Sopapillas & Hard Sauce

SOPAPILLAS
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
3/4 cup warm water, plus more as needed
Peanut oil, for frying
Honey or cinnamon sugar, for serving

Directions
Sift the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Add the shortening and water, work them in with your hands to make a soft, pliable dough. Add more water, 1 teaspoon at a time, if the dough feels too dry. Gather the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Put the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least 1 hour so it will firm up a bit and be easier to roll and cut. (Dough can be prepared 1 day ahead, refrigerated.)

Unwrap the ball of dough and put on a lightly floured surface, cut in half. With a floured rolling pin, roll each piece of dough into a circle, about 1/4-inch thickness. Using a paring knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into triangles as you would a pizza. You should end up with 6 or 8 triangles per circle.

Heat 2-inches of oil to 375 degrees F in a heavy skillet or deep pot over medium-high heat.

Fry a few of the sopapillas at a time, keeping an eye on maintaining the oil temperature. As the sopapillas puff up and rise to the surface, flip them over with a slotted spoon, skimmer, or chopsticks; about 2 minutes on each side. Carefully remove the sopapillas from the oil and drain on several layers of paper towels or a brown paper bag. Cool slightly. Serve hot with honey or cinnamon sugar.

HARD SAUCE (BRANDY BUTTER SAUCE)
Ingredients
For the sauce:
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup brandy

Directions
Mix together the granulated sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir together until the sugar is melted. Add the brandy, stirring well. Serve warm or cold.

Butter's Orgasmic Chili

1/2 lb. bacon, cut in thin strips
2 lg onions, diced
3 lbs. ground turkey
1 15 oz. can each
-dark red kidney beans
-black beans
-great northern/white beans
-garbanzo beans (chick peas)
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 1.25 oz. packets of chili seasoning (work smarter, not harder)
2 1.25 oz. packets of taco seasoning
1/2 cup frank's redhot sauce

-render bacon in a large pot on medium heat. do NOT drain.
-add chopped onions and cook until almost translucent.
-add ground turkey. stir. cook until turkey is just heated through.
-add tomato sauce and refill can with water and add. (8 oz. sauce + 8 oz. water)
-add crushed tomatoes and refill can with water and add. (28 oz. can of tomatoes + 28 oz. can of water)
-add both packets of chili seasoning and stir.
-drain and rinse well, all four cans of beans. add to pot and stir.
-bring to a boil.
-add both packets of taco seasoning and stir.
-reduce heat to medium and let it slowly boil for 30 minutes.
-add hot sauce and stir.
-reduce heat to lowest setting, cover, and simmer for 1 hour, stirring every 10 minutes.

serve over white rice with minced red onion, shredded cheddar cheese and crushed corn chips.

isweatBUTTERCREAM Frosting

2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup whole milk
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix cornstarch with milk. Cook until thick, whisking the entire time. Set aside to cool.
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla and cooked cornstarch mixture slowly.
Beat until it comes to a whipped cream-like consistency.

Remember the Titans...

Bertier: Listen, I'm Gerry, you're Julius. Let's just get some particulars and get this over with.

Julius: Particulars? Man, no matter what I tell you, you ain't neva gonna know nothing about me.

Bertier: Listen, I ain't running any more of these three-a-days--

Julius: Well, what I got to say you really don't wanna hear 'cuz honesty ain't too high upon your people priority list.

Bertier: Honesty? You want honesty? Honestly, I think you're nothing. Nothing but a pure waste of God-given talent. You don't listen to nobody man. Not even Doc or Boone. Shiver push on the line everytime and you blow right past 'em. Push 'em, pull 'em. do something. You can't run over everyone in this league and everytime you do you leave one of your teammates hanging out to dry, me in particular!

Julius: Why should I give a hoot about you? Huh? Or anyone else out there? You wanna talk about a waste, you the captain, right?

Bertier: Right.

Julius: Captian's supposed to be the leader, right?

Bertier: Right.

Julius: You got a job?

Bertier: I got a job.

Julius: You been doing your job?

Bertier: I been doing my job.

Julius: Then why don't you tell your white buddies to block for Rev better because they have not blocked for him worth a plug nickel, and you know it! Nobody plays. Yourself included. I'm supposed to wear myself out for the team? What team? Nah, nah what I'm gonna do is look out for myself and I'ma get mine.

Bertier: See man, thats the worst attitude I eva heard.

Julius: Attitude reflects leadership, captain.

Ralph's Tiramisu

Ingredients
6 egg yolks (VIP, use jumbo eggs)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 pound mascarpone cheese
1 1/2 cups strong espresso, cooled
2 teaspoons dark rum
24 packaged ladyfingers
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate shavings, for garnish

Directions
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer with whisk attachment, beat egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Add mascarpone cheese and beat until smooth. Add 1 tablespoon of espresso and mix until thoroughly combined.
In a small shallow dish, add remaining espresso and rum. Dip each ladyfinger into espresso for only 5 seconds. Letting the ladyfingers soak too long will cause them to fall apart. Place the soaked ladyfinger on the bottom of a 13 by 9 inch baking dish, breaking them in half if necessary in order to fit the bottom.
Spread evenly 1/2 of the mascarpone mixture over the ladyfingers. Arrange another layer of soaked ladyfingers and top with remaining mascarpone mixture.
Cover tiramisu with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 8 hours.
Before serving, sprinkle with chocolate shavings.

The March of Mraz, as told by Morgan Freeman continued...

...bologna. Still, at the time of the incessant telephone game, something provoked me to answer the phone matching Nanny’s hostility that only a child can mime since a child doesn’t really know what the problem is to begin with. Candace! I yelled. That’s my sister’s name. Quit it! The line was silent for only a second before a grown man’s voice repeated the name to me in the form of a question. Candace? No this is Jason. This would mark the beginning of a long career of talking to strangers. This is Deputy So & So. I was confused and a bit scared thinking my sister’s obsessive use of the phone had alerted the police department. I put my Nanny on the phone and listened to her say bologna a lot. It turns out that earlier that day when my Dad came to pick up my sister and I from school he forgot to sign us out, drawing attention to our disappearance as if it were a kidnapping. Even though my mother knew exactly where we were for the authorities to contact us she still let them do their good job of shaking up a family vacation and holding the incident over my Dad’s head in the middle of a long and tiresome divorce. My parents were weird and I don’t have very many memories of them being together, which is why I think I’m drawn to love and always needing someone in my life to dream with and think big about the future with. I like the idea that the memories I’m making right now I’ll be able to share with my own grandchildren and read them the letters I wrote to grandma when we were young and foolish and always traveling on opposite sides of the sea. I didn’t have the pleasure of spying on my parents in romantic situations so I look forward to the day I can gross out my kids by making out with Mom on the couch after dinner in front of their friends.

I read a great quote in Manhattan yesterday plastered on some kind of advertisement. It asked, “Why are children so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be the education.”

Growing up is hard and often sad when we think about what we endured as kids, especially when we put it into perspective as paranoid adults looking to undermine everything and judge every action based on whether or not it’s safe or just plain acceptable or not. There are too many rules and rights and wrongs now it’s disgusting. Do you think this is what we as humans were meant to be doing here on earth? Maybe. Maybe we are here to make plastic since no other being seems to be producing it and when the earth has plenty it’ll find a way to kill us off by turning our own minds against us. Maybe we’re here to kick and scream and blow shit up. Maybe we’re here to squash bugs. Maybe we’re not supposed to tip our waiters. Unfortunately no one left a manual that any two groups can agree on so we’re pretty much screwed and everyone gets to be God.

I went to see March of the Penguins last night. Wow! What a film. What a story! From now on I am forever referring to this film as my all time favourite, spelling Favorite with the U as only learned scholars do. See it. Believe it for yourself. Discover what true love REALLY is all about. Endurance. Togetherness. Hardships. The works. And how cute are the little penguins!? I want one NOW. Is that legal in San Diego? I’d settle for Morgan Freeman to follow me around and narrate my life.

I’m going to stop wishing I were a kid again and just be a kid again. When you’re a kid, ignorance is bliss. Nothing hurts for too long. No one asks too much of you except for things like wash your hands, wipe your feet, close the door, clean your room, etc. Life is sweet. There aren’t too many kids I can think of that are asked to be role models, except for Kevin Arnold and maybe that Malcolm in the Middle kid. Other than that we as children are free to make the mistakes we accidentally get ourselves into and blame youth to get us out of it. Bushwalla and I still use this excuse whenever we’re caught shoplifting or doing something considered unlawful, “But I’m just a kid.” Try it! Just throw your arms up when you say it and act surprised and afraid. The sympathy and confusion for your look, age, and bad deed will more often than not be your get out of jail free card. Who says I’m a bad role model? I just gave you some primo advice on how to avoid trouble AND apply the nectar of the Fruited Newtons of youth.

I’ve lived in this Jersey City hotel room for a week now and I’ve yet to bounce on the beds. It’s almost time to transfer my belongings to the airport so I better get cracking and give the maids something to complain about. As an adult newbie I’ve lost that loving feeling for hotel rooms. I don’t even see them anymore. They all look and smell the same to me. Some have room service all night and others stop at twelve as if the cooking staff is related to Cinderella. The only thing I care about these days is how fast the Internet is and whether or not it’s free. I suck. In high school whenever I stayed at a hotel I made sure I wadded up wet wads of toilet paper and threw them out the window onto roofs of cars. These days I barely take the time to turn anything upside down. I’m a pathetic rocker. I have no edge. I wish I could live within the poetic and somewhat imaginary realm of my songs since the reality painted inside is usually a lot more aesthetically pleasing than life in a hotel room in Jersey, the armpit of America. No offense to Bon Jovi and Springsteen fans, but this place is the pits. Pun intended.

…and I’m out.

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[jason mraz]

Coconut Brownie Bars.

total time: 1hr 30min plus 7hrs cooling
makes forty 2-inch brownies
INGREDIENTS:
brownies
14 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup granulated sugar
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon butter, cut into tablespoons
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

coconut topping
7 large egg whites
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 pound shredded coconut (approx. 6 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup sour cream
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
1 teaspoon grated orange zest

glaze & garnish
1 pound 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
4 1/2 tablespoons butter, cut into tablespoons
4 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 1/4 cups heavy cream
40 roasted almonds

DIRECTIONS
1- make the brownies: preheat oven to 350. line an 11x17 inch baking sheet with parchment paper and spray the parchment with cooking spray. put the chocolate in a medium bowl.
2- in a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, butter, corn syrup and water and bring to a boil. pour the mixture over the chopped chocolate and let stand for about 1 minute, then whisk until smooth. whisk in the flour and salt, then whisk in the eggs and vanilla until fully incorporated.
3- scrape the brownie batter onto the prepared baking sheet and spread it to the edge. bake for 15 minutes, until the top of the brownie looks dry and crackly. transfer the baking sheet to the freezer to chill for 30 minutes, until the brownie base is completely firm.
4- meanwhile, make the coconut topping: in a large heatproof bowl, combine egg whites with sugar. set the bowl over a large saucepan of boiling water and whisk the mixture over moderate heat until it is warm to the touch and the sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes. remove from the heat.
5- using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites at medium-high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 8 minutes. fold in the shredded coconut, sour cream, vanilla seeds and grated orange zest. spread the coconut topping evenly over the brownie base. bake for 30 minutes, until the coconut topping is lightly golden and set. transfer to a rack to cool, then cover and refrigerate until firm, at least 4 hours or overnight.
6- make the glaze: combine the chopped chocolate, butter and corn syrup in a large bowl. in a medium saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let stand for 1 minute, then whisk until the chocolate is melted and the glaze is smooth. let stand until warm to the touch, about 10 minutes.
7- meanwhile, using a sharp knife, trim the border of the chilled brownie base to make it neat. cut the base into 2-inch squares and transfer them to wire rack set over baking sheets. top each square with an almond. using a ladle, pour a thick coating of the chocolate glaze over each brownie bar. using a spatula, spread the glaze to cover the top and sides completely. (rewarm the glaze over a pot of simmering water if it gets too thick.) refrigerate the brownie bars until the glaze sets up, about 1 hour. serve chilled. the brownie bars can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

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[recipe by chef cheryl burr of bacar, san francisco via food & wine 10/08]

Moon.

My Dearest Buttersweaters-

just to give you all a heads up, as i've already been getting crazy emails asking if i'm stopping the site...

1- THAT IS NOT HAPPENING. isweatbutter for life.
2- my domain (www.isweatbutter.com) is undergoing some brief updates from godaddy.com, making it temporarily unavailable.
3- if you, my dear reader, are a subscriber, you should still get updates to your email or to your feed reader while the updates are going on.
4- if you'd like to access the site during the brief downtime, you can access it by using the following url address: http://isweatbutter.blogspot.com.

THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE, THE UPDATES WILL BE WORTH YOUR WHILE! I PROMISE.

Ingredients In My Life's Recipe

there's so much that i like about myself and yet so many things that i want, or perhaps need, to change. am i where i want to be in life? not even close. but this is me, i'm a man, but still wanting so badly to be a kid again. i work hard and live lazy. i'd like to say that i'm funny on a regular basis, the guy that's always trying to lighten the mood. i'm somewhat of a poet at heart, but lately i struggle to find the right words to say. i'd like to start using my ears more than my mouth but i can't figure out how to turn one off and the other on. i want to do so much before i leave this place, but doing nothing is at the top and bottom of my list. i go out when i can, i even go nowhere sometimes just to get away from myself. i love the rain, i love the snow, i love the sun, i love people, i love life. and love? love is everything, it really can move mountains. death might be inevitable, but life is so worth it. i use this place to express the love and inspiration that has, especially recently, helped me get through some of the toughest times in my life, and as a reminder that things can only can get better. thanks for reading.
peace+love+potatoes,
tony

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1 Qt. Of Music

music is a huge part of my life, without it things would be so boring. could you imagine a movie without a soundtrack? a play without a score? a roadtrip without an ipod? music is amazing the way it can transport you somewhere else or hold you in a moment forever... a time, a place, a person, can be subconsciously ingrained in your memory forever with a simple tune or lyric...

if you asked about my 'favorite' music, i would say: what genre? what day? what's my mood? my taste in music is ever-changing and ever-expanding. i tend to circle around old classics like james taylor, csny, cat stevens & carole king, with a little weather report, mixed with a lot of maroon 5, topped with a healthy helping of justin timberlake and jason mraz, garnished with a dollop of zach macko & far north and a sprinkling of colbie caillat. pink is simmering in my cd player right now, with timbaland on the back burner, and billy joel's "summer, highland falls" has been on the last ump-teen playlists i've made. i listen to music to rock out at times and veg out at others. imogen heap goes well with a nice dinner, while cascada goes really well with dancing, and harry chapin always relaxes me. what more can i say? music is me.

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2 Oz. Of Photography

i can only guess that my love for photography has spawned from my father. i remember when my sister's and i were young, he photographed everything. and by everything, i mean EVERYTHING. bathtimes, daytrips, vacations, car trips, sleeping; yes, sleeping. that was one of his favorites that we all still joke about today. as i'm sure my sister's would agree, it was annoying at the time, but now, these years later, i am so happy that we have albums upon albums of photos to look back at. photos that capture a millisecond in time and make it last into eternity.

my personal portfolio may be quite different than my father's, as in my subjects and 'scapes, but i suppose the passion comes from him just the same. he enjoys capturing the memories, as do i, but i especially enjoy photographing strange objects in obscure places, out of their element, if you will.

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3 Cups Of Food Writing

my first blog ever was originally titled "atlantic city style", i began it while living just outside of atlantic city, in the 51st state of southern new jersey. having grown up in northern nj and then spending four years in providence, you tend to get used to certain things. things that tend to be foreign to some people, especially in south jersey.

one day i had a revelation, that so many of the happenings in food culture that i was going through in south jersey were quite comical, especially to my friends in the industry... then with the assistance of tom and his myspace invention, i found that many others found it entertaining as well. and so, it's gone on and on... consistently rated #1 in several food blog catergories over there on MYspace. all of my stories are true, dramatasized for effect, but true none-the-less, and for a little extra kick, i've also posted the 'new post ad's' for each of them when they were originally written...

i've continued my writings, just not all about food, and will share them with the world at the right time. i've always used writing as a creative release, often written in the heat of the moment, and most could be easily taken out of context. there will always be more, and more for me to share, around food or otherwise.

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4 Scoops Of Creative Cuisine

although i'll never lose it completely, and still enjoying cooking at home very much, this part of my life is on a temporary hiatus...

i've lost my passion, or maybe i've just misplaced it. i've forgotten what i'm here for, professionally that is. i used to live to eat, now it seems that i just eat to live, and even that has been a struggle lately. have i wasted the last 7 years of my life on a profession that has no need for me? i don't think so, but i do wonder quite often about it. i'll find my place on the line again one day.

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5 Heaping Tablespoons Of Friends & Family

i tend to forget about the people that care about me when i feel beaten down. thankfully, for whatever reason, i have friends & family that stick with me through everything. months of no contact. no returned phone calls. yet i need an ear to listen, they're there. and for that, i am FOREVER THANKFUL.

to the friends that i lose touch with, don't talk to for months or weeks at a time, that are still there when i need them... THANK YOU.

to my family, that through it all has done there best to help me when they could... THANK YOU.

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