Oct. 9: [Note: Sylvia just fell asleep after working on it for an hour and a half. I’d go in to pick her up and soothe her, and she’d yawn and yawn. So we took a break and spent some time outdoors, I put her down, she cried for 10 minutes, I held her and bounced her, and at long last, she fell soundly asleep. Hope it lasts at least a half hour. Cat-food-breath was one tired girl.]
In other news, I’ve recently been making a brownie recipe that I found on a bag of King Arthur Flour. It’s so good. So Good. I had to share.
The Best Fudge Brownies Ever
1 cup (8 ounces) butter,
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups Dutch process cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cup King Arthur unbleached all purpose
2 cups chocolate chips, semi-sweet
Note: Increase salt to 1 teaspoon if you are using unsalted butter.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch pan. (I lined mine with aluminum foil).
In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat (or microwave for 1 minute) and heat until mixture is very hot but not bubbling; it’ll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating the butter and sugar a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.
Transfer the mixture to a bowl (if you melted the butter and sugar in the mixing bowl, you don’t have to transfer anything).
Stir in the cocoa, salt, baking powder and vanilla. Add the eggs, beating till smooth; then add the flour and chips, stirring until combined. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake the brownies for 28 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out dry. Remove them from the oven and after 5 minutes, loosen the edges with a table knife. This helps prevent sinking as they cool. Cool completely then cut and serve.
Makes 2 dozen brownies
Oct. 8: I’ve ripped 1,000 songs in the last couple days. It’s been an all-day affair. Tom got an iPhone a while back, and since iPhones are also iPods, he offered me his iPod. This is new territory for me. I’ve never had an mp3 listening device. But now with this new gadget, I’m excited to re-vamp my music-listening habits. We’ve got loads of CDs, most of which we haven’t listened to in years. My plan is to rip all our CD to the computer. I’ll hook up the iPod to our stereo. It’ll hold all our music. I’ll keep the CDs that we like and actively use, and I think the rest we’ll find new homes for.
