I promised that I was going to do something new. Something I’ve never done on this blog before. If you are all about no sugar, no fat and all natural ingredients, then you may not want to read any further.
On the other hand, if you like luscious, chocolaty goodness…read on my friend.
I make REALLY good homemade brownies. They are SO incredibly easy that once you get used to making them you can make them as quickly as you can open and prepare a boxed brownie mix. Seriously. I promise!
I recently received an e-mail from my cousin. A silent lurker on my blog *smile* asking if I would share my recipe. Well, I was happy to do it. It really isn’t MY recipe. I got it off the back of a bag of Nestle Chocolate Chips years ago. If you want, you can find the recipe here.
Here are the ingredients you will need:
not pictured, but needed: 9×13 pan,
aluminum foil and cooking spray
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, cut into pieces
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chopped nuts
I recommend assembling all your ingredients at once and get out your baking pan.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Measure 1 cup of the chocolate chips (half a 12 oz. bag) and put the chips and the stick of butter in a saucepan over low to medium heat. And yes, I use REAL butter.
While the butter & chocolate chips are melting, take your baking pan and tear of a strip of aluminum foil slightly longer than your pan and follow Steps 1, 2 and 3.
step 1
step 2
step 3
Turn the pan over and put the foil “pan” into the aluminum pan
Then spray the foil lined pan with cooking spray.
By now your buttery chocolate goodness has been on low to medium heat for a few minutes. It should begin to look like this…give it a stir.
Then this…stir again.
Measure your dry ingredients and add the remaining 1 cup of chocolate chips to the dry ingredients.
And check on the chocolaty goodness…stir it until no lumps of chocolate remain. (this can be done in the microwave, but for some reason, I prefer the stove.)
Once this mixture is thoroughly melted and combined (it only takes a few minutes) remove from the heat and let cool for a few minutes. Add your 3 eggs and beat well with a spoon.
Then add your dry ingredients to which you have already added your chocolate chips, to the chocolate mixture.
Add the vanilla
Stir this mixture by hand approximately 25 strokes…do not over beat, making sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the pan.
Pour the lusciousness into your foil lined pan, spreading to the edges of the pan.
And put the pan into your preheated oven.
Bake for 18-23 minutes…I bake mine for 22. Exactly.
A toothpick should look like this…
Bake a minute or two less for fudgier brownies, but this is perfect IMHO. 🙂
Let the pan cool for about 5 minutes, if you can wait that long and remove the foil to a cooling rack.
And…do you know the BEST knife for cutting brownies?
Yes, a plastic knife. See…no tearing of the brownies and the brownies don’t stick to the knife!
ENJOY…
Here are a few hints:
if you do not let the chocolate mixture cool for a few minutes before adding the eggs, your eggs might cook a bit.
AND if you get really good at making them and you go through the steps so quickly the mixture can be hot enough that when you add the last cup of chocolate chips they melt too.
One of most lovely aspects of this recipe is that they are DOUBLE chocolate…chocolate dough and chocolate chips IN the dough.
If there are any brownies left after the first hour, these are great microwaved for a few seconds. They taste like they are fresh out of the oven.
I have served these as dessert at a dinner party by using a red wine glass which I swirl chocolate syrup around the inside top so it streams down the inside of the glass. The put in a scoop of vanilla ice cream and bite-sized brownie pieces. Top with more chocolate syrup and a shot of whipped cream. YUM. YUM.
My son says he would give the brownies two thumbs up, except he is too busy licking his thumbs after eating the brownies!
So…what is your favorite easy, from scratch recipe? I’d love to hear!! AND…please, if you try these, do let me know! Pretty please…
I have been lucky enough to try your brownies and I'd like to testify that they are indeed the BEST brownies ever. Very much worth the little bit of extra work involved.
If I come to your house, will you make some for me…That sounds so much better than me doing it…..but seriously they look and sound delicious. Have a great weekend….
She died 4 days after she was born. We buried her 4 days after she died.
Born 6-9-1992
Died 6-12-1992
Buried 6-16-1992
That would be 31 years ago today.
Last year, on the 30th anniversary of her birth we re-buried her on the grounds of St. Emma Monastery Greensburg, PA where her paternal grandparents are buried.
This year, today has been harder than Friday, June 9 the day she was born. Or Monday, June 12 the day she died.
I`ve cried more today than either of the other days.
I took a walk.
Got a pedicure.
Cried.
And chose a simple dinner of appetizers.
And I give myself permission to do nothing else.
I am thankful for the time we had her. For the experience and the things I learned about myself through the experience.
John and I are very conscious of what we say yes to and what we say no to. All because of Amy`s short life.
I`ve tried to use my experience to help others experiencing infant loss-or any loss. Some things are the same no matter the age of the deceased. Even if it is a loss thru miscarriage. I`ve experienced that too.
A loss is a loss.
Thank you to my sister and niece @sherrigd @tarahelise for letting us spend last weekend on your porch crying, laughing, and drinking wine and margaritas. I love you guys more than you know and I really needed that.
In what seems like the blink of an eye, it is 31 years later. Not a day goes by that I do not think of her.
My heart still hurts.
I cry at random times.
And I miss her. Still. 31 years later.
I grieve all the things that didn`t happen.
The relationships.
The life events.
Strangely though there are fewer tears today. Sometimes I think my tears are all gone. The well is dry.
Lack of tears does not mean lack of grief. There is no right or wrong way to grieve. So I accept my emotions today-whatever they may be.
If you know someone that has experienced a loss, don`t be afraid to tell them you remember. Let them know you care. Take a meal, send a text, write and snail mail a card. We want to know our loss is not forgotten.
I cried in church. Not because I was thinking about the events leading up to the crucifixion but because there was a little girl of about 5 or so sitting in front of me. She had the most gorgeous dark hair. With streaks of gold running through it. Natural streaks. Not the artificial colored streaks I pay more than I`m willing to share to get every few months.
As I observed her I thought about my own daughter. The one that died at 4 days old.
I thought of how she might be standing next to me this morning or next Sunday on Easter. Maybe she would have travelled to Charlotte to spend some time with her dad and me.
Grief is something that robs us of so much. It robs me of not just my daughter but it robs me of being the mom of a daughter.
I look at some of my closest friends, all mothers of daughters and I envy, yes ENVY!, the relationships they all have with their daughters. They may not agree with them on all things or see eye-to-eye with them but the daughters lead the charge to throw surprise 60th birthday parties for their parents or make sure that mom gets a Mother`s Day card, a birthday card, etc.
I think daughters are different than sons. Daughters are more sensitive than sons based on my observations as an outsider. I do not experience that sensitivity. And I grieve the fact that I am not the mother of a daughter.
The version of me before Amy`s death is totally different than the me that is here now.
If you want to read more about about my daughter, Amy, you can go to https://marybonner.net/?s=Amy and read more about my journey through infant loss and moving forward.
Adam McHugh`s book Blood From a Stone is a beautiful piece of writing about returning from the dead. I encourage you to check it out. You can find the book on Amazon or wherever books are sold. Find and follow him @adammchughwine You won`t be sorry.
"Grief is so agonizing not only because you have lost something, but you have lost someone, and that someone is the version of you that was alive before your loss." Blood From a Stone Adam McHugh Page 102
Every June I think I`m going to handle this better. Whatever better looks like - I don`t know. 30 years and I still cry at random times. And every June I fall apart.
She would have been 30 next week. Instead of whisking her off for a 30th birthday trip to Key West like we did for her brother @coach_andy_bonner or Niagara Falls like we did for his wife we will make another kind of trip.
There will be a mass next Saturday and we will stand at a grave site as we move her body from the small town where she was buried to a final resting place by her paternal grandparents on the beautiful grounds of St Emma Monastery in Greensburg, PA.
I look forward to the weekend and I dread it all at the same time.
Today I broke down and sobbed. Just like yesterday. And probably will tomorrow. But I remember that He catches my tears in a bottle Psalm 56:8
If I learned anything from this life experience, it is this: I can do hard things. But not of my own strength. Philippians 4:13
When I tell people that I am a VA (Virtual Assistant) often they want to know what I DO. And I tell them that I mostly deal with details. Managing the things (details) that creative people do not see themselves as “good at.” Budgets, remembering dates, creating schedules and timelines, gathering data and information, making sure they get paid, etc. A few years ago, I took on my first social media influencer client. And after working for 5 years with only faith-based clients, social media was a different world! I learned how to navigate that world and now my social media clients are among my favorites. In fact, I let go of most of my other clients to allow more time to work with the influencers. One of the faith-based clients I kept is @kriscamealy of @refineretreat
I have known Kris for 10 years and worked with her on Refine for, I don’t know…maybe 6. Kris recognizes the importance of rest and soul-care that enables us to create better and more meaningful content. Allows us to be more present for our families, clients, and our businesses.
Whether we are writing in our journal, painting on a canvas, creating paid content for a social media outlet, sitting at a pottery wheel, whatever the creative outlet we must tend to our souls. We must rest. We must learn to pause.
#Soulcare is not optional in this world in which we live. We must learn to stop so that we are able to go. We can run at a break-neck, full-tilt speed for a while but at some point, we will crash.
If you are looking for a way to slow down and take a weekend to care for yourself and your soul, check out @refineretreat. Maybe Refine isn’t for you. That is ok. But if you think this only applies to faith-based work, check out @lindsaynead ‘s post from April 19. Lindsay is an amazing businesswoman and she recognizes the power of slowing down. Of stopping. Of resting. She took a break and found herself better for it.
I have been lucky enough to try your brownies and I'd like to testify that they are indeed the BEST brownies ever. Very much worth the little bit of extra work involved.
These look delicious. Love the idea of using the plastic fork and your fancy dinner party edition. Fun.
Fondly,
Glenda
Oh the yumminess! I can't wait to give these a try. The box brownies have become rather boring.
If I come to your house, will you make some for me…That sounds so much better than me doing it…..but seriously they look and sound delicious. Have a great weekend….
I want to come over and eat them in your pretty wine glass and visit with you!
So yummy, thanks. Beautiful, sweet story. One thing, I don’t think anyone should be using margarine. It is so bad for you.
Thank you for stopping by, Cynthia. These are delicious! And I use butter all the time.:-)