A day for eating a lot of brownies.

This is the type of day that you never want to remember; that you want to delete from the calendar.  The type of day that you wished you had turned off the alarm clock, stayed in bed, and just let it pass you by.

First - found a brand new houseplant, that Roy had given me, totally shredded.  There was no saving it; even the roots had been destroyed.

Second - I only had my back turned for a minute; one of the dogs had grabbed my breakfast and scarfed it down.

Third - one of the other dogs decided to eat up all the dry food in the cats' bowl.  I had just refilled it too.

Fourth - for the second time, Roy had placed an ad for this food blog in the local "Advertisement" paper.  For the second time, not only was it full of mispellings, but they misspelled my name, so no one could find this food blog using the URL.

...and all that happened before 10am.  For me, this was equal to something that would make a teenage girl grab a plate of brownies, and devour them all, and even lick the plate.  Unfortunately, I can't do that; having diabetes most definitely prevents that; and giving myself a severe stomach ache wouldn't help at all.

So, I will drink my zero calorie/carb flavored water; eat my light yogurt, and give you my basic brownie recipe.  I can't eat them, but at least someone somewhere can enjoy them.

Brownies

A basic brownie recipe; the addition of other ingredients allows for the creation of other types of brownies.

Ingredients:

½ cup unsalted butter

2 squares unsweetened bakers’ chocolate

1 cup sugar (or Splenda for baking)

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla

¾ cup flour

¼ tsp salt

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Spray an 8” square baking dish with nonstick baking spray (contains flour).

Using a double boiler, melt the butter and chocolate together till smooth and shiny.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour and salt; add the melted butter and chocolate and mix well.

Pour into baking dish; bake for 25-30 minutes; until toothpick comes out cleanly from center.

Let cool before cutting into squares.

Makes 9-12 brownies, depending on how small or large they are cut.

Mary Cokenour

August 15, 1988

Additions:

Nuts: Add a ½ cup of favorite type of nut; should be roasted and chopped.

Fruits: Add a ½ cup of dried or candied chopped fruit.  Reduce sugar by ¼ cup.

Chocolate Mint: Add 4 Tbsp chocolate syrup plus ½ cup of either Hershey’s York Candy sprinkles or Andes Candies Bits (available in baking section). Reduce sugar by ¼ cup.

Add additional 10 minutes to baking time because of the syrup.

Walnut, Marshmallow and Toffee: Add ½ cup chopped walnuts, 1 cup mini-marshmallows and 1/3 cup of Heathbar or Skor bar bits (available in baking section).  Reduce sugar by ¼ cup.