Salted Caramel Blondies

These Salted Caramel Blondies tasted even better than I thought they would.  Did you know that feasting is an Election Night tradition in newsrooms?  I was thinking of a simple snack to make and found a recipe for these at Two Peas and Their Pod.  They were so rich, it worked to cut them into about a quarter of the size of the bars you see here.  And they fueled editors and reporters until our boatload delivery of Italian food and North End desserts arrived as the polls closed.  Around midnight, as the coffee supply was refreshed, a coworker was saying she could use a blondie but they were long gone.

I wasn't always a fan of caramel, finding it awfully sweet.  But salt adds complexity, and I'll even say sophistication, to caramel.  And although there are recipes out there that will call for homemade caramel sauce -- and I will often go for the made-from-scratch stuff -- I loved how the caramel sauce came together in the microwave in under 2 minutes by heating caramel squares with a bit of cream.  Perfect for when you've got a hectic Election Night, or just want to curl up with a book, a blondie, and a glass of milk.

Bison Chili

Forget ground turkey.  When you want a lean chili, try bison.  It's got that beefy flavor that poultry just can't imitate.  In addition to being leaner than beef, bison has the benefit of being free of antibiotics and hormone injections because the animals are a protected species.

I won't lie to you: one drawback is the price.  Bison costs close to $10 a pound around here, and this recipe calls for 2 pounds of meat.  Eating healthy ain't cheap.  I initially thought about halving the recipe, but halving the cans of beans, hominy, and tomatoes becomes inconvenient.  What can you do with half a can of hominy?  But if you think of the cost in servings instead of the total, at 6 servings it works out to $4 a serving.  Not bad.

I think the recipe loses a little of the rich mouthfeel that a traditional beef chili has because the bison tastes leaner, but that's the fat missing.  Joe gave a better review, saying he preferred this to traditional beef chili.  With the holidays coming up and winter being full of heavy foods, it's nice to have a leaner alternative when you want a hot bowl of chili on those wintry days.  Your waistline will be thankful.

And if you really want to be healthy, try this recipe for Roasted Brussels Sprouts that has dried cranberries and walnuts from Oh My Veggies.  It also has baked apple but I ate my last one, so I roasted some grapes with the sprouts.  I discovered on my Facebook page that lots of you out there are sprouts lovers!  Alas, this was my first taste of sprouts and I don't really dig them.  But I was in the minority -- two of my friends loved them and asked for the recipe.  And the flavors of maple, cranberry, and walnut are great.  If you like sprouts, you'll love this recipe.

Boston Globe Review: Eggs Benedict Eleven Ways

Photos by Shirley Goh/Globe Staff

Clockwise from top left: The Atlantic benedict has poached eggs and smoked salmon on rye with Hollandaise in a twist on the traditional; muffins; blueberry-stuffed pancakes; and bring a big appetite for the Lumberjack omelet.

This was a great place for weekend brunch.  You know how sometimes you regret eating at greasy diners or chains afterwards, thinking you could have made it better, and for less money?  This isn't that place.  Plus there's the 11 varieties of eggs Benedict.  If you're on the South Shore, visit Nikos in Weymouth.

Read the review at: http://bitly.com/TMicN5
If the subscriber pay wall locks you out, it's available at: http://bitly.com/U6w7rD

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

Are you sick of pumpkin recipes yet?  Apparently I'm not.  Right now my friend Jacob must be thinking, "Where's the chocolate?"  I had actually planned a couple of savory, non-pumpkin recipes for this week, but then I wanted to bring a sweet to round out the pizza at an event for journalists I helped organize.  So I went with the seasonal favorite, pumpkin.  And who can say no to caramel cream cheese frosting?  The cupcakes were a big hit, and people asked permission to take home the last few.  Granted, of course.

This recipe from Tracey's Culinary Adventures produces a light and moist cupcake, slightly sweet and nicely spiced.  I thought it needed very little frosting, less than you see here.  The caramel flavor doesn't really come across in the frosting, so I would skip making the caramel and just go with a plain cream cheese frosting recipe.  Now, what should I make with the other half a can of pumpkin?

Reminder: I have a new Facebook page.  Please visit and "Like" it!

Pumpkin Waffles with Maple Butter

I love homemade waffles.  I grew up eating the kind you buy frozen, but there's no comparison with homemade.  Plus, when you have a little time on the weekends, waffles are really easy to make.  And these are pumpkin waffles.  They're spiced just like pumpkin pie, with cinnamon, ground ginger, and clove, and topped with a scoop of maple butter.

If you think that's decadent, I should tell you that the original recipe on Foodness Gracious included maple bacon butter.  Despite being a bacon lover, I decided to forgo the meat for breakfast.  And instead of using maple syrup to make the butter, I decided to try maple sugar, figuring the butter wouldn't get loose and runny the way it might when adding liquid.  Now, I actually never put butter on my waffles or pancakes, and I don't think it's needed here -- the maple sugar gets lost in the additional syrup you pour on top.  But I plan to spread this delicious butter on toast and English muffins, and it would be great on biscuits.  My other tweak is one I always use with homemade waffles, and that's to substitute half of the flour with white whole wheat flour.  Tastes just like regular waffles, and they're a little better for you.  Who's ready for brunch?

Handy tip: Freeze leftover waffles wrapped in plastic for a quick breakfast during the week.  Thaw on the counter, then heat in the toaster oven briefly.

I almost forgot: I finally made a Facebook page for my blog.  Visit it and "Like" it?  I don't have any giveaways to entice you with, but I hope to see you on that end anyway.

Maple-Glazed Apple Crostata

I always look forward to baking an apple pie in the fall.  The oven warms the house, and fills it with the smells of cinnamon and nutmeg.  My favorite is a traditional double-crust apple pie, but it's kind of a production.  So when I don't have all day, I turn to open-faced pies like this crostata.  I had made an apple crostata previously with cranberries, but plain ol' apple is usually what I want.  This version is packed with apples.  The recipe calls for just dumping them all onto the dough, but I wanted a fancier look.  Unfortunately, shingling the apples instead of dumping them into one big mound meant not all of them fit, plus they were so packed in that the slices became vertical instead of slanted.  No matter, still delicious.  My aesthetic quibble was actually the crust edges -- I didn't think the crostata needed a 3-inch border like the recipe called for so I went with 2 inches, and you can see it came up short.  But like I said, still delicious.

And it still managed to wow a crowd.  With the leftover apples that didn't fit, I made a halved recipe for the crostata, resulting in this smaller one we ate at home.  I used gala apples, which have great flavor and hold their shape well during baking.  And the bulk bag of organic galas cost the same per pound as the loose galas.  My one disappointment with this recipe was that you don't really taste the maple syrup you brush on the apples at the very end.  I suggest skipping that step, or using more syrup and then telling me how that turned out.

Cocoa Brownies

A while back I read that brownies made with cocoa instead of chocolate were superior, though I can't remember why.  In this recipe, Alice Medrich writes: "Cocoa brownies have the softest center and chewiest candylike top 'crust' of all because all of the fat in the recipe (except for a small amount of cocoa butter in the cocoa) is butter, and all of the sugar is granulated sugar rather than the finely milled sugar used in chocolate." The top wasn't as crackly as promised, but the brownies were wonderfully fudgy.

Medrich also notes that any unsweetened Dutch-process or natural cocoa powder works well in the recipe -- natural cocoa (this is the kind you usually find in your supermarket) will produce more flavor complexity while Dutch-process has a mellower, old-fashioned chocolate pudding flavor.  I went with a Ghirardelli natural cocoa powder, which gave the brownies a deep, bittersweet flavor.