Sour Cream Brownies (Recipe 19)

I have been on vacation in San Diego, California for the past week. On the flight I was trying to keep myself entertained and began thinking about recipes to make. Correction: I frantically realized that it is almost July and I am not even half way through 50 recipes. (hence posting yet another recipe for brownies... even though this one is different!) When I realized that I had over half way to go, I quickly began jotting down foods that sounded good that I'd never made before.

If you happened to be on that flight, that was me who was yelling to Damarise, "How about meatloaf? Do you like meatloaf?" She had in her headphones... it was hard to communicate.

Vacation in San Diego was beautiful. I got sun burnt, got to hang out with the family, and tried an amazing dish – Fish Tacos. Which will definitely be my next recipe to try. (So, stay tuned!)

I also read a lot. I have been on a reading spree this Summer. When I got home I decided to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Roald Dahl is a writer who makes me chuckle. One of my favourite quotes from the book had to do with Willie Wonka describing cereal:

"But Mr. Wonka," he shouted, "can you send other things through the air in the same way? Breakfast cereal, for instance?"
"Oh, my sainted Aunt!" cried Mr. Wonka. "Don't mention that disgusting stuff in front of me! Do you know what breakfast cereal is made of? It's made of all those little curly wooden shavings you find in pencil sharpeners!"

Maybe cereal isn't the most flattering food, but I still like it.

While reading through Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and being enticed by Dahl's description of smooth hot chocolate I couldn't help it and started to crave hot chocolate. I looked in our cabinets for a packet of hot chocolate, but to no avail. The next best thing: bake a batch of brownies.

The Recipe:

• 1/2 cup Melted Margarine 
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1/3 cup Cocoa Powder
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1/2 cup Flour
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 2 Eggs
• 1/4 cup Sour Cream
• Chocolate Chips

Mix it up, pour it in a greased 9x9 baking pan, and bake at 350ºF for 20 minutes. Then top it off with whipcream, strawberries, and freshly picked blackberries. Yum! My chocolate craving was satisfied. 

My eaters for this recipe were the wonderful Faith and Jimmy. They arrived just in time to have a brownie fresh out of the oven. It was the perfect food for a fun evening of chess and hanging out. And it helped me finish Dahl's book with a content stomach. 

Best Brownies (Recipe 3)

The name of the recipe really is "Best Brownies". Making brownies from scratch is fun, but I gotta admit, there is nothing like the taste of boxed brownies. I don't know how they do it so well, but I still have not found a recipe that can match the gooeyness of boxed brownies. Mmm. Regardless, I decided to try the recipe for "Best Brownies" and tweak it a little bit to add some more pizzaz.

Before getting ready to bake I put on some music. (Side note: right now, I love this song. I want to learn it on guitar. It is beautiful!)

The recipe for these brownies is easy: 

• 1/2 cup melted butter (or margarine)
• 1 cup white sugar 
• 2 eggs 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Mix it up in a bowl and pour it in a 9x9 pan. Bake at 350ºF for 25 minutes. 

Simple, right? Well, I wanted to spice it up a little...literally. I put in some chili pepper. I've heard of chili pepper chocolate and chili pepper hot chocolate. But I'd never heard of chili pepper brownies, so why not try it? Well, my tastebuds must not be able to taste much chili pepper because I might have put a bit too much in the brownies...

I doubled the recipe, poured it in a pan, and added some chocolate chips. 

Tada! Okay, this picture was solely for photographic purposes only (Damarise ate it afterwards for me). I didn't serve them like this, but it does look pretty and tasted good too. 

I actually stacked them on a paper plate and my wonderful friends, Jimmy and Faith, drove around with me to give them to construction workers who kindly work away every night to make our road nice and smooth. We had a blast delivering brownies as a thank you to the men.