Earlier this week, I tried to make a new twist on zucchini bread.
Instead, I started a small oven fire when the batter overflowed its pan.
I like trying new things in the kitchen, but I like having reliable recipes to fall back on too. This green rice with smoked paprika is something I make several times a year and each time I do, I wonder why I don’t make it even more often….
I thought it might be time for a salad.
We’ve been eating a lot of dessert around here. The cooler weather makes me want to bake.
Also, Paul and I used to eat dinner around 8 p.m. or so, but now we eat much earlier so that we can have dinner as a family before E. goes to bed. That means we’re often ready for a snack by 8:30 or 9 p.m.
I like winding down in the evenings with a slice of cake or a brownie, but I like a little balance too. …
I baked this cake for Dolly Parton’s birthday.
I know what you’re thinking.
No, I don’t actually know Dolly Parton and, you’re right, her birthday isn’t until January. But the guys over at Baked have a new book out and, to promote it, they’re holding a contest with one simple rule: “Bake your version of the ultimate cake for Dolly Parton’s birthday.”
So here it is….
I stumbled across this brownie recipe a week or so ago when I was reading another food blog and noticed that one of the comments referenced a brownie newsletter.
That’s my kind of newsletter.
A click or two later and I was on the website of Darn Brownies, a brilliant effort to give away free brownies to unsuspecting passersby.
“There are no tricks,” founder Chris Knight writes on his website. “You can take the brownie and run. Our main goal is just to give away a snack and help people have a better day.”
I loved the kind and quirky concept. Plus, the brownies looked pretty good too.
Knight describes Darn Brownies as “a movement to do something good for no good reason.”
Anyone can become a member. He just asks that you try to think up and launch a simple but friendly project in your hometown too.
Generally speaking, I’m not much of a joiner. In fact, as I sit here writing this, I’m having trouble thinking of any other group to which I have an actual, official membership. But I wasted no time at all signing up to become a member of the Darn Brownies movement, in large part because I wanted to get my hands on the (members only) recipe for those thick, dark brownies….