Hands down…this recipe is just yummy-in-my- tummy goodness.  Yesterday,  my  (soon-to-be) sister in law hosted a jewelry trunk show for me in Athens, Ga at UGA & I just knew I had to bring a fabulous taste-bud awakening treat to share.

Have you ever been in this situation?  Major problem #1: going to the bakery and choosing between a cookie or a brownie.  Major problem #2:  choosing a cookie, eating the cookie, and wishing you were eating the chocolate brownie instead.  Final result:  you end up going back to the bakery,  eat the brownie (after you’ve already finished the unfulfilling cookie), and happily top off the brownie  with a cold glass of milk.

So, this recipe eliminates those two problems and allows you to have both at once (including the heavenly chocolate ganache on top).  Plus, it’s a big messy and gooey  dessert and you end up licking your fingers for about an hour…savoring each flavor.  Plus, the recipe is super easy!  I’ve taken photos throughout the process just so you can see if you’re on the right path.

Not gonna lie…this recipe is straight from Betty Crocker and can be found here.  The ganache is straight from (one of my faves) bakerella and can be found here.   The photos and the promise that this dessert is “just. one. more. brownie. and. then. i’ll. stop….” that good is from me.

scooping the cookie dough in the brownie mixture

pushing down each cookie dough ball into the brownie mixure

hot out of the oven….this is a point that requires patience.

making the ganache…watching the morsels slowly melt into the butter and cream.

perfection

get in my tummy now.

I’d like to say that I enjoy baking, but it’s not really my speciality.  A little too precise orderly for me.  You actually have to take exact measurements of flour, sugar, eggs, salt, baking soda, and vanilla & if you’re off by even a teaspoon, the entire recipe can fall apart.  Cooking, on the other hand, I love.  I think it’s because I’ve never really followed a recipe when I cook.  I love to add my own spices and concoctions to meats, fish, vegetables, and stews.  I taste as I go (which can be a problem because i’m usually full by the time I sit down to eat), but I love inventing my own recipes and altering others.  A pinch of this and splash of that and viola, you’ve got the perfect meal.  I actually took a month long culinary course in NYC one summer and fell in love with the creative process of cooking.   Each day, we’d work with a different type of food…one day we’d work with eggs and another day we’d switch to figs.  I learned that cooking (like jewelry design) has no rules or boudaries.  My mother is the sort of person that travels to other countries with a separate suitcase and fills the suitcase up with exotic spices and salts.  She’ll come home with a variety of fabulous dried herbs, curries, and cultural delicacies to be used for rubs on fish and magic flavors to be brought out in dishes.  Many months ago, I started my own recipe book.  Everytime I cook something new, I’ll write down the recipe and take a photo of the food and the company we shared during the meal.  In a way, it’s a sort of like a cooking journal…a photo album and personal journey in the kitchen.

Love at first taste = granola from Baked Bakery in Brooklyn, NY.  This granola is awesome & I finally made it last night.  The granola is baked (and let me tell you, the smells that come out of the oven while it is baking are  heavenly).  I  made a few twists to the recipe and added pine nuts, pecans, wheat germ, a pinch of cinnamon and a handful of coconut.  It turned out really well & pairs perfectly with yogurt and fruit.  Idea: wrap it up in cute packaging and give it away as a Happy New Year  treat.

I love great packaging.  It’s not uncommon for me to be roaming the isles of Dean & Deluca just to look at the way the food is packaged.  It’s also not rare if I come home with some random food item I purchased just because I like the packaging.  Bryan will look at me and say, “Erin, I never new you liked artichoke & chili flavored crackers?”  I’ll typically respond, “I don’t, but aren’t you just crazy about the packaging?” Packaging my jewelry in some unique way is definitely something I’d like to work on in the new year.

I love the hand-written tags and packaging of Jamie Oliver’s food.  Something yummy to try: Mix the rosemary sea salt with a little mustard, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar, brush it on salmon & bake.

Candied violet flowers, roasted aboriginal wattleseed, fennel, sweet Indian curry, pink paprika, pasilla chillies, coconut, apple wood smoked bacon, taleggio cheese, fennel pollen, Sicilian sea salt caramel, first press extra virgin olive oil, Tahitian vanilla bean, Sicilian hazelnuts, Ceylon cinnamon, Argentinean dolce do leche, Canadian maple sugar, honey, Hawaiian red sea salt, hibiscus power, rogue beer….

 These are just a few of the ingredients that go into these delicious chocolates.  The flavors are delicious and exotic.  If you haven’t tried Voges yet, you’re in for a treat! 

I love stopping by Chelsea Market in NYC and checking out the latest cookie design from Elenis’ cookies.  The cookies are always intricately designed and make the perfect gift.  I wanted to share a few of my favorite collections with you…

Fifteen preschoolers held on to the 20 ft. red rope as we walked from school to Whole Foods this morning.   We finally arrived and Sandy gave us the grand tour.  We had a blast indulging in the samples “du jour” – a combination of blood oranges, cantaloupe, cheeses, turkey, dried bananas, freshly ground peanut butter, bison, cookies, pineapple, and blueberries.  Great day!

Without a doubt, I’m ready for spring.   In fact, I have transformed part of my preschool classroom into a farmer’s market.  The kids have been filling up their crates with plastic strawberries, green peppers, eggs, blueberries, tomatoes, apples (and every now and then a lego).   They love to create beautiful flower arrangements for each other and tie them up with pipe cleaners and brown paper bags.     

In my opinion, teaching preschool just might be one of the best jobs in the world. I came home from work on Friday, emptied my pockets, and found an assortment of treasures including a purple Crayola marker cap, a tootsie roll wrapper, an acorn, a red heart cut out of construction paper, a miniature bottle of hand sanitizer and and a fortune which read, “A vacation by the sea is in store for you.”After studying Japan in our classroom and making origami, sushi, a bonsai tree, paper puppets and Japanese fans, I thought it would be a great idea to take all fourteen students to Teppanyaki, a traditional style of Japanese cooking where the food is cooked on a large grill in front of you. The kids had a blast and the chefs put on quite a show by making an onion volcano, catching eggs in their hats, and lighting vegetables on fire. Here is a picture from the day!