Green Rice Casserole and Iron Skillet Brownies

Last night we had leftover porkchops and I wanted a side dish to go along with them. Paula’s "Too" cookbook has a recipe that is similar to Don’s favorite broccoli casserole. Paula’s recipe has a can of soup and a stick of butter. Don’s recipe has a can of soup and a can of evaporated milk, along with chopped onions and celery. I’m not Southernized enough to put an entire cube of butter in a casserole, so I compromised. I sauteed about half a cup of chopped onions in a little butter, mixed it with the soup and enough milk to thin it (about half a can). I also used fresh broccoli instead of frozen. The casserole bakes in the oven for half an hour and whenever I’ve pre-cooked it for something like that, it’s always overdone. It worked with putting raw chopped broccoli and just letting the heat from the oven cook it through.

For dessert we had the "Iron Skillet Brownies" from Paula’s "Just Desserts" cookbook. It seems "everyone" has a recipe like this, it’s much like the One Bowl Brownie recipe on the box of Baker’s chocolate and it’s pretty close to a recipe for "Katharine Hepburn’s Brownies." (Written about by the late Gourmet writer Laurie Colwin.)

Anyway, you take chocolate and butter and melt them in a skillet, then add sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, salt and nuts. I threw in half a box of chopped Andes mints. Instead of turning out like chocolate chunk brownies they melted into the batter and added a mint flavor.

My mother-in-law gave me a tip for cutting brownies to keep from tearing the edges: use a plastic knife. It worked like a charm! The brownies were good too. Nice and crusty and shiny on top and gooey in the middle. Easy enough to make where I’ve given up on using those boxed mixes.