd like). 


When the chocolate has cooled a little, you can do two things: 


1. Dip the RK treats into the chocolate and sprinkle with the topping 


OR


2. Spoon the chocolate on with a teaspoon and then spread the topping. 


I did a little bit of both, and had more luck with the spooning chocolate, but hey, whatever works best for you. After you're done, refrigerate until chocolate has hardened and you're set! 

Home Births

Home Births are Uncommon But on the Rise

Summary: Though still relatively uncommon, there has been a rise in the number of home births among non-Hispanic white women. The only other ethnic group that showed a slight increase was Asian and Pacific Islanders. 


My Thoughts: 


Birthing is a very personal and private event, and the mother and family have every right to decide how they want to give birth: C-section, epidural, natural birth, etc. I have no qualms with any of these. 


However I do take issue with home births. 


I see the benefits--you're in a familiar environment and your baby comes into the world in a place of love and happiness, not a place that is oddly colored and welcomes both births, deaths, and the inputting of colostomy bags. I have heard some people argue that home births are more the way things should be, as in, "that's how they used to do it back in the day." Others have argued (as the article says) that they prefer home births because they do not feel the pressure to have a C-section or have any other form of intervention into their process. 


This is true--the number of unplanned, not necessary C-sections is not insignificant, and that has been attributed, by some, to doctors pressuring their patients into getting C-sections after very long births (40 hours...ugh). 


While I'm pretty sure that whenever I have a baby (in the far distant future when robots have defeated us humans) I'd want to have a natural birth--I am 100% sure I want it to be in a hospital for one main reason: 


Emergencies. While a lot of births are uncomplicated, you never know what might happen and if you'll need a crash C-section to save you or your baby, or need a neonatal ICU (intensive care unit). Sometimes you can tell before you give birth if its going to be complicated, but you have invested time, effort, energy, and most importantly love into this child, and why take the risk? If something happens, you don't want to be driving to the hospital and being checked in, you want to already be in the hospital with an individual that has the training to deal with complications. 


The article also says one of the reasons that home births are on the rise among non-Hispanic white women is than they don't the pressure of unnecessary C-sections or other interventions. In regards to that, I have the following thoughts: 


1. Many members of this category have an OB/GYN that they are visiting during their pregnancy that will be their birthing doctor. Make it clear to her that you do not want a C-section unless there is a major emergency (child or mother's life in danger). Though you will have to sign a C-section waiver form ahead of time, if you have made it clear to your OB/GYN verbally several times, then unnecessary C-sections are probably less likely


2. In order to ensure that you do not get unnecessary drugs or a C-section, it is important to study and learn about what is supposed to happen during a birth. What drugs are you supposed to have? What drugs are optional? What procedures are optional and necessary? Basically--be an active patient. 


3. Last, but definitely the most important, have an advocate. All patients, whenever they're in the hospital, should have an advocate there for them to let doctors, nurses, and every other health professional on the floor know that someone is there for them. Whether its the father, your mother, your father, your partner, your best friend, or whoever, make a advocate out of someone. Talk to them, tell them what you want out of your child-birth experience. That way during the birthing process there is someone in the room, besides yourself, that can stand up an say what you want. 


All three of the above are not possible for everyone, however I do think they're possible for many. 


Again, birthing is a very personal and private process, but these are my reasons for wanting to have a hospital birth. I think it can still be a wonderful, natural experience in the hospital, I'll just have to be pushy about what I want and what I expect. 


I don't know--maybe I'm naive? 

Presenting: The wonderful, the awesome, the S-! (and a stuffed pepper)

This is a first for the Clumsy Cook Blog, but please welcome a guest writer: me! I just wanted to share that being friends with M- is an exercise in recognizing and coming to terms with your own laziness. M- and I have many similarities. We were both science majors, lived on the same hallway for 4 years, graduated from Wellesley, are finishing our first year as TFA teachers, applying to medical school. But here is one area where we are very different: last night for dinner, I alternated handfuls of pretzels with handfuls of chocolate chips. M- made organic chard gratin, whatever that is. 

I said goodbye to my 130 kiddos on Wednesday, suffered through the two extra days of paperwork that amounts to letting the door hit hard-working teachers on their way out, and then fell into bed. And then I woke up and... had no idea what to do. It has been at least five years since I had this dilemma. It was Saturday and I had nothing pressing to begin the hard work of procrastinating on! So I took inspiration from M- and actually ate something today other than Lean Cuisine 2-minute microwavable pizza (which, all things considered, is actually impressively yummy). My frozen-food lifestyle thrown aside, here is my first attempt to give the Clumsy Cook a run for her money.

Too lazy to go to the grocery store, I raided the pantry, and came up with the ingredients to make a spice cake. Now, I grew up in the country, and it was an implicit rule that every food had its own time of year. Spice cake is quite obviously a fall food, so forgive my lapse in proper seasonal etiquette. My spice cabinet needed organizing. Short story short, a simple spice cake with blackberry jam between the layers, frosted with cream cheese frosting and with embellished with fanciful raisin patterns is both a good way to clean out the cupboards and to create something delish-ish.

The leveled pieces of cake became a masterpiece in their own right when stuck together with cream cheese frosting and jam swirled together for a wonderfully simplistic, rustic look.

Ok, so truth be told, my sweet tooth leaves my stomach caring very little for actual food. My sophomore year of college, I had a stomach thingy that left me with a doctor-endorsed diet of ice cream for dinner, and no one heard much complaining from me on that matter (right, M-?). I will concede, though, that a regular, healthy dinner is necessary for good mental health. 

Even so, these early summer days on the river in Muggy Memphis leave you in a weird hungry/un-hungry state, and drained. Listen up: here is the cure. I'm calling it "Summer Stuffing", but feel free to make up your own, much cooler and descriptive name. 

Summer Stuffing

Recipe (2 servings)

1/2 cucumber, diced

1 bell pepper

1 vine tomato, diced

2 ears corn, cooked, cut, and chilled

small handful of walnuts, chopped medium-fine

small handful of left-over chicken, shredded, if you are so carnivorously inclined (Mita Note: Or fake chicken..."Chikin")

1 tsp. olive oil

dash salt, pepper to taste

a slice or two of fresh lime

several leaves of fresh basil

OMG...Two-Bite Cocoa Jam Cookies (and they're vegan too!)

I found this blog a little while back, 17andbaking, which just had the most beautiful pictures and excellent writing that I added it to the list of blogs that I read regularly. 


As I was searching through the recipe list after T- left for Dallas, I found this recipe...I didn't have any eggs in the fridge, so it appealed to me because I needed a sugar fix. 

Plus I haven't found a cookie that I like a lot yet, so I figured I might as well try it! 


O


M


G
These cookies are freaking awesome. I keep wanting to give them away...but then whenever I open the container, I just pop another one of these suckers in my mouth. I have to say it again...they are so freaking good! 

No eggs, no dairy...simply awesome. Chewy in the middle, crispy on the edges...the perfect mini-treat after a day at the gym, or a day at work, or just because...:-)


Anyways, MAKE THESE. They're easy, they're good, and you can modify them in any way. When I first saw the recipe, they were made with raspberry jam. But...I didn't have any of that, so I used some strawberry rhubarb Tyler and I bought at a farmers market. But seriously, you can make them with any jam you have available. Next time: Hot Pepper Jelly (homemade by the lovely author of Laurie's Little Kitchen)


Two-Bite Cocoa Jam Cookies
Adapted from 17andbaking 


0.5 cup + 2 tblsp your favorite jelly or jam
1 cup sugar
0.33 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
0.5 cup cocoa powder
1.5 cups flour
0.75 tsp baking soda
0.5 tsp salt
Sugar for sprinkling


Preheat oven to 350F


Sift together all flour and cocoa powder. Mix in the sugar, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl mix together the jelly, the oil, and the extracts. Mix them into the dry ingredients.

Creepy cool picture

Honestly, to mix the wet and dry ingredients here, it's best to work the dough with your hands. It's supposed to be a little crumbly, but wet enough for you to roll it into small, walnut sized balls. 


On a cookie sheet (either sprayed or lined with parchment paper), roll out the dough into walnut sized ball. Stick them in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. 

The size they should be when you stick them in the oven

When they come out, flatten them slightly with your finger tips, and sprinkle with some sugar. 

Tasty goodness!

Chard Gratin: the healthy/creamy dinner

So I told a friend a while ago that I'd post this recipe, so here goes.

T- and I decided to do a CSA (community supported agriculture) this winter season. I read about it over winter break and thought, neat! We eat basically all organic anyways, we try and eat in season, it'd be nice if we could eat local.

So we found a wonderful CSA in San Antonio, and it was great! We got a lot of vegetables every week, and they were all organic and local. But we started getting a CRAP ton of greens...I mean we had more chard in our fridge than I knew what to do with (weird considering I didn't even know chard existed a year ago). Anyways--I started googling what to do with chard and I came across this nytimes recipe for Swiss Chard and Chard Stalk gratin.





So I figured I'd give it a whirl. All I had done with chard up until then was saute it with lemon and garlic, or with orange juice (tasty!). It can be kind of bitter if its overcooked...so I was a little worried. But this recipe turned out great! I made a few modifications the second time around, and it turned out even better. I hope you enjoy! 


Swiss Chard and Potato Gratin
Modified from the NYTimes


Preheat the oven to 425F


3-4 leaves of chard with stalk (I prefer the rainbow chard) 
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 recipe olive oil béchamel (from the NYTimes -- you can use a butter based bechamel too, but this one tastes good for the gratin) 
4-6 red potatoes, halved and thinly sliced
1/2 cup parmesan (yep, I use Kraft's. The giant costco container. It works great) 
1/4 cup bread crumbs 


Bring a large pot of water to boil. While it's getting ready to boil do 2 things: 


1. prepare a large bowl filled with ice water. 
2. Cut the trim the leaves off the chard stalk, and cut it up, and then chop the chard stalk crosswise. 


When the water has boiled, turn it down to medium heat and blanch the chard leaves and stem, and the potatoes. You toss it in the water for like...4 minutes to enhance the flavor, and then pull it out and toss it in the ice water to immediately stop the cooking. 


One the leaves and potatoes have cooled, pull them out of the water and squeeze the remaining water out of them. You want it to be pretty dry. Then chop them up coarsely.



Then in a oven-safe dish, mix the bechamel with the greens, and the garlic. When it's well mixed, sprinkle the parmesan on top, and then the bread crumbs.

Bake at 425F for 15-20 minutes.

A British Breakfast

Arguably the easiest international breakfast ever. A few weekends ago, T- and I went over to a friend's house in Austin. She and her boyfriend had this lovely apartment near 6th street, and we enjoyed ourselves very much 


As a mid-afternoon snack on our second day there, our lovely yet tiny hostess suggested beans and eggs on toast, and I was like uhhhhhh, okay? 


It was awesome, and easy. It's literally eggs, beans, and toast. After returning from our mini-vacation, I desperately wanted more beans on toast, unfortunately we had neither beans nor toast in our house. BUT, we retrieved those items from the grocery store this weekend.

I am glad to say, my foray into British cooking was a success. I feel very international. I made mine with just egg whites (I really hate yellows unless they're in baked goods...seriously hate yellows) and T- with two poached eggs.


Try it, and saying things like "Cheerio" and "right then" or "tea time??" while you're doing it. (My favorite is: "Long live the queen!" interspersed with "good ol' chap)  


Beans and Eggs on Toast
1 can vegetarian baked beans 
2-4 slices of toast (I used Jewish Rye) 
4 eggs
1 tblsp butter


Put the bread in the oven to toast. Then heat the butter in a medium saute pan over medium-low heat When it's melted, crack two eggs in there. and cover so they can poach. Be sure to check on them to see if you need to adjust your temperature lower. It should take about 5-6 min depending on how firm you like the yellows (bleh)


While that's going, open up your can of baked beans and heat them in a small saucepan over medium heat. Just stir them every few minutes to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom. 

To set it up, put the toast on a plate, slide your eggs on top, and then top the whole thing off with half the pot of beans! 

Use the other half for another serving! Note that this tastes fantastic with just whites as well, and you can cook/poach the whites in the same way you did the whole eggs, it will just take less time (2-3 min). 


Right then, cheerio!  

Should Gays Boycott Straight Weddings?

The Article: Not Going to the Chapel


To summarize: The article above is an argument for gays to boycott straight weddings this summer because in all but five states, same-sex marriage is banned. 


So I'm getting married this summer to a man, and I'm a woman. I went to a women's college and there are gay friends that I am inviting, and I want them to be there. 


I am an adamant supporter of equal rights for gay individuals and couples on the state and federal level, I believe that sexuality is mostly biologically determined, and I will gladly stand up any day and scream for equal rights. 


But I'm still getting married. 


The author argues that it's not just the "crazies" that are the obstacle facing same-sex marriage, but also heterosexual allies: 

"Even well-meaning heterosexuals often describe their own nuptials in deeply personal terms, above and beyond politics, but tend to dismiss same-sex marriage as a political cause, and gay people’s desire to marry as political maneuvering."

I rebuke this argument. If you say that the desire for same-sex couples get married is primarily for political reasons, then deep down underneath the layers of what's "PC" you're not really an ally. 


If you say that two individuals want to get married because they just want the tax breaks and other marriage perks, you're most certainly not an ally. 


The desire to get married is the same regardless of gender: to express your love, and to have the state and world recognize you as a partner in your lover's life. 


And yeah, you get some pretty damn good perks with it (heck yeah I'm happy about the tax benefits and the fact that I can visit Tyler in the hospital god forbid if he was ever in there). 


So Mr. Benjamin, I believe you have it wrong on two counts: 


1. Those heterosexual allies that would ever say that same-sex couples value marriage for its political benefits, are not allies, and yes, are an obstacle for same-sex marriage. 


2. By boycotting straight weddings, you're widening the chasm between gays and straights. You're making it seem like we're enemies and on different sides, when we really shouldn't be. By not attending straight weddings across the board, you're in effect saying, "Thanks, but you're not really an ally" which is ridiculous. 


Meaningful events like weddings should not be politicized, but sadly they are. Mr. Benjamin, I think we need to work to make them less political and divisive, not more.