Disappearing Brownies

This weekend was one of those weekends that I had little to no desire to cook. So naturally I baked. And baked enough to make sure I didn't have to cook. There is nothing wrong with brownies or cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is a holiday weekend afterall. 

I got this recipe from a friend and coworker years ago. She and her husband made their money operating gas stations and car washes in suburban Minneapolis. She was always good for a story about a family getting trapped in a broken car wash one Sunday after church. 

She called these blondies, "Disappearing Brownies", because, "I put them out and they are gone before I get one."

INGREDIENTS

1 Cup Butterscotch Chips

1/2 Cup Butter

1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour

2/3 C Brown Sugar

2 t Baking Powder

1/2 t Salt

1 t Vanilla

2 eggs

2 Cups Mini Marshmallows

2 Cups Milk Chocolate Chips

1/4-1/2 C Chopped Nuts (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 9x13 baking dish with aluminum foil. Spray with pan

In microwave safe bowl or in small saucepan over medium heat, melt together butterscotch chips and butter. Set aside.

In medium sized bowl mix together by hand flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla and eggs. MIxture will be dry.

Add in melted butterscotch mixture.

Add in marshmallows, chocolate chips, and nuts if desired.

Using back of rubber spatula press mixture evening throughout baking dish.

Place baking dish on middle rack in preheated oven. Bake 30-35 mins. Brownies will appear to be underbaked and a little wobbly. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely in pan.

Personal preference - best served cold.

Yes and Yes Book Club: The Devil In The White City

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It's that time of the month again when you can find me loitering over at the fabulous Yes and Yes spouting off about books and food! This month it's serial killers and brownies. Two of my more favorite topics to get deep about.

Check it out HERE!

(John) Candy, Cake and The Cinema 8

brynn turned one this week - i used to babysit her mother

What do you do when you have left over cake tops, brownies from your sister's wedding and a couple pounds of frosting that needs to be used? You make a Rachel Green Trifle Cake! Lemons to lemonade beeyotches! She may not have made the trifle like Monica would have but she did it with love.

This past Sunday iMatt and PetDoc invited myself and SAGL over for a Turkey Taco Sunday and a viewing of the John Candy dramatic masterpiece The Great Outdoors. Not one to come empty handed (and in desperate need of a cake fix but not wanting to put any effort into baking one), I did some digging in the freezer.Thankfully there were 10 cherry brownies, dark chocolate cake crumbs and the tops of two french vanilla cakes. So with a little patience (I had about 5 mins of ADD in me before I just tossed it in the garbage) I built a Frankenstein of a cake. I had left over buttercream and chocolate frosting from making a one year old's birthday cake a few days earlier and plastered that on the inside for some glue and then all around to make it "pretty". 

brownie bottom, chocolate fudge, french vanilla cake, pink buttercream, brownie/dark chocolate cake top, wrapped in love (aka chocolate frosting)

I'm not saying it was my best cake. But for being constructed with leftovers...it was pretty damn okay. It covered all grounds. Sweet, sugary, and 'betis inducing.

And because I love you here is the trailer to The Great Outdoors. Which I'm sure you're excited to know I saw on an unexpected double feature trip to the Cinema 8 movie theatre in Duluth with my father. The second film we saw that day was Coming To America. I'm sure it was the best 1988 $16.00 ever spent on father/son time.

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Diamonds, Teets and Wattle

Oh my it has been a while since my last post. I know there is one fan out there (just one) who actually reached out to make sure I was still breathing. So "Ms. D" this one is dedicated to you...

I've been in this business of food styling for almost three years now. Every year I hear from veteran stylists that "(fill in any month of the year) is going to be a hard month". Last year March was a hard month for me. Udderly no work in the studios coupled with a lot of work at the mall. This year was no different. So far March has brought me one job. And it involved the cow pictured above. Which if you ask me was udderly worth it. How many people can say they've had an udderly farm like experience in their kitchen while working in The 55402? The job was for a new dairy based product. That's all I'm telling you. It also included my baking 20 pans of udderly delicious brownies (see previous obsession with brownies) and sorting through udderly hundreds of peanut butter cups (and they were not Reese's - which I was informed have a very distinct ridge. Much like a Ruffle and it's Ridges).  

As that was the only food styling work I did this month I made sure to meet up with our blog favorite, Baby Mama, for some lunchtime adventure in Downtown Minneapolis. After a 10 day, self imposed, stint at the mall playing dress up with the mannequins I was in some udder need of adult conversation and a good meal. Now most of our conversation revolved around middle aged surgeries, Baby Mama's baby (who is udderly adorable but being a total Regina George to Baby Mama when she gets home from a long day of work), and the cow above. At first we couldn't decided where to eat and I became udderly inept at using my smartphone to find us some Asian cuisine. We decided it was best to just leave the building and hope that a restaurant smacked us upside the head.  

We made it about 10 feet from the building.  

Thank God for Turkey To Go.

This food truck was free of lines (which I now know should make me udderly concerned) and fully stocked. Baby Mama shrieked a little and then I'm pretty sure she ran to the truck. With only one option - a turkey sandwich, I was a little overwhelmed. Baby Mama knew exactly what she wanted. Which involved making the poor sandwich architect create a boat of sauce for the purposes of dipping her sandwich. I of course fell for marketing and bought an M&M Chocolate Chip Cookie (it was good but not mine). I will say the sandwich was udderly delicious. One bite brought me back to my family's gypsy days of traveling the county fair circuit selling turkey drumsticks alongside the funnel cake and Hawaiian Ice stands. In truth I only remember doing that once or twice. I'm sure there is a photo of me in a sweatsuit tuxedo somewhere gnawin' on a bird leg the size of my head. The best part of being in the fair food dynasty was the soda fountain that was housed in our back porch during the off season. My former Diet Coke addiction (I am udderly DC free since December 27th!) started there. I'm sure of it.  

Anyway back to the food. Turkey To Go was really good (follow them here on Twitter if you do that sort of thing).  \The staff was beyond friendly despite the whole dipping boat shenanigans. And they were very quick to make sure we had everything we needed (sauce included).  

This was my first food truck experience in Minneapolis and I loved it. If you have any suggestions please leave a comment below! I would love to try as many as possible this Summer. Which really shouldn't be a problem as Summer has started in March. If the Mayans had a meteorologist what would they say... 

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Brownie + Cookie = LEAVE ME ALONE WHILE I'M EATING THIS

Today is my birthday. And though there has been a wonderful outpouring of support on The Book and via text I am choosing to hunker down and pretend it's 1998. Tonight's viewing pleasure will be Meet Joe Black (someday Brad and Gwyneth will reunite) partnered with some leftover chili (one friend said I couldn't have the whole box of Mac and Cheese as planned) and then a 4AM trip to the airport to drop that same friend off to start his Spring Break Excursion 2012. The only missing element is the original Pepsi One. The kind with aspartame. Not with that evil step sister, Splenda.  

This morning with my birthday in mind I was craving brownies and cookies. In a moment of pure Frankenstein genius I remembered a conversation I had earlier in the week with my friend Brooke. We both were waxing poetic our love of brownies and cookies. Knowing I had the makings of both of these delicacies I got to work. Above you will see the bounty of my kitchen labor. Layers of chewy, fudge-like brownie enrobing my favorite chocolate chip cookie. One row of the pan is somehow missing.  

The Brookie (brownie meets cookie) was my gift to myself. 

I'm going to sign off now. In a few hours Just Joni will be calling to regale in the storytelling of my birth this fine evening many years ago. And I need to squeeze in a few Brookies before then. Brookie will catch on. Trust me.  

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