Texas Bound and Deviled Eggs Diablo

Always love me some deviled eggs, but when mom Val said what would you say if we added bacon and jalapenos, I threw myself at her feet. Spicy and bacon is always a plus.

Try it and you'll be hooked, although they almost do not beat out my Black Truffle 'Summer Deviled Duck Eggs'...

Zucchini Bread Pudding

Like bread pudding? And making zucchini bread? Combine both for a dessert, and you have a winner. They are easy to freeze and pull out when you want one. Don't serve the brandy sauce with it and serve it as a snack. This just made sense.

Hubs saw this dish at whole foods in one of their small packaging and I slapped his hand away. Your bill at WF can already be huge, why add stuff like this to the basket.

I followed Paula Deen's recipe for zucchini bread, but use ramekins to bake individual servings. I added the slice of zucchini just like we saw in WF, and voila! Give some out as gifts to your neighbors as I do, and freeze a few.

Let them cool completely before removing from tins or ramekins, and I recommend using cupcake papers if you are going to do them in tins. The ramekins allow for a knife to slip around and they pop out.  If unfreezing or after a few days, add a pat of butter and reheat before pouring brandy sauce on top.

Now there could be a problem making brandy sauce for one or two, when the recipe calls for more than you need, and sugary sauces are not easy to keep, they become weepy. So I eyed a smaller batch just from my own experience. You can always add a tablespoon more of this and that if it comes out too thin, or too thick. Sugar, brown sugar (or not, plain sugar will do), water, and boil until begins to thicken (you want it to run like syrup off of spoon) and add brandy just at the end; unless you like to cook the alcohol out, and there is always an argument there, whether it does cook out. I believe it does on high heat after five minutes. If this is how you feel, add in beginning and boil away!

Some brandy sauces are all fancy and have 3 or 4 ingredients, but I use the old fashioned way like my mom and grandmother, sugar and water and thicken; add alcohol, stir and let sit. Some call for corn starch, but that is to thicken, and if you know it sugar thickens to make caramel, therefore thickens on its own. But you will not take it that far, only a runny sauce flavored by brandy or rum if you choose.

Enjoy! We did...

Remember, Dosai

This is still a number one snack and mealtime delight.

Eaten sweet and stuffed. Fresh Jersey blueberries and some syrup, oh yes!

Do a search in the upper left hand corner and you will see all the different ways I have used this batter, savory and sweet. Plan and simple, we like it the traditional way; stuffed with curried potatoes, tomatoes, and often with spinach. But there is no pan or home stove big enough to make the giant Indian restaurant style, so we make this version. It is also served with sambar- a vegetable lentil spicy soup.

Dosa or Dosé or Dosai is a fermented crepe or pancake made from rice batter and black lentils. It is indigenous to and is a staple dish in the southern Indian. 

You can make it at home, but you have to get the consistency thin enough to spread. Otherwise it will begin cooking once it hits the pan and puffs up like a chefs ego. Only use distilled water to thin it out if the batter thickens, and it will. You can think out a small batch if you are cooking it right away; adding regular tap water messes with the fermentation, which makes it a live food (raw food eaters). 

This is a gluten free food as well. 

Okay, now I'm hungry and there is a great Dosai restaurant near my destination for the evening of reading my poetry to a live audience. Go and try it for yourself...