Best Brownies....EVER

 Grandma Val's Brownies

 

 

Valentine Eva Urie 1923-2002



What can be said of my mother in-law's famous recipe? Wow...maybe. Or....Mmmmmmm. Her recipe calls for either cocoa powder or baking chocolate squares. I've tried both and find a yummier  brownie...to me anyhow.....comes after using a high quality cocoa powder. Droste has always been my fave with Fry's comin' in a close second but whatever floats your brownie boat .

Some people like chewy brownies while others opt for them being more cake-like. Switch up the walnuts to whatever you and yours like; marshmallows, pecans, Smarties.....fly at 'er.



Fall Fair Blue Ribbon Winner:)



Cool nuts walnuts are......especially if you buy them whole and let the kids experience nut cracking ....a lost art.....great way to show where food comes from too. Walnuts look like brains......tell that to a six year old boy and watch the cool factor go through the roof.

Nuts have history too which is cool for history dorks like me:) Nuts have been collected and consumed since humans were first figuring out tools, wheels, weapons and keepin' warm. Like I said....WAY cool.

These brownies should be iced to be truly drool-worthy. Add your fave icing and ENJOY .

INGREDIENTS 'N STUFF...

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2oz baking chocolate OR 5 tablespoons premium cocoa 
• 2 eggs, beaten 
• 1/2 cup flour 
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or....whatevah 
• Hefty splash of vanilla 

1. Melt chocolate if using squares.....let cool. 
2. Melt butter over double boiler - stainless steel bowl over boiling pot of water will do fine. Add chocolate/cocoa, vanilla, mix well. 
3. Add sugar. Whisk well. 
4. Add eggs. 
5. Add flour. 
6. Add nuts. 
7. Mix well. You can't over mix this batter....so let the kids go for it. 
   

Bake in 8x8 square baking pan- spray it, butter it, use parchment paper on bottom- for 25 minutes.

Bake in a 350  oven. Brownies will look slightly under done in centre but that's no problem. Use the cake tester method and a good eye.

 

You can double this recipe...or triple it too I suppose....then bake on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and get the kids goin' with themed cookie cutters. 

 

Talking Pictures

 "When you see a bit of earth you want,"he said with something of a smile, "take it, child, and make it come alive."

                            The Secret Garden
                                           Frances Hodgson Burnett

 I am the daughter of Earth and

       Water,

  And the nursling of the Sky;

  I pass through the pores of the ocean

     and shores;

  I change, but I cannot die.
                                P.B. Shelley
                                Poet: 1792-1822

To solidify a bond with another person

Takes two willing people. Together....find any bivalve with halves still connected. Use as you would a wishbone... each of you grasping half the shell. Both instill the same thought or feeling into the shell while holding it... concentrating on strengthening the connection between you. When the energy reaches its strong point, pull the halves apart, each retaining half.
Keep the shell near you. If you ever desire the bond to end, take your half to the sea, fill it with feeling, and toss it back into the water.

                                                         Witches' Almanac: Spring 2007 to Spring 2008
                                                                                       from Seashell Charms by Fuschia Robin



A photograph is a secret about a secret.
The more it tells you the less you know.
                          Diane Arbus
                          Photographer, 1923-71

No one can tell me,
Nobody knows,
Where the wind comes from,
Where the wind goes.

                   A.A. Milne
                       Wind on the Hill, 1927

Blast from the Past

On September 11th, 2001 I was living in a two bedroom suite with my then 7 year-old son and two cats. I worked full-time as a server....screw it I was a waitress and a pretty good one too.....and drove a red 1991-Volkswagen Golf that was wicked on gas - 'cause it was a diesel - but a nightmare if something went wrong which it did and often. I still have one of those original two cats wandering around here from that time....he sleeps a lot now at 16....but that car is long since scrap metal.

Anyway my life was little and small and my struggles and complaints entirely inconsequential when I awoke on that Tuesday morning to my alarm, set to CBC Radio because it was the only frickin' station that came in on that dime-store clock, blasting out reports of airplanes flying into the World Trade Centre. 

It was a morning and a day, as were the following days, I will never forget.  Those first images were unbelievable and I will always remember watching them from that old red velvet couch in my 500 sq.ft. home.  Walking our kids to the bus-stop that morning my friend and I noticed a jet  far above our kids' heads yet low enough in the sky for a look to pass between  us.  They were turnin' planes around and bringin' 'em down across the entire sky.  Shit just got real. Should we turn our kids around and hunker down at home or send them to school?

We chose to send them to school. For me I just wanted my son's morning to carry on as it was supposed to when you're in Grade 2 with center time,  inside shoes and library books. With him gone 'til 3 and a day off to myself there was nothing to do but watch, listen and wait.......and write. In 2001 I was still what I would consider a closet writer. It was before I had my  married name, an e-mail address, Facebook timeline or my own crappy little blog.  Whatever I wrote was in a journal, a typewriter or Word Perfect file and whoever I had the guts to actually submit to received it from an envelope with a licked stamp attached to the right-hand corner. I was still in denial that I could even CALL myself a writer....like....a real writer and between work and my son there wasn't a lot of free time to get anything of substance completed anyway.

What came out of me on 9/11 could probably go in a pile of editorial-type ramblings as high as both those fallen towers combined....by me and a kazillion other writers of any and all genres.....but at the time it was written my Letter to the Editor of a local community newspaper felt necessary.  Necessary and having little to do with me and everything to do with the only honest and true words of condolence I could offer to those lost, injured and forever affected by that day.

It's been awhile since I thought of that letter but the news today had me thinkin' about it....especially as parenting FB pages and school counsellors advise us all to keep this crap as far away from our kids as possible, give us tips on how to discuss this issue with them if they hear-tell of what happened, suggestions on how to proceed so our kids stay.....kids.  

Today is Monday, April 15th, 2013 and bombs have gone off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon and the first images coming out from the scene conjure up similar feelings  as that Tuesday morning a dozen years ago when it was just me and my little boy.  That little boy who is now almost 20 and watching the news himself. I don't shield him from this tragedy anymore....that ship has sailed.......I can no longer protect him from finding out the dark deeds of the world. 

There is still innocence to be protected in my home.  Twelve years after my first son's arrival  I gave birth to my second son, with my husband of almost ten years now, and three years after that I gave birth to our youngest, my little girl. 

  

My wee lad attends Grade 1 in the same elementary school as his much-loved older brother.  Often I have a weird Twilight Zone-type mind fart while wandering the halls with my 3 year old as we wait for her brother to finish for the day. Class pictures line the walls as far back as the 80s and my older son's class picture now appears to be showing the different generation they've now settled into to. A generation unaware of how important a 'text' was about to become to their adolesence, unaware how quickly information, music and images would be made available to them before they left high school. 

Protecting my little boy from the tragedy of Newton this past December  was SO important to both my husband and myself but, of course, it was technology that snuck in to bite us in the ass.  I had PVR'd a show for my little guy.....a Wild Kratts or some other animal show he loves......and unfortunately it wasn't on Treehouse or Disney Kids so the news cut in showing little kids being escorted out of the school building by armed policemen.  I caught it quickly but my little son is quicker.....like the rest of his generation....and so with a total screen time of about 10 seconds he got the entire gist.  And my husband and I had an entire night of questions to answer as age-appropriately and honestly as possible.

So do I have words of wisdom to share on this sad, sad day when those waiting at the finish line of what is said to be one of the most joyous marathon experiences on the planet are changed forever by bomb blasts?  Maybe....maybe not.  That's for whomever happens to land on this blog to decide.  

All I DO know for sure is the only thing I know how to do in troubling times......to help me get my head and heart through a horror such as this.....is....write ON.

Blessings, love and healing to the city of Boston.

Collared Calm

"We might also discover that depression has its own angel, a guiding spirit whose job it is to carry the soul away to its remote places where it finds unique insight and enjoys a special vision......Hiding the dark places results in a loss of soul; speaking for them and from them offers a way toward genuine community and intimacy. "

"Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life" by Thomas Moore

Diagnosis: Depression

Placed around my neck like the bell-tingling collar on a feline with an instinctive need for a game of cat 'n mouse.....or cat 'n bird.  Can the cat continue to truly be a cat with that bell around his neck? Or is the joy of forever stalking the prey taken from his kitty soul with one clip of a pretty sounding collar? 

His purr slightly altered from here on in, his contented stretch from a slumber on a sunny step missing something vital to what it means to be a cat, the jingle-jangle of the bell following him with every step he makes.  The silence that cats are known for jingle-jangled away with every move he makes.  Rendering him.....a little less cat. Slightly off. A wee bit left of centre. Affected.

Yes....there it is.....affected.  How will depression affect the familiarity of what I think is ......ME.  

The question since D-Day.......Diagnosis Day.......days, months, now years ago.   When a million questions were asked of me requiring not a straight 'yes' or 'no' answer but a rating in numbers as to how often I find myself ruminating and lost in the darkness of my head, heart and soul. A final tally revealing me to be......depressed. 

Like a handprint in the sand or a curve in the natural grain.....this is how I arrived I suppose. Then as childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, sex, drugs, rock 'n roll and the rest of the combined ingredients of my life up to now played out I got lost. Scared. Confused. Alone. Angry. Ashamed. Silent. Affected. So sad it was palpable, hanging thick in the air, like mist.

CIPRALEX ( escitalopram)

Take the pill

You're mentally ill

So afraid it will eventually kill

Words put to paper

that might give y'all a chill.

                                             Then again maybe it will

                                             Prove I'm merely run of the mill

                                             As a writer, a wife, a mother so shrill.

                                             An ordinary swill of a life without will.

                                             A passion-less sadness

                                             Turning a day's work to nil.

                                             Stare at the pill

                                             Wonder if this pitiful pain

                                              is only a drill.

                                             True self is in there

                                              waiting patiently 'til

                                             My blues find the will

                                             to show my soul a new thrill.

                                             Not this darkness leaving others footin' the bill

                                             Living life with a woman

                                             Who needs saved by a pill.

                                                                       S.E.U  ~July 2008










  Livin' with someone who's livin' with depression?

Remember this....it just might help.

"When you're depressed....there ARE no molehills"
                                                             Randall Jarrell: 1914-1965
                                                             American Poet




S. E.U.



 

Dynamite Banana Bread.....no Foolin'....

  Chocolate Chunky Monkey Banana Muffins



Top 'o the muffin top.....mmmmm



Bringin' home the Blue



As with any good quick bread recipe start with two bowls....one for the wet ingredients and one for the dry.  This is a stellar recipe and can be used for loaves, mini-loaves, muffins, mini-muffins, birthday and Bundt cakes.  It's all about the moist factor with this recipe so use quality ingredients - especially in the wet. 

It's also award winning in most of its previously mentioned forms at both the Coombs Fall Fair and the Lighthouse Country Fall Fair.  Not that I'm braggin' or anything.....actually I am so if y'all can't hack it too bad:) 

 

This is a doubled recipe that I use to produce one loaf, a dozen large muffins and 24 mini-muffins.

Don't ever underestimate the power of the nasty black banana. I freeze 'em when they get to the stage where nobody's touching them then remove then from the freezer for a few minutes.  Peel 'em, mash 'em and give 'em a shot of vanilla before I let 'em sit for a bit either in the fridge for a few days or on the counter while you're preparing the rest of the ingredients. 

You can also peel over-ripe bananas first, mash 'em up with that shot of vanilla then transfer into ziploc bags and freeze flat. I use this method for our travel trailer. I made killer muffins at Strathcona Beach a few summers back and the response was outta sight. Kids loved them and the smell in the campground had everyone runnin'......good way to meet your neighbours that for sure!

 

WET

2 cups mashed, very ripe bananas

2 cups granulated sugar - choose your poison here and substitute accordingly

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sour cream/yogurt/buttermilk

3 large eggs, beaten

Shot of good Mexican vanilla

In large bowl combine bananas, sugar, oil, sour cream, eggs and vanilla.  Mix thoroughly. Set aside.

DRY

3 cups flour - however your family is rollin' when it comes to flour go for it

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Optional:  chocolate chips, chopped dark baking chocolate, nuts, seeds, dried fruit

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. If you're adding chips/nuts/fruit you can add them now. 

For Chocolate Chunky Monkey Banana Muffins I added 3/4 of a cup of roughly chopped fine, dark Swiss chocolate to the remaining batter after filling my loaf pan.  Everyone's happy:)

Add to banana mixture - mixing just until combined.  Seriously......don't beat the crap out of this batter it just won't turn out the way you want it.  

Pour into loaf pan and muffin tins.   You can grease 'n flour if that's your thing or use the spray or maybe your pans don't require anything.  I use muffin liners for my muffins and my loaf pan is given a bit of butter greasing then a slab of parchment paper for an easy transfer from pan to cooling rack.  

Bake in 325 oven about an hour for the loaf, 15-20 minutes for regular muffins and about 12 minutes for mini-muffins.  Loaves need some TLC those last few minutes.....keep an eye on the centre of the loaf to ensure it's baked all the way through and for the love of all that is baked goodness use a frickin' tester.  If it comes out clean you're all good. 

Cool in pans for about 5-10  minutes before turning out onto rack to cool completely. 



Muffins and Tea for you and me....



Now that's a chunky monkey!