thanks to John Rudy for this

Preheat oven to 325°F.

1. Melt butter then set aside.
2. Beat eggs in large mixer bowl on high speed until foamy (or beat with a whisk just well enough to see a few bubbles).
3. Mix in granulated sugar, brown sugar, and flour.
4. Slowly stir in butter and then chocolate chips.
5. Pour mixture into unbaked pie shell.
6. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until knife inserted half way between outside edge and center comes out clean.
7. Cool on wire rack.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, if desired.
This pie freezes well.
(Recipe from John Rudy and Genius Kitchen )

Healthy Moist Banana Bread

Grease 9”x5“ loaf pan Preheat oven to 325˚F

1. Mix dry ingreds (flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt) in a bowl
2. Mix wet ingreds (eggs, oil, honey, yogurt, vanilla) for 2 mins in a large bowl. Stir in bananas.
3. Stir dry ingreds into wet ingreds
4. Stir in add-ins
5. Pour in the greased pan
6. sprinkle with cinnamon, raw sugar, or banana slices (optional).
7. Bake 50-55 mins till toothpick comes out clean
8. Cool 10 minutes, slice

Makes: 12 ¾” slices approx. 238 calories each.

From GimmeDelicious.com

Chocolate Covered Caramelized Matzoh

1. Line a rimmed baking sheet (approximately 11 x 17″, 28 x 42cm) completely with foil, making sure the foil goes up and over the edges. Cover the foil with a sheet of parchment paper.
2. Preheat oven to 375ºF (190ºC).
3. Line the bottom of the sheet with matzoh, breaking extra pieces as necessary to fill in any spaces.
4. In a 3-4 quart (3-4l) heavy duty saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar together, and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the butter is melted and the mixture is beginning to boil. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, add the salt and vanilla, and pour over matzoh. Working quickly, spread the caramel with a heatproof spatula.
5. Put the pan in the oven and reduce the heat to 350ºF (175ºC) degrees. Bake for 15 minutes. As it bakes, it will bubble up but make sure it’s not burning every once in a while. If it is burning in spots, remove from oven and reduce the heat to 325ºF (160ºC), then replace the pan.
6. Remove from oven and immediately cover with chocolate chips. Let stand 5 minutes, then spread with an offset spatula.
7. If you wish, sprinkle with toasted almonds (or another favorite nut, toasted and coarsely-chopped), a sprinkle of flaky sea salt, or roasted cocoa nibs.

Either: (a) Let cool completely, or (b) While still warm, break into pieces. (if warm put in cold place to cool) and store in an airtight container until ready to serve. It should keep well for about one week.

from The Takeout

Get the sliced onions caramelizing while you prepare everything else. Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet, add the onions, stir to coat, and enact the long, slow dance of adding water and scraping every time the onions start to sizzle.

Meanwhile, add the beef, soup mix, bread crumbs, and egg to a bowl. Fold together until the mixture is just firming up. You’re going to mix this a lot more than a typical burger, but do it as little as you can to keep it from going full racquetball on you.

Evenly spread the mixture into a 9-by-13-inch rimmed sheet pan, refrigerate, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. When the oven comes to temperature, remove the beef from the fridge and top it with the caramelized onions. Bake for 12-15 minutes. If you’ve sculpted correctly (yes, this is art), the entirety of the pan should come to temperature at the same time.

Drain the liquid (one of those drawbacks of heartland sheet-based cooking) and, if you’re serving immediately, top with cheese and pop under the broiler to melt. Remove from oven, slice into 12 even portions, and make some sliders.

If you’re feeling fancy, pop the cardboard tray of split rolls out of the bag, cover with a dish towel or parchment paper, and steam them for a minute or two before assembling the burgers.

These taste great served immediately, but Mom’s secret trick was always to make extras, reassemble the rolls in neat order in the tray, and put that back into the bag so we’d have a second day (usually never a third) of slider leftovers. Just pop a few out, microwave, and enjoy. Thirty seconds wrapped in a damp paper towel and the leftovers are nearly good as new.

Thanks to John Rudy for this discussion and recipe, September 2019

We recently returned from Sicily and Rome where you never see the words “ice cream”. I don’t know why gelato has not caught on in the United States as most Americans who visit Italy fall in love with it. We did an important study and rated the gelatos at about 8 places. The best got a 9.5 on the Mir scale. The worst got a 7 (except for one at a hotel).

Good ice cream, as we all know, has a very high fat content. The best ice cream is about 2:1 heavy cream to milk, plus egg yolks and sugar, which is heated until the sugar dissolves. It is then cooled and beaten while kept cold which introduces air (sometimes a lot). Gelato is different. It starts out with a similar custard base but has a higher proportion of whole milk and a lower proportion of cream and eggs (or no eggs at all). Over-ripe fruit should be used for the best flavor. It is churned at a much slower rate, incorporating less air and leaving the gelato denser and smoother than ice cream. Vanilla gelato contains about 90 calories and 3 grams of fat, compared to 125 calories and 7 grams of fat in the average vanilla ice cream. Gelato is served at a slightly warmer temperature than ice cream, so its texture stays silkier and softer, yet dense due to the lack of air. Because it has a lower percentage of fat than ice cream, the main flavor ingredients really shine through. Rick Steves says that gelato should not be stored for a long time; preferably only a day or two. So eating a lot is emphasized. Here is a recipe for chocolate gelato, my favorite.

1. Heat the milk, cream, and ½ cup sugar in a 2-quart saucepan until the sugar dissolves and the milk starts to simmer. Add the cocoa powder and chocolate and whisk until smooth. Pour into a heat-proof measuring cup.
2. Place the egg yolks and the remaining ¼ cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until light yellow and very thick. With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour the hot chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Pour the egg and chocolate mixture back into the 2-quart saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. A candy thermometer will register about 180° F. Don't allow the mixture to boil!
3. Pour the mixture through a sieve (to remove any inadvertent lumps) into a bowl and stir in the coffee liqueur, vanilla, and salt. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the custard and chill completely.
4. Pour the custard into the bowl of an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's directions. Don’t over-beat. Stir in the roughly chopped chocolate, if using, and freeze in covered containers. Allow the gelato to thaw slightly before serving so it is not hard.

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