Monday: Fried Brie Salad & Maple Blondies with a side of savings!

Last night, I asked Robert to make the Fried Brie wonton salad for dinner tonight. We had it at Lahaina Coolers in Maui on our first dinner out on our honeymoon. We're still trying to perfect it, and tonight's recipe was pretty quick & easy.

Generally, you use mixed greens, shredded carrots, onion, mandarin oranges and apples or pears, fried brie, and the vinaigrette of your choice. (In Maui, it was Passion Fruit).

  Tonight, we just used Romaine lettuce, pears, mandarin oranges and the Spiced Papaya Vinaigrette I purchased at the Farmer's Market on South Kihei when we were in Maui. But we were able to use our deep fryer for the 2nd time for the brie!

I thought it was incredible. Robert says he wished we had different wontons, because these ones tend to explode as they reach the cusp of golden-brown. :( So I suppose I'll be hunting those down this weekend sometime.

For dessert, I grabbed the Food Network magazine (are you surprised?!), and turned to the "Fun Food" section. I found a recipe for Maple Blondies, and decided to try it out, after I discovered that I couldn't make lemon bars tonight. (We'll do that tomorrow or Wednesday). You can find the recipe on the Food Network's website here.

It was really simple, AND - we got to use our KitchenAid mixer for the first time! No, we didn't need to fill up all 6 quarts of space, but it was really neat!

Here's me, getting all the food out of the mixing bowl! I was so excited!

Anyway, I finally got it in the Calphalon pan. For some reason, they call for it to be lined with foil, and then to butter the foil. This was easy with the butter at room-temperature, but I don't recommend doing it with butter right out of the fridge.

They came out perfect! I did substitute Special K Low Fat granola cereal instead of nuts on top, because I'm not a fan of them. I wasn't sure if my husband would like it, but since he cleaned his plate AND mind, I'm thinking he thought it was pretty good. Also, I used white chocolate chips instead of chunks of white chocolate.

Before I forget, I wanted to write briefly about my frugal expenditure today. It started yesterday, sitting on my Auntie's couch, going through coupons. We got a bunch that she wasn't going to use (manufacturer's coupons). I already had some for various stores, but Albertson's was offering 3 coupon-matching (for manufacturer's coupons) offers from Sunday to Tuesday this week only. Today, on the way home from work, I stopped and text-messaged Robert to see what I needed to pick up for dinner in addition to the few things I was purchasing with the coupons. I got everything I needed. The total bill was $29.67 after $15.19 in coupon savings! WOW!!!! I was thrilled. The lady at the checkstand was not, because apparently it took too much effort on her part, but I didn't care. This is very much worth it to me, because we only had just over $34 left on our food budget for March. (Don't worry; I shopped ahead for the rest of this week!)

 I took this last picture to show that 30 minutes exactly at 350 degrees yields perfectly flaky, golden-brown moist batter. YUM!

Maple Blondies: 

Ingredients

For the Blondies:

• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature,
• plus more for the pan
• 1 cup walnut pieces
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 6 ounces white chocolate, cut into chunks

For the Topping:

• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• Vanilla ice cream, for serving
• 1/2 cup walnut pieces

Directions

Make the blondies: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with foil, leaving an overhang on two sides; butter the foil. Pulse 1/2 cup walnuts in a food processor until almost fine (do not overprocess). Whisk the ground nuts, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

Beat 10 tablespoons butter and the brown sugar with a mixer on medium speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat in the vanilla. Gradually beat in the dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in the white chocolate and the remaining 1/2 cup walnuts.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan and bake until the blondies are light brown around the edges and spring back when pressed, about 30 minutes. Cool slightly on a rack.

Meanwhile, make the topping: Place the maple syrup and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and cook until the mixture bubbles and thickens, swirling the pan, about 6 minutes. Add the cream and continue to cook until the mixture is the consistency of caramel.

Use the foil to lift the blondies out of the pan, then cut into large bars. Serve warm topped with ice cream, the maple-butter sauce and the walnuts.