Review of Whining and Dining: Mealtime Survival for Picky Eaters and the Families Who Love Them, plus One Pot Brownies Recipe

Emma Waverman and Eshun Mott give lots of good advice on how to raise adventurous eaters in Whining and Dining, plus the best recipes I’ve found for cake, brownies, and muffins.  I make the banana bread as muffins (-1/4 c sugar) from this cookbook more frequently than any baked good other than bread, which I make nearly every week.  But the book is worth buying simply for either of the cake recipes, or the one-pot brownie recipe, which I’m including a variation on here.  I’ve not made brownies or cake from other recipes since I bought this cookbook, although I continue to experiment with various recipes for icing.

The cookbook is enriched by anecdotes about the authors’ kids, and has considerable visual appeal from the photos of kids eating the food, but there are not a lot of pictures of the food.  (Food porn, it is not.)  It has tons of good recipes, such as Yin and Yang Five-Spice Chicken (wonderful if you like five-spice), and some great suggestions for packed lunches.

There are some underwhelming offerings:  I found the Pad Thai bland, and I wasn’t happy with the pizza dough (too much flour, not enough dough for my pan), but overall it’s one of my most used cookbooks.  It’s introduced some new tricks into my cooking, and Waverman and Mott have convinced me that having buttermilk on hand on a regular basis (for muffins and cake) is a good thing, something I wouldn’t have otherwise considered.

One Pot Brownies, from Whining and Dining

These brownies are so rich and fudgy there is no need to ice them.  As I’ve noted elsewhere, I don’t use unsalted butter, so I’ve omitted the salt from the original recipe.  I never have the bittersweet chocolate it called for either, so I’ve reduced the sugar here.  I’ve simplified the recipe a bit too.  And they are still the best brownies I’ve ever had, every time.

• ½ c butter
• 2 squares semi-sweet chocolate
• ¾ c white sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• ½ c all purpose flour
• ¼ c cocoa powder
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ½ c chocolate chips
• optional:  ½ nuts, ½ chopped dried cherries

Preheat oven to 350ºF.  Butter an 8×8” pan.

Melt butter and chocolate in a medium size pot over low heat.  Stir in sugar and let cool while you measure out the dry ingredients.  Add the eggs, stirring well to make sure they don’t start to cook before you get everything mixed in.  Stir in dry ingredients, then vanilla, chocolate chips and any other additions.

Spread in buttered pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, no more.

Review: Joy of Cooking

I’m on my second copy of the Joy of Cooking, having been gifted the 75^th anniversary hardcover edition after my soft-cover with the plastic binding fell apart.  It is a great reference cookbook, and all around basic instruction manual for finding your way in the kitchen.  If you find yourself calling your mother every time you go to roast something to ask what temperature to use, or how to make the everyday things she never used a recipe for, this is the book you need.  If you only own one cookbook, this is the one to have since it gives detailed instructions on so many techniques, and thousands of recipes for many different types of foods.

When I make candied citrus peel (such as for Christmas pudding), this is the recipe book I use.  When I’m trying a new cooking method, I usually consult this book first, even if I’m using a recipe from elsewhere.  I rarely follow its recipes exactly, I but use it for a general reference of proportions and temperatures when I’m making things like quiche, roasts, fudge, and ice cream.

The 75^th anniversary edition has also been updated to include information on newer ingredients like textured vegetable protein (TVP), which can be used to substitute ground beef in recipes like Sloppy Joes, and works really well in a vegetarian tourtiere recipe I got from my friend Moggy.