Amish Friendship Bread and Finding One's Self

Friendship Bread Muffins with hydrangeas from Nicole H.

"I'm not into kvetching. I'm into changing the world."

Judy Chicago, artist, feminist, and rabble-rouser

I am sitting at the Chicago O’Hare Airport this afternoon, and an 11-year-old girl with a “Little Miss Bossy” pink t-shirt starts talking to me. I find out this girl spent a summer at camp, that this week she saw the Cubs wallop the Brewers (15-3), and that she is going into sixth grade in North Carolina, a state where I used to teach middle school language arts and social studies students just like her. Her Nana is a bespectacled and bemused woman with short blond hair and pretty dangling shell earrings. Nana listens patiently as her granddaughter, this spritely spitfire, rattles off how she is at the top of her class in math and science, and how she writes, produces and anchors the morning news crew at her elementary school, and how she loves Junie B. Jones books but not the Goosebumps series because the covers scare her. When the girl tells me she was born in 1998 and that she’s 11, I smile and say I was born 20 years before her in 1978.

She looks at me and smiles, and then says, “Wow. That’s back in the day. You’re as old as my mother.”

Caretake this moment: Seasonal Berry Tart

"Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit the evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now."                     -Epictetus

My life has been anything but expected in the past several months, and I'm finally grateful (and not a teary mess) for being given this golden opportunity to rethink where I was and where I want to go. I also want to have much more fun, to let my hair down, to soak up the sun, to let go of being so self-critical and fearful, and try new things and have new experiences.

Chocolate Cake: A Recluse's Return

I’ve missed this blog like a little kid loves birthday cake. Sorry 50 for butchering your go-to rap lyric, but I couldn’t resist.

The past month and a half has been one where I’ve baked a tasty buttercream chocolate cake for my grandpa’s 89th birthday (a success!), so-so lowfat brownies from a mix (not recommended), several chicken pot pies from scratch (I now know how to make a killer pie dough), tried-and-true yogurt biscuits (they’re hard to screw up, folks), a failed attempt at home-cut sweet potato fries (too much egg white in the batter; I shall return to this recipe), and eaten several delicious rounds of Dave’s homemade bread and lentil soup (thank you, Shane, for the artisan bread cookbook, and Dave for perfuming the house with homemade bread and simmering onions).

To be blunt, I’ve been a bit uninspired lately and my baking and writing routine has, regrettably, dovetailed with my funk.

Fudgey Brownies: Part 2 of a Belated Series

Photo caption: Fudgey Brownies topped with local Caramel Apple ice cream and garnished with caramel sauce. Don't think about the calories, okay?

On Monday night, Dave and I looked at each other across the dinner table and said, "Wouldn't something sweet be nice?" My answer is unequivocably YES! Alas, neither of us had the motivation to go to the store for ingredients, so we did what we do best: we foraged in our pantry to see what we could create.

Luckily, I have two things going for me! 101 Best Brownie Recipes, a gift from my friend Beth D., and standard items such as sugar and unsweetened chocolate readily on hand.

If you're craving something chewy with a rich chocolate base and no more than 7 ingredients, then look no farther than the Fudgey Brownie recipe.

Fudgey Brownies
from 101 Best Brownie Recipes

Ingredients
4 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate (I prefer and use Ghiradelli's 100% cacao)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup sifted flour
1 tsp. vanilla bean paste (or you could use plain old vanilla, but I've been turned on to the paste for a much richer vanilla flavor... and totally get rid of imitation vanilla, okay? That stuff is evil.)
1/2 cup chopped pecans (more nuts are better, but that's what we had in the freezer)

1. Preheat the over to 325 degrees F.
2. Melt chocolate and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly to prevent burning.
3. Remove from heat and cool several minutes. While the chocolate is cooling, place sugar in a separate bowl and add beaten eggs, one at a time, blending after each addition.
4. Stir in chocolate and pour in flour a little at a time.
5. Add vanilla and pecans and stir to mix well.
6. Pour batter into a buttered and floured 9-inch square pan.
7. Bake at 325 degrees F for 30-40 minutes (mine took all 40).
8. Insert a toothpick into the center of the brownies to check for doneness. If the toothpick comes out clean, brownies are done.
9. Cool, cut into squares and serve.
10. Make about 9 hefty brownie squares.

Enjoy!

Hugs and high fives,

Kella