I don’t know about you, but I have a love-hate relationship with brownies. I want to love them, but am so often disappointed by the reality of them. I’ve tried lots of recipes … and I mean lots, and have never found one that really did it for me. Until now.

These brownies are so good I just had to share. As you can see, they’re very dense and moist – not cake-like at all, which is what I like in a brownie. If I wanted chocolate cake, I’d make cake. I want the texture to be dense, but moist and not so heavy that you feel like you can’t chew the darned thing! I adapted the recipe from the Cheyenne Frontier Days Daddy of ‘em All Cookbook.

World-Famous Brownies

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup cold water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine butter, cold water, oil, and cocoa in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil. Combine flour and sugar in a bowl and combine with chocolate mixture after it comes to a boil. Mix well. Add baking soda, salt, vanilla, buttermilk, and eggs. Pour into greased 9×13 pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until it tests done (mine took 35 minutes). While brownies are baking, make glaze.

World-famous Brownie Glaze

• 1/2 cup butter
• 6 tbsp espresso or strong coffee
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 pound powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional – I omitted them)

Combine butter, coffee, and cocoa in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil slowly for 1-2 minutes, remove from heat. Pour chocolate mixture into a bowl of a stand mixer (you can use a hand mixer too) and add powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix well until glaze is very smooth. Add nuts if you are using them. Pour over warm brownies right after you remove them from the oven. Let cool completely in the pan before you cut them (or the glaze won’t be set up). Enjoy with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a cup of coffee.

I try to keep cookies in the house, not because I need them, but because TA likes to have cookies for breakfast and sometimes for lunch and once in a great while after dinner!  Crazy, I know.  He has the kind of job that lets him get away with such nonsense, while I do not.  It’s hard for me not to eat them all because I love a cookie as much as the next girl … maybe more!  Having cookies on the counter and not eating one every time I walk by is a good exercise in self-control.  Some days I’m good, others, not so much.  Last weekend I made the Angel Sugar Cookies from Pioneer Woman (recipe in her book, but not on her blog).  My usual sugar cookie recipe is a Martha Stewart version that uses brandy – nothing wrong with a little liquor in your cookie, if you ask me, but I wanted to try something new.

These are great cookies – light and flaky with just the right amount of sweetness.  Plus, they’re very easy – no rolling and cutting, just scooping and smashing!  The recipe doesn’t call for frosting because of the sprinkling of sugar on the top as they bake.  But, in my house icing is required.  I made a simple powdered sugar, cream, and vanilla icing and just mixed it to a fairly thick consistency and I think it works well.  They are very sweet, but good!  And because of the sweetness, one is enough for me.  Usually…

You know that saying about lemons and lemonade?  I’m thinking about buying stock in lemons and sugar.  The University of Wyoming laid off 43 people 2 weeks ago, and all of the development officers (the people who raise money for programs and scholarships – like me) were laid off in what we are all calling Black Thursday.  Upper administration didn’t tell the deans what they were doing or give the individual colleges an opportunity to cut other places to save what most people see as essential jobs in the colleges.  I am lucky to have worked for such a wonderful dean and to have worked with so many truly outstanding people.  The bad news for me is that the job I had was the perfect job.  I loved it.  And now I have to find another one.  The lemonade part of all of this is that there are a few job opportunities in Laramie, and we’re also looking at this as an opportunity to look around a bit and see what else is out there.  If you have any ideas or suggestions for someone looking for a development position, please let me know.

A colleague of mine said that rather than thinking that we’re unemployed, we should instead think of it as “funemployed” – it’s summer and we have some time to enjoy ourselves while we figure out what’s next.  I’m spending some time working around the house, getting all of those things done that you never seem to have time for.  I’ve been riding the horses, working in the yard, and going to a lot of yoga.  I think I’ll get some knitting done – there’s an EZ sweater I’ve had mulling around in my mind for awhile now, and maybe I’ll even put the spinning wheel on the patio and soak up some sun (when we actually have sun) and spin.  I’m also working on more boring, but necessary things like my resume and job hunting.  It can’t be all play all the time!

In really fun news, my brother and sister-in-law had a reception to celebrate their marriage.  They eloped in January and had a party for everyone last weekend in their home town.  I got to see a lot of my family, and some of my mom’s family even came up from California and Texas.  The interesting and scary part of the whole deal was that they couldn’t find anyone to make them a cake, so I volunteered (in a moment of insanity!) to make a 3-tiered wedding cake for them.  All I can say is talk about stressful!  It’s also a good thing I didn’t have to work because doing that cake took a whole lot of time.  I read up on Deb’s efforts and ordered the cookbook she used (which is fabulous!).  I ordered supplies, made sample cakes, and finally figured out the high-altitude adjustments so I had moist cakes that didn’t fall!  Of everything, I am most excited that I figured out the high-altitude business – it’s been the bane of my existence for years now.

The party was 4 hours away, so I made the cakes (9 in all) on Thursday and froze them.  I transported them in a cooler with ice so they’d stay frozen, which made everything a lot easier when it came to assembling.  It took me most of the day Saturday to get everything assembled and decorated, but it was worth it.  The cakes were really good – very moist – and everyone raved about them, so I’m happy.  The decorations were very simple, which made it easier for me.  I made brands (my dad and brother’s brands) out of tinted and rolled fondant and used those for the main decoration and used the couple’s initials on the top.  Who knows, if I can’t find a job, maybe I can make cakes for a living!

Like a lot of people, chocolate chip cookies are a favorite of mine.  There’s nothing better than a perfect chocolate chip cookie.  I have been searching for that “it” recipe for years and am always willing to try something new and different.  Last night I tried Pioneer Woman’s Good Ol’ Basic Chocolate Chip Cookies, which interestingly aren’t necessarily super basic.  They have some wonderful additions – flax seed, instant coffee, and a mix of milk and semi-sweet chips – yum.

However, life can’t be that simple.  I believe I’ve mentioned before that I live at an elevation of 7,200 feet.  That’s high.  This kind of altitude wreaks havoc on baking – it just does.  But I can make bread, cake, biscuits, scones, oatmeal raisin cookies, peanut butter cookies and all sorts of other things with minor alterations and things come out just fine.  Why can’t I have the same luck with any chocolate chip cookie recipe?

The cookies taste fabulous – that isn’t the issue.  The issue is that they’re flat, and I don’t think that’s what they’re supposed to be like.  The dough was very stiff, which made me think it wouldn’t benefit from more flour because sometimes that helps at this altitude, so I’m at a loss.  Anyone with high altitude baking experience have any ideas or suggestions or a recipe that you think is fabulous?  I suppose the good news is that experimenting is fun and you get to eat a lot of chocolate chip cookies during the trial process.

Yeah, I know it’s Thursday and last weekend was awhile ago.  I haven’t got an excuse except the week got away from me.  I find that with karate and yoga every night after work, the nights seriously get away from me and before I know it, another day has come and gone without a blog post.

Friday night I made Deb’s Chocolate Caramel Crack(ers) and wow!  They are so good and so easy.  I love a recipe with a couple of ingredients that doesn’t make a huge mess.  These crackers are a perfect combination of sweet and salty, crunchy and chewy!  Yum-meee.

Saturday was busy with my brother, sister-in-law, and my nephew.  That baby is quite a cutey and has personality to spare.  I like babies – when they aren’t mine and they don’t cry.  We did the whole family shopping extravaganza and had a great, but exhausting day.  Here he is with his grandma.

He thought a margarita sounded like a good idea.  Luckily, grandma was wise enough to put a stop to that!

Sunday was full of cooking for Easter dinner, but I found time to make Pioneer Woman’s Mac & Cheese for lunch and it is awesome.  It has just enough bite to be interesting, but isn’t so doctored up that you don’t recognize it for the comfort food it is.

The baby blanket is coming along.  I just finished the seventh block – five more to go.  Five more progressively larger blocks.  I haven’t heard that the baby has arrived, but I’m losing hope that I will be done with the blanket before she shows up in the world.  But hopefully I won’t be too far behind the arrival.