Dinner #2 and Dessert #4

I have officially achieved my dessert goal with my fourth new recipe in a month. Ended with a classic:

Triple Chocolate Brownies:
2 tbsp unsalted butter + more for greasing
4 squares (4 oz) semi-sweet chocolate (We - Mike helped me - approximated this to be something like 1 cup, I think. I don't remember exactly, but whatever, the chocolate-y-er, the better)
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
2 lg eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (Apparently this recipe is big on fractions.)
1 cup milk (ha. Semi-sweet all the way.) chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (Again, ha.)


Place oven rack in middle position, preheat to 350. Line an 8- or 9-inch square pan with aluminum foil, making sure two ends of the foil overhang the pan by about 2 in. so you can easily lift the brownies out of the pan later. (Okay, I messed up here and told Mike to grease the pan before I read the instruction, and that worked too.) Lightly rub bottom and sides of foil with butter. Set aside.
Combine chocolate, water, and butter in medium, heavy pot (that will fit all the ingredients) over low heat, stirring occasionally. When chocolate is just melted, turn off heat and add cocoa. Stir until combined and set aside to cool.
Add sugar, egg, vanilla, and stir until well blended. Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir until no flour shows. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts, if using. 
Scrape batter into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until top feels firm and brownies pull away from sides of pan. Remove from oven and cool on rack for 15 min (or until you can't wait any longer and all your roommates are whining). Cut into 25 squares (or like 10) and serve. Store in airtight container or wrapped in foil or plastic wrap (unless it all disappears in the next 24 hours. In that case, you are fully entitles to leave it on the stove like I did).



I made brownies because Rebecca's boyfriend was here and my other roommate, Jessie, announced that we should have brownies. Those two reasons were enough for me. I borrowed another roommate's 9in square pan, and this was the beautiful and mouth-watering result. And yes, there is a chocolate chip heart on top.

Once again, my book-o-chocolate desserts did not fail me. They came out very chocolatey and delicious and I wondered, not for the first time, what I will do with myself once my metabolism slows down. (I am a very lucky person in that category. And I do mean lucky. I don't really exercise. Well, I do right now because I am taking a gym class. And I might keep doing it. But I have exercised sporadically, at best, for the first 20 years of my life. So the fact that I still weigh basically what I did in eighth grad is kind of astounding. Especially when you look at the crap I eat.)

Which brings me to Dinner #2. By the way, I have no idea why I thought I would cook dinner more often than dessert. I mean, I cook dinner a lot, but they are very rarely new, adventurous dinners. Also, Mike cooks for me sometimes, which is cool. Unfortunately, I saved this post as a draft and I now have no memory of what I cooked for this meal, although I'm pretty sure it involved pasta and frozen veggies and wasn't very good. Frozen veggies suck. Anyway, I have been too busy and important to blog lately. I do apologize. This will have to end.