Comfort Foods and Indulgences

Levi woke up a few mornings ago and the first thing he said to me was, “I really want you to make chocolate chip cookies”. I asked him what kind, what did he want in them, did he want them cakey or chewy? He looked at me as if I was speaking a foreign language. And then he looked at me and said, “just a plain and simple chocolate chip cookie – and mom, fill up the cookie jar with them!”.

I think he is tired of the hoopla surrounding my baking endeavors. He wants the basic. And after thinking about it for a bit, I understand how we all crave just the basics from time to time. I enjoy(and miss) a lazy Sunday morning, under the covers with a good book, I am happy on the couch, sharing an episode of Friday Night Lights with Eli (our obsession), a walk with the family to the neigborhood bagel shop, or simply building a puzzle with Levi, a.k.a “the puzzle king”.

When we first moved to Southern California, we thought we were in pretty good shape; turns out that “pretty good shape” is a relative phrase. Even the guy bagging our groceries knows his body fat percentage. In fact, the popular gym chain, 24 Hour Fitness (yes, they are open 24 hours a day), originated here. That pretty much says it all.

After a killer leg workout at the gym this past Sunday, we wanted to treat ourselves to a mega-carb meal. Since I had a butternut squash saved and had just purchased some fresh rosemary, I decided to make butternut squash risotto.

I prefer fresh rosemary to dried because its soft needles are much more redolent and its flavor is brighter. In this butternut squash risotto, it heightens the flavor of the squash and balances the pungent blue cheese.

I know some people don’t make risotto because it takes too long and the continuous stirring is tedious. Well, I’ll let you in on a secret: I’ve been making risotto for years, and I don’t stir it continuously.

Most people would call them muffins, or maybe cupcakes. But, that sounds so ordinary. You know. Just the same old, same old. Not that I don't make muffins or cupcakes. But when I do, and when I put them on a plate with a sauce and a topping, they become babycakes. And suddenly, they become extraordinary.

This is exactly what happened when I mixed a second bowl full of Maple-Walnut Cake batter that I made for my All About Food newspaper column this week. I greased some glass custard cups, spooned some of the batter into them, filling them almost to the top. They took only about 20 to 25 minutes to bake. Once I took them from the oven, I allowed them to cool in the cups for about 10 minutes, then nudged them out with a table knife and transferred them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

The baked cakes have the texture of moist banana bread. Loads of toasted walnuts give them great crunch, not to mention the health benefits they offer. If you're not a pumpkin pie-lover, I could see this cake, sauce and maple cream topping showing up when it's time for dessert on Thanksgiving.

Last weekend I went to a wine auction and indulged in chocolate-peanut butter brownies. Needless to say I thought about them all week. On about the third day of having brownie on the brain, I figured I better make a batch for myself. Does anyone else daydream about dessert like this?

Truthfully these are really, really easy to make. It just takes time with cooling and I like to let them sit overnight in the refrigerator. This is how you get those really nice side cuts for brownies.

Using parchment paper in the pan allows you to lift them right out into a block. They are much easier to cut this way.