A year's supply of meat products!

[geekchick]

There's something to be said for waking up, making an actual breakfast of pancakes and bacon, and then opening gifts at something like 2:30 in the afternoon as opposed to 6 AM. =) My loot: an 11.5-inch cast iron skillet (yay!), a physical copy of The Stupidest Angel, DVDs (Dave Chappelle, Bowie's Reality tour and the Blue Man Group), a padded mat to go under the dance pads so I don't tear my knees up playing DDR any more than I already have, a notebook with "There's an evil monkey living in my closet" on the cover and an evil monkey on each and every page (a "Family Guy" thing), and lots and lots of Playstation goodness -- a couple of extension cords for the controllers, Katamari Damacy, a compilation that has Joust, Gauntlet, Smash TV, and several other games on it, and Taiko Drum Master. From brian1789 I got a sweatshirt from Resolute. ("The middle of nowhere has shirts? Who knew?" =) ) From my coworkers, a candle warmer and a Yankee Candle votive, notecards with pink shoes, a photo album with a boot on the cover (I think they've picked up on my shoe habit, perhaps), and a pretty burnout velvet scarf. My niece and nephew gave me perfume, and I also got framed pictures of Lexi and Austin, who are some of the cutest kids ever. No, really, they are. I'm not biased in the least.

Here's a shot of our tree, complete with Grinch and Max (and the poor plant I think I managed to kill by leaving it outside one night during a hard freeze =( ). Nicola, I think you might recognize some of the ornaments. ;)




Turkey breast and mashed potatoes for dinner. Sadly, my pumpkin pie asploded all over my kitchen, as I mentioned. The black cherry brownies, however, did not asplode. I might, though. Mmmm. (Although honestly I was looking forward to the pie in part because it had no chocolate in it, and I've been baking with chocolate for nigh on two weeks straight now. Yes, IMO it is entirely possible to have too much chocolate, and for me that bar is surprisingly low.)


This is from Gourmet, Dec. 1996. I substituted black cherry preserves for the raspberry, left out the hazelnuts, and used 1 cup of flour rather than the 3/4 cup they call for. Mmmm. If you can find this back issue, it's got a lot of yummy brownie recipes in it.

• 1/3 cup raspberry preserves
  
• 3 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  
• 1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  
• 2 large eggs
  
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted, skinned, and chopped fine
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter and flour a 9-inch square baking pan, knocking out excess flour.

In a small bowl stir preserves until smooth. In a heavy 1 1/2-quart saucepan melt chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring, until smooth and remove pan from heat. Cool mixture 10 minutes and stir in sugar, vanilla and almond extract. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well with a wooden spoon until mixture is glossy and smooth. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt and add to chocolate mixture, beating just until batter is combined well.

Spread half of batter evenly in pan. Drop preserves by spoonfuls onto batter and spread carefully to form an even layer. Drop remaining chocolate batter by spoonfuls onto preserves and spread carefully to form an even top layer. Sprinkle batter evenly with hazelnuts and bake in middle of oven 25 to 30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool brownies completely in pan on a rack before cutting into squares. Brownies keep, layered between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container at cool room temperature, 5 days.

(Not that I've ever had a chance to test the shelf life, as they disappear pretty quickly.)

Comments

[geekchick]

You don't absolutely have to have a spoon to consume Cool Whip. More than that, I will not say. ;)

I'm glad you like the book, I was hoping you hadn't gotten it for yourself yet. Did you get something in your email too? Should've shown up on Thursday afternoon, if they weren't lying to me.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! Yes, I did! I just found it. Originally, I saw iTunes Music store in the "from" line and didn't bother to read more. : ) Thanks!