Oh yes, you read that right. Black bean brownies.

I forgot to take a picture of the brownies, so here are some beans I didn't take a picture of.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Becki, are you out of your mind? Why would you put BEANS in BROWNIES?”

My response to you, dear reader, is: don’t knock it ’til you try it. Believe it or not, these brownies actually pretty good.

Here’s the secret: they don’t taste anything at all like beans. Which is good, because I despise beans. Despise them. Like, if a black bean broke down on the side of a road, I wouldn’t stop to give it a lift. I might go so far as to say I would laugh at it.

Well, now that you must be certain I’ve lost my marbles, I’ll explain how this recipe works. There are three ingredients (I nixed the fourth — decided I didn’t need chocolate chips). And those ingredients are one (1) 15-oz. can of black beans, one (1) cup of water, and one (1) box of Betty Crocker Fudge Brownie Mix (I couldn’t find low-fat at my local grocery). That’s it.

All you have to do is puree the beans and water together, and then combine the result with the brownie mix. Half an hour in the oven later, you’ve got brownies! Moist, fudgy, un-beany brownies. (As long as your blender blends properly, I promise you will not taste the black beans at all.)

Before you run out and buy your can of beans, here’s a pro tip: use the right size pan. I only had a 11×15, 5 qt. baking dish, which is, probably not surprisingly, a lot different from a 9×13 pan. I remembered long ago seeing my mom change the size of a pan by inserting a tinfoil barrier into it, so I hastily wadded up some Reynolds and made a little wall in my baking dish. It helped a little, but the side of the brownies closest to the foil kind of had an uneven, wavy texture, because my wadded-up foil wasn’t very smooth or straight, and the brownies still ended up being very thin and very dense.

In fact, if they were any denser, they’d have been black holes. Black hole black bean brownies. I think that’s got a ring to it. Don’t you agree?

Three noms for the too-thin but very chocolatey black hole black bean brownies.

Week 3’s recipe was Country Style Chicken, made with a McCormick Bag ‘n Season, uh, bag. It was an impulse buy; I passed by and thought it sounded both easy and delicious, so I snatched it up.

And I was right: it’s virtually idiot-proof. (Seriously, this time!) This is all you do: put boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a bag, which they give you, then put a bunch of spices and junk, which they give you, in there with flour and water and then just wait 35 minutes! Seriously, if I can do this, anyone can.

Could not be any easier!

(At some point I need to get Greg to teach me how to use his SLR so I can actually, you know, take decent pictures.)

I picked up some biscuits and saffron rice, because I was in the mood for both. It’s kind of an unusual pairing, I guess, but it wasn’t bad.

I’d consider making this again for the easiness factor, though it didn’t smack me in the face with deliciousness or anything, so I’m calling it three noms.

PRETEND THIS IS A REAL BURGER.

Um.

I didn’t take a picture of this one.

I’m sorry.

Here, have some clip art. It’s the next best thing. Right?

So Week 2 actually came around January 19 or so. (It’s a well-guarded secret that I am often late to do things and that I procrastinate frequently. JUST KIDDING! Everybody knows it. You probably guessed it, too, judging by the fact that I’m only writing about this project now, in September, because I am just that awesome.)

You’ll notice many of the recipes that pop up between January and May are Weight Watchers or otherwise low-cal, low-fat recipes. That’s because I’d succumbed to the “I’m a bride-to-be, I have to lose 20 pounds, no matter how skinny I already am” school of thought. (It’s less of a school and more of a cult, really.) It did give me a chance to play around with recipes I might not try otherwise, though.

For Week 2, I decided to go with pepper jack turkey burgers. I’d never had one before, so I was curious. Plus the turkey bacon in the recipe sweetened the deal for me. (…Saltened?) The presence of bacon also ensured Greg’s thumbs-up on the idea.

We live in New York, so we don’t own a real grill. Luckily, we have a little Foreman, which worked just fine for our purposes. Cooking proceeded more or less without incident; the recipe was pretty straightforward, although I almost had a meltdown trying to figure out if I needed to peel the green onions or not. (I am, as I mentioned before, pretty awesome.)

It’s a little hard to describe the difference between burgers made with ground turkey and those made with ground beef. The turkey seems a bit sweeter, maybe. I don’t know what exactly I was expecting, but I was pleasantly surprised with the results of that week’s cooking experiment. We put the patties on whole-wheat buns after I decided it would be delicious, and I was right. (Greg, to me: “Here, I picked out some buns for–” Me, screaming: “NO NO NO THEY MUST BE WHOLE-WHEAT THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT OR EVERYTHING WILL BE RUINED, RUUUUUIIIIIIINED”)

This is kind of a cliché, but you couldn’t even tell the burgers were Weight Watchers, which is a big plus in my book. Overall, I’d give them four noms (to continue with my patently absurd rating system). (NOM NOM NOM NOM)

(NOM)

Fin.

In Slate, Daniel Gross warns of the cupcake boom’s inevitable bust.

“Cupcakes are having their moment, no question, and many could make sweet profits. But remember what always happens after a sugar rush: a crash.”

He explains how the recession has both paved the way for a “cupcake bubble” and a “cupcake crash.” The sweet treats are touted as an affordable luxury in times like these (and let’s not forget, cupcakes are total comfort food), but in the long run it’s hard to make money off of them, he points out.

Mmm....cupcakes.

I know everyone here in New York City says that cupcakes are, like, so over. But I don’t really see that happening yet. Those plucky little desserts don’t show any signs of slowing down, in my opinion; I mean, we just recently got a cupcake truck. Actually, I guess that could be a sign that cupcakes have kind of become stale…how much farther can we go with them?

(I will note here that personally I think Cupcake Stop is an amazing idea and I hope to come across it in the city sometime very soon. Also I hope the cupcake bubble isn’t about to burst because, darnit, I love cupcakes and I don’t care if they’re not hip anymore.)

So what do you guys think? Are cupcakes going anywhere anytime soon?

(Thanks to John W. Smith for the link.)

Let me put something out there before we begin. Okay? Ready?

Casseroles are glorious things.

Why?

Because they are so gosh-darn easy to make. Only a moron could screw them up. Really!

Hi!

Well…with a set-up like that you probably aren’t too surprised at where I was going with it.

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