foodie friday: salted fudge brownies

if you look at my food posts, you’ll find mostly sweets and breakfast foods, but i promise that i have a well-rounded diet! perhaps one day i’ll share something outside of the carb box.

i recently discovered a love for brownies – not the boxed kind, but from scratch – so many possibilities! on valentine’s day, i made these particular brownies and believe they will have a permanent place in the brownie rotation.

Salted Fudge Brownies
(adapted from food & wine)

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
2 ounces dark chocolate
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
inside of a dried vanilla seed pod (or 1.5 t of real vanilla extract)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 t cinnamon
2 T cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon Maldon sea salt

(other additions could include: cardamom, orange rind, peppermint flakes or extract or pecans)

Melt the butter and chocolate in a large saucepan. When it is completely melted, turn off heat, add eggs and sugar. Sift in the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

pour into a lined 9 inch baking sheet. crumble the cream cheese  (we just put the cream cheese in half of the batter) and stir into the batter. sprinkle the sea salt over the batter.

bake at 350F for approx. 30 minutes or until the edges are set (i like mine to be a little gooey, so i take them out a few minutes before).

these are perfect combined with strong coffee and a person with whom to share. enjoy!

foodie friday: berlinerboller

i’m soaking up my time in norway (which is flying by way too quickly, i might add). life these days is spent going from one cup of coffee to another, conversation to conversation, home to home – and i’m loving every moment. i’m acutely aware how wonderful my friends are and even now, i’m seeing and experiencing that in a different and larger perspective. i am crazy blessed.

several friends have opened their homes to me on this trip and this past week, as my friend janne and her family were away at work and preschool, i found myself alone in the house for a few hours. i realized this was one of the first times in months that i had been truly alone. and for an introvert like myself, i soaked it up. so i bought a sweet pastry, made a cup of coffee and read several chapters in a new book. after those few hours alone, i was ready for for the world again. here’s to the little things in life that bring heaps of joy.

sun, coffee and vanilla berlinerboller in greengate fashion

food: fail.

martha stewart tricked me.

you see, i’ve been sick all weekend and when i’m sick, i find it difficult to just sit around. instead, i read blogs and watch past episodes of “the office” and “project runway.” (okay, maybe that’s just sitting around to some people, but i cried my way through last week’s  PR episode and that required a lot of energy! mondo, you’re even more endearing than before!) i also cook and bake. i don’t know why – i can’t taste anything, but it’s nice to know my freezer is being filled.

on the menu this weekend:
my grandmother’s kale soup (revealed in a later post)
whole wheat/raisin/almond/coconut bread (a win!)
martha stewart’s pumpkin pasta (fail)

it’s cold, windy, and rainy here and anything with pumpkin sounds good. pumpkin pasta began with easy and ended with bland and disappointing. a martha stewart fail.

winter is fast approaching, and that means gingerbread lattes! but the closest starbucks requires a car, ferry, and train and possibly a stamp in the passport. homemade will fill the void. martha stewart’s fail is the kitchn’s gain!

i’m off to watch an episode of “felicity” (i’m sick, people!) and taste my roomie’s cinnamon roles!