Tea

Sure, many folks go to an Alice B. Toklas place when creative brownie making is mentioned, but for a goody two-shoes like me (with a cop pal as my afternoon's company to boot!), there's much swoony satisfaction in a recipe that highlights some of my favorite legal vices. I'm hardly the first to alight at bacon brownies, but I decided to borrow a step from the bourbon balls I'm often rolling up 'round this time of year for holiday party purposes. A double-soak -- once pre and once mid-toasting of a half cup of pecans in bourbon, and a swap-in of the nut-infused bourbon for the traditional vanilla brings a slightly tipsy edge to a deeply fudgy brownie. A grind of fresh black pepper (inspired by a Chanterelle Staff Meals brownie recipe, which credited the technique to Maida Heatter) strums the palate to life; a subtle note of smoked salt lets the bolder bacon sing.

Had there not been half a foot of snow atop my grill cover, I'd have seen what came of an attempt to tobacco-smoke the pecans and chocolate, but for now, these are more than sufficiently wicked.

Recipe for Legal Vice Brownies is after the jump.

Scanned from Be Milwaukee's Guest, Recipes Collected and Tested by the Junior League of Milwaukee - 1959

I could scarcely be crankier at myself for muffing the opportunity to present this comb-bound recipe gem on a
There are few holiday dishes so polarizing as green bean casserole. If it was part of your usual Yuletide feast growing up, the stuff is sacrosanct and utterly essential to holiday joy. The bulk of it -- the french-cut green beans, cream of mushroom soup and French-fried onion strings -- must come blopping and clattering from cans and be baked in a casserole until it resembles a roiling green bog topped with a dry moss of frizzled onion straws. There are always seconds, and there's hardly ever any left over for a midnight refrigerator picnic.

If you didn't grow up with it skulking on the holday table, gosh darn does that stuff look ten-foot-pole nasty.

Slashfood confession time. I, Annie Scott, am addicted to imitation crab.

It's so colorful and friendly, and you can buy it by the pound! Normally, I'm pretty averse to food that doesn't really look like ... food, but the juicy texture! The way it separates in my mouth! It's just dry enough to eat as a finger food and oh, you bet I do eat it as a finger food.

My worst vice? Dipping it in pesto. Seriously, give me a small vat of pesto and a styro-wrapped pound of imitation crab and you have just bought yourself peace and quiet. For like, an hour.

It has a great balance of protein and carbs, fills me up, and is more fun than (and cheap as) a can of tuna fish. And it's delicious.

I don't recommend it for parties, because everyone knows it's not "real" food, but for the comfort of your own private snacking delight? There is no subst