Sloane - Fall Issue!

The Fall Issue is here! Check out my latest "rant" on page 90 at www.sloanemag.com.

Crownies!

Or brookies. Or cooknies. Or, perhaps, crowkies even.

Whatever they should be called, I decided today that I wanted a brownie. And a cookie. At the same time. Without having to make both. I needed something that would satisfy both desires with a minimal amount of work and ingredients. We are on a budget in this house, after all, and there is a 1 year old running around to care for.

So, I set about looking at many recipes, and finally settled on a sugar cookie type recipe combined with some cocoa.

Nothing fancy about it - simple Hershey's cocoa, eggs, flour, sugar; the kitchen staples.

The dough was sticky and dark and looked like brownie on the beater. I had to resist eating it out of the bowl.

3 c flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 c butter

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 c unsweet cocoa

Preheat oven to 350. Mix flour, salt and backing powder in a bowl. In mixer, blend butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa. Be sure to go slow so you don't end up sucking in a cloud of cocoa (it's a lot less pleasant than it sounds).

Add flour mixture in until you have a lovely chocolately dough. Wrap it in plastic and stick in the fridge for an hour at least.

Roll out the dough (whenever I say that, I have a flash back to "Perfect Strangers"...the episode where Balki makes Bibibobkas?) on a floured counter OR use confectioners sugar. I do the sugar so that the scraps that keep getting re-rolled don't become tough cookies.

"When you're rollin' out the dough, just be sure you roll it slooow..."

Bake on parchment paper (I used natural wax since it was all I had) for 8 to 11 minutes, until edges are firm and the centers soft. The cookies don't grow, so don't think they aren't cooked. They look almost the same going in as out.

Cool on a rack, if you have one. Or be ghetto like me and put them wherever you can.

The best part about the finished product is the variety of ways you can enjoy these.

As the top and bottom of an ice cream sandwich. With peanut butter. Dipped in whipped cream.

So many delicious possibilities. But just as they are with milk works perfectly too.

Back to the Drawing Board

One of the bad things about being slightly (ha, slightly) irregular in posting is how much can change between posts.

Like, remember the part where I told you our income woes were solved and the hubs had a jobby job? Yeah. Not so much anymore.

Turns out, the new job expected the world of him. They expected to be his world, which, when you have more important things in your life, you just can't do. Even if he lived in some other world where he was willing to make a job his number one priority in life, it would at least be a job that provided some benefit in exchange for such devotion.

This job had meager benefits at best, a horribly sad amount of vacation time, and pay that, while fine for a job, was not enough to justify never seeing his family.

He tried his best to stick it out and still take care of the more important things in life. So, after three weeks, they let him go. Amiably, in a "it's us, not you" kind of way.

But still, it smarts a little.

We are good though. Positive that when you put the important things in life first, life will ultimately be good.

Beans and rice never tasted so good.


Currently listening to: Jonas sing and dance to standards
Current mood: Oddly optimistic ?

(and for those of you who love pictures in the posts...

Jonas, assisting me in my last shoot, poses while I test the lighting

One of the shots of the twins from the shoot (see more at XiphiasPhotography.com)