Emily’s Homemade Brownies

I feel the need to express in this post that I am NOT making a "healthy eating blog".  I love sugar.  My family loves sugar.  All in all we go through TOO MUCH sugar from the baking that goes on in this house!  I get irritated when I have to buy a 5 pound bag of sugar in a pinch at the grocery store when I know for a fact that I can get the 10 pound bag of Imperial Sugar at Costco for the same price.  Plus, 5 pounds isn't enough to get me through two weeks of cooking, baking, syrup making, family-night-treating and life in general at the Davis house. Fact.

Funny thing happened Sunday... I ran out of sugar in the middle of making Hot Fudge.  Opps.  Lucky for me, my sweet neighbor across the street was out playing with her kids.  I marched over in my apron, ziplock in hand and asked, "Portia, could I borrow some sugar?  I just ran out!  Who goes through 5 pounds of sugar in a week!!??"  Her reply cemented in my mind what I've already confessed, "Jo, you are the only person I know who would!"

Indeed, we do love sugar over here.

The following is a recipe given to me by the lovely Emily Stark.  She is an amazing woman.  Someone I've admired for years.  I have omitted coconut and nuts and added chocolate chips.  I've loved this recipe and all its glorious sugar for a LONG time.  Since having this recipe, I have purchased a brownie mix once... Three weeks ago to be exact.  I debated making my own, but I had signed up for a specific kind of commercial brownie, and wanted to follow through with what I'd been asked to do!

Brownie RULES:

DO NOT OVER MIX YOUR BROWNIES  or they will turn out like cake.  If I'm going to eat all the calories in a brownie, I have to say I turn into a bit of a food snob.  I will not eat a cake-y brownie.  Brownies are supposed to be gooey and moist and NOT CAKE.  When you are mixing a brownie batch, mix the dry ingredients together as much as you'd like.  Then, in a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients together... as much as you'd like!  BUT, when you mix them together... STOP when all the dry ingredients are moistened.  Even let it sit for a few minutes (10 if you need to set a timer) before you pull it into a baking pan.

This original recipe is for a 9X9 pan.  If you need to make a 9X13 pan of brownies it will be 1 and 1/2 of this recipe and add 10 minutes to bake.

2 cups sugar

1 ½ cups flour

½ cup cocoa

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 

(OR 1/2 cup semi-sweet and 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips)

½ cup butter, melted

4 eggs, beaten

½ teaspoon vanilla

Pre-heat oven to 375.

In a glass bowl (or whatever is NOT metal...) melt the butter in the microwave.

Add beaten eggs and vanilla when the butter is a little cooled.

In a mixing bowl combine and mix all dry ingredients.

Make a well in the middle of your dry ingredients. 

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients until just barely combined.

Grease a 9 X 9 baking pan with refined coconut oil (coconut oil WITHOUT the coconut flavor), and dust with sugar.

Pull brownie mixture into pan and level it out before putting in the oven.

Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes.

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12 Bean and Sausage Soup

AKA: Preferred night-before-a-race meal

My secret to a fast and fueled race???  This soup.

Now you know.  The secret is out and shared for all to use.  I am slowly overcoming my recipe hoarding through these posts!  (And confessing that I use a lot more garlic than I've documented in the past - a direct confession to anyone I have ever gifted a binder full of my favorite recipes.)  Whew!  Okay.  Confessions done... I feel better.  Thanks for listening.

When it comes time to try this recipe, and you're at the grocery store standing in an isle systematically looking for a bag of the "12 Bean Soup Mix" with the other dried beans and think... HUH.  UHHH...  Jo...  Is this right?  There's only a "13 Bean Soup Mix"?!?!?  And you WOULD be right! - at the grocery store or online, it's going to be called "13 Bean Soup Mix".  

Here's why I call it "12 Bean Soup Mix":  
My handsome Bret SR. sweetly asked me one evening while eating this soup, "Jo, would it be possible to NOT have the huge, ugly, dry-in-the-middle beans in this soup?"  
The afore mentioned bean?  A lima bean.  A lot of them...  So my soup has been reduced to a "12 Bean Soup Mix" and the soup (and husband) is all the happier for the requested change.  

At the Davis house we've been eating through a 25 pound bag of Bob's Red Mill bag of "13 Bean Soup Mix" for a few years now.  I honestly don't know that a single bag that you purchase from the grocery store would be enough.  ...it might take 2 bags of the mix because you'll need 2-3 cups.  I'll leave it to you to put your Smarty-Pants on and figure out exactly what you need to buy (1-2 bags of 13 Bean Soup Mix) while you're standing in the store.

As for the races (or a long workout) and this soup for a fueling meal...  The times I've planned ahead and had some stored up in the freezer, or made it fresh and for the whole family the night before a race (or crazy long run) --- AMAZING!!!  Always enough energy.  Never a heavy stomach.  It's my favorite go-to meal the night before.  My only regrets have been when I DIDN'T have it.

Make it.  Try it.  Get in a long run the morning after and tell me if you agree!

2 1/2 - 3 cups 13 bean soup mix 

--- (minus lima beans if Bret SR. will be at your table please!)

8 cups filtered or drinking water for soaking

SOAK 4-8 hours - adding water as needed
(Optional NOTE:  I try to drain, rinse and add new filtered water 1/2 way through the soaking process.)

1 pound sausage (Jimmy Dean Natural  OR  Kroger HOT sausage)

2 Tablespoons Bertolli Extra-Virgin Olive Oil 

1 large onion, chopped

10-12 carrots, peeled and sliced

6 stalks of celery, sliced

1 bundle (8-10 cloves) garlic, minced

1  quart chicken broth

1-2  cups water

2  bay leaves

1  heaping teaspoon dried oregano

1  heaping teaspoon dried basil

1/4  teaspoon red pepper flakes

1  Tablespoon Kosher salt

1  teaspoon black pepper

2  TABLESPOONS Better-Than-Bullion 

1  30 ounce can tomato sauce

Soak your beans 4-6 hours for best results 
- Use water you'd drink or cook with. 
Add water throughout the day as 
it gets soaked into your beans.

(Optional NOTE:  
I try to drain, rinse and add new filtered 
water 1/2 way through the soaking process.)

Brown your sausage in the pot you'll
be cooking your soup in.

Once brown, add your diced onion with
a few Tablespoons of olive oil.

(My all time FAVORITE olive oil is
Bertolli's extra-virgin.
I've never been able to find
a flavor I like more!)

Add peeled, sliced carrots, next celery,
and add minced garlic last.

When garlic is caramelized and everything
has a heavy garlic smell,
add water and chicken broth;
then all remaining ingredients.

With everything added... do not be surprised
(as you baby-sit this amazing soup!) 
that you'll  likely need to add a few cups
of water as the beans soak up more and
more throughout the final simmer.  

Make sure to have a final taste
check before serving. 

You may decide it needs more
Kosher salt and/or pepper.

Cook on a low simmer for 2-3 hours.

Check and stir occasionally.  Add water as needed to keep it at a "soup" consistency.

Serve with cornbread or natural-yeast bread.

Amazing to freeze!!!  Re-heat stovetop and add water, a spoonful of Better-Than-Bullion chicken broth, Kosher salt and pepper to taste for best flavor.


NOTE:
Soup photos were literally taken as the "night-before-race-fuel" for the 2015 Surfside Beach 1/2 Marathon and Kid's Mile.  So yeah.  It works.   XOXO

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The Birthday Wish... COME TRUE!

NEW YORK, New York - 12/2021

TO:  Bret SR.

FROM:  Your Jo

Here you go...  The birthday wish come true!!!  The beginnings of my blog and everything hereafter are dedicated to you.  I love you.  I love cooking for you!  And I love the beautiful life that we have together.  Thank you for being my biggest fan.  And for being the amazing, dedicated and fun father to the rest of my fans!!!




TO:  The rest of you who might happen to actually read my blog (and are not the afore mentioned Bret SR.)

FROM:  Mama Jo

My very handsome and loving husband of 15 years will be posted as Bret SR. as we have our youngest daughter named after him with the exact same spelling.  And since she no longer wishes to be called "Baby Bret", the identification between the two will be established with Bret SR.

Bret SR. and I have been married for a quickly passing 15 years this year (2015).  We have 4 wonderful children who I love to cook for...  They have often talked during meals about me opening a small bakery or restaurant or having a food truck.  Which brings me to the name of this blog.  Mama Jo's is what they all have wanted me to name my food establishment.

So... TA DA!  Thank you kids!  My blog has a name without much effort.  LOVE IT.

On the wall in my kitchen at home I have written "FOOD IS LOVE" surrounded by memories of eating.  Feeding Jerry Man and my husband in the middle of a 209 mile LOTOJA race.  Eating a picnic out of the back of our old Honda Pilot with my littles and Grandma Louise at Craters of the Moon.  Payton munching on watermelon at Aunt Blake's and Uncle Aaron's 4th of July party.  Food is woven into our relationships, histories, traditions and memories.

Food truly is an expression of love when the effort is made to make it wonderful.  This blog will be an addition to that expression of my love to family and friends.  Enjoy!

Love, Jo




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Blackberry (or Peach) Cobbler

5  cups fresh or frozen blackberries  

(fresh or frozen peaches.  However… frozen peaches are the easiest to deal with…)

1  cup sugar

1/2  cup water 

8  Tablespoons butter 

1  cup sugar
1 1/2  cups self-rising flour 
1 1/2  cups milk 

2  teaspoons cinnamon
1/3  cup large-crystal baking sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the blackberries (or peaches), 1 cup sugar, and water in a saucepan and mix. 

Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. 

Remove from the heat.

Put the butter in a 9X13 baking dish and place in oven to melt butter and get the baking dish hot.

Mix remaining 1 cup sugar, self-rising flour, and milk slowly to prevent clumping.  

Let sit a few minutes and then stir again.  

DO NOT MIX WITH AN ELECTRIC HAND MIXER.

Pour mixture over melted butter.  

DO NOT STIR.

Spoon fruit on top, and gently pour in syrup and any remaining fruit from the saucepan. 

Sprinkle top with ground cinnamon; then the large-crystal baking sugar.

Bake for 30 to 45 minutes.

To serve, scoop onto a plate and serve with your choice of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Click Link FOR:   Mama Jo's Recipe Blog TABLE OF CONTENTS