recipes

brownie recipe is so easy it's embarrassing. i cheat when it comes to brownies...i use a mix. everything else i make from scratch, promise! anyway, make a betty crocker brownie mix, put half in the pan, put york peppermint patties on the batter (i break them in half first) then pour the rest of the brownie batter on the top and smooth it out. then bake...voilà! brownies!

2 C of milk 3 T flour, 1 T cornstarch ½ C sugar, and ¼ tsp. salt 2 beaten egg yolks 1 tsp. vanilla ½ C coconut (if coconut) 2 really ripe bananas (if banana)

if feeling meringuey: 2 egg whites ¼ C sugar ¼ tsp. vanilla ½ C coconut (if coconut)

if not: whipping / whipped cream

• Scald 2 C of milk in top double boiler
• Combine 3 T flour, 1 T cornstarch (look for a while first, declare that you don't have any, then ask Andrea's mother to find it, who will immediately reach into the cabinet and produce it), ½ C sugar, and ¼ tsp. salt, and mix thoroughly
• Add to scalded milk and cook 15 minutes, stirring constantly (whew!).
• Stir small amount of mixture into 2 beaten egg yolks, return to double boiler, and cook a few minutes longer.
• Cool and add 1 tsp. vanilla (accidentally spill extra vanilla into mix. Apologize profusely) and ½ C coconut (but not if you're making banana cream pie-if so, slice up a few bananas and layer them on the bottom of the pan in pretty concentric circles).
• Pour filling into baked pie shell.
• If feeling meringuey, beat 2 egg whites stiff. Beat in ¼ C sugar gradually and add ¼ tsp. vanilla (again, spill accidentally …). Pile it on the filling, and sprinkle ½ C coconut (or splatter a mashed banana) over meringue.
• If not feeling meringuey, skip that step, and put whipped cream on the top after baking. NOTE: this version is much better for smashing in faces.
• Bake in slow 325° oven 20 minutes
• Firm & Brown (just like Andrea!)
• Unless meringued, throw in someone's face. Quote old, old plays that you were in with Emilie in sixth grade: - "banana cream pie? I said chocolate cream pie!" [smack]
• Eat while watching Breakfast at Tiffany's, and making Wagner and squash jokes, and wondering why Richard Wagner is inherently funny.

RECIPE FOR JAPANESE PANCAKES

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• flour
• water
• 1 scallion
• 1 large or 2 small shitake mushrooms
• 1 slice of red cabbage (1/4 inch thick at the widest part, or less even)
• 1 slice of ginger, c. 3 mm, or however much you want

mix 1 egg with enough flour that it's not really shiny at all and kind of like the cookie recipe from the back of the cookie bag that makes your arm hurt by the time you've finished stirring but maybe not that thick.

Add water until you have a thinnish pancake-mix like thing going, which is very little water. You'd be amazed. Be careful. When mixing either the flour or the water, you can always add more, so go slowly until you have it down. Adding flour at the end when it's been too watered down doesn't result in a great pancake.

Chop up the scallion in a sort of minced fashion. You don't have to but can use the top where it's dark green and not as good. Cut the slice of red cabbage up also into small pieces, maybe 1 cm square (and of course, separate leaves). Cut the mushroom(s) into small squares, maybe 3/4 cm. Mince the garlic.

Put all of these ingredients into the mix.

Heat a pan with oil in it so the pancake doesn't stick. Pour/scoop the pancake mix into the pan and flatten it into a pancake shape. If it sizzles as you put it in, the pan's probably a little too hot. When the bottom is nicely browned in parts, flip the pancake. You may want to reduce the heat at that point, especially if the top of the pancake was looking particularly liquid, because the top will brown before it gets cooked through.

Eat with soy sauce or teryaki sauce.

You can make more than one pancake in a bowl at once, but I don't suggest it. I suggest doing each one separately to get the ingredients just right & to not have vegetables settling at the bottom of the bowl or something.