Welcome, @XenoBitch, and thanks for sharing your auditory enhancement news. I love how my Airpods filter out so much noise, but if I wear them in the house I can't hear what anyone is saying to me.
I saw mama duck this morning but without her duckling. I hope nothing bad has happened.
One bit of happy news for me - the damaged bridge that has turned my commute into such a slog is supposed to reopen tomorrow. That will save me an hour a day in the car.
@bizzey, here's the brownie recipe:
Death by Chocolate Brownies – International Version
3/4 cup all-purpose flour 6 tablespoons butter (3 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt 4 tablespoons water
2 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips* 2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F or 162 C. Line a 9-inch square pan with aluminum foil. The easy way to do this is to turn the pan over, mold the foil over the bottom of the pan, folding it at the corners and then gently pushing the resulting shaped foil into the pan after you’ve turned it over again.
- In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large microwave safe bowl, combine chocolate chips and vanilla.
- In a saucepan, combine butter, sugar, and water. Bring the mixture just to a boil. Pour hot mixture over chips and stir. Beat until fairly smooth. If you have a lot of unmelted chips you can put the bowl in the microwave for minute or two and the stir it again.
- Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the flour mixture. Fold in nuts if desired. Pour into prepared pan. Spread evenly.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until slightly firm to the touch. They should be a little damp when you remove them from the oven because they will continue to bake in their own heat. Cool for approximately one hour.
Cutting: Because these are so moist, they do not cut cleanly at room temperature. Once they cool to room temperature, I put them in the freezer for an hour or the refrigerator for several hours before I cut them.
Notes: I like to use half Nestle’s semisweet chips and half Ghirardelli’s bittersweet chips. Another nice substitution with this recipe is to use Sugar in the Raw Turbinado Sugar instead of regular sugar. If that is not available to you, try half light brown sugar and half plain white table sugar.
If you do not have Nestle’s semisweet chips easily available to you any good semisweet chocolate can substitute. The chips work well because their small size allows them to melt easily when the very hot butter/sugar/water mixture is poured over them and stirred.
All measurements are American. An American cup is smaller than a UK cup, and equal to 0.83 UK cups. For example, 2 thirds of an American cup equals 0.55 of a UK cup. You can convert all the measures to UK equivalents here.
http://www.traditionaloven.com/culinary-arts/volume/convert-cup-us-to-cup-uk.html
I have also heard that some kitchen goods stores in the UK sell sets of the US measuring tools.