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. 

Cow Tongue Fail (recipes 1 and 2)

Once upon a time I lived in Durham, Ontario, Canada. Our family lived in a duplex without any running water. (It was preparation for the mission field). I'm sure it was a pain on my parents, but I loved it. It was an adventure. The adventures didn't end at no running water. Oh, no! There were always adventures. Like the first snowfall that left over two feet of snow on the ground in a little over an hour. Or trying an iced cappuccino for the first time and continuing to drink coffee in the hopes that it would stunt my growth. Or, when our duplex neighbor, Mrs. Whatley, brought over some cow tongue for us to try. Ah! Cow tongue!

Cow tongue. It sounds gross. Okay, it looks gross. Today when I picked it up from Walmart one of the employees standing nearby said, "Oh! That is a disgusting looking piece of meat!" So, I sheepishly carried it from the meat isle to the cash register trying not to be seen with it (that walk felt eternal!).

But, I brought it home ready to prepare my first recipe for the 50+ new recipes of the Summer. See, when Mrs. Whatley brought over some cow tongue for us to try eleven years ago, it was amazing! I'd never been a fan of steak. Oh, I loved the flavour, but the steak I had had was chewy. Cow tongue had the flavour of steak, but was tender and delicious. Ever since Mrs. Whatley had brought it by, I'd wanted to try making it.

And so began the adventure. I unpackaged the meat and stuck it in the crockpot with a tablespoon of salt and pepper, some garlic, onion, and water.

It was a good photo prop. And how many times in your life can you hold a cow tongue... or would want to?

While the cow tongue was being cooked in the crockpot, I began to cook some artichoke. I have never eaten artichoke, so I decided why not fix that up to? I found a delicious recipe online. And set it to cook. 

While the artichokes were in the oven, and the tongue had been cooking for a few hours, it was time to cool down the tongue and peel it. (Yes, you have to peel off the skin and tastebuds to get to the real meat, appetizing, eh?). Except peeling the skin off is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I tried and failed. Like I said, it was hard! Thankfully, Jimmy was willing to help out! He peeled the skin off and was a pro at it! It was rough and I am sure disgusting, but he didn't complain and worked at it until there was no more skin on it. Thank you, Jimmy! (It was definitely an Instagram moment). 

After slicing the tongue and putting it in the oven for 15 minutes, tearing apart the artichoke, and cooking up some wholesome mashed potatoes and gravy, dinner was served. 

The verdict: Jimmy, Damarise, Megan, Faith and Sonya were my wonderful eaters. They put aside their fears and ate the cow tongue. Did it turn out like Mrs. Whatley's? Hardly. It was a bit rough. The artichokes were not my favourite tasting vegetable ever, and the mashed potatoes were a wee bit watery. But, my friends graciously ate it. They tried it and I was happy for that. 

However, the first two new recipes of the Summer were definitely on the fail list, and after trying to eat the meal, we gave up, took down one of our many boxes of cereal and had a bowl of cereal instead. Because when all else fails just eat cereal, right? Right!

Hopefully the next new recipes will go better... It's a fun adventure!

Introduction

I'm pretty sure me (here is my actual blog just in case you are wondering who I am) and my sister, Damarise, could live on cereal if it came down to it. When we go to Aldi we look like we are stalking up on Raisin Bran for a year. In fact, the cashier at Aldi laughed at us today when he was ringing up all of our cereal. So, maybe the top of our fridge is covered in cereal, but what can I say, we love it. However, no matter how much I love cereal, I love trying new foods too.

I just graduated from Covenant College with a degree in Elementary Education. How I came to major in this is a long story, but the gist of it is that I love kids and I love learning a little bit about several things. And now I am graduated. I am searching for a job and dabbling in learning new things while I seek employment. 

This past year I have attempted to learn guitar, book writing, knitting, cooking, and baking. I have always loved baking. I started baking when I was ten years old. Every week I would make two loaves of whole wheat bread to last our family throughout the week. But baking bread was just the beginning. Moving around the world opened up my eyes to the spectrum of cooking and baking possibilities. And since moving into my own house a year ago (complete with a kitchen that I love!) I have begun to cook and bake to my heart's content. 

Cooking began as a de-stresser for me. The harder the day was, the more I wanted to cook and the better the food turned out. And as time went on the more I enjoyed cooking and baking. Thus, when Summer came around I decided that I wanted to cook at least 50+ new recipes just for the fun of it. And so begins this blog. 

This is where I will catalog the recipes that I try and the wonderful friends who eat the food no matter how weird or terrible it may be. And, if the food turns out too nasty (which I am sure will happen at least once) there is always the over abundance of cereal on top of our fridge.

If all else fails, we will just eat cereal!

Let it begin!