Oriental, NC

It was my birthday, so I baked some brownies.   These are the made from scratch brownies I've been making for a while now.  I used to keep a brownie mix box in my pantry pretty much all the time until I found this recipe.  They're so simple and turn out fudgy every single time.  (This time I swirled cream cheese into the batter, last time I added choc chips)

Lazy day for me otherwise.  I did spy a boat that was aground in the creek behind our boat.  The water is very shallow where this boat is - we don't take our boat over there because of that fact.

The man in the sailboat had apparently gotten someone with the power boat to pull him away.  They hooked up a line and the power boat gently pulled him thru the soft sand/mud on the bottom.

Moving a little bit now.  The power boat is adding more power to his motor.

And finally he makes a lot of headway and gets the sailboat out of trouble.  That was about the only excitement for the day!

Had a very nice dinner on What If - lobster pasta for me and chicken pasta for Duane.   Tropical Storm Arthur was expected to arrive overnight - just gracing the NC coastline.  The winds weren't expected to be too large so we weren't really concerned.  Woke to pouring rain but little wind.  Will be a very dreary day on the boat!

Fudge Brownie Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and HOT
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil, (olive oil or coconut oil are fine)
• 1 1/8 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup all purpose (or plain) flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
• Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking oil spray. Line with parchment paper (or baking paper); set aside.
• Combine hot melted butter, oil and sugar together in a medium-sized bowl. Whisk well for about a minute. Add the eggs and vanilla; beat until lighter in colour (another minute).
• Sift in flour, cocoa powder and salt. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until JUST combined (do NOT over beat as doing so well affect the texture of your brownies).
• Pour batter into prepared pan, smoothing the top out evenly. (OPTIONAL: Top with chocolate chunks or chocolate chips.)
• Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the centre of the brownies in the pan no longer jiggles and is just set to the touch (the brownies will keep baking in the hot pan out of the oven). If testing with a toothpick, the toothpick should come out dirty for fudge-textured brownies.
• Remove and allow to cool to room temperature before slicing into 16 brownies.

OPTIONAL ADD INS:

• Crushed walnuts, peanuts, almonds, pecans, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, chocolate chunks, dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, etc)