Random Cuteness

We went North this past weekend to visit Boy Wonder and his lovely girl-friend, M. I have a hard time leaving the Mom thing behind so I came with ingredients and trimmings for Saturday & Sunday’s Night meals.

Boy Wonder is good about it and knows it is my large nurture gene and not a reflection on their ability to cook for us. Truth is, I do this wherever I visit and most people who know me well enough all react the same way.

They chuckle, sit back and enjoy.

Saturday we enjoyed pizzas made on the Italian Semolina dough I had brought from, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. (If you haven’t discovered the joys of the Breads in 5 series from Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg, MD, you are missing out!)

I kept it simple with thinly sliced tomatoes as the base followed by thinly sliced purple onion, torn fresh basil, good imported prosciutto and fresh mozzarella cheese. Bit of fresh ground pepper, kosher salt and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Full of fresh flavor and hit the spot nicely.

BW & M treated us to lunch at Brown’s Brewing Co. early on Sunday afternoon. We noshed on nachos, two kinds of wings and an incredible asian calamari. The Balsamic BBQ wings were declared heavenly delicious unanimously, hands down. The Oatmeal Stout I had was superb as well.

Brown’s left us all in a food coma & we spent the next couple of hours reclined over assorted furniture, surfing the inter webs. It also left M with a craving for chocolate, specifically warm brownies.

I had been haunted by salted caramel recipes that were all over Pinterest and knew just what to do. Armed with a list, BW took me to the grocery store and I came back with everything needed to make salted caramel, brownie sundaes to follow that evening’s meal.

I went by this recipe. I have not made caramel before and honestly, it’s not hard at all. Just don’t do the one very stupid thing that I did. As tempting as the amber colored melted sugar looks, do NOT stick your finger into it to get a taste.

If you know what it feels like to have a hot glue burn, imagine that times 1000. Seriously.

The other thing is that when you haven’t tasted salt caramel before, you keep being surprised by the caramel tasting salty sweet instead of just sweet. At least that’s how it worked for BW and I.

So after we dined on Tamarind Glazed Meatloaf from American Masala and Manchurian Roasted Cauliflower from Masala Farm we tucked into our Salt Caramel Warm Brownie Sundaes.

And while I cheated and made the brownies from a box, topped with a good french vanilla ice-cream, whipped cream and a drizzle of more salt caramel on top…….. we all agreed that the balance of salty, sweet and creamy was a success!

©2012 Dawn Marie Kelly, all rights reserved.

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