Daydreaming of endless tomatoes and zucchini.
The gopher got one of my fava bean plants.
This is war.
Monthly Archive for March, 2009
This is my dog Leo, short for leopard. He is a destroyer. He destroys my garden with his giant paws. I tell him to sit and he sits on top of my artichoke plants. He tries to help by digging holes in an attempt to catch a small gopher that has infiltrated my garden. Leo also had fun tearing down my sugar snap pea vines, in attempt to bring the peas to a height where he could reach them. I love Leo, but he is a beast. 9months and 75pounds of garden destroying beast.
Adapted from 101 cooksbooks, adapted from Ania Catalano’s Baking With Agave Nectar
I changed a few things because I didn’t want to use an entire cup (or two sticks) of butter in such a healthy looking recipe, and I didn’t want to go out and buy agave nectar. I added some ingredients I had on hand, just to mix it up a bit.
High in protein, no butter and no sugar.
I know black bean brownies sound gross, and, well I think they’re not perfect yet… but its moist and dense and next time I will add more chocolate, since the chocolate is the only real ingredient that counts as ‘unhealthy’. With my adaptations, I think this will make for an excellent breakfast. 
Black Bean Brownies
2 cups black beans drained packed (cooked) — if you’re using canned look for no sodium
1/2 cup yogurt (plain or vanilla)
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
150g (5ounces) Chocolate chips, or bakers chocolate melted (in the microwave) (add more chocolate! I would go for 8oz or 225g or more… )
1 cup almond powder ( or 1cup +1/4cup whole walnuts — chop them up in food proccessor)
1 Tbsp instant coffee granules
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 cup milk powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 whole egg + 3 egg yolks
1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
1cup + 1/4 cup Sugar, sugar substitute (granulated splenda) or equivalent for Stevia, agave nectar or honey
3 egg whites for meringue
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
line a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with parchment
Combine all the ingredients except the 3 egg whites in a blender or food proccessor until smooth. You may have to do this in parts depending on the size of your equiptment. Whip 3 egg whites to stiff peaks like a meringue. Carefully fold in the egg whites into your batter until combined, being careful not to break all your bubbles. The batter is quite loose for a brownie batter. Pour your batter into the parchment lined baking pan, bake at 325 for about 45 minutes, rotating half way through. You can do the toothpick test if you want to test for doneness. Let cool. cut. Enjoy your very healthy brownies.
My garden seems to have a gopher. He/she digs a tunnel underneath then around the plant so the plant falls into the hole and the creature can get to it and eat it. It’s very cartoonish, and also explains why my dog digs tremendously large holes in my garden. He is trying to be good and catch a gopher. He probably won’t succeed. This problem will have to be fixed. I don’t like holes dug by animals, especially if my plants are disappearing into them.