Classic brownies - take 2

How hard can baking a brownie be? My first take at brownies was about two years ago - turned out to be a disaster. The brownie stuck to the bottom of the pan and was too thin to sacrifice the bottom part - all that aside, it tasked horrible too.

Last Friday, I mustered up courage to give it another go, this time around, I was a bit more careful, and lined it with baking sheet, and made sure I had a smaller baking pan for a thicker brownie just in case.

Credit for the picture goes to Madhu. It tasted just the brownie is supposed to.

Anyway, if you want to try this out, here is the recipe
http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/10/and-then-i-went-shoe-shopping/

My brownie turned out a bit different (darker and thicker) than the one in the recipe above. It called for..

• A 13x9 pan -- I used 8x8
• Bake for 35 mins -- I had to bake for about 50-55 minutes (to compensate for the extra thickness)
  

Baked tofu nuggets & Sweet Potato for dinner

Tofu nuggets for dinner? The picture speaks for itself and looks very complicated, can you believe the prep time is just under 30 minutes?

Baked Tofu:
http://chowvegan.com/2008/03/18/crispy-baked-tofu/

Garlic sauce:

• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 cup chopped scallion
• 2 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 3 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

adapted from: http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/diaryofafoodie/2009/03/warm-tofu-with-spicy-garlic-sauce


Baked sweet potato fries: (All original Madhu's recipe)

• slice sweet potatoes like in the picture
• sprinkle with some olive oil, cumin powder, red chilli powder and salt
• bake in the oven at 375F for about 45 minutes
  

Quest for the perfect Pad Kee Mao

I love Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles). It is one of the things on the menu that jumps at me whenever we are at a Thai restaurant. I judge Thai restaurants by their Pad Kee Mao :)

So, Madhu has been trying to perfect Pad Kee Mao in our kitchen for a while since I love it so much. Today's was the best. It looked and tasted fantastic - It is better than some Thai places around (no offense, Madhu knows my palette better than anyone).

She adapted a recipe from the cooking book Buddha's Table. The picture of Madhu's creation today says it all.

On a side note, Madhu's picture taking abilities have been better than ever. Looks like getting a SLR camera has paid off big time.