Chili powder in unexpected places

Brownies with jalapeños

With a few jalapeños left over from my cornbread adventures last week, I was trying to devise a way to make jalapeno ice cream. All of the recipes I found were complicated and looked like they may or may not be edible at the end. I decided to instead go with jalapeño brownies, since many sites advocated for the spicy/chocolate combo. (For more on this delicious phenomena, see the Chipotle Chili World Market chocolate bar).

* 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
* 1/2 cup butter
* 4 large eggs
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 5 large jalapeño peppers, minced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 by 13-inch pan.

Melt butter and chocolate chips together in a double boiler (or a bowl/saucepan/tin foil contraption, if you are not quite that fancy). Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk or beat the eggs with the salt until foamy. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat until well blended. Add the chocolate-butter mixture and stir until just combined. Add the flour and cocoa powder and mix until almost blended. Fold in the jalapeños.

Transfer batter to the prepared pan and bake until the top forms a cracked crust and the inside looks slightly moist, 30 to 35 minutes. Allow to cool, then cut into squares and dust with powdered sugar.




Chili Powder French Fries
We found ourselves with little interesting to eat for dinner the other night, with just some cod and potatoes. Not wanting to go the Irish peasant route, I thought I would instead go the unhealthy American route and make some easy and fattening fries.

Slice potatoes as thin as you'd like. Heat a layer of vegetable oil in a skillet, and add potato pieces. Cook until they are as browned/crispy as you want. Take them out and pat them down to remove excess oil. Omit this part if you want the full fatty, patriotic experience. Add whatever seasonings you want. (I added chili powder, garlic salt and a little bit of sea salt.) Eat as many as you want. Sue me and/or potato manufacturer for making you unhealthy. Yum!