I'm a baking machine

Jim and I stuck to the plan and went to Chevy's tonight. We happened to make it in the middle of Happy Hour and opted to sit in the Cantina. We've been going to Chevy's semi-regularly because of the coupons. Jim's been getting monthly coupons for buy one entree, get one for $3.99, so it makes the restaurant not so much of a rip off. Tonight the margaritas were $3. Jim got a strawberry one and I got a peach one. Now, I really can't hold my liquor, so it's more that I have a few sips and Jim finishes it for me. Unfortunately, I learned tonight that tequila and I really don't mix. I didn't taste any alcohol in the margarita, so I drank it happily and probably too quickly. I only got about a fourth of the way through, but for whatever reason, it hit me hard. My head started aching and my ears were ringing. Jim thinks it's all in my head, but vodka doesn't affect me that way. I didn't feel tipsy. I simply felt sick.

Anyhoo, I ordered my usual meal--portobello and asparagus fajitas. I absolutely love mushrooms. I don't care what kind; I love them all. My entire family is pretty nuts about mushrooms, so around the holidays, since I do the cooking, I make sure whatever I cook is heavy on the mushroom side. This past Thanksgiving I tried a mushroom and leek stuffing, which contained a buttload of mushrooms. We all loved it, and now it's a staple. So if I see a mushroom-based dish on a menu, it's a pretty safe bet I'll be ordering it. The veggies come drizzled in butter and I hold it, but they forgot this time. I wanted to send them back, but Jim hates doing that, so I dealt with it for his sake. Jim got some sort of mixed thing with a taco. I forgot what else he got. Chevy's is one of those places where you always know what you're going to get. We both love their salsa and chips, and I'd go just for those. The chips are light and crispy, my definition of the perfect tortilla chip. The salsa took a little bit of getting used to. I typically don't love smoky flavored anything, and Chevy's salsa has a distinctly smoky taste to it. However, over the years I learned to tolerate, like, and now love it. Of course, I think the chips help more than anything.

Due to the early dinner (which almost never happens), the evening was still very young when we got back to Jim's house. For the first time in weeks, we had a quiet evening at home. It's not something I like to do all the time, but with the rain and the fact that we've been going nonstop for a while now, it was definitely a nice change of pace. Besides, we had a ton of baking and cooking to do for the upcoming weekend.

I started off with Giada's Espresso Brownies, which are the easiest things in the world to make due to using boxed brownie mix. All I had to do was stir water, oil, eggs, espresso powder, chocolate chips and the mix together and pour the batter into a pan and bake them off for 35 minutes. It was more work trying to find the Canola oil, which happened to be in the closet pantry (I swore I put it in the kitchen. Oh well.). I used up the last box of brownie mix, so I've got to keep my eyes peeled for another sale. I believe the last time I stocked up they were 50 cents. Maybe a dollar. At any rate, they were a really good deal. I'm definitely one of those sale shoppers. I hate paying full price for anything, so I will religiously scan the grocery ads weekly and buy depending on what is a good price. Although Jim thinks the pantry is ridiculously full, I save so much money that way. The only thing has been learning what I will and won't use. I've discovered that I am not a convenience food person. I don't like shake n' bake or Pasta roni. I'd rather make it from scratch. So those things have sat around for a while. But I think I've got a pretty good idea of what kind of ingredients I rely on these days.

Back to the baking . . . while the brownies were in the oven, I started on the peanut butter kisses. This is another ridiculously easy recipe that uses Bisquick. Again, all it is is stirring together a few items, this time sweetened condensed milk, creamy peanut butter, vanilla, and Bisquick together. Then I roll them into balls and bake them at 375 for 10 minutes. I got to use my silpat for the first time, which was very exciting! This time I didn't roll the balls in sugar before baking them. I didn't have any extra fine sugar and I don't really like the regular sized granules on the outside. After they come out of the oven, I press the kisses into the cookies and that's it! Piece of cake.

After two essentially instant recipes, I was feeling a little guilty, so I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I've made so many batches over the years that I can now make them very quickly. Plus with the Kitchenaid mixer, things when even more smoothly. By the time the peanut butter cookies were done, the chocolate chip cookies were almost done being dropped on the cookie sheet.

I ended up with a pan of espresso brownies without icing (that comes tomorrow), 30 peanut butter/Hershey's kiss cookies, and 18 chocolate chip cookies. I think I've got dessert covered for Sunday, but I may bake one more fruit-based item. We'll see how much time I have tomorrow.

Where was Jim during all of this? Well, he helped by unwrapping the kisses and he did all of my cleanup for me, which was great. Although I love baking, I hate cleaning up afterwards.

Then I turned to the cooking part--I made Giada's roasted vegetable penne pasta. What makes this dish extra special is the fontina and smoked mozzarella cheese. It really does take it over the top. I absolutely love the flavor of roasted vegetables, in this case eggplant, red bell pepper, onion, zucchini, and mushrooms. Tossed with penne (ziti in this case cuz I'm out of penne), marinara sauce, and the cheeses, it's a pretty amazing dish for as simple as it is. Tomorrow I'll top it with some parm and then bake it off until the top is golden brown and crispy. Giada's dish actually calls for summer squash, but I had eggplant to use up, so I substituted it. I'm sure it will be fine, since eggplant and red bell pepper were meant to be together. And smoked mozzarella cheese will cover a multitude of sins. I don't like smoked cheese, but for whatever reason, smoked mozzarella is way different. I guess it's because it doesn't taste smoky to me. I'm not sure what it tastes like, but it's certainly got a fabulously rich flavor. I can't wait to try it tomorrow. One pound of pasta resulted in an absolutely massive dish, so it looks like Jim will be eating the leftovers all next week.